Peter Lombardo

Made some progress.......

Far from my favorite Thunderbird, but wow, you are doing a great job on it.... very impressive, to say the least.

Very nice, it's one of those kits I keep telling myself to pick up..... you did a very nice job on it.

Yeah, this is a very well done build, just beautiful in every way considering the sad condition of the kit...... such an important car in the evolution of the automobile deserves a first rate kit.... at least you made this kit into a model worth celebrating . Very nice ....... p.s., love the color.

great color combination and wheels, very nicely done. Man, those mid 60's Pontiac's were great looking cars..... too bad they couldn't last, a real shame.

nice group of race cars, I like them all..... I have one more GT40 in my pile and i am planning on building it like yours..... very nice.

pretty neat build..... Interesting "ice" recreation on the car, very nice when viewed in the context of the real car picture.

Really love the under the hood detail, Beautifully done all around.

with wheels and tires

Made a little headway on this one (no name for it yet). As I said before, this cars tend to evolve as I build them as I make many "field changes" to them as they go forward. I have modified the nose and tail and opened up the doors which will be "gull-wing" and opened up the windshild and rear deck area. Looks like this will end up as a rear drive 2 or 3 seater, not sure which yet. I haven't opened up the bottom yet as I need the structural integrity as I man handle the thing. Not exactly sure what is next on this one but it will be different.

Got some time to paint this one. It has not been rubbed out our yet. It was primed, sanded, dark blue base coat, sanded, topped with Testors "color shift" Emerald Turquoise (intended to be sprayed over black, but I went with dark blue) and then topped with Tamiya clear. Once fully dry, it gets sanded, rubbed and polished. Doors are hinged and mounted. Interior will be saddle tan

Hey, this looks great, the weathering is perfect, not too much to obscure the detail but enough to make the point that this is a race car that just came off the track. Also, it is a shame that all of the "internal" details are not visible since you put so much effort into them. Really nicely done and now I am looking forward to the M6 completion. Keep it going........ see, there is life after Corvettes.

Sweetness.

Nice build, I had one as a demo from a dealership I worked at.... loved driving it... also loved driving it's predecessor Turbo Coupe too. The colors complement it just as the box art looks.... Very nice.

If you look closely at the two body pieces I posted before you can see an upper half and a lower half. I now have mated to two pieces and roughly sanded the joints. Obviously they will need a little putty and more sanding to get them smooth. I also cut out the wheel openings. I will then, once the joints a tight and smooth, cut away the center of the bottom and begin work on the windows. I hold back on these as long as I can since they add substantial strength to the body while I am giving it some rough tough handling.

Growing up in the late 50's and 60's, I loved all the Pontiac road and muscle cars, seriously, who wouldn't? They had the look and the performance that all of us guys were looking for. I always thought the 1965 Bonneville 2 door coupe was the most beautiful of all of the big land yachts. The Grand Prix was just a little shorter but still had much of the same style as it's big brother. The one thing about the design that I was never comfortable with was the roof line, I just didn't, and still don't care for the squarish look of it on a very smoothly sculpted car. Well, I can't do anything about the real car, but one in plastic I can modify easily. When I saw the re-pop of the old AMT kit, I knew I had to get it, to go along with my Bonneville kit. As you know, the AMT re-pop kit comes with a custom nose and tail if you are so inclined to install. I am inclined and install both, just for a change of pace.... but I also did something about the roof line that I don't care for . I sculpted a block of sign foam and vacuum formed a roof that resembles the Bonneville rook, but also has a small chop to it and I laid back the a pillars a little to accommodate the small chop of about 4 inches in real life and give the windshield a little more rake to it. . The car will be lowered down and sport some larger wheels than what we had back in 1965. Custom paint and a mildly done interior, and bam, done.

Nice.......... it appears that some of the joints don't fit that well, is that the case, or are you just eliminated any body seam? I have a couple of these on order and it appears to me that there are many sections to the body, where the Revell Racing version has cut it down to just two sections. I will be curious, as you proceed, to see if there are any uncharacteristic issues with the Tamiya kit. Good start, keep it going.

Okay, I took a measurement and the roundel is 22mm or 7/8th inch. take your pick. I got mine from spot model made by Renaissance.... stock#Tk24/347 It will allow you to do either of the two Alan Mann Racing cars from Le Mans 1966. Hope this helps.

