Snake45

A stock VW Beetle, somewhere around a '64-'66 model. Was pre-'67, anyway.

Looking good, VERY sharp! Personally, I'd have just "leaned into it" and done the interior in Testor White Lightning (white pearl/metallic) but hey that's just me. Drive on!

I've used Sharpie permanent markers in several colors (including black and silver) on both raw styrene (clear and colored) and several kinds of paint and never had a crazing problem of any kind. The solvent in perm Sharpies might--MIGHT--affect Future, as it seems to be alcohol based. At least I know that alcohol will remove both Future and perm Sharpie.

Storm rolled through and knocked out the power last night several hours before my usual bedtime. Was able to keep myself entertained with a pocket flashlight (that little thing was a rock star!) and a new book about DIY gunsmithing, but had to try to sleep with no air conditioner, no air conditioner white noise (which I find VERY helpful), and I missed the Saturday night Ark Midnight broadcast, which I look forward to every week. Oh well, First World Problems, right?

They weren't as bad as I expected. Still lot of usable info in those pics, such as (almost) everything underneath looks to be white.

Might be Monogram boxed but it's still the Revell 1/25 molds AFAIK.

And then THAT wouldn't look right. As I said, you can do some tweaking to fill that gap and it should look okay--unless you want to use the side stripe, in which case the problem becomes obvious.

Sadly, there's very little actual education going on in the name of "education" these days.

If you wanted that specific box and decals, you did great, because those aren't common. But the plastic inside is now common again.

That's because the Monogram '65 is 1/24 scale and the Revell '68 is 1/25. Great progress on the '65. Looks like you'll GITTER DONE!

That kit was very recently reissued. I just bought a brand new one for $30.

I might have a deal like that in the works too. I've got a guy looking for me. Last time he got me a very good paying temp gig that was supposed to be 3-5 weeks that turned into 11 months. He got paid for every hour I did, so he made out okay on that deal, too. I trust him to look out for me.

A few years or decades ago I began to realize how many techniques and materials from Model Airplane World were finding their way into Model Car World. Interestingly, many of those techniques (weathering, just as a fer-instance) had drifted over from Model Tank World, and had come there from Model Railroad World, where they'd been used since the 1950s, the '40s, the '30s, even beyond. If you've ever enjoyed any of Ken Hamilton's diorama-build articles, they'd have been right at home in model railroad magazines of 70 or 80 years ago.

I think more and more companies are starting to realize the benefits of older employees. They actually believe in showing up on time every day, doing the work, and getting along with people. And they don't spend all day on their stupid phones, and probably aren't looking to turn the workplace into a dating club. They're not all tatted up and pierced in weird places and have goofy hair in unnatural colors. And so forth.

See my sig line.

It it's too high, then so are the door handle, the lock, and the rear side marker light. Look at the real pic. The stripe runs between the door handle and lock, and just above the rear side marker, then terminates at the peak point of the end cap. Which should be at right about the tail light divider line. On the model, all the side points line up as they should, but then nothing lines up with the tail light divider line. SOMETHING is way out of whack here, I'm not sure exactly what.

Your front end looks MUCH cleaner than the '70 Rally Sport front, which has always looked to me like a cheap copy of a Jaguar sedan. I think your front end would have also worked with exposed headlights (maybe too Monte Carlo, though?), or with the '69 RS "windows" in the headlight doors (too '69 Camaro?). But your solution was imaginative, attractive. and different.

Even if the cornering lights weren't "offered" on the Biscayne/Bel Air in '67, I'm sure if you really wanted them a dealer would have been happy to order the parts and install them. Or sell them to you and let you do them in your driveway.

Re '64 Falcon: If you want one, they're available in a couple different ways. None is particularly inexpensive, but they ARE available. More available than a lot of other desirable cars I could name. Re Trumpeter: I simply can't understand why they don't keep desirable cars in production and even expand the lines. The '63 Novas are now bringing nearly what original AMTs are, and the Falcons are catching up fast. Why would they turn off this money machine?

I don't know what "madcap" means, but if you mean the white stripe, I see a problem. It doesn't end where it should in relation to the taillight. I don't know what's wrong, where, but clearly something is. It might not be apparent if you leave the stripe off. IIRC, not all the '69 SS396s wore this stripe. I seem to remember seeing (at least) as many without it as with it back in the day.

Well, to start with, paint the engine black.

I see what you did there!

You reminded me, last time I was unemployed a couple years ago, I had to do a mandatory "find a job" clinic/workshop. One great tip I hadn't thought of was, DON'T use an AOL email address (like mine), as it's assumed that the only people who still use AOL email are auld pharts (such as myself). They said get a free G-mail account.

I was laid off at the end of January, so I've been laid off this whole time. This is my last week of unemployment benefits. And I'm even older than you. In fact, I need to file for Social Security next week. "The cattle all have brucellosis, we'll get through somehow." --"Play It All Night Long," the late great Warren Zevon