Peter Lombardo

Mike, really nice. I remember seeing the under construction photos of this and thinking it would be "killer" when done, and it does not disappoint. The scale is much more in keeping with the '68 '69 Charger....I mean it is slimmer and lower than the current generation which I think stinks. It is a shame, in my opinion, Chrysler with the different design teams from the different ownership groups has really lost their way. As Ford and GM have evolved their designs to reflect modern design without losing the past, Chrysler has failed to accomplish that. I think your design much better captures the flavor of what the Charger was and should be. I see much more exciting design ideas for Chrysler products coming from independent designers then the factory. Yours captures the feel of the era. I see '68, '69 '70 and '71 styling ques in this....very impressive build. The only point that I would question on this design, and it truly is a minor point, is where are the rear view mirrors? See minor question. Very nice job.....I like this very much. Kudos!

Very nice looking truck..nice and clean. I am not surprised about the HOK Tangelo paint...it is not very translucent. The orange looks great on it and, even though I would have thought so, those wheels look very nice on the truck. I like the Vietnam Service Ribbon on the license plate, I have my ribbons on my bookshelf in my office, Anyone who has those ribbons really earned them. Anyway, very nice paint for your first airbrush attempt.

I have stayed away from the Jada models because I think they are too "toy-like". Having said that I have to admit that this is not your average Jada kit build. You took this way beyond that. The paint, stance and opening features along with the extra details make this a real standout...this is a beautifully executed build up. Great job.

You are right Darin, I guess we just see what "is" and wonder what "if"! That is one of the best things about modeling...the ability to reshape the current into the possible future for under $20.00. Back in my "accounting" days, I used to really enjoy building Lotus, then Excel spreadsheets so I could load in financial data, then change a few factors to play "what if" with the numbers.....it's really not that much different than model building. I have reached the point where I don't think I am capable of building a kit without extensive modification to it. Stupid as this may sound, I now look at kits in the store as purely "doner" kits for another different project.

A few years ago I began this conversion and never finished it. This is the top from the C5 Corvette Hardtop grafted onto the Series One. I always thought it “worked†on the car….but that’s where it ended.

I thought it might be nice to give you guys something a little different in the way of viewing pictures of built cars. I guess I over reached, seems like most just want pictures. From here on, that is what I will provide…just pictures. You can decide for yourself what they represent.

Wow, great replica of the real car. You sure got all of the details right. The patina under the hood is perfect...and the wheels are just right. Very impressive. Obviously you knew every square inch of the real car and translated it into the scale model.

Great job on her. This is also one of my favorite kits and cars. I think the 68, 69 and 70 Plymouth B bodies are some of the prettiest muscle cars of that era. You did a great job on this. I like the tri-color stripe.....very nice.

About a year ago I did my version of the Eleanor Mustang GT500. I have enclosed the link here to where the early work on the car was posted. Click here----- http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17200 I did not do a tutorial for the fender flairs, but you can see how I did them. There are many ways to accomplish this, but I took the easy route. I super glued a thin (.015mm) piece of styrene to the inside radius of the wheel opening having it “stick†out of the wheel opening about ¼ of an inch. Once dry, I added bondo putty to the area on the finder side of the styrene. Then I sanded it all down to the flair size that I wanted. If you look carefully you can see the thin strip of plastic and the putty on the wheel wells. It is pretty easy and it will work on must any build.

What a beautifully sophisticated "understatement". Not flashy or crazy, just a rock solid clean build of a difficult model. Very impressive and a true testiment to your skills. Also, you can see that this was well thought out, not just thrown together as an afterthought. "Nice", very nice.

Wow, that is a really great looking mild custom. The paint combination looks perfect on this one. I think this body style 'Cuda is one of the most under appreciated cars on the road. Looks beautiful and the Camaro wheels were a perfect choice on it too.

