StevenGuthmiller

Thanks So much guys!! Thanks Harry! Photography is definitely not my strong suit! Steve

Finished this up last night & luckily, had a good day for taking some pics, although, they never seem to turn out as good as I'd like them to! This started as an X-EL reissue of the old Johan promo. The interior is a Modelhaus resin piece I mixed the color from a couple of leftover MCW colors that I had laying around, so it's not an exact color replica, but it's pretty close to '59 Plymouth "Powder Blue". The interior upholstery has been painted to as closely match as I could get, the plaid pattern that was in this car. I added nothing but a turn signal switch, a rear view mirror & carpet to the interior. The exterior has had added a scratch built antenna, resin cast mirror & a set of Modelhaus wide whites. I think it turned out pretty well, but I invite any comments or criticism. Steve

No Matt, the hood is open, just sitting in place in these photos. This is an original '61 annual. By '61 all of the AMT annuals had opening hoods & engines. I'm guessing the re-pop of the Galaxie has the hood molded shut because it utilized an old promo mold. Just my guess. steve

I've decided it's time to get started on this beautifully preserved original AMT '61 Ford Starliner. I am going to set aside my "factory stock" hat for this one, although, it will not be far away. Nothing too wild. Mostly stock in appearance from the outside. I've wanted to do a tribute to the 1961 Starliner in one of the final scenes of the movie comedy "Hollywood Knights". Paint will be a metallic charcoal gray with aluminum slots & white lettered tires. Where I may waiver from the movie car is in the interior. I think I my do a "tri-tone" horizontally striped interior reminiscent of the '58 Impala design. Possible colors may be red with gray, black & red stripes, although with a gray exterior, anything is possible. At this point, I think I'm going to keep it a bit more "period" & go with the tri-carb T-Bird engine from the AMT '62 Thunder Bird kit, I've never been a fan of modern engines in vintage cars, so if I change my mind on that, rest assured, it will be something from the same decade. One thing I found interesting about this kit was how AMT didn't see fit to change the front fender script from the convertible. Luckily, I have a '60 PE set so that I can replace the existing "Sunliner" scripts with "Starliner" ones. They weren't exactly the same from '60-'61, but they'll do. Anyway, looking forward to getting started on it! Steve

Things moved along much better than I expected today & the '59 Fury is done! Just one "going away" teaser shot as I will hopefully get some much better "outside" pics tomorrow, barring bad weather. I'm pleased with the result! Light blue is not one of my favorite colors but I think it actually suits this car pretty well. Look for it "Under Glass" tomorrow. Steve

I had a day off from work yesterday, so I finally had some "real" time to get some work done on this project. It seems like it's been a long time coming, but I believe I'm finally in the home stretch! Finished up the interior & pretty much got all of the other major components ready for final assembly. I hope to be getting some photos of the finished product sometime tomorrow. Wish me luck! Steve

I'm sure MCW would argue that theirs are the best! I use Duplicolor primers myself, but any good automotive primer will work I'm sure. Just make sure to go light with the first couple of coats of primer. The Duplicolor primer is pretty hot in itself & could "craze" the plastic if you shoot it too heavy right away. I usually hit them with a couple of lighter coats to start, & then a couple of heavier coats. That'll avoid crazing & give you good coverage. Steve

Thanks guys. Here's the way I've been making them. Just thin pieces of styrene glued together & painted. I think they look good, but they take a while to make. Probably took about 1/2 hour to fashion it & then there's the time it takes to paint & Alclad them. I thought maybe the "tubing & wire" method would be less labor intensive. By the way, the second photo is my first attempt at casting resin mirrors. Now I'll never have to rob them from other kits again! Steve

The police car kit probably. I'm pretty sure the hard top & convertible kits have buckets. At least I know the '67 does. Steve

Thanks Mike! I'm not too worried about where to get the tubing as I can get that on Amazon. Just wanted to make sure that I was getting these measurements correct. I guess it's not a huge deal anyway, the tubing I was looking at was less than $10.00 for 3 feet of it. I guess I can absorb that if it's not what I wanted. Thanks! Steve

