John Goschke

Looks to me like they deserve a wash, repairs, and a rebuild! I love old builtups with nice patina and that looks like a heavy layer of dirt. Dirt isn't necessarily "patina."

Fine work, Chris! Another subtle trick that makes all the difference!

Chris & Tim, I had to dig that kit out of my stash to see what you're talking about. Looks like the corner where the beltline meets the C pillar is too sharp, where it should curve up to the pillar. That said, that kit has what's probably the best rendition of that roofline in scale. Much better than those in the Buick Invicta, Pontiac Bonneville, and '61 Impala annual kits or Lindberg's '61 Impala. It'll be interesting to see how Moebius fares with there upcoming '61 Ventura/Catalina kits. Having owned a '61 Catalina "sport coupe" I've got a stake in their success! Can you guys post pix of yours with the fix?

Thanks for the comments, guys! Much appreciated. Thanks, Chris. Well, the '59 was handy at the time and because it installs like the original '58 chassis, with four screws, it's an easy swap for a curbside model. The screws holes and posts line up well and the wheelbase is very nearly the same, with only a little adjustment needed. The '59 Ford chassis also works well under the original '58 Edsel annual hardtop and convertible annual kits. A friend of mine used the AMT '57 Ford chassis under his '58 and it also worked well.

Wow! That is amazing! Really beautiful work. Are the tires rapid prototyped as well? Other than the windshield looking like it could use a bit more rake backward, the model looks incredibly realistic.

Re-built in about 1978, I think, from a pink brush-painted original '58 annual. At the time I had a 1/1 parked outside in this color combo, so this is an idealized replica of that slightly rusty and tired old Ford! I rebuilt the model with a better chassis from an AMT '59 Ford. The "cruiser" skirts are modified from custom pieces from the AMT '59 Ford with the chrome moldings added from strip plastic. Referring to the real car I also did a lot of work reshaping the windshield and rear window molding, headlight bezels, and adding the rear license plate recess. The '58 taillight lenses were custom pieces in another kit that I used to replace the mold-on originals. The fender ornaments and wipers were scratched from plastic and aluminum strip. I also attempted, with partial success, to scribe in the cowl vent detail missing from the kit. The door handles were cut from an AMT '57 Ford and the mirrors were AMT custom parts modifed to resemble Ford mirrors and covered with foil (which is looking kind of funky these days!) A strip of plastic was added inside each side window opening to represent the window channels characteristic of the Ford and Edsel hardtops of the period. The chrome was somewhat worn so I repaired it with BMF, which all these years later is showing its age. The rest of the trim is also the foil applied in the '70s. The epoxy used to apply the Mark Gustavson "Putty Thrower" photoetched emblems in about 1980 has turned a bit yellow over time. Every now and then I get the urge to strip this and rebuild it, but always reconsider, deciding to leave it as-is as a memento of that time. This was really the first time I looked at an existing kit and tried to fix the flaws that made it inaccurate using techniques that I still use today.

Beautiful build, Sean! Always love your photography, too.

Outstanding model! Perfect contemporary take on a classic. Great job fitting those big wheels and tires. Stance is just right.

Great build!

Looks good!

The top of the door panel will need to be reshaped in similar fashion. This will thin down the garnish molding at the top of the inner panel, which can be shaved off and replaced with some narrow half-round styrene strip.

No they don't. Same part for '57 ragtop, hardtops, and Nomad (and Pontiac ragtop, hardtops, and Safari.) Different part fits '57 Chevy and Pontiac sedans and non-Nomad/Safari wagons. Because of their higher cowl '55s and '56s Chevys and Pontiacs use different windshields than '57s. '55-'56 ragtops, hardtops, and Nomad/Safaris use the same windshield. '55-'56 Chevy/Pontiac sedans and non-Nomad/Safari wagons use the same windshield.

I think what he's saying is not as simple as designing the model to have it look right when viewed from above. Each case is different. That is where the art comes in, adjusting the contours, forms, proportions and stance, not only by the engineer's ruler but with a sculptor's "eye," to decide if the model captures the character of the original.

Been tough to get to the bench lately, but did get a little bit done on the Bonneville. Scribed the panel lines where the front fenders meet the cowl... Starting shaving off the fender ornaments... Got the headlights, taillights, and rear bumper back from plating at Little Motor Kar Co... I also had Dale plate the dash and steering wheel to save foiling work down the line!

No problem, AC! I just didn't want this to turn into a kit manufacturer bashing free-for-all.

Really!? How do they calculate the percentage of distortion? What dimensions are changed or adjusted and how? When I look at a model to judge how much it captures the character the original I look at it from eye level or slightly above or below. Though I've always done this, some truly great modelers have confirmed that that's the way to look at a model-from angles one would be likely to view the real thing. If Tamiya is "forcing the prespective" of their kits to compensate for the model club meeting table "helicopter view" how does that effect the appearance of the model when it's viewed from a more realistic angle?

