Peter Lombardo

This is my latest project. Back in November 2004, I spotted this car in Hot Rod Magazine. I had an extra '64 Dodge 330 drag car on the shelf, that I really didn't care to build. I liked the look of the "First Charger" so I had my project. I began back in early '05 but got bogged down when I couldn't get the rear deck to my liking. I had cut the top off and used the rear end of it to fabricate the "roll bar". I made the headrest flares from scratch. I now fixed the rear deck and got back into it. The hood scoop is a Hemi "twin scoop" that I filled in the center of and adde3d front "wings" to. I opened the lower quarter panels for the "race" exhaust and and framed them with 1/4 round rods. I am working on the exhaust vanes next. The interior will have "tuck and roll" pleating and the front and rear bumpers will have the four "bumper guards". I have Mopar "Radiant Red" which is the correct color and will make the stripes with white paint. I think this is a very "period" correct concept car. Back then, the factory would take current sheet metal and rework it into something different and call it a concept. Today, concepts use very little from current models, except for underpinnings and such. Also, as a side light, the original '64 Charger had a wedge 426 engine, not a Hemi, but when the car was found and rebuilt, they thought a Hemi would be a better choice. The Hemi in the car today, is an actual circa 1964 Race Hemi built for Richard Petty's Nascar team but never used. I thought that was an interesting piece of history. I will continue the postings as work progresses and hopefully, I will not screw up something major.

The rest..

It is raining today and I got a little board, so I thought I would post a few cars that were finished a few years ago. There are three 1940 Fords here. The convertible is the most heavily modified of the three. I added "fadeaway" fenders that run from the front fender all the way back to the rear. I made rear fender skirts and art deco trim molding, and dropped in an interior from a Mitso. Stealth. I know the "dice" are a little out of scale, but I like them. I used a Ford Flathead for the correct style of power. HOK Kandy Blue over silver and pearl white. The sedan has a mild chop, custom interior and a Hemi power plant. HOK Kandy green with silver/gold fenders. The coupe has a mild chop, flathead power, vinyl tape striping and Mopar Cranberry pearl over Silver/Gold fenders. I always liked the look of the 1940 Fords, in my eyes, they are a classic hod rod custom, next the 49 Merc and 32 Ford.

Personally, I like it just fine the way it is. I like to see the beginning of the thread as I log into, in case I joined the flow a little late. The way it is now, I just scroll down and follow the flow from start to current. But that is only my humble opinion.

Finally got to see them. They are a little out of focus, next time, you may want to move the camera back a little. If you notice, the bottles behind the car, on the desk, are in focus but the car is "kind'a fuzzy". But thats ok, I wanted to see them. Very nice Ken, they sure have that "look" of the 1960's. I am 59 and started modeling in the same time frame as you, so I can certainly relate to the era that they come from. Everyone I knew modeling back then built a channeled, sectioned, 1940 Ford with quad headlights. I seriously doubt that many of them have survived the turn of the century as well as yours. I know mine, and all of my childhood builds did not servive my mothers desire to clear out all of my "stuff" when I left for school and then the navy. Anyway, nice builds and nice bit of nostalgic memory for us old timers.

Darin, great job on that Ford GT Roadster. The resin pop looks really nice, and the bright yellow looks as sharp as I thought it would. Nice work.

I just picked up one at a local area hobby shop and have two more on order with my "regular" hobby shop. I have three minor knocks on the kit. One, the plastic is rather thick ( just like the 41 Willys). Maybe not a problem, but opening the doors took some doing, also, the hood hinge "slots" needed to be filled and new hinges for the hood will need to be built (not a big deal) and Two, the kit has no fuzzy dice in it and Three, mine was also missing the kitchen sink. Ok, kidding about the dice and sink, this is a great kit. I did notice a lot of mold lines in the body that require sanding though. Again, not a big deal, but don't overlook them as they will show up bigtime once paint is applied. If this is the type of quality coming from Revell now, and in the future, I will be very happy. This appears to be a very well planned, designed and executed kit. I really love the fact that Revell got right into AMT's face with this kit. I always thought of the AMT 49 Merc, 57 Ford and 58 Chevy as the "classic" AMT kits. Now Revell has one done, one coming and who knows, maybe a Ford is in our future. I really can't wait to see the new '58 Chevy kit. All I can say is, get this kit...you will not be sorry. In fact, maybe we can have a (show, contest, good natured competition, build off, or challenge [call it what you want]) on the forum with this kit. ( I can't believe I said this) Lets face it, we are all building one or more of these kits, and it might be neat to post them on a "long distance" virtual "NNL Forum", say 3 or 4 months from now. There could be different categories like box stock, best paint, crazy custom, mild custom, you get the idea, just a thought, what do you guys think of this? Crazy? Stupid? Do-able?

