John Goschke

Looks terrific up on all fours! I agree that those AMT tires are great, with the perfect white wall width. I've got no problem with a detailed curbside – keep that burnout at bay!

Wow! That is very cool! Definite "little pages" material! Engine is most impressive. Wish we could see the interior!

Very pretty! Clean job assembling and finishing this venerable kit. Nice detail painting, too! I've been fortunate to have owned two '66 Wildcats and can attest that they are fabulous cars!

Yep, this one was molded in styrene.

I'm happy that this one is finished after all this time and reasonably satisfied with the result. These pics don't do justice to the Candy Lime color and I may attempt more photos later against different backgrounds to try and capture the iridescent quality of the paint. If anyone else should decide to build a model from one of these bodies, contact me and I'll be happy to let you know what I did, and, more importantly, should've done!

Love these cars! I'm anxious to see more of this build!

Thanks, Trevor. PMC made '59 Ranchero and Country Sedan (wagon) promos, molded in acetate, in 1959. They later released them without clear parts or interiors as basic friction-powered toys. All of which turn up on eBay occasionally.

Oh, those pedals are great! More nice parts to rob from the '58 Plymouth!

Nice clean work on this car, Dennis. Excellent foil work, too. What wheels did you use? They look super.

Uhh... Wow.

Thanks, Dave. Nope, it's all the Candy Lime – it looks different depending on how the light hits it.

“Styletone” was Ford's designation for the color scheme with a contrasting color on the roof and lower body. I've always liked that scheme, particularly in combination with white (Tamiya Racing White, in this case.) For my mild custom Ranchero it's combined with Tamiya Candy Lime Green over Tamiya Silver Leaf. I have yet to shoot the clear coat. Let me know what you think. Incidentally, the scheme with a contrasting color on the roof only was called “Tutone.”

You have your seat colors correct. The interior side panels should be black where you have the Global blue. The armrests should be black. Here are shots of the interior in my '59 Sunliner model. Where this interior is dark blue, would be black in your model, substitute Coral Blue (Indian Turquoise) for the light metallic blue here. The door top moldings that I foiled would be Coral Blue painted metal in your replica stock build. The large panel that surrounds the door handle should be foil or bright silver, along with the molding with the holes in it at the bottom of the door. Hope this helps a little. Your build is great so far! I built one Skyliner years ago for a friend – the kit is definitely a challenge!

Thanks for all the comments, guys! Now that the model is taken apart for the final push to the finish line, I can share some pics of the interior...

I've been working on this car for what seems like forever! Here's how it looked on eBay... A couple in-between steps, setting up the stance, using a '59 Edsel chassis... Here's the current state; a full mockup in primer... Finished the interior awhile back, after mixing in a '58 Plymouth steering wheel with the '59 Ford/'63 Galaxie XL mash-up. Mopar always had the coolest steering wheels! Also added a tube grill from a vintage Aurora Grill & Trim parts pack. Two chrome bullets from the original issue AMT '57 T-bird were added to the taillights for an additional custom touch. A Plastruct half-round strip molding was added to the tailgate to serve as a color-break between upper and lower body, and to give another touch of chrome. After noodling the body work, a coat of Tamiya White Surface Primer went on, followed by more body work touchups, then those areas received some spot priming with the airbrush. After a bit more body work and primer it should finally be ready for paint!

Really crisp build! Looks perfect.

Quantity and outstanding quality! You've achieved a rare combination!

Outstanding build of a challenging kit! I really like your color combo! Built one myself when it was first reissued in the seventies using liberals applications of superglue and marijuana (it was the '70s!) These days, since I've gone straight, I use them for parts to restore AMT '59s.

That is excellent! A kit that rarely gets built anymore, you've certainly done it justice!

Great looking build! Looks very authentic, Excellent foil work on your part!

Thanks, guys, for the all the comments! This build was a lot of fun. It took me back to a time when every car I built had to have skirts and if the kit came with a Continental kit, I had to put that on, too! My JoHan '61 Rambler American even had bubble skirts and a Connie kit!

This was to be my entry for this year's cancelled NNL East in the Survivor Kustoms and Modern Recreations category. Finished this spring, the idea was to pay tribute to the early "3-in-1" Customizing Kits and all their accessories, and build it the way I'd have dreamed if I'd had the skills back then. It represents an East Coast-style custom, with the usual J.C. Whitney type of accessories including dummy spotlights, dual antennas, Continental spare tire kit with chrome bumper end extensions, Turnpike Cruiser-style fender skirts and Dodge Lancer-style wheelcovers. I also added a rear seat tonneau cover. I did some accurizing of the windshield and rear window openings, including grafting in the cowl vent and wipers from the AMT '57 Ford, along with reshaping the top of the front fenders, followed by removal of the emblems and door handles Paint is by Tamiya.

The skirt rash isn't nearly as bad as I expected. Keep at it!

As a kid who had visions of perfectly built Johan and AMT kits in my head, Palmers were the bane of my existence. This photo from Xmas, 1960, reveals my "joy" on receiving my first Palmer ("Gee, uh, thanks Gramma...), a '60 Olds ragtop, as I recall...

Just got this clean example of the ever-lovely '61 Plymouth by JoHan!