StevenGuthmiller

I think I've decided against using any dog dish caps at this point. I'm pretty certain that I'll use the Magnum 500 wheels from the '70 Super Bee kit. Probably the tires too. Steve

I've seen this guys work in the past & was always impressed. Seems to me that he should be praised more as a photographer & not so much as a diorama/ model builder. I could be wrong but I'm assuming all of the models he's featuring are die-cast "Franklin Mint" or similar models. The diorama aspect of it is mostly non existent except for the base & a few back drops. He's very good at what he does, but it seems to me that anyone with a good camera, some photography background, a good sense of space & distance & a lot of money to spend on die-cast models could pick this up rather quickly. This is not a "dis" of any kind, but I would be much more impressed if the models were built by his own hand. Am I missing something? Does he build some of them himself? Steve

Thanks everyone! Now if I can get off of my butt & get the body foiled....... I foiled the trim around the blacked out tail light panel last night. Worst part to foil on the entire kit. What a pain in the behind! The seat belts were molded to the seats Nick. They are on a lot of these 60s MPC kits I just painted & foiled what was there. If it wouldn't have been a big undertaking, I would have removed them altogether. I've never been a fan of seat belts on a kit. You never saw them back in those days anyway. Nobody ever used them. They always just wound up crammed in the crack of the seat. Steve

Your best bet might be to sell it as is as a surviving promo and then use that money to go on a search for a '60 Falcon kit, built up or glue bomb. The sale of the promo will not be likely to pay for the styrene kit, bit it will get you part of the way there. Steve

Michael from MCW just announced that all of their colors are now available in a rattle can. If it doesn't appear in their color line up, they will mix it for you. Could be a little spendy though. They do require a 2 can minimum order for special orders in a spray can, so you'd want to plan on painting several models the same color, or going in "halfsies" with a friend. Steve

Hi Mike! Good to hear you're carrying on where Dave left off.......for a good long while I hope. I love your product! Use it on virtually every build I do. Steve

Thanks guys! Steve

Beautiful Jim! It definitely rivals your '74 in the paint department. & this is actually a good looking Torino! I've been meaning to get one of these for years. Steve

Finally finished up the interior today! I guess I'm fairly happy with the results. There were parts from several kits thrown together for this one, so things didn't always go as smoothly as I'd like, but not too bad. The tub, seats & console came from the original MPC annual. The dash was from the more recent AMT '70 Super Bee kit, & the steering wheel & column were from The Revell '68 Charger. The dash was slightly modified on suggestion from some other forum members. I appreciate their input greatly. The air conditioning vents were eliminated & the dash pad was slightly modified to remove some of the "point" from the center. I also added a "grille" to the dash top, & a PE button for the glove box. Clutch & brake pedals were added as well as a shifter to change it from an automatic to a 4 speed car. For the first time I decided to try the "pantyhose material" trick on the rear package shelf. Not 100% accurate looking, but it adds some texture & interest. The wood grain detail is of course, that 50 year old decal that I found. I also "flocked" the carpet, added cast window cranks & homemade door lock buttons. Now it's on to foiling the body & then engine & chassis work. Steve

Yes! First time in........forever! As you know Bill, gauge face decals are a real rarity when you're dealing with these old annuals. Luckily, I recently got some decals from another member, (Casey) which were from the Revell '69 Charger. They were a little small for these gauges but you'll never be able to tell. I didn't apply them as decals, I just cut them out & glued them directly into the opening with the backing paper still intact & then used the Laser Bond over the top. Now if I could only find gauge decals for my next 30 builds! Funny you should mention the color. Believe it or not, the color is Testors # 1913 flat military "Medium Green" shot straight from a rattle can, & then over coated with a light coat of pearl. Steve

Getting close on the interior. Here's a few dash pictures. I found that "Laser Bond" works considerably well for gauge lenses! Steve

As with anything Wayne, it depends greatly on what's underneath. In general, it looks pretty good, but in my opinion, not as shiney as something like Testors clear. But it's much more durable than Testors & after some of the problems I've had with Testors, I no longer use it. The Perfect Match polishes out pretty nicely. This photo is right after spraying with no polishing. Steve