Well, AC, while I'll admit that I wasn't terribly surprised to see that once again there were "issues" with a new Revell kit on its arrival, that were discussed at some length (ad nauseum?) here and elsewhere months before its release, I wouldn't go so far as to completely agree with your statement. I can cite more than a few less than stellar kits from MPC, Johan, and AMT. In the case of the latter, no more need be said than "'58 Plymouth Belvedere!" I just can't make a blanket statement about the kits of one company and say "they're all junk." Even Palmer, with their ridiculous cars, made some brass era truck kits that were real nice replicas. Today's Revell is a much different company with a whole different generation of personnel than back in '50s and '60s. Just like the other kit companies, though, it's still run by humans, so errors are bound to creep in. Some I'll choose to fix, if I can, on the kits of subjects I care about, some I'll live with and hope the next kit of that subject will get it right. However, it could be a LONG wait till somebody does a new kit of, for example, a '50 Olds 88 club coupe! Sometimes you gotta work with what you get! That said, it would be really terrific to see one of our current 1/25th scale kit manufacturers hit one 100% out-of-the-park perfect! (Moebius, I'm looking at you, and your '61 Pontiacs...)

In the initial thread on this kit there has been discussion over the shape of doortop and beltline since the first photos were posted of the test shots. Something seemed to be off, but without the kit in hand it was difficult to conclusively say that it was wrong. Now all these months later we can safely say that indeed it is wrong. Not to worry though... Fortunately, for once, here is a new kit nit-pick that's pretty easy to fix! Just get out your flat needle file and reshape the door top and the beltline into the dip in the top of the quarter panel so that it complements the curve of the body side molding. In doing so you'll lose the beltline molding, but that can easily be replaced with thin styrene strip. I haven't gone so far as to do the molding here, but mainly wanted to illustrate this fix that will go a long way in helping this kit realize its potential. Here's the driver's side with the doortop and beltline reshaped into the dip. I used my favorite flat needle file, followed by wetsanding with a fine grit sanding stick, then used a razor saw to recut the door line. Shown below is the unmodified passenger's side showing the unrefined contour of the beltline, where it's appears straight and level from the vent window, then seems to almost have a hump across the door line and into the dip. It took perhaps 15 or 20 minutes to correct the driver's side. In the view below from the passenger's side looking across to the driver's side you can a clear idea of how little material needs to be removed to fix the issue. Below that is a comparable view looking across at the passenger's side showing that there's plastic to spare for reshaping that contour. Doing this mockup, I also wanted to see whether the windshield would be an improvement over the similar assembly in the '55 ragtop kit. It does seem to be a significant improvement, with the frame fitting onto a recessed edge in the cowl, rather than on top of the cowl as on the '55 kit, so the lower molding on '57 the doesn't stick up so ridiculously high. The windshield itself is quite thin, with good clarity, and when installed doesn't look as bulbous as that on the '55 kit, however, it does still have a slight top to bottom curve which was not present on the real car. The shape of the vent window frame is very nice. The frame and vent window frames would probably best be stripped of their chrome, then meticulously fitted to the body and reshaped across the header to achieve the proper fit of the up-top, after which they could be foiled. On the real car the leading edge of the roof overlaps much farther onto the windshield header, which seems flatter in curvature than that on the kit. I think with careful work this is much more fixable than it was on the '55. For those who call this nit-picking, you might consider that the shape of the roofline, window openings, their proportions and their relationship to one another are arguably the most important factors in capturing the character of a car in miniature. A couple last thoughts... in looking at the convertible kit with roof and windshield mocked up, I couldn't resist getting out the dividers and comparing the height of the windshield opening at the center with that on Revell's '57 150 two-door sedan. The kit sedan's opening is slightly smaller than that on the convertible, which was not the case in the 1/1 world, where the sedans used a noticeably taller windshield. What's up with that? And a little further fiddling with the dividers reveals that the old Trophy Series AMT '57 BelAir roof would fit as nicely on this kit as it did on the '55 convertible!

I'd rather have the Dodge station wagon they pirated the quarter panels off of.

"Repro" as opposed to "Retro." Ya think they'd give me much trade value for an '02 Town & Country with AWD, a noisy steering pump and 140,000 miles?

Beautiful build, Steve! The natural color choice for that car! Once again I'm very impressed by your detail work on that grill!

On replica stock American cars or period builds before 1963; CLEAR front parking light/turn signal lenses, AMBER for 1963 and after (with a few exceptions where the BULB was amber and the lens clear.) Check your references!

'57 Mercury Voyager. True two-door hardtop wagon!

The MV lenses are an OK solution, however they can discolor over time. I have one in an OT 48th scale P-39 Airacobra as a landing light, installed in '91, it was clear, now it's a dark transparent yellow. The ones in this deuce roadster have slowly turned pinkish in the six or seven years since the model was built, and now the deep burgundy Duplicolor seems to be leaching into the edges of the of lenses, giving them a bloodshot look. The problem is significantly worse now than when this shot was taken a little over three and a half years ago.

Really, really sharp! Beautiful color combination. Your paint work really brought the simple engine compartment to life!