Ragtop Man

Might have been a handful, but you got the better of it. Fantastic build of the best Cobra.

My brain is melting. Wow! Fantastic!

Hey Cabdriver, I think the trans is what was once known as an "In/Out Box." [I can hear the snickering from the 4th graders now... including me.] Dropping the clutch would engage the coupling - simply a means of transfering torque to the rear end. There must have been a neutral position to start and warm the engine.

Given the sales rate of the 1:1, it would appear Chevy was right. That said, it leaves me a bit cold, but that was probably on purpose to shed the "aloha-shirt-and-jorts" crowd that has co-opted the recent front engine C5-7 generations. The kit will be a big success, I think, as long as it doesn't develop tolerance stack that would cause it to sit in the air like a Farmall tractor. Any projections on US availablility?

Also - good to have the Falcon LMS back, wondering what gates got opened in the process this time, seems like a few incremental parts seem to surface each time (like the '64 Galaxie Modified.

I think the most recent issue was a 2-in-1 version, with both the stock and custom parts. All the kit really needed were the stock, full wheel covers. The bottle cap thing is fine, but it has been done, and very few ever look factory when complete. Invariably, the caps protrude well beyond the rim, ruining the effect.

Kits we so good we took them for granted. Both are outstanding builds, definitely box art worthy. The sleeper looking '56 is the one that sneaks up on me, though. Everything about it is spot on.

Nice. Knew a guy in Dearborn who had a **dead** mint stawag - got it from a local funeral home who used it as a first-call vehicle for babies or young children. Thankfully, extremely low mileage car so very little use. Not sure what happened to it.

I'm still a fan of good ol' Future (or whatever it is called now.) Easy to airbrush, easy to clean up, designed to put up with foot traffic and not flinch. Can be thinned with 91- 0r 99% ISO from the drug store, cleans up with soap and water. (You may want to practice on a body or two first to get the hang of it, adding thinner to get the flow you want.) A thin wet coat or two will dry very quickly, even faster in a dehydrator. Used it on a few of my hardbody slots many years ago. My formula was to clear the paint with a coat or two, apply the decals and any foils, etc, then go back over with a few more coats to 'sandwich' the transfers. Cos I'm a lousy driver and forget to lift in timely fashion, Idone had a few of them racin' deals at some pretty fast commercial tracks. The cars spent more time on their roof than the wheels. They would scuff generally look beat up. But after all the damage was repaired a pass of Meguiar's #6 and a microfiber would have it looking like it was just sprayed. Highly recommended!

Give a shout to Brad Blohm of Professor Motor - he is the King of Kleer and does a lot of slot parts for subjects like that.

The parts breakdown of the ST Blazer suggests to me that there could be an all new (and desperately needed) Squarebody pickup in the future. Given the popularity of trucks in general, it would be a pretty smart move.

Good to see this one back, the convertible cannot be far behind. It does put me in mind of the need to build a "Quarter Horse" from this issue, which is the Mustang that should have been, but wasn't. Have always dreamed of a 1:1 1/4 horse tribute, but with a proper 351-C instead of the boat anchor 429 that was certainly entertaining, but, nose heavy to a fault.

'63 Tempest was a completely different car (and tool) than the '64 LeMans convert/GTO HT. The '64 begat the '65 which has been flogged to this very day. The FC was among the first to have the chrome reproduced as a fill-in to produce the kit for Model King, kinda tells me the rest of the shot was MIA. It would be nice to see again, if the rest of the tool is in the bottom of the crate and survived the scrap drives as ownership changed.

Did you do anything to the stance? The AMT kit always seemed to sit too high and wide in front. (Monogram '65 is too high/wide in back...) Great build, super clean, the Wimbledon white looks great on the car. .

Great save!

Nicely done. FWIW, if anyone trips over one of these at a show or flea market, they will supply all the chassis and engine bits to restore your '66-69 MPC Bonnevilles, update your AMT '65 Bonne/GP/2+2 (with minor mods for last two) or get you much farther ahead with a Hasegawa '66.

Just..... Wow. I had to really study the first pic to see if it was a model, or 1:1 - the build completely had me. How much work was it to integrate the assembly and snap kits? I started grokking one and ended up tossing it back in the box. You clearly solved any interface issues! Side note: Will you be making the wheels available... and possibly in other scales? For as popular as the Corvette is, there is a pressing lack of quality aftermarket detail parts for the larger scales.

Looks fantastic - I think this kit and a few builds like this helped people to put down the torches and pitchforks out for "curbside" kits. You nailed it, and it would definitely be in the tin come awards time.

Did you tune up the rear stance? These kits have never looked right to me out of the box...

The very limited production Bill Thomas Fastback (think he might have done a handful of them?) would be a pretty interesting variant, with drag and road-race versions aplenty. Reference would be hard to come by, not sure if any survived. Or, if there was a convertible version, the FB top could be a toss-in-the-box item in the same manner as the Italien roof was in the '64 Thunderbird. Alertnatively, it would seem to be pretty straightforward to go early and possibly include the 4-cylinder granny engine, early grille and trim. That said, I'm far from a Nova expert, and it might be like moving a mountain.

Nailed it! Looks great!

Found a GG2 at the local automobila store a few years ago, partially assembled, so the price was right. Picked up a few Jawbreakers for parts, so it looks like pretty much everything I need to get from here to there is in the box, now. Just like those days of old, that box art literally jumped at me, over-ruling the inner adult saying, "What? This is going to take all WEEK to build." Knowing I need to be much more selective, now, I will probably move the project along in favor of some others that have surfaced recently.

With both Luc and Tim on this one - I blinked and missed a chance to get the predec drift GTO (which I did an ad for innaday...) Heck, if the two-and-done Firebird tool is still in the crib, and R2 could deal with the slings and arrows of the Rivet Police, I wouldn't mind it one iota. The custom Vette surfaced (and I still need to find one at a good price) so, stranger things have happened. IMO, it has the best true Pontiac of the early kits, shapes and features much more correct than any of the other AMT efforts; add a few accessories from one of the big Pontiacs and "Bob's your uncle." The early Keystones are excellent, too. Custom bits are meh, but it can be built into a 1/25 Hot Wheels replica with very little effort. I'd take it in a minue over another release of the savagely beaten tool of the '69 Firebird/Trans Am.

I second Tim's motion on the new kits - esp the new "retool" Craftsman plus subjects, which pretty well snap together. The only one that is south of the spec is the '66 Fastback, which shows the difficulty of trying to meld a new, CAD-designed body shell with a vintage interior and kit guts. I've fiddled with mine for a while, just put it back in the box for another day. Older tool kits - you just have to go into the build with both eyes open. They will be more work, particularly for '70s era kits, or the more detailed of the Trophies. Those kits separate the modelers from the assemblers.

W-409: Is the '62 that tough of a ticket to build? What are the differences that would be required to backdate a '63 R2 Stawag or a '64 Moby? Full transparency, I'm not a Chevy freak on the topic, looking for advice on this one.