Peter Lombardo

nice job....love the color choice. It just screams 1950's. I, as a kid, loved those great tri color pastel paint jobs of the 50's. Nice build.

Dave, your black beetle, with a little work to the background would have made a great "is it real or model" subject. Very clean look there.

I like your attitude. Even if no one responds….post it anyway. Love the color, the flames (decals, I know) not so much. Wheels look very period.

Of course Harry, the measurement must be done carefully. I would not recommend this except that the model is complete and there are limited options available here. Obviously, if the firewall is not accessable, this method will not work and this is a moot conversation. I guess you posted your second post just before I posted my thoughts, so I did not mean to step on your response. I have made hinges the way you described there many times and it works fine. I have used the method that I tried to describe also a number of times and it has worked just fine. True, I am a little more experienced, but it is not that difficult, especially if you use brass rods. They are basically “soft†and easy to bend and re-bend. If they are not lining up exactly, they are easy to reposition and line up. Either way, it is always easier to plan for hinges early on in the build.

Not to contradict Harry, but there may be a way to build a hinge even though the model is complete. Without the aid of pictures or a drawing, my explanation may be a little difficult to follow, but I will try none the less. This is crude and the hood will not be permanently attached, but the hood will open and close and with the aid of a hood prop it will stay in the open position. My first assumption is that you can get a small drill bit into the firewall near the left and right sides of the back of the engine compartment. If you can, drill a small hole being very careful not to damage the surrounding area. This hole should be about ¼ of an inch below the hood “flush†line. In another words, down ¼ of an inch from the top of the hood, where it matches the surrounding fender. The hole should also be about ¼ of an inch from the left and right edge of the hood. Got that, ¼ inch in from the side and ¼ from the top of the hood. Then get a piece of brass wire that is about the same diameter or a little smaller as the hole you just drilled into the firewall. Cut a piece about ½ inch long, maybe a little longer. Measure in about ¼ of an inch and begin a bend with a small pair of mini pliers. Make a bend that is just short of 90 degrees….about 75 or 80 degrees. Now slowly work that bend up going in small increments. You should have this bend coming up so that it forms a lazy “câ€. (I wish I could show you because it is easier to do than my explanation sounds) When it is done, the distance from the straight part of the brass rod and the bottom of the curve, where it starts to turn upward is just under ¼ of an inch. Repeat for the second hinge. Now measure in ¼ of an inch from the sides of the hood. On the underside, mark this spot and carefully glue the flat part of the brass wire to the underside of the hood, so that the “lazy c†of the hinge is curved down and then slightly up but be sure it is at the rear of the hood sticking out of the back of the hood.. The idea here is that the end of the curved part of the hood, goes into the hole on the firewall and as the hood is opened, this brass rod slides out of the hole and allows the hood to open. Once open, use a brass wire strut cut to the proper length to hold the hood open. I apologize if this is difficult to follow, but without the aid of a simple drawing, the explanation is difficult. Just be sure you can "see" and understand this design, before you take a drill to a finished model. Hope this helps.

Ismael, congrat's...looks like you had a great time. To be down in the pits during a race is a great experience. And for you to be in the Corvette pit is perfect...do any other cars exist in your world? Great pictures. Enjoy the memory.

I thought it might be nice to post these two older builds I did since I, and many of you guys are doing the new Revell 49 Mercury. The Merc is a AMT that had the top chopped, it was channeled over the frame and hand cut flames applied. The base coat is Mopar Radiant red metallic with HOK pearls for the flames. The wheels came from the Revell Shelby Series One. It's not really a street racer and not really an old school custom. The 49 Ford Coupe has had major surgery. This one was chopped, channeled, sectioned, shortened and scalloped. I opened the doors, added a blown 427 Ford from the parts pac's from Revell. The wheels came from a 69 AMT Super Bee Pro Street. Paint is Mopar Viper yellow with white scallops on the nose, both topped with HOK white pearl. I saw a picture of this car in the Hot Rod 50th anniversary hard cover book and I knew I had to build it. I even modeled the model (girl) from the book picture but did not include her here. I was very happy with these two builds.

Here is a pair of 69 Camaro's I did as a "his and hers" pair. His has hand cut flames that are painted with HOK paints over Mopar Viper yellow. The front spoiler was modified with a lower piece from a Tamiya Ford Escort. The wheels came from the Revell 59 Corvette. The rear came from a 1970's Corvette with custom made multiple rear spoilers. The hers has a HOK white pearl and peach two tone with burnt orange hi-lites. After market wheels painted pearl white finish it off.

Progress on this build is slow, but steady. I have the wheel wells repositioned with the opening flairs rebuilt. The roof is at the correct height now. The tail light foundation is set and the rear bumper cover is in place. The next item to tackle is setting the hood and reopening the hood down at the side fender line center. It hinges forward with the air cleaner intake attached to the engine. Once the hood is in place, the grill, headlights and tail light fixtures are next. This is a long slow project. Ok, just a little update mainly to keep me focused on the build. While the putty is drying in between each layer, I started working on a 68 Corvette race car from Daytona 24 hour race with some after-market markings from Vintage Racing.

Isn’t this interesting! I think we all thought that this was going to be a slam dunk. We all build models and do our best to replicate the real vehicles, so surely we can tell the difference between real or model. Not so easy is it? I’m running at about 50% and I thought I could do better than that. But I think this exercise points to a more important fact that we should all be aware of. In this age of computers and photoshop, real pictures can be manipulated to represent what someone wants us to believe, rather than what is actually happening. I used to believe “half of what I saw and none of what I heardâ€. Today, I find it hard to believe any of what I see. (sorry, I did not mean to get “politicalâ€, just pointing out the downside of technology). Back to the picture, I think real, but Harry, you are very good at what you do so I am at your mercy. The line has been effectively bleared.

A flawless masterpiece. That is as well a detailed model as I have ever seen. Once again, the bar has been raised. Congratulations…I hope you are happy making the rest of us feel inferior.

Great job on the roof. I love to see you guys cuttin' and choppin' stuff up.

Interesting long term project there. This is something that you just don't see every day, a dark green T-Bird. Can't say I can recall seeing one before. Nice build. The headrests look sharp on the car.

Where else would I go? Like everyone else says. The builds, the people and the need to share my experiences with likeminded individuals. This is the only forum I have ever posted to and I don’t feel the need to look for any others. I appreciate the honest discord and good natured ribbing that I see. I also believe it is the duty of us older more experienced builders to share techniques and building styles with the younger guys learning the ropes. It is our job to keep the hobby moving forward and to encourage others to join in on the fun. And in doing that, I believe we will all become more energized and begin to exceed our own expectations. I also believe that we all want to belong….fit in….and be accepted for who we are. This forum does that. I don’t mean to sound goopy or syrupy, but this is a great place to share what we all have in common….a love for building something with our own hands and sharing our vision with others. Besides, it’s cheaper than a therapist.

Mike, this is a very ambitious project. It seems most of us feel the need to redesign the new Charger. Is that a sign that maybe Chrysler got it wrong? I personally think more 68 and 69 Charger and less Chrysler 300 would have been better. But I don’t design real cars for a living so I guess I will let them do it. I think it is an interesting idea to incorporate all of the different design elements from the past. Very interesting project, I want to see the finished product.

I voted model for two reasons. 1. I think the background is too far out of focus for a unretouched real car and 2. I do not see any nounting holes/brackets for the rear license plate. But I realize that you could have made the backgound out of focus intentionaly and you could have photoshopped the mounting holes out for the rear plate....so therefore in the end it is a guess. P.S. something about the breakline just in front of the left front fender looks more like the platform that a model would be sitting on then a road/sidewalk break. Ok, technically thats three reasons...shoot me. It's still just a guess.

Nice build......I agree with you, not one of my favorite's either, but one of AMT's better kits quality and design wise. Nice color choice.

http://www.supercars.net/Gallery?cmd=viewC...3335&pgID=1 Take a look at this link...great shots of the Audi engine, trans, and action shots. The young lady is unnecessary, but not unpleasent.

Jim, you appear to be off to a great start. I ordered one of these R10's and received it the other day. I have no time to start it yet, but went looking for as much reference material as I could find. There are a number of sites on the internet that have great detail photos of the engine bay and transmission on this car. ( the wiring and detail on the engine, of the real car, are amazing, you can go crazy trying to replicate them) You did a nice job replicating the air filters and piping that were missing. I do not understand why Revell missed such obvious details, but good to see you didn't overlook them. I am looking forward to your build as it will serve as inspiration for me when I get around to building mine. I know you will do a great job of scratch building all of the missing kit details. Please keep us posted as the build progresses.

I just received this morning via my email, notification from Hobbylink Japan that a Fujimi 1/20 Ferrari 126C2 1982 San Marino, the car Gilles Villeneuve was driving at the time of his fatal accident, is in route to me from Japan. I have all of the Tamiya 1/20 F1 series, and the 2 great kits from Modelers (I wish they were still around making F1 kits) so this will be a welcome addition. I will be adding a driver fiqure of Gilles to complete this car.

Bill, you are right about the front wheel opening as it is next on the list for adjustment. I absolutely will open the hood and have the engine in there as that is one of the neatest features of the design. I am glad to see that others like this car too. Maybe there is hope for Ford after all. I think Ford really needs a sharp looking large sedan to show they still have what it takes.