That's exactly what I'm thinking of. Up until now, I've been making them out of styrene, & they look fine, but they require a lot of "delicate" work & it gives me a headache! Because I don't have the tubing "in hand" to look at, I have to rely on measurements on the net. I was just hoping someone had done this before who had the correct sizes for the tubing so that when I ordered, I wasn't surprised by getting sewer pipe when I received it! Thanks for your help! The one on the T-Bird is exactly what I'm shooting for! Steve

That's the problem with LMK. There is no website. All business has to be done via telephone or email. At least that's the way it used to be, unless something has changed. Steve

Hi guys! I've decided it's becoming too much work to make antennas for my builds out of styrene & was looking for some help from one of the mathematical geniuses out there with some tubing sizes. I bought some .020 K&S "music" wire from Hobby Lobby a while back that looks to be about the right size for the upper half of the antenna mast. Now I'm looking for some tubing for the lower half. It would stand to reason that the inside diameter of the tubing would need to be .020 for the wire to slip into, but after doing some extensive searching on the web & having my eyes glaze over from all of the numbers, I just seem to keep slipping deeper into confusion! K&S doesn't seem to have any tubing on their website small enough for the task, But Amazon has "hypodermic steel tubing" that looks to be closer to what I need. I have some "stainless steel 316 hypodermic tubing" saved in my cart. It's 21 gauge, .032 outside diameter, .020 inside diameter, .006 wall. I don't want to pull the trigger & buy it until I'm pretty certain that it's what I'm looking for. Could anybody shed some light on whether this sounds about right? Any help or comments are more than welcome! Thanks! Steve

Make sure you use gloves with the Purple Power as well Tommy! While it won't hurt the resin, it will hurt your hands! Steve

Yes sir. They're called "Dodge 4 bar spinners". Steve

Really! Well, if they're the same tires I got, they look a hell of a lot better on your Ford than they would have looked on my Dodge! As you can see from this photo, the one on the left is a correctly scaled tire. The one on the right is the Pegasus tire. looks to be about a 13 inch wheel in comparison. The space between the out side edge of the white wall, & the tread looks way to narrow when compared with the other tire. Anyway, I butchered a set of Monogram wide whites to put on my Dodge. The Pegasus tires would have looked ridiculous! Steve

I used the same set on a '60 Dodge build. They are very nice, but the tires that came with them were those awful low profile "lowrider" things. Hated them! The wheels are pretty large in diameter, so it wasn't just a quick swap for some decent tires. Looks like you did a swap too TJ. Steve

Looks great Dominik! The color is a dead ringer for correct '57 Ford "Willow Green". Beautiful!! Steve

From what I've heard Tommy, Purple Power is pretty much the same thing as Super Clean so I think you should be pleased with the results of using it. It is, after all, a degreaser. If it will remove automotive lacquer, it should take care of most anything. Steve

No problem Gary. I started to think of the few kits that I have with bench seats & it just popped into my head. Plymouth.....Belvedere.....one year newer......Road runner!! Just got lucky. Steve

That is a nice color! Nothing on the chart that really comes close to it. If they would have offered a similar color in '60, they may have sold a few more Desotos! Steve

Thanks guys! I guess you could call these the "snap kit" of their day. Simplified versions of the "customizing" kits, with only stock parts, molded in color & no glue required. Steve

Nice job Jeff! I've considered picking up one of these old Johan "snap kits" for years' I really do like the looks of the Olds Cutlass from this time period. Some day, I'll have to pull the trigger & buy one. Along with a Johan '72 Grand Torino. Another one I always seem to take a second look at. Great work on this one! I really like the color! Steve

Have you possibly considered the AMT '68 Road Runner kit? The pattern even looks pretty close. Steve

Personally, I'm seeing "Adobe Rust" with a "Shell White" top. Steve