John Goschke

Nice build! Looks great in that color; convincing match for Pontiac's “Capri Gold Metallic.”

Really cool looking Chevy! Is the body in the Lindberg kit 1/25th scale or 1/24th?

Very nice paint, especially the feathered panels on the upper surfaces. Are you planning on chroming the bumpers?

That came out great! Good call jacking up the rear a bit - definitely looks better.

Beautiful build, Harry! Great color choices, too. Whatever you did to the wheels sure worked well; they have a near-scale appearance, particularly compared to the box-top photo. Re. the Jag SS-100, I seem to remember Entex selling the MGTC and the SS-100 around the same time in the '70s. Where the molds originated I'm not sure.

Very cool color combo!

Amazing build! Superb job getting the fit and stance right with all the cutting, fitting and trimming that must have been necessary. Terrific color combo as well.

Brilliant! Looks very authentic!

Wow. I'm in awe. Very beautiful from every angle!

If you mean that funky bump-out inside the front wheel, that is actually present in the real car. It's really obvious on this Custom Custom 300 where the builder, in popular early '60s fashion, has added a tuck-'n-roll cover to it (not something I'd recommend.) The top inside of the wheel well on the kit does need a fix, particularly if you're going to lower the car, or just want your replica to look like it has more than three inches of suspension travel in the front! FWIW, the Squarebirds from '58-'60 had a similar bump at the back of the wheel opening, that AMT ignored when they did their kits in '59 and '60. An inaccuracy that I'm happy to live with! It sticks out like a sore thumb here since Larry Watson painted the inside of the wheel opening white (again, not recommended!)

Excellent analysis, Sledsel. I think having first-hand experience, as you do, with the cars makes it easier to spot these issues. Having owned two '58 Fairlanes, which shared those contours around the wheel wells, and helped my Dad wash our '58 Del Rio when I was a little kid, those errors were immediately apparent. I'm not sure I understand, though, how anyone with a half decent eye for contour and proportion can't see them in direct comparison. To help those guys - if you've got AMT's Fairlane 500 and the Revell Custom Tudor, get 'em both out and look at the sculpturing around the wheel openings on the AMT kit - that's what the Revell kit should look like. It does appear that they may have made some effort to fix these issues on the wagon kit. Hope so, because I'm looking forward to that kit even more than the two-door sedan.

Parts kit.

The AMT '40 Ford is possibly my favorite kit of all time (depends on what day it is!) But, yes, I'd build it. Just picked up one of them in that box, molded in black. Body, fenders, and a number of other bits had been brush painted Testors Metallic Blue before the original owner gave up. I stripped the paint and now it looks almost like new. Was $25 including shipping ("Buy It Now" on eBay) My guess is it's a little more hard-to-find in Oz. That issue of the kit has parts that were gone from subsequent issues of the kit starting in the mid-1960s. Including the short lake pipes, custom wheelcovers and stock valve covers for the Buick engine. The early issues are easier to build since the molds were newer. There is less flash and better fit, particularly at the hood and cowl. Here's another early issue, this one molded in ivory plastic, and the same model after completion.

Just beautiful!

Beautiful paint and great detailing bring out the best in this old kit! Well done!

The thing I feel I should say about the Revell kit is the much better interpretation of the '57 Custom/Custom 300 Tudor roofline than that on the old '57 Custom 300 promo tool that Modelhaus had issued in resin. The new Ranch Wagon looks to be just as nice with regard to the shape of the roof and windows, etc. Those features when done well contribute more to capturing the character of a car in a model than anything else. The weak modeling of the features around the wheel openings I can live with (Having long tolerated different, but equally troublesome weaknesses in my favorite kit, the AMT '58 Ford). I'll fix the taillight issue!

It's thanks to the rivet (bean?) counters that the quality of aircraft kits is generally much higher than most car kits. It's thanks to the tolerance for inaccuracy among an apparent majority of car modelers that many new car models with obvious flaws (some reparable, some not so) still enjoy success in the marketplace alongside flash-ridden moldings from worn molds of kits that have been reissued repeatedly over the course of 40 or 50 years. Only in the model car segment could a kit as ridiculous as the AMT '58 Plymouth be reissued three times and still sell – admittedly an extreme example, but a perfect case in point because of it.

Larger than a straight line.

Don't forget the top inside surface of the fins, too. (click to embiggen!) Get out your needle files, ladies!

Don't know how I missed the conclusion on this one till now, but, wow, that came out nice! The blue top is an excellent choice!

Beautiful build!

Those tires look amazing! Well done!

Looks great, Bill! The results look like they're worth the effort!

Outstanding build in every respect!

Nice work, Steve! Multiple pieces are the way to go on those small areas with lots of inside and outside curves. That color combo is definitely making me nostalgic for my old Fairlane 500 Town Sedan (sniff, sniff ).