Snake45

Oh great. Now it's a cat thread.

I tried one of these in white. It worked great a couple of times, and then the next time it puked white paint all over whatever it was I was trying to do.

Was cruising eBay today and saw that, or one just like it. $12 and nearly that much for shipping. Ouch! Just now I was looking at something else entirely and what pops up but a VERY "distressed" whole Maverick promo. Its problem is the roof is completely broken off and is in pieces. But the complete interior is there, and the chassis, wheels, tires, taillight panel and taillights, front bumper & grille, and, especially, the rear bumper I need! Price (shipped) was about the same as the bumper alone with its shipping. I almost hurt my finger hitting the Buy It Now button! Only thing that's not perfect about it is, the body I bought last month is Original Cinnamon (which I love), and this damaged one is a deep blue. Oh well, that's what matte black rattlecans are for, right? I'm looking forward to a polished plastic Original Cinnamon Maverick on my shelf in the near future.

Oh, that DEFINITELY qualifies. Although, it might be possible to bring it back. And if it's an original '65 or '66, it would definitely be worth trying!

The Motor Max '70 Elky (at your Walmart) isn't horrible. I Snake-Fu'ed one a couple years ago. Since there's not one in styrene, it'll have to do. Looked like a couple Wellys worth having in that display. I think I saw a Shelby and a '19 Corvette. I have no use for 1/32, 1/43, or 1/64. One obsession is enough!

Irrelevant for purposes of my phantom model.

A while back I bought a resin hood for the MPC/AMT ’69 Barracuda kit that includes the hood scoop of the ’69 440 6-pack cars. It’s a cool piece and I’m thinking of building a model around it. Would maybe like to try a factory phantom—a pure “what-if.” Which one of these ideas would work best for such a project? 1. ’69 AAR Cuda: This would have most or all of the ’70 AAR styling cues on the ’69 body—black hood, wing spoiler, side-exit exhaust, bigger tires on rear, and so forth, probably in a bright color. 340 engine, of course. 2. ’69 383+6: The 440 engine was a mess in the ’69 Barracuda and a 6-bbl version would have been even worse (and been too much competition for the B-body cars), but what about a 383 six-pack, sort of a little brother to the 440+6 Road Runner? Would still have been plenty hairy and competed with 396 Novas. This would have a black hood and black open wheels, same as the 440+6 B-bodies. 3. ’69 340+6: Visually the same as the 383+6 just described, but with a 340. This would have been a real kick-ass but very streetable little car. Thoughts, ideas, opinions welcome. Fire away!

Excellent points, Steve. OTOH, resin bodies have been around a long time--30 years at least. If this were a widespread problem, I think we'd have heard about it by now. I'm tempted to believe this is a rare or isolated case. At least I hope so.

Oh my! Those all look like fun "rescue" candidates. Nothing there rare enough to rate a full-on rebuild, but it would be fun to see if a few hours work would improve any of them enough to earn a spot on the shelf. I LOVE this kinda stuff! Have fun with them!

I was just thinking about him the other day. He hasn't posted in a while. Months?

I was just on the Krylon website looking for info on their Shimmer (metalflake) paints and checked the Short Cuts FAQs while I was at it. They call it "VT Alkyd (no xylene)", whatever that means. The Shimmer is called "modified alkyd" and "modified alkyd enamel." BTW some of the questions on the Krylon site are pretty funny. It's amazing what people want to paint with these things. Also BTW, I just used the Shimmer stuff for the first time and so far I'm pretty impressed with it. Its major problem is that the flakes are too big for any kind of factory metallic finish (though just about perfect for what I'm doing, a dune buggy), but it's pretty easy to work with.

Different and therefore interesting, and a sharp build to boot. Model on!

Preach It, My Brother! Can I get a AY-men from the choir?

My Go-To is the Silver Sharpie. Lots cheaper and less finicky (although less "chromy"). But the Molotow has been a must for me for a few jobs, and so far, it's worked well.

I have FAR more experience with Silver Sharpies than with Molotow, but so far, my two Molotows have worked exactly as advertised. Knock on wood.

The "Extreme" in the Testor lacquer name means little or nothing. These "lacquers" are quite mild and I've never had them react with ANY kind of underlying paint, including Testor enamels, both flat and gloss. They are VERY user-friendly.

I disagree. I find it's MUCH easier to get an even, straight line with a marker than