I have completed some more work on the Tyrrell P34 conversion. This is a conversion for the Tamiya 1/20th scale kit that depicts to car as it appeared early in the 1977 season. My conversion is to how it looked in the later part of the season. Due to difficulties with the technology in the tires where the rears were evolving due to technical improvements but the fronts were not since Tyrrell was the only team using these tires, the team was forced to make a series of changes to the car at just about every race. The car did not look the same for some times even a day. Because of this, there are so many variations of the car that just about any configuration would be correct for one race or another. In my first posting, I remarked at how happy I was with the vacuum formed body, but upon further study, I found a number of things that bothered me so I reworked the wooden buck to correct these faults and remolded the body. I am much happier with the formed body now. On the first model, the space between the front tires (left ones to the right ones) was too wide meaning that the body was too wide. Also the side pods covering the fuel tanks had too many imperfections in the plastic so I filled and reworked the wooden buck there. My mold is rather basic because there are so many modifications to the actual car that I felt that the raw body model should be “adjusted†so that any version could be constructed from the basic body. It is the nose and the windshield area that changed the most over the year this car raced. After much thought I decided to replicate the car as it was run with the oil radiators in the front nose. Because the car had a full engine covering cowling, there was not a sufficient flow of cool air over the radiators, whether they placed them behind the water radiators on the sides or the in the rear next to the rear wing supports. The Tyrrell engineers then located the radiators in the nose to get the cleanest air and therefore provide the most cooling effect. I think this is not as “pretty†or as sleek looking but there is something purposeful about that look and besides I like how the oil lines look running from the engine to the radiators. As you can see, I have added wire “lower legs and feet†to the drive figure. I did not understand why Tamiya left the legs in a short stub position when the entire driver figure is visible when the cowling is removed. Maybe they think us modelers should have to create some of there kits parts to get the true effect of modeling…either that or they just wanted to save money….I think it is the latter. Next I modified the set by cutting away the excess area behind the driver position and added the six hole on the top. Also, you can see I cut off the kits side pods as they will not be necessary with the version I am building. I have added the fuel tank sides and later these will be detailed with the body mount fasteners, fuel line feeds and the access plate. I have, as I mentioned before, opened up the openings for the oil coolers up front and added all of the brake and driver cooling vents. These vents, once opened have the backs filled in and now only have the rear area open of each vent. The two smaller vents on the nose feed cool air to the forward front wheel brakes and the two vents on the side of the driver cowling provide cool air to the rear front wheel brakes. The small vent in the center nose area feeds cool air to the driver compartment. The trickiest part of the body adjustment is in the forward section of the nose. I cut away the nose section for the Tamiya kit and shaped the rear to fit over the nose of the vacuum formed body. This was super glued, than filled with body putty on top and epoxy on the bottom to make it a smooth fit. Next I added the exposed support protruding above the very front center of the nose. This will be sanded smooth once the putty is completely dry. Later I will cut the nose free from the rest of the cowling just behind the center air vent and the two holes for where the nose attaches to the chassis. Later I will cut away the back area of the body that is un-necessary. I have put the engine block together and then move on to the front suspension. This kit is not set up to have the front wheels pose, but I converted the 1976 version I did years ago to four wheel steering and really like how that looks and works so this car will get that treatment also. It is a small touch, but I think it add so much when the wheels all turn together. I am really pleased with this so far. Last week I was viewing an F1 modelers site and posted some pictures there. These guys are insane. They are so into F1 models that if you misplace a bolt or hose, they are ready, willing and able to point it out to you. It is interesting how the vast majority of the participants are from other countries. It really speaks to the popularity of F1 in the rest of the world vs. the US. I guess the same would be true if you entered a Soccer forum. Anyway, one of the guys gave me a link to a posting that a fellow from Brazil posted last fall where he had mad a resin transkit for this car. His workmanship is beautiful. I did not see a price all though he did mention that he was selling them. My only complaint with his castings is that they are rather thick. The resin produces beautiful parts but they are out of the appropriate scale. The nice thing about the vacuum formed body is that it is very close to the correct scale. I have run off a few extra bodies, and as I said before I will be happy to send one to anyone interested for just the cost of shipping and a few dollars for the plastic sheet that I pay $3.00 for. I must add though that this is a VERY basic body and much customization is necessary to build up the completed model. I, as I stated before, did it this way to allow the most possible variations and I don’t mind doing the modifications to the car as I build it. But I must state that this is not for a novice modeler. This would rank up there as a level 3 or 4 conversion…you will need some skill to do it but from how mine is looking, if you want to build this variation of the Tyrrell P34 with the full body cowling, it will build up into a nice looking model.