These are two 1941 Chevrolet pick up trucks I did a few years ago, when the 1941 pickup first came out. The silver truck (mild) is loosely based on a truck I saw on an auto suppliers calendar. I added a 289 Chevy V8 from the parts pack series and after market wheels and tires. The interior has seats from (I don't remember, sorry) and I hand painted the pickup bed to simulate wood panels. Then a nice simple Plymouth Prowler Silver paint job topped with clear coat. The other one, (wild), loosely based on a 1939 GMC pickup built a few years ago called "Grasshopper", has very heavy modifications to it. The top was chopped, but the rear window was left at the stock size. All the fenders were enlarged and smoothed. The grill came from a Prowler as did the headlights and engine and transmission (mounted in rear). Doors were opened ala suicide and the back pick up box is completely scratch built. Wheels and tires came from a Tamiya Porsche kit. The paint is the same Mopar silver, this time as a base, covered with HOK Candy Green and clear top coat. Side by side, you can really see the difference in the stance and height. Thanks for looking...I always liked how these two look together as they show the different directions one can take with the same starting piece.

This is my latest “long-term†project…..the 2007 Ford Interceptor Concept. Sorry this is a long narrative, but it is the first posting on this build. So if you are interested enough to follow this to the end of the post, go get a cup of coffee or a beer, because we may be here awhile. The first time I saw this car I thought it was great looking. A tremendous improvement over the Crown Vic and old Ford Five Hundred, now known as the New Taurus, at least in my eyes, and that is usually the kiss of death for a concept….if I like, it will never see the light of day. Well, many people in the press said that it was too much like the Chrysler 300C so I am sure that contributed to the “still born†nature of the product. Well, the fact that many saw the similarities to the 300 got me to thinking. If the car appeared similar to the 300, then the 300 would make a great place to start to build a model of the Interceptor. Well, I can tell you that even thought they appear similar; in actuality they are quite different. Obviously the front and rear fascias are unique to each brand, but many other features are quite different too. First up, I needed to establish the side creases that give the car a long smooth side view. I added a few strips of plastic stock to form the high points of the creases. Then I filled in with putty to shape the contours. I determined that the roof is too high on the 300 so it needed to be chopped 2 ½ millimeters, which it was, and then the B and C pillars needed to be reshaped, they were. Then I used copious amounts of bondo on the rear deck to rough in the tail light areas and panel between them and begin the rough contours of the rear bumper area. Then I came to a tricky body adjustment. The only pictures I have to work from came from a web site that has Concept Cars of all makes…conceptcars.com. (neat site, if you have never seen it, take a few minutes and have a look) I took measurements of the cars side profile from a picture taken straight on. I noted the measurements from a few points that are easy to note, like from rear bumper to front of rear wheel well opening or rear bumper ending point to rear of front wheel opening. You get the point. I then took the measurements and calculated the distance from a few known points and converted the distance into a percentage. I then took the same measurements on the model and converted them into percentages. I then took the percentage measurement and used that, converted into the proper scale to determine the placement of features. I know that sounds crazy, but the bottomline was that the rear wheel openings needed to be moved forward 5 millimeters on the 1/25th model. The Ford rear wheels needed to move forward. You can see where I drew the cut lines on the car. I cut out the wheel well and moved it forward, taking the slice from the front of the wheel and moved it to the rear of the wheel. I realize that because I am working from pictures I printed from the website, I may be off a little. Yeah maybe, but I know I am very close and since this is not neurosurgery, I think I can get away with it. Next, I saw that the greenhouse (windows and top) is more narrow on the Ford then on the Chrysler. I measured out the two designs and determined how much needed to be removed. You can see the gap I cut down the middle of the roof, front to rear. Once cut out, I carefully cut the roof free from the body at the lowest point of each pillar. Then, put the roof back together. The roof, just barely sat on the body, so it was carefully super glued in place, and a thin strip of plastic was set in below the pillars and glued into place. It will be trimmed when all of the glue and putty dry. This will form the basis of the smooth flat surface where the door handles reside. I cut out the large grill opening from the Chrysler ( this just may end up adorning the nose of a 49 Mercury, maybe, not totally sure yet) and filled the area with an old leftover piece of a hood from some car I don’t remember. This is then covered with more copious amounts of bondo(my Dremel tool is really getting a work out on this one). The hood on the Ford is really unique. It has a large opening in the center that is filled by the air cleaner (or something like that) which is attached to the engine. The surrounding hood pivots forward and on the sides goes down to the upper wheel arches. All and all, this is going to be a challenging build, but I really want to finish it. By posting this car here on the forum, I can’t just walk away from it. I am committed to finishing the project. The interior on this car is really unique. The headrests are attached to the roof and the seats are slim, trim and different. They will be a real challenge, but you know, no pain, no gain. I will keep posting on this as time and work progress, and hopefully, not talk so much on subsequent postings but I wanted to bring this build up to date. Thanks for staying with me till the end of the post.

Oh Yeah, Oh yeah, this is going to nice. I sure hope GM removes their head from "you know where" and is paying attention. Keep it going, nice start.