Snake45

I had the same thought several times while working on it. And his is matte black. Maybe I should call mine the "Shiny Crow"?

Kits and clean rebuilders are rare and expensive. '68 promos are around for semi-affordable prices, especially less-than-perfect ones. I just scored a '69 promo but it cost me a LOT of money and took ten years to find. '70s are also pretty rare. But your best chance is a distressed '68 promo. If you must have a detailed kit, you can cut the hood out and combine it with the chassis/engine from a more available '72, or whatever year that last reissue was. If you buy a distressed one or "project," make sure it has front and rear chrome and the taillights--these are unobtainable today. Broken/missing A-pillars (common) can be fixed, missing glass can be replaced with clear plastic, but you MUST have the front and rear chrome and taillights.

When we get hit with that EMP, you'll still be able to get around. The rest of us will be walking. You, and the Amish, and Hank Williams Jr. will survive!

First clue I had it was an earthquake was when Rush Limbaugh said on the radio, about 30 seconds later, "What was THAT???" I think he was still broadcasting from New York at the time.

The chassis is made to take them. It's not even close to stock.

Huh. Then there's some imposter calling himself roadrunner at HyperScale. Sorry.

That was my reaction to the east coast earthquake of a few years ago. I was also doing laundry at the time and I thought maybe the washing machine had become TERRIBLY unbalanced!

Looks better already! Drive on!

Saw this at Walmart a couple weeks ago, size and shape looked passably good (better than most Jadas, anyway). I paid $15.47 or $14.57 for it, I forget which—anyway, less than $20. It scales just a hair larger than 1/24. It couldn't sit on the shelf next to my Welly 1/26 '69, but it could sit next to another '69 Judge I have that's 1/24. Or a Monogram '69 Judge. It might be a hair wide, too, but that doesn't bother me. Overall shape is acceptably pleasant to my eye. Would be a lot of work to take it back to factory stock. You could cut off the lower body parts with the custom side exhaust, but you'd still have to come up with a stock-ish chassis, wheels, and tires. Underneath this one's all Pro Street/outlaw racer, with almost comically large rear slicks. But I've seen real-world professionally built "pro touring" cars with more radical body alterations. Only standard 1st degree Snake-Fu for this one. Sand the tire treads, white-stem the head and tail lights, detail the grille, hit the chrome wheel spokes with Model Master Steel for a less toylike look. And of course my beloved Silver Sharpie for the “chrome” window trim, which really brings this one up a level. You might notice some “fading” in the Judge stripe on the left front fender. I had an “oopsie” there with the Silver Sharpie. Not a big deal, it comes right off with rubbing alcohol—except the alcohol started to take off the stripes, too, which it usually doesn't, or at least not this easily. I might try to touch them up later, or I might just remove them completely. They're not really accurate, and I think they'd look better in either lime green or a bright red-orange anyway. Oh well. I see I also forgot to paint the white backup lights. I kinda like this one, and am glad I put the time (couple hours) and money (very reasonable) into it. It looks good on the shelf! Thanks for looking, and, as always, comments welcome.

Here's the Italeri MB. I don't think it looks bad at all.

Hey Roadrunner, thanks for the backup on the Skyraider thing on HS the other night. Much appreciated!

Luckily, I didn't have to resort to "Plan B." But I wonder if that would work better for my AWB Landy project?

Hard to believe. I built the Italeri a while back and found it a perfectly delightful and accurate kit, which IS light-years ahead of the MPC. Mine didn't have an M1919 on it, though.

Very nice! You really captured the look and feel of the era. Well done and model on!

My first '65 Riv--pieces of which got incorporated into a build I did last year--came in that box. As to the Wildcat, I dunno if that's the original box art, but it's certainly in the style of AMT's '66 box art. I too have bought several of those "retro box" reissues just for the art. And I collect the originals whenever I can. So far I have the Skylark, Barracuda, Falcon, both Corvettes, and the Mustang HT/convertible. Just last week I got the '66 Riviera. I think I have the Impala convertible, too--have to check.