Shane, this is very impressive. I love the scratch built chassis. That body is so ugly that it is beautiful. The engine detailing is first rate...great job on a obscure subject. Looking forward to the completion of this.

The body will get a fair amount of trimming and adjustments. The area where the front wheels are is to be removed. The area behind the rear radiators gets removed. The lower area gets trimmed out and there are a number of air vents that must be opened up to allow for the brake intakes. I originally tried to cut them out of the wood buck, but that did not work to my satisfaction, so I filled the holes and will cut them out of the styrene body. One more interesting note about this car. The Tyrrell team that last year, tried just about everything to make this car more competitive so it looked different in just about every race it was entered in. I can’t really decide on one point on this car I will build. The team struggled with the engine oil cooling problem for many races. Originally, the oil cooling radiators were mounted in the rear on either side of the rear wing supports. In later races, they mounted the radiators in the front spoiler. I like how the oil lines ran down the side of the car just inboard of the front wheels, but the radiators just don’t “do†it for me. So I am going back and forth in my head with whether or not to mount the radiators up front or not. I guess I will just wait and see how the construction goes so I will see later. The body will be cut just in front of the driver cowling to expose the driver and the cockpit mechanicals. The back portion of the body gets cut off behind the radiators and all of that will be made to lift off. I know I said I am very happy with the way this body has come along but the truth is I am really excited with the look of it. I really sweated the upper cowling shape. I had difficulty in getting it right because at first I just didn’t understand the complete shape of the car. This car is actually wider than the 1976 model, and even the early 1977 model. The front wheels are moved outboard and the cowling is more “squat†and laid back than the early version. It took many light bulbs going off in my head before I could visualize the cowling and get it right. If I can repair the mold, and figure out a better method of getting the area around the driver opening to work, I will produce more bodies if anyone is interested, but I must worn any one interested, these bodies will require so work and modification to build into a finished model. I will post my progress as I move along, but that may take some time because I need to complete the Art Deco Aero Coupe and the Viper XRT10 before NNL East. So I ran long, but that is just something that I can not help. And besides, I am so happy with what I was able to do here that I can just not help myself. And than, as if I do not have enough projects, I stumbled on to another one. I have always liked the look of the 1951 Studebaker Commando, especially the front. So I started playing around with a pencil and paper and came up with a really cool looking custom. Just imagine a slightly stylized and customized body of the Commando with a Dodge Stealth roof and a turbo front wheel drive engine. This is another car that I will do. Vacuum formed lower body, on the Stealth chassis with the Stealth roof. I will do the body in an upper and lower section, mate them together and add the roof. Will the fun ever end?

Back on January 3rd, I posted in the “General†section, a little posting about the Tyrrell P34 6 Wheel F1 car. In it, I proposed the idea of building the 1977 late season body cowling for this unique F1 car. Here is a short recap (well, short for me) of the models that are available in the mainstream hobby arena. Tamiya came out with a 1/12th scale kit of the car shortly after it debuted on the track. I built that back then. Then a few years later, Tamiya followed with a 1/20th scale version of the same kit, which I built about 10 years ago. Then about 18 months ago Tamiya brought out the 1977 version of this car with new sponsor markings as it appeared in the first 3 races of the year, with the model being patterned after the way it was presented at the Grand Prix of Monaco. All very nice, but I wanted the body style of the way it appeared in the ladder part of the season. In doing my research on the internet for the body conversion, I found a really neat, but long out of production and very expensive Japanese transkit made by a company named Chevron to convert the Tamiya 1/12th scale 1976 P34 into the later model 1977 P34. Reviewing these pictures was quite a help for me. On to the wood buck…..I picked up a block of balsa wood which I cut into a few smaller pieces. I modeled the upper portion of the cowling out of one piece and the lower body out of another. Once I had them to the point where I was comfortable, I cut a groove to the shape of the bottom of the top section into the top of the lower body and glued and puttied that into place. I opened up a hole in the center of the body, where the driver sits so that the vacuum formed plastic would hopefully get sucked unto the opening in the cowl. I had no idea that that would work so well. So the body went on to the vacuum machine, the styrene sheet was heated and laid over the wooden buck with the shop vac on. The styrene got pulled down and the body was formed……there is good news and there is bad news with that. The hole in the bottom of the body did such a great job of pulling the styrene into the cockpit that it actually wrapped around the top of the driver compartment cowling. I mean it was perfect. The styrene filled in the driver compartment so well that I could not extricate the model from the plastic formed body. I had to do extensive cutting and trimming around the opening and finally was able to remove the formed body. But the mold had a chunk ripped out of the opening which is now being repaired. I think it will be ok, but in order to make a few more bodies, I will have to find a better way to handle the opening so I do not destroy the mold every time. But I could not be happier with the body after I was able to remove the mold from inside it.

