microwheel

Sorry I haven't been on much to keep up with your build Joe, but It's been a mad house around here the past few weeks. I havent even had much time to get on my own project lol. But I finally got some time this evening browse through your build and get caught up. You have really come along way with it since I last check in. I love your chassis detail work so far buddy. It really came out nice. Looking forward to seeing how your flames turn out this time.

Well now, I say, what a fantastic outcome on a lot of hard work. Bravo Tim!

Thanks Billy, I had one myself not long after getting my license many years ago. It was yellow with black interior and lepard skin seat covers lol. Loved the car. Though mine wasn't the SS version and only had the 283, but it did have a 4 speed tranny. This has always been one of my favorite kits from AMT. Thanks Joe, I hope to have some more updates in a few days to post.

Morning Tim, glad you had a good time for the fourth of July. The wife and I did as well. Your Chevelle is looking outstanding my friend. If your anything like me, with my Nova builds, you'll be glad to see the finish line with this one. It's nice when everything comes together like you plan it ain't it.

Thanks Joe, If I were to go with exhaust clamps, I would make them out of evergreen strips and a round jewelers file and bent wire. I'd drill holes in cut pieces of evergreen stip with notches filed in the strips with a round jewels file and then bend some craft wire arount the exhaust pipe and fed through the holes on the strip. If I go that way on Mom's Toy, I'll post a how-to on it.

Thanks John, For the brake and fuel line straps, I cut pieces of Photo-etched frame spru, and bent them over a straight pin and then CA glued them over the lines and to the chassis, I then touched them up with a little Tamiya acrylic semi-gloss-black.

Morning guys. Our camping trip over the fourth of July went great. And this morning I took a little time to get a few things done on Pop's Toy (66 Nova SS). I got the exhaust finished up as whell as the rear shocks. That pretty much wraps up the chassis work, other than a few odds and ends. For the exhaust, I decided instead of clamps, I went with a welded exhaust look. Might go with clamps on Mom's Toy, (66 Nova Wagon), but I'll decide on that when I get to it. here is a pic of the over all mostly completed chassis. Also I took some time to start work on some of the trim for the SS. here is a few pics of what was done. Excuse my messy work bench. It will get cleaned up sometime this week. I wanted to give you a idea of the stance I was after, as well, for Pop's Toy. I always felt the 66 Nova looked good with a slight rake to it. So that's what I worked at to give it. For the side rocker trim, I gave it a black wash to bring out the detail. I got the taillights detail painted and installed and the trunk trim work detail painted and installed. To get the brushed aluminum lool on the trunk trim plate, I used a wash of tamiya flat acrylic thinned way down with water, just like you would for a black wash. I still don't have the front grill assembly permanently glued in place yet, but that will get done once I finish up the engine bay detailing and get the hood trim installed. That way if I need to do any adjustments to line up the grill I can. I still have losts more to do to get this one finished up, but it's finally starting to look like a Nova SS. More to come as I get it done, and as always, thanks for looking, and remember comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Morning Guys, I will be going camping with the wife for the rest of the week. I should be back late Sunday. I hope to have a few updates to post on the Nova SS sometime around the first of the week. Till I get back... Happy Modeling everyone!

Thanks alot Tom.

Thanks alot Loe Buddy Thanks Tim, And yes I'm still plugging away on the bench as I get time.

Morning guys. Here is a little update on pop's toy (nova ss) this morning. I got the rear suspension, the e-brake cables, and brale line tied into the chassis, as well as got the drive shaft installed. (still got the shocks and exhaust to paint detail and install) I also got the front suspension detail painted and installed and the front wheels and tires detail painted and installed. I also installed the engine, (still got lots of engine and engine bay detail work to do) You can see in this pic how the tie rod assembly works with the front suspension. The over-all chassis detail (keep in mind I still have the rest of the exhaust to complete, and rear shocks to install, as well as a few odds and ends to tidy up on the chassis. And finally, here is a couple of out side pics of the overall model finally sitting on a fours. Still lots more to do, but It's getting there. The front grill is just sat in place to give you a idea how it will look and is not permanently fixed yet. More as I get it done. And as always, thanks for looking and remember, comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Anyways, thanks alot for all the great comments guys. I hope to have some more updates with pics maybe tomorrow afternoon. I have gotten a little more work done on Pop's Toy, (The Nova SS) and I hope to have something posted tomorrow.

Thanks shaun. Sometimes I write down a few basic ideas, but mostly I just see a image in my head of what I want the finished model to look like, and as I work on it, I let the project tell me what changes it wants me to make to get to my final finished idea. If that makes any sense to ya. I wish I could explain it better than that, but I really can't.

