Snake45

Looks absolutely fabulous! Ya done GREAT! Well done and model on!

Thanks! Forgot to mention, I'm leaving the fenders black (I don't remember if they're painted or not, but they're WAY shiny, and I'm not messing with them) and painting the interior and top black. Now, what color should I paint the engine?

One would surely have to be Jim Keeler's Dodge Fever "funny car" from about 1968.

Couple months ago in an eBay "junkyard" deal that had some other stuff I needed, there were a bunch of parts to one of these included. I started setting them together and darned if the whole thing wasn't there! I'm planning to just squirt the body, hood, and bed with Testor Root Beer One Coat and nail it back together. Thanks for reminding me about it--it would make a great "quickie rescue" project.

Didn't you tell me a while back you weren't going to put the pickup bed on it, just a big fuel tank back there? If it doesn't have a pickup bed, it can't be a truck, it's just a common ordinary auto rod. You can always change your mind later, toward the end of the build (or even after), and use the bed. Meanwhile, you can show off all your work right here.

Polar Lights '65 Coronet: Built the basic engine and painted it. Took the molding marks off the exhaust system and painted that. Sanded the tire treads. Got the tires on the wheels--this was probably the most difficult tire installation I've ever experienced on any kit ever. I sure hope those tires never have to come OFF. I'd originally planned to Snake-slap this thing together in two days. I can't promise I'll make that. Will almost certainly go into a third day--at least.

Very sorry to hear this, especially about one so young. I don't know what's worse, a sudden unexpected death, or one you know is coming for a long time. My brother in law dropped dead out of the clear blue two weeks ago. Wasn't sick at all; he was putting on his coat to go out to dinner and was gone just that quick. They think it was either a massive heart attack or a blood clot. It was quite a shock to the whole family.

Thanks. I didn't see your previous Skylark post, or, more likely, forgot it.

Modern Family, IMHO the best sitcom of all time, is in the process of winding down its 11th and final season. Tonight ABC TV is running a marathon of six of the best episodes from the show's history from 8 to 11 PM Eastern. If you've never seen the show, I invite you to tune in and see what you've been missing. Of particular interest is the pilot episode, which will air first at 8:00. This is one of the most brilliantly written and crafted TV shows I've ever seen, and has a fantastic surprise ending that most people won't see coming (at least those who have never seen the show at all--if you started it watching anytime after, you won't be surprised). I can't recommend it highly enough. Modern Family is clever, fast-moving, and hilarious. Perhaps best of all, it has no silly-ass laugh track. I'm going to miss it when it's gone. It's been a fun ride.

Probably sometime in Nevertober.

Very interesting! What does it cost to get the files and print a body? I see they offer a '64 Buick Skylark convertible. That looks like as close as I'll ever get to the '65 hardtop or coupe I really want. I could make it into a hardtop, if need be.

Here's the wheels I'm talking about. You can see them at 2:55 in the video: If you're interested, let me know--I can't imagine ever using them on anything.

I was speaking of '69 Chevelles in general, but you knew that.

Unless you're doing one based on the 300.

I wouldn't say it's my least favorite thing to do, but I have to be in the mood and have the weather on my side and those two things don't always coincide. It also eats up a lot of time, and the potential for disaster is always present, so I do avoid it in many cases, either polishing kit plastic, or going with existing paint (on a resto or rescue), and so forth. It went pretty well in this case. I didn't strip the existing paint, just used some Scotchbrite pads to rough up the existing paint and knock the edges off tampo graphics. I was going for matte black anyway, so shot it in cheap Touch n Tone black primer, covered with Krylon matte clear for protection. It looks better now than it did when I started, at any rate, IMHO. Pics will be up in the Diecast section soon, I hope.

Glad to hear that! That kit has been reissued and is commonly available.

Diecasts are a great way to ease yourself out of a modeling slump. I've done a few dozen of them now but just this week completed my first complete repaint job on one.

Yes, as Steve G described above.

I think I have some custom wheels from a '70 Chevelle with six large holes in them that might look great on the Astro. If they sound interesting, I'll see if I can find them.

Outstanding! Your work is so clean it looks like it came out of the box that way! I have a similar project underway. I got tired of trying to make the front end of the AMT 2DS look anything close to right, so I've procured a Revell '55 Chev convertible kit and am going to try to graft its front end onto the AMT body. But now you've got me thinking about another way to do it, hmmmmmmm......

Finished the diecast '71 GTO, my 9th diecast and 15th completed model car project of 2020. Enough easy ones--time to get back to styrene work.

Another favorite of Dad's: "You learn something new every day, if you're not careful!" And another, which he'd often say as he beat me at Hearts: "Once again, skill and cunning beats ignorance and superstition." Later on, I'd hear that one put even better as: "Old age and treachery triumph over youth and enthusiasm."

Very interesting project! Just out of curiosity, did you pay $155 for the kit, or am I misunderstanding something?

Sorry to hear your Google is broken. Mine brought them right up.

(In re Jada '71 GTO): Am wrapping up the Snake-Fu on it now. Pics up in next few days, I hope. Turns out it was black, not dark blue. The wheelbase scales it to just a hair over 1/24 (1/23.7, or something). It would be extremely difficult to take all the way back to stock, but I've seen many 1:1 cars (SEMA queens and such) that are more radically modified/customized/reshaped. It won't appeal to everyone, but I'm kinda digging it.