beauty....very nice, I can see why it was a "must build" Sometimes a kit just speaks to you and I see why you jumped on this. Great looking old digger.

Yes, Yes, Yes....I like the direction you are going. I have this kit and if I get around to building it, I would try and do something along these lines too. Great start. I really like the rear side scoops and the opening in the hood. Save your money, make the changes yourself and add to your abilities. Very Nice.

Well, Raul, there may only be four, but they are a well done four completions. I really like the Raptor pickup and how it works so perfectly with the Rod and trailer. I thought when I saw it together for the first time last year that it was a well thought out and executed hat trick. They sure looked great together. I remember, as a teenager in the 60's, seeing this type of set up fairly often. Nice group, well done.

That is such a neat car. There were very few real ones ever made. Fiberglass body and pocket sliding doors, very cool. The sad part is that it was very underpowered with something like an 80 horsepower Willys jeep engine, it was billed as a Corvette "style" sports roadster, but it couldn't keep up with a Sprite or a Midget. Anyway, very nice and the color is very nice too.

Very nice. You know, with all of the problems and shortcomings involved with that kit, it still builds up into a beautiful little racer if you take care and not over do anything. You did a very nice job on it....very clean with all of the proper touches I really like the injector tubes in the carb openings, nice. I built two, a coupe and a roadster and I have another coupe to build one of these days.

Oh Harry, I beg to differ with you. The 6 front wheel concept was actually very sound and did have a number of advantages. The “standard†front wheel of an F1 car, being exposed to the air, caused a great deal of unwanted lift. In order to counter that lift, designers added more “wing†or down force which translated to more drag which equaled a lower speed. And in F1, speed is determined down to the 100th of a second, so it all matters. Further, the additional wheels (2 extra) provided more “tire patch†and any race car driver knows, the tire patch is the most important aspect of a car. Regardless of horsepower or braking power, all forces developed by the vehicle are transmitted to the road in that “tire patchâ€. More tire patch, more braking and better adherence to the road in turns. The cars actually did very well considering their awkward appearance. Every thing Mark said is right on target. It was a combination of the tires (smaller fronts) not getting the attention in advancements that they needed because on Tyrrell was using them. As the other tires got more attention, the small 10 inchers of Tyrrell fell technically behind. Also, Michelin had entered the fray and Goodyear was more worried about that then maintaining the 10 inch tires for Tyrrell. As the development waned with these tires, Tyrrell was forced to make adjustments to the track, making the front wider tracked to combat the tires technical shortcomings. Reluctantly, by 1978, Tyrrell realized that the 6 wheel platform would no longer be competitive and abandoned the idea to run with conventional set ups. But, the P34 has its place in history and it is unique ideas like this that continue to push the envelope of technology. If I pull this off, which I believe I will, I will provide sets of the body modifications for anyone who wants them (there can’t be that many of you guys out there) for shipping and the cost of the plastic sheet (my cost is a whole whopping $1.00 a sheet). Lets see how this turns out first…if they look good, you can have one.

