ChrisBcritter

I especially like the last photo. Those aftermarket wire wheels could be made by using these photo-etched Tom's Modelworks airplane wheels: 24.95 mm diameter, intended for 1/28 scale aircraft.

This is one of those times I could slap my forehead and say "Why didn't I think of that?" Nice work Alan!

Sometimes you strike out at estate sales, but sometimes you score. Case in point - I spotted this photo on the sale website: Hmm. So I drove out to Palatine in the rain at 5:30 AM and got my name on the waiting list to go in (#6). At 9:00 when they opened, luckily the five people in front of me weren't after models, so I snagged these: The '65 Rambler American promo is very cherry other than a little rubbing on the bumper corners; it's a keeper. The '32 roadster is the 1964 Ford promo issue with some parts off the trees and a few small tire marks, but all there including perfect decals and the note from Ford in the bottom of the box. The '49 Ford promo is the first version, with the suicide rear doors, in a metallic gunmetal color. Needs a good cleaning but has little of the usual warpage/shrinkage in the body. I think the two Fords may be trading material, although the blown Chrysler in the roadster kit would look good shoehorned into my ITC '40 Mercury (it's going to be built as a gasser when I get the parts together and fix the body so it actually looks like a Mercury). Best part: paid $9.00 for all three and I couldn't get out of that house fast enough - after thanking the sale staff.

I'd like to try one of these - believe the scale was 1/48:

I've wondered about that myself. I wonder if the '60 tooling was modified into the '61 and then '62 wagons? I have a '61 wagon that's been in progress for about 35 years - paid $9.00 for it at an Old Town Escorts swap meet way back then; also a '62 promo wagon that isn't warped much. The kicker is I've seen a Ford Motor Company photo showing promotional models of its 1963 line - and there was a '63 wagon. Wish I could find that photo...

They might not; it wouldn't surprise me if they made the promo first and reworked it to make the two-door kit. Check out the interior on the '61 kit, and you'll see that instead of rear window handles there are door handles molded in!

...And "SGT. FRIDAY".

I'm surprised AMT hasn't thought to reissue their '36 Ford 5-window under this banner, as it has an actual appearance in a Stooge short: False Alarms (1936)

Good luck with the Bonneville - are you going to kitbash it with the new '61 Catalina? If not, the AMT '62 Impala would provide a windshield frame. Use the glass you have if you can save it - the Impala frame is wider at the base and it will fit, but it's tough to make the Impala glass fit.

I, too, would like to see some first-gen compacts; maybe an idea for Moebius? An early Corvair Monza might be up their alley after the '65 Comet comes out.

I admit to using ArcSoft PhotoStudio; came with the computer when I bought it and I've gotten used to using it.

Around 5 PM, just as I was leaving Hobbytown USA, I spotted a bright orange '69 Shelby convertible headed north on Waukegan towards Deerfield.

Such a nice old kit - built it when I was a kid and it had no major issues I could recall. And I bet you could cut down that custom grille to make a decent LaSalle unit...

Finally managed to nail down one of these '55 Chevy 2-ton trucks cheap-ish; for something that's been reissued the prices have sure been high: Like Lysleder above with the Hondas, the idea here is to combine this kit with a more "toy-like" one: It's a 1/48 scale toy bank given away circa 1957 by the Superior Coach Federal Credit Union. Pretty accurate except the windshield is too much of a V shape. I could make this into a good approximation of the Partridge Family bus, but I'm not that ambitious... The Chevy kit appears to be missing one rear spring and the driver's seat, so if anybody has those, I can trade some of the bits I won't be using. (Like I don't have enough projects already, but I love a challenge!) Also got a set of NOS '61 Pontiac wheelcovers for my Franken-Bonneville.

Beautiful. I've always thought of Australian slopers as the last version of the Victoria body style.

Had to use another variation recently: Some 50-odd-year-old light blue enamel on an interior was being stubborn; it was on the seat pattern and I couldn't sand much without losing detail. So I ended up soaking as much off as I could in the purple stuff, then carefully applied a little ELO and went over it with the plastic bristle brush on the Dremel at low speed. (This was after a toothbrush wasn't strong enough.) The stuff came off and spared the upholstery pattern, but I did have to keep rinsing it in the purple as I did it or else it would dry and stain the parts again. And yes, I was very careful not to get liquid into the Dremel and wore rubber gloves.

Got your license plate if you want to try something else:

Thanks! It works better on on these older kits where the plastic is pretty thick.

One thing I've been doing lately is to cut away the plastic between the molded rear leaf springs and the frame, enough so from the side you can see the gap and the springs look (at least for a moment) separately molded. Sometimes other relief-molded items can be modified this way, like crossmembers and exhausts. This is a '61 Comet: (The little pieces on the springs above the axle holes are fillers that will be filed down.) Unfortunately detailing one of these chassis can be like eating potato chips - hard to stop with one item! Still want to add a couple more details before I start hitting it with gloss, semigloss, and flat black and steel and aluminum...

Thanks to Mark for the response! Quick questions re the real car: What is its wheelbase; was it extended from stock? And how is it shifted - Mopar pushbuttons? And lastly, since the Nash instrument pods were removed, are there any gauges left inside?

Yep - based off the Bonneville. It would be possible to fix via shortening the body's wheelbase and trunk, using the Grand Prix chassis (someone had a build posted here not too long ago) but it would be a bit of a job. And as long as you've got the knives out, there's the window opening on the driver's side...

I have about a dozen cans of the Testors; I've noticed one with a tiny blob like that the size of a small pea. I don't remember if that one was store-bought or one of the dollar-a-can batch I lucked on to at one of the model swap meets last October.

Yes, it's 1/32. The originals were molded in pale green. The reissued version is molded in black and is listed as custom-only; however the only parts needed to change it back to stock are the grille (it was modified with a 1951 Meteor insert) and the wheelcovers (they used the stock '56 Mercury wheelcovers for the custom). I've been trying to get a basketcase original for the stock parts with the idea of casting a few extra sets; I'm surprised someone hasn't done this already.

Good for putting out candles on birthday cakes?

Or go to licenseplates.tv, type up your own, do a screenshot and reduce it to match. Best part is the fonts are a much closer match than Acme; only problem is you can no longer make California, Texas or Florida plates on the site. I saved files of all the CA black plate letters and a blank plate master before they disappeared. A few examples: