Snake45

As promised, Proof of Completion. I see I forgot to hit the door handles with my beloved Silver Sharpie before pics, not the first time I've made that mistake. DOH! I don't often use foil on a model but I did on this one--on the cove trim, the front fender spears, and the front, rear, and cove Corvette emblems. Windshield frame and some other trim is my also beloved Deco Color Premium Silver Leaf marker, which is 90-95% as good as Molotow but much cheaper, more durable, and easier to work with. After I built the AMT snapper '53 Vette a couple years ago in polished white plastic, I decided it might be fun to do a whole series of Vette roadsters in polished white plastic with red interiors. This '59 is the second in the series. The next one will be an AMT '63, and then either a Revell '68 or an MPC '75.

That's pretty darn close, but the "Largest...Habra" line should be in the black or dark blue. Still, I might get a set of these. Thanks!

That is exactly the point of this whole thread! Will there even be a next round? We barely had enough to make a go of it this time, and only five completions. If you want a next round, sound off now!

I had exactly the same thing happen on a simple chassis cut of a Monogram '70 Chevelle molded in metallic blue. Just shattered!

And so is the MPC body. And the Monogram 1/24. The only body I'm aware of that's accurate in this area is the Revell 1/25 snapper.

The latest AMT "72 Chevelle" has more MPC DNA than AMT at this point. The most recent issue of the real AMT '72 Chevelle (from the late '80s?), descendant of the '71 and '70 annuals, was retooled into the 1970, reissued many times and still widely available.

Congratulations! FIFTH COMPLETION GOTTER DONE! I'm hoping a couple more will stagger in in the next few hours....

Very cool! I like it. Model on!

Just finished my '59 Vette. Fourth completion--GOTTER DONE! Pics tomorrow. I don't want to look at it any more today.

That's the spirit, Pat! Drive on! Here's where I am on the Stupidbird. First problem is, JoHan molded the black trim panels on the nosepiece as a recessed area, with the headlight covers then recessed into that. I decided this was completely unacceptable for a decent appearance. There's no good/easy way to fix it, so after dreading it a couple days, I just attacked the thing with files and sandpaper and took the whole surface down to level/flush, which took me the better part of two whole modeling mornings. Here's what it looked like after one side was fixed, showing the difference. The glue bomb main body turned out to be only about a step and a half above garbage. The left A-pillar had been broken at the bottom and sloppily re-glued, and I couldn't get it apart again without risking much worse damage. I don't know what it was originally painted with or stripped with, but a 24-hour swim in Lake Purple had no effect whatever on the traces of orange paint in the nooks and crannies all over. These all had to be removed with either a Scotchbrite pad or the tip of an Xacto. All the panel/door lines were so shallow/faint as to be almost nonexistent (maybe the original paint had been sanded off?), so everything had to be rescribed. While at it, I scribed in the lines between the front fenders and the rocker panels. Next, someone had deeply gouged the front fender-to-cowl panel joints on both sides. The resulting trenches were unacceptable. I couldn't come up with a better way to fix these eyesores than with plain old putty and rescribe, so I filled them in. The body needed putty in four more spots to repair glue damage, as well. Sanding the cowl putty wasn't bad, but rescribing the joints was tedious work. I had to do the passenger side twice before it looked halfway decent. A squirt of white primer shows improvement. The joints are now clean, but the gap is still too wide This shouldn't be as wide as a door gap. I will fill these with white glue, which after shrinking should still show there's a joint here, but not an "open" one, if you get my drift. We'll see what happens later, I guess. The glue bomb chassis was missing all four axle locator blocks. I had to scratchbuild these from sheet styrene, and then figure out where the axle holes should go. After gluing, but before trimming and drilling: At this point I have somewhere around 16-20 hours of remedial work in getting this hot mess to the point where I can begin working on it as if it were a fresh kit. Time for a test sit/attitude check, on wheels and tires borrowed from the (much nicer) stock built Superbird that came in the same deal (I think I paid $30-some for the both of them, not a bad price). For the first time, it sits on wheels. It's alive!