Absolut Wundervoll!!!

Here's something that you don't see everyday. That is really sharp. Very nice blending of the two very different style vehicles. Fins, I never thought of fins for that Stud. Very nice.

I love it...I love to see it when we break the shackles of the "kit" and stretch our imagination. That is a beautiful thing. Every now and then it is so cool to build your own creation. Nice work, keep it going.

Thanks guys, I really do appreciate the kind words. When I started building this truck, it was just going to be a roadster with no top, as I had seen one similar to that on the internet. As I got into it, the thought of a top kind of evolved over time. First it was a stationary top, but the more I thought about it, I figured I could make it open and close. Once I worked out the movement issues, the motorizing was the logical next step. Well, if I was going to motorize the top, the hood and doors should move too. Then, why not lights since the truck was set on a base with batteries and motors. Anyway, I built another truck ( '55 Chevy Cameo )a few years ago, but only did the motorized top because that was the thing that looked the best moving. One of these days I will get around to posting that truck. Again, thanks for the kind words. P.S. If anyone is interested, I will be happy to share the techniques (not that difficult) to do the articulated top.

This is a Ford F-150 Lightning pickup I built about 4 years ago. Some of the panels have warped a little, like the tonneau cover, but not too badly. It sits on a wooden base with 5 motors on the underside of the top. The hood, doors and top are motorized and all of the lights work, including the dashboard lights. The tail light runs all the way across the lower back and has 20 fiber optic leads into it. I apologized for the relatively poor picture quality as I had problems with the camera. It is time for a new one. I need at least 10 megapixels next time. Anyway, I tried to post a little movie of the top going up and down, but the camera wasn't having any of it. So, out came the trusty old cell phone with no quality but at least it worked. So I apologize for the super poor quality, but I think you will get the idea of what the truck can do. This truck was pretty heavily modified. I took a pie wedge out of the nose, to lower the hood line, built the articulating top from the stock top and added smoothed sides and rear wheel flairs to the pickup bed. The wheels and tires came from the Dodge Sidewinder pickup and there are ghost flames on the hood and fenders under a HOK Razzleberry top coat. Again sorry for the poor quality, but I think it is a pretty neat build . As usual comments/complaints always welcome.

Thanks Lyle, that is exactly the way I have done it before. I wanted to know how you did it. I figure, if you do it that way, then I must be doing it right. Thanks again, and great build on the roadster too.

You are surely on the right track. I thought that all you guys from accross the pond only do F1 cars? (just kidding, well, sort of). Keep at it, I have only done a few of these beasts, but each time it got a lot easier. My only note on it is, see if you can get a "tighter" weave braiding for the fuel lines. The tighter, the better as it looks more realistic. Other then that slight complaint, i think it looks great. Stay on it.

David, this build is INSANE!! I have no idea how you NASCAR modelers do it! The level of detail in just this chassis is just incredible. Beautiful job, this is sure to make some guys sick when they see this on the closed wheel competition table next to their entry. I know I am glad I don't do NASCAR models and have to share a table with that bomb. Beautiful build so far.

Dauh, it does have lake pipes...my mistake. Sorry, I kept thinking about the metal exhaust tips, forgetting that it also had side pipes. Upon my second look, it is still a nice build.

Great job on it and I guess congratulations are in order as I believe you are the first one to post a completed Revell 49 Merc. I haven't even seen it available yet, so nice going. Question...are those Hubcaps in the kit? and does it come with cowl mounted spotlights, as I think that, and lake pipes are the only missing period correct touches. Anyway, nice build...I am looking forward to getting my hot little hands on that kit.