I'm not sure that I agree with you Bill. While I do agree with your assessment that a lot of the kit tops can be little too blocky, the sail panels, if new & properly done, should have very little sag in them. The top on the Corvette that you pictured looks terrible as far as I'm concerned. It may have been inherent to this particular top design, but I don't believe it's representative of most tops Here are a couple of photos of the sail panels on my 11 year old Honda S2000. As you can see, there is very little sag in this area. Granted, the tops are probably designed a little better today that the were 60 years ago. That being said, the top from the Johan '62 Mopar kits are just the reverse in that area. They're almost bowed "out" rather than sagging. Steve

Very true Charlie. We've had enough rain in my area this summer, to the point that building an ark has crossed my mind. I've had relatively good luck with perfect match paints, but I pretty much only use clear. I do use solid colors like red, black & white on occasion, & to this point, have been happy with the results. Steve

There are a lot of different ways of doing them. I use acrylic craft paint mixed a little darker than the body color. Steve

Modelhaus used to make a few resin tops, but they were pretty limited. As we all know, Modelhaus is no longer & they didn't do a top for the Johan '62s anyway. As far as I know, there is nobody making them at this point. I have modified a couple of tops for builds, but I've never made one from scratch. The top for my '59 Mercury was modified from a Revell '59 Impala top. Steve

The clear that I use is Duplicolor "Perfect Match" "Protective Clear Coat Finish". It's an "Acrylic Lacquer". You definitely would not want to use it over anything other than lacquer. I've had pretty good luck with it for the most part, but for some reason have had this slow curing problem on just a couple of projects. That's what leads me to believe that it may have just been a bad can. I also use Duplicolor "Paint Shop Clear" on occasion. It comes in a quart can & is pre-thinned & ready to spray with an airbrush. It is also a lacquer & works quite well. I just decided not to dirty my airbrush for this build. Steve

Yes, the '62 Plymouth annual did come with an up top. Many of the original annual convertibles from Johan came with an optional up top, but not all. Johan produced full sized Dodge convertibles from 1962 through 1964, & full sized Plymouths from '62 to '68. I believe all of them included optional up tops. The only tops that would be compatible with the '62 Plymouth would be from the '62 Dodge or Plymouth, & possibly the '63 models. Revell also produced 1962 Mopar kits that included an up top. Don't really know how compatible they would be with a Johan kit, but I'm confident they could be modified to work. None of the later Johan "USA Oldies" reissues included an up top, so your only avenue would be to find an original from 1962. Steve

Here are a few photos depicting the ill fit of the top for the Fury. A little better than the Chrysler, but will still require mods. Box for the Dart. Steve

I don't have the original Fury box, but I have the Dodge Dart one. Also have the up-top. Same top for both kits. Sorry, but I won't part with them. Word of caution, even if you find an original top for your Fury, it will require some modifications on both the top & the body to get it to look right. Johan was famous for providing poorly fitting up-tops for these early '60s Mopars. I've recently started working on a '62 Chrysler 300 that required not only adding the top snap trim to the body & cutting some of the tulip panel away, but also shortening the top & revamping the rear quarter window openings. Steve

I just couldn't leave it alone! There were a couple of spots that just jumped out at me every time I looked at it. So I masked again & shot it with a couple more coats & then did the finger rub down. You may notice that the top is quite a bit darker than before. I wasn't really satisfied with the original color either, so I darkened the paint a bit before re-shooting. This is a little closer to what I had originally envisioned. Something closer to a dark "gray-green". You can see the difference in the last 2 pics. Steve

I agree, the color is not what I would pick. Although, I did recently see a '63 Buick convertible sitting by the road for sale that was a pale blue. It looked pretty good in that color. But it was a much paler blue than this "baby blue". I've always disliked this color. Steve

Thanks Richard! I knew almost instantly When I acquired this kit that it would have to be painted one of the "mossy" greens from that era. There are a couple '68/'69 Coronets & at least one '68 Charger in my town done in these types of colors. Seems to have been quite popular at that time. Steve

Not really my thing either, but it was needed to bolster the "rare old kit" collection. My enthusiasm for full sized Buicks really peeters out after about 1961. The word "behemoth" comes to mind! But I have been surprised before on how interested I could become on a car I had little interest in at the on set. Steve

I've been using Duplicolor clear for the past couple of years & I've only had this issue a couple of times in the past few months. I have 3 or 4 nearly empty cans laying around my shop that I've been trying to empty out, but I'm not sure which can is the culprit. I don't remember which build I had the same problem with, but I'm pretty certain it's just one can that is giving me this issue. I'm pretty confident it will eventually harden up because I don't remember having any lasting issues on any other projects. I guess it's time just to toss out all of those old cans & start fresh next time. Steve