Done enough to count! Our third completion--GOTTER DONE! Congratulations!

My Cannonball Superbird will be a little "dirty," but not Joe Dirty. Would love to see you finish that. It's inspiring my '62 Nova build. Model on, old friend!

Found a model today that I got in the urge to work on about 2 months ago and couldn't find to save my life. Of course, it had been sitting about 18 inches from my favorite TV viewing chair the whole time. DOH!

Congrats TimJ, our second completion! GOTTER DONE! Spottedlaurel, looks like I'll join you in finishing up tomorrow. I made great progress today and then came down with a terrible case of "I'll do it tomorrow" fever. Ah shucks oh well.

I have their '65 4-4-2 HT and it looks VERY nice in the box.

Maybe, but 2020 was the third year in a row in which I finished 40 model car projects. (Only three of those were from-new-kit builds; 18 were glue bomb or survivor restorations or rescues, and the rest were diecast kits [easy] or diecast Snake-Fu's.)

Lighten up, Francis. In 2020 I did FIVE original AMT '66 Mustang fastbacks IN A ROW, and then, for the cherry on top, Snake-Fu'ed a '94 Mustang promo. No Mustangs on my dance card at the moment, but I do have a glue bomb-ish toy show '66 HT I've been meaning to finish off. Might get in the mood to do Dyno Don's '68 428 CJ Super Stocker, and there's an outside chance I could do his '75 Mustang Pro Stock--I just got the decals for it. Have three Cougar projects in mind. One is a complete rebuild to factory/box stock of a glue bomb. I have all the parts. Second is a rehab of a survivor I built in 1968. Third is a full custom--I have a spare body and a set of all the custom parts, just need to pick up an organ donor reissue '69 for the chassis, engine, interior, and glass. Be interesting to see if I actually get to any of them.

Turns out that's the name--James/Jim Willoughby. Here's one of his cartoons:

Every year I make a list of 8 or 10 or 12 models I really want to build that year. Plans always change of course, and I don't think I've ever crossed everything off a list, although of course others get added as I go and lately I've been ending with a pretty decent total for the year. What are you planning--or at least hoping--to build in 2021? Here's my "To-Do" list at the moment. 70 Superbird glue bomb—Cannonball group build 65 Chevelle dirt tracker—Cannonball group build 67 GTO glue bomb rescue—should be a quick project for a Day Two build 65 Impala convertible custom--a "double build" with Can-Con's project. 66 Skylark Craftsman rebuild completion—possible BOYD project 74 Corvette promo resto completion—possible BOYD project 62 Nova glue bomb rebuild--high school hot rod 69 Nova completion—possible BOYD project 68 Cougar—at least one, maybe 2, maybe 3 69 Javelin promo resto 71 Chevelle completion 63 Corvette--white polished plastic AMT '66 Corvette rebuild—at least one, maybe 2 or 3 64 Cutlass HT—resin body with other original 1964 parts 65 Chevelle AMT Craftsman—resto/rescue 65 GTO glue bomb rebuild 69 Corvair V8—possible Cannonball group build 75-79 Nova—one or more possible projects

I already have a VERY nice '64 Cutlass hardtop resin body--had it for a few years now. I have no idea who did it, but I'm hoping to build it this year.

The passengers in that one remind me of the work of one of the hot rod cartoonists of the day. For some reason the name "Willougby" or "Willowby" pops into my head. Does that ring any bells with anyone else?

This is the one that gave me the idea that those extra '65 Impala custom parts would find a good home with you. Happy New Year old friend!

What, no articles on How to Apply Decals or Secrets of Cleaning Your Airbrush? I'm out.

Good for you! Finally received something I bought off eBay on Nov 27 and was mailed on Nov 30. Still waiting on a purchase from Dec 2.

It would have made more sense for AMT to have reboxed some of their '40s and '50s kits in the Cuban theme, as US trade with Cuba was suspended around, what, 1959, 1960?