Hey Ken, don't get so down on the hobby. I think there are many influences affecting the hobby today, and the biggest one is in my hands right this very minute. Computers and the internet are having a tremendous effect on the hobby. Some good and some bad. When I was a kid (early 50's) I had only two diversions from life when I was indoors. Drawing and building models. TV wasn't allowed all that often to me, so this was it. I loved building model cars as a kid. I always thought it was the "golden Age" back then in the early 60's. The great AMT customizing kits, the Johan kits, Revell's series of racing and custom show cars and especially the great parts packs that let us build personized customs. Then, real cars, girls and parties (read that as drinking) came alone and it was bye-bye models. The Navy, College, and marrige (kids) and then the models found their way back. Today they are one of my "happy places" I can go to get away from the pressure of making a living. Today, I believe computers have replaced "building" hobbies as the main past time for American kids. Computer games with the incredible graphics command our kids attention today. The computer, and the internet are driving many local hobby shops out of business. They undercut the prices and ship in one or two days. I try and buy as much as I can from my local guy because I need him. I can go to his shop and browse awhile and pick up all of the little things like paint, glue, metal tubes, rods ( along with some kits) and this kind of stuff. Stuff that is very tedious to buy over the internet. Besides, Fred is a great guy to talk to. I know many think that today is the "Golden Age" of model building. I think that is so. More kits, Resin, Photoetch items, super glue, new paints, huge aftermarket industry and best of all, computers. Computers, which may be killing the hobby, are also saving the hobby. I love having a place to go where I can communicate with other modelers. I love having a place to go and research a new project and most of all, I really enjoy posting my new builds and seeing all of the great builds that you guys posted here. Think about it, a few short years ago, none of these sites existed. Comuters and the Internet have opened up this great big world to all of us. Enjoy the possiblities. I, for one, am not worried about this hobby. As long as there are enough of us building and sharing our experiences, there will be a hobby. As long as we still drive cars and trucks, some one will make models of them. I see more and more contests in the magazines all of the time. I don't normally like the "Judging" environment, chosing to show at an NNL type show, but that is just me. If I wanted to, there are many contests in the NY Metro area (driving distance) that I could enter. No, don't worry, there will always be a model car hobby. Too many of us need to work with our hands and actually build something, other then a spreadsheet or low score on a computer golf game.

Ok Lyle, great build as usual, but you need to explain the hood to me. Did you cut the louvers by hand or what? The hinges I get, I am curious how you did the louvers. Thanks. P.S. the seats look great, from what I can see of them, also the license plate is a neat touch.

Thank you very much, and thanks to everyone that had kind words to say about this build. I know I always say that I build cars for my own satisfaction, and I do, but it is so nice to hear positive comments, especially on a build that took so much out of me to finish. Near the end, it was becoming a blear. Thanks again.

Not a lot to add to what everyone else has said, that is a great color combination with a different way of breaking the colors up. Not your normal two tone, but better. I like this and look foward to seeing it complete. The chassis looks great. When the 1960 Ford came out I was not a fan of the styling, but over the last 40+ years, it has grown on me and now I find it a very interesting design. Nice build so far.

Nice "period" mild custom. My only hang up (and it is MY hangup, is that when I see turquoise, I automatically think 1950's ) I really love the subtle weathering under the hood. That is just the kind of detail that goes un-noticed but makes the over all model so memorable. Really a wonderful touch that we, as modelers who want everything "showroom perfect", tend to over look. P.S. Harry, you nailed it, That is the 61 Chevy combination that has been burned into my minds eye....triple red. Sweet!

I have to agree with everyone else...beautiful build. Great finish on that paint. I also never thought of this year Chevy in silver. When I close my eyes, I can see a 61 Impala in triple red with white trim. The silver is a nice change of pace. I have a coupe 61 that I am planning to do in deep blue one of these days. P.S. Tom, that light metallic blue coupe looks great so far. I want to see that when it is finished.

First off, there really is no right or wrong way...just build it the way you want. Some would say the rear would have been a more logical trailer, but really, the nose of a Willys is the most distinctive design element so it is most recognizable. I like it as a trailer. Nice job, great color combination.

I just love the way the interior jumps off the page. Beautiful build. Classic, I think works here. Yeah, Classic build.