Thanks Howard......... now I am getting very confused as to what to do for the drive train..... I have a Ferrari 360 Modena that was given to me after the previous owner made a mess of the body..... so with a little work that could fit it..... well see.... thanks for the kind words

Looks great, I have plans to do the Motorcraft livery also, once I finish the Castrol.version. the wheels and tires look really nice. well done.

I just saw that Studio 27 will be releasing the Motorcraft decal sheet, the same time they release the photo etch sheet (looks like the brake rotors and intake screens make up the bulk of the sheet) which is scheduled for April 15th. Looks like I will be doing at least 4 of these cars now........Oh yeah, I see that Slotfabrik also has the white practice version decal sheets available since you mentioned it.

Sure thing Gary...... when I get home, I will check it out for you. Pete

Thanks, I have to admit, the same thought has been going through my head, so maybe it will change direction.... it could happen.

Thanks Ismael, I agree with you on all points. The Castrol decals were from Studio 27, which as I said are a pleasure to apply. I see that Slotfabrik does both cars including the motorcraft livery. I may get around to doing that car too since I don't think I will stop at only one or two GT's. I much prefer the updated red, white and blue version of the car done with metallic red and blue, so the next GT I have on order from HLJ will get that treatment rather than the Le Mans winning livery. Regardless, your build is looking great, as usual for your builds.

It is not like I don't have enough projects underway...... a custom 1965 Pontiac Grand Prix with vacuum formed custom chopped top and the remaining 4 GT 40's from the starting grid from 1966. Numbers 1, 2, 5 and 8 are complete and shown before, Numbers 3, 4, 6 and 7 have the bodies painted (obviously) and just need their chassis finished, mated to the body, and I will have the complete factory starting grid. Numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 where entered by Shelby American, Numbers 5 and 6 were entered by Holman and Mooney and Numbers 7 and 8 were entered by Alan Mann team of Great Britain. All the cars were identical and prepared to the exact same standards by the Shelby factory team. I just completed a Hasegawa limited edition STP Toyota 87C, which is a curbside, I have the Tamiya Mercedes Benz 300SL about 85% complete, just need to complete working struts for the gull-wing doors and then final assembly. Just started the brand new Hasegawa Calsonic Nissan R91CP. This model has be dumb founded. They molded the body, and I must add, it is a gorgeous molding with wonderful detail and beautiful open front fender vents.... just perfect, BUT, they molded the body in 3 pieces, which also, is a great thing except they include no engine for the car..........what are they thinking? Even if they raised the cost of the kit by $5 or $10 bucks, give the engine since you gave me the lift off rear, and front, sections and we all love to detail and complete the engines, Right? Now I am either going to have to cast the parts for the engine from the Tamiya Toyota R90V Cabin version in my stash or pickup another R390 kit..... this just doesn't make any sense to me. Anyway, this is not the point of the post. I have been playing around with a car design that has been rattling around in my head and finally put it down on paper. Then I, the last few days got around to shaping the design from a block of sign foam. Now the tricky part of this design is that it does not lend itself very easily to being vacuum formed since the design has complex curves that cut in at the bottom giving it a curved round side, front and rear contour. Because of this, I have to form both a top and bottom portion and once cleaned up, mate them to form a complete body. The shape, at least I think, is rather smooth and rounded with a very distinct"Cab-Forward" design. Cab forward was a popular design element back in the early 1990's. The main design feature of a cab forward design is when the leading edge of the front windshield is level with the mid point of the front wheels Classic examples of this which were mass produced were the Chrysler "LH" cars of the 1990's. Dodge Intrepid, Chrysler Concorde to name a few. Infiniti used to consider the G20 as a cab forward.... it was close, but not as clear as the LH cars. Anyway, a number of the Chrysler Concept cars from this era where very obviously Cab Forward. Being concept cars, the look was exaggerated to make the point, but it stuck in my mind. here is the Chrysler Millennium from 1989 which, you can see was a predecessor concept to the mid 90's LH cars. So here is my idea of a semi-future cab forward sports coupe. Originally , I was thinking it could be an all electric car, but now I think I will keep it as a traditional gasoline powered car..... after all, if the Government has its way, the internal combustion engine will go the way of steam powered cars. So I will not hasten the move. I am planning on larger sized gull-wing doors about the size of 1 and 1/2 doors, a small block front engine and 4 individual bucket style seats. We'll see as the build progresses.... I have a tendency to change my mind and rethink prior plans as I move forward.