This is just so typical…I have like 5 projects going and I just hit on another one that I really want to do. This saga dates back to 1976 when I built the Tamiya 1/12th scale Tyrrell P34 six wheel car. I really enjoyed that build and the 1/12th sale car just fell together. When we moved out of our first house, I (like a fool) gave all of my F1 1/12th scale builds to the kid next door. I was into HO trains and 1/12th scale builds are just “so bigâ€. Then about 10 or 12 years ago I did the same car in 1/20th scale. I made the four front wheels steer on this one because the 1/12th scale kit had movable front wheels so I wanted it for the 1/20 kit. It is a nice kit with the exception of the decals which were not up to Tamiya usual standards. I have since found an aftermarket supplier of more opaque ones so if it is possible, I will decal them over the Tamiya ones, but that is not the point of this post. About 18 months ago, Tamiya came out with a new version of the famed P34 Tyrrell 6 wheeler from the 1977 season. It is basically the same car with a new sponsor and slightly different cowling. I bought it, but was disappointed to see that it did not have the fully revised cowling, but a revision of the old cowling with the new paint scheme and sponsor logos. Apparently, Tyrrell ran 3 races in the 1977 season with this version of the cowling, one of them being the 1977 Monaco GP which is the version this kit depicts. That is all fine and dandy, but this is not the version of this car that I wanted. I wanted the full cowl version… the one that completely covers the engine and has that more rounded look on top of the famous blue angular bottom. The other day I took many of my old cars, including my F1 builds out to photograph them manly so I would have a digital record of most all of my builds. I put some on the gallery and plan to show a few more there when I have time. I had the Tyrrell P34 out and I was admiring the car and the technical brilliance of the 6 wheel design when I thought I would look on the internet to see what sites are saying about this car. Sure enough, I found pictures of the ’77 body with the more rounded cowling. I dragged out the un-built kit I have of the Monaco version car and right there on the spot it hit me. If I wanted the proper cowling for the car, why not build it myself? And the Vacuum form process would be absolutely perfect for this conversion. So I sat down and with the aid of my built 1976 version, the 1977 un-built version and pictures on the internet, I drew out the plan, in the proper 1/20 scale. I ran off to the hobby shop to pick up a piece of balsa wood, the proper size, and now I will build wooden bucks of the new front wing (can’t really call it a wing, it looks more like an up side down shovel), new front bulkhead and then new rounded complete driver and engine cowling. I think this will be reality easy to do. Then my brother and I can design the new curved sponsor graphics in the computer, cut them from vinyl and this should be good to go. It appears, from the detail photos on the internet that the front wing and bulkhead pieces just sit on top of the existing skin. They are sitting about 2 ½ inches above the current skin. Now I realize that F1 projects get very little attention on this forum, and I get it…you guys like customs, street rods and drag cars….that’s fine, I do too, but I also really like the older 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s F1 cars. I just ordered the new Fujimi 1/20 scale 312T Ferrari, my number one favorite F1 car of all time, so I can’t wait to get into that one.

I have made some headway on the Viper XRT10 concept. I have made a vacuum formed body in both clear and white styrene. ttp://farm3.static.flickr.com/2727/4240169437_a6bb53a95f.jpg The clear body is for the “bubbletop†section and obviously, the white body is for the car itself. I have cut the opening for where the engine will be and cut out the bubbletop section and am slowly, and I mean slowly, trimming the clear window to fit the opening. I can’t afford a screw up here or I will have to make more clear bodies to redo the window, so I am trimming very carefully…a little at a time. I cut the air intake open behind and above the interior area and put a bottom on it. It leads directly into the upper engine compartment where it will connect to the engine intake system. I have cut down the Viper interior to fit. In order to have the seats clear the top properly, I had to remove about 2 mm from the center console. Easy enough. I have inserted the area which will be the top of the dashboard that extends all the way to the front of the car. I like this, it is very different…..it reminds me of the old GM minivans from the early 1980’s where the windshield was way out in front of the dashboard…..the top of the dash was about 3 ½ feet deep. Looking at the engine, it will fit just fine, but the transmission will require a refit. I was looking at a number of un-built Group C type race cars that I have and have found a few trans-axles that would work out well. I will make a clay mold of each side and cast it out of bondo. It should work out just fine. Ok, that’s it for now.

Ok, I sorted out the problem that I was experiencing with Flickr and here are the rest of the pictures I took this morning…you can see the headlights are in and the exhaust tips are in. I know, not a lot different, but I wanted the most recent shots posted.