You just reminded me of a great story: At my former job, you had to enter the building by touching your electronic ID card to a reader thingie, and then a rotating door would rotate for you. There were a LOT of women working there. When I'd see that an attractive one I wanted to meet was just ahead of or behind me in line, as we approached the door, I'd sing, "And the sign...said...ya got ta have a membership card, to get in-side. HHHAAAAAAAAAAAAOW!!!!" The last part of course was a howl that sounded like a cross between Steven Tyler, James Brown, and Sam Kinison. It always brought a smile. I got to pull that trick about once a month. I made quite a few great--and very cute--friends that way.

Very, VERY nice! The bright yellow paint and Cragars peg this as maybe a late '60s-early '70s "Day Two" car, when they would still have been seen as "something special" but not yet universally recognized as the rare collector's items that they are today, restored to within an inch of their lives. Well done and model on!

Here's a Revell EMPI Imp I'm working to complete for the current round of the BOYD build (which closes at the end of this month--two weeks from today). I bought the pieces literally in a baggie in the early '90s. Last year I spent two or three afternoons reassembling and painting the chassis. Last month I painted the body. The hard work is done, just need to reassemble and detail the little monster.

Here's a couple pics of my 3-Day Snake-slap job of the (prepainted) Polar Lights kit:

I believe this kit is being reissued again soon. I just finished building one and thought I would share a few construction impressions. This is the most precision-eered kit I've ever seen. Take your time and ALMOST everything goes together perfectly. It's not really a snapper, but I'd call it a "press fit." The ONLY glue I used anywhere on it was gluing the engine block halves together, and then the front (timing) cover onto the engine. Everything else, I just press-fit into place. Even the exhaust pipes lined right up with the exhaust manifolds, amazing! Avoid the temptation to test-fit things. The pegs and their holes are so precise that you'll probably only be able to get them together ONCE without breaking them, which will complicate things. A thin layer of paint will interfere with fit, and will have to be removed from the pins. In fact, I had to do a slight bit of trimming/reaming on many of the holes to get the pegs in. Once in place, everything is tight enough to stay put. In final assembly, notice that there are two tabs that fit into the upper radiator wall, while the rear of the chassis also fits into tab slots at the rear of the body. DON'T install the front bumper until you have the assembled chassis installed in the body, as the bumper serves to lock the lower part of the chassis (subframe) in place. If the bumper is in place first, this will be very difficult to do without breaking something, or at least cussing a lot. Don't install the wheels and tires until you have the chassis in the body. I was dreading putting the wheels on the stub axles, expecting to break at least one, but they snapped right on easily--probably the easiest part of the whole build. BTW, the distributor is for a 6-cylinder. The ONLY parts interference I found in the whole build was between the front windshield mounting tabs and the firewall. I got everything together, but the chassis was bowed down and visible. I carefully took everything apart and trimmed the front edges of the windshield bosses and filed some clearance notches in the back edge of the firewall for good measure, and then everything fit just fine. The worst part on the whole build IMHO was the grille. The "open" areas are so shallow that I found it impossible to black-wash them, leaving the chrome, and get it looking good all the way around. I ended up just painting the whole open area semigloss black, as was popular back in the day. The only things I painted on this one (I started with a prepainted issue) were the engine and the firewall. (And some minor detail painting here and there, of course.) I thought it should have been a one-day slap-together, maybe two, but it took me the better part of three days to finish. It's a good looking model for the time and effort expended, IMHO. The next one I build will be heavily modified as Dick Landy's AWB funny, but that will be a completely different story. I hope this post will be helpful to someone. Model on!

Good to see I wasn't the only one who couldn't identify the car. Looks like I was in good company, too!

It's actually very close on length and width, not "far off." It is taller, and of course bloated looking.

Later I wished I'd typed "Tamiya-spoiled box shaker." It just flows better. I wanted to thank Roadrunner for the backup in that thread, too.

Have you met me, Tom? Seriously, didn't we just have this conversation:

If those plastic pegs have been glued in, you're probably going to lose them. The front ones, you can probably get a screwdriver underneath them. Pry gently. They might come out, but you might just tear the heads off. Either way will give you information. If they pry out, the rear ones might too, but you can't get to them. See if you can get the rear wheels off, then you might be able to work a screwdriver up between the chassis and body and finagle the rear of the chassis loose. If the fronts were glued solidly, the rears probably are too. Unfortunately you won't be able to pry on them. If you have a Dremel, you can grind the heads off. If you don't have a Dremel, you can use a drill (even a bare drill bit) to drill them out. Good luck with your project. BTW, what kind of car is it?