Thanks Mike, The trick to The Model Car Garage photo-etched detail kits, is to just take your time and study how the photo-etched grills want to be shaped to the kit grills. I spend alot of time just studying the photo-etched parts and the kit parts before I ever seperate the photo-etched parts from the trees. I also keep a large box lid around to work on the parts with. I learned my lesson about that by loosing some of them to the dreaded floor monster years ago. I also stick the entire photo-etched parts tree to a piece of masking tape so when I cut parts off it they stick to the tape until I am ready to apply them to the model.

Thanks Joe buddy. I don't always have the time to do a step by step write up, but I will try to whenever I get the extra time durning the build. Thanks alot Carl, I have been tinkering with the SS some the past few days and hope to have a few more updated in the next few days.

Thanks I'm sure you could do just as well.. It's just a matter of putting the time into it. For me it was just learning to be patient and not rushing to get it done.

Thanks Mike, I was pleased with how well the grill turned out as well Thanks my friend, I hope the wagon goes was nicely as the SS.

Thanks Thanks alot

Thanks alot Stray, I sure hope so with the amount of time it's taking to finish them. And I still gots a loooong way to go lol I can totally understand that Fred, I aint getting any where near the amount of bench time I would like right now.. why do you think these two are taking so long buddy.

Yup no what ya mean about the metallic being hard to see in some darker metallic colors Tim, but it looks good in any light lol.

After playing around with the front suspension. I took some time to get the glass in the SS and get the interior and chassis installed. I installed the chassis at this point so I could get the suspenion lined up the way I wanted it, it makes it alot easier to tie all the detail work together. Another thing this kit doesnt come with is a lower radiator hose, so not having the front suspension in the way, will make it easier to make one and get it installed. I also mocked the engine into place to test fit everything. Well that's pretty much where things are at the moment guys. I'll post more as I get it done.. Thanks for looking and remember...... Comments and suggestions are always wecome.

While the epoxy was curing, I took the time to clean up the originall 66 ss suspension piece since it will be the one used in final assembly. Once the epoxy had cured, I heated the tip of a old exacto blade and used it to carefully cut the tie rod and spindles free from the pro-street suspension. Doing it this way helps to prevent applying too much pressure and stress on the parts being cut away. Using a hot knife blade allows it to cut with no force. and all it takes for clean up of the cuts is a little light sanding with a emry board. And here is the resault of the time and work. A fulling functioning front tie rod and spindles that are aligned to the kit mounting points. Just a little light sanding and it will be finished These will be the parts used. Should look and work fine once they are assembled and detail painted. The parts mocked up together. More to come in the following post...........

Hey thanks alot guys. I have been working on the 66 SS the past couple of days. Got a few updates with losts of pics I'll be posting this morning. It may take a few posts to get it all in so bare with me as I get it all typed up and everything posted. It will probably take 2 or 3 posts to get everything up this morning. If there is one thing that irks me about some model kits, it's when they offer them with poseable front wheels but mold the tie rod solid. If they are gonna offer poseable front wheels, then I'd like the entire front steering assembly poseable. But since they don't on some kits, and I want it, It's time to do a little cutting,modifying and scratch-building. Soooooo.... I just happened to pick up a 66 nova pro-street kit cheap, that I have no interest in building, for extra parts for these two builds. I dug through it and snatched up the main front suspension. It will donate a few of it's sections to the SS front suspension, and it will also be used for mock up as I go along. The pro-street version was all molded in blue for some reason, but oh-well, it helps during this stage, to show you what ends up being used from it. One of the first things I did, was seperate the tie rod from the ss kit suspension and drill straight pin sized holes in the needed areas of it. I then drilled out the same sized holes for the needed areas of the pro-street suspension parts. I cut the sections of the pro-street tie-rod off that I wanted to use and then pinned them to the ss tie-rod and then pinned this back onto the spindle arms of the pro-street suspension. I'll be making some changes to the spindle arms later and they will eventually get cut off and added to the ss spindles. But for now using the pro-street suspension, allows me to do some mocking up and keep everything straight. After cutting off the pins, I mocked up everything on the chassis with the spindles in place and tacked a couple of small pieces of evergreen plastic that I had cut and shaped, to the spindle arms and then to the spindles. This was to keep everything straight and aligned. Talk about a pain, especially with my bad eyes. Once the glue had time to cure, I took the assembly back off the chassis and then added some more shaped evergreen plastic to the spindles and arms to give them structual support once they get cut loose. Then the reworked spindle arms were given a light coating of 5 minute two part epoxy for even more strength. More to come in the following post....

Nice start Sean

Outstanding Tim. Sorry I havent been on much lately, have had one busy start to the summer so far. I finally got the chance to come on and check out your progress. All I can say is fantastic work on the chassis and the mock up sure tells this is gonna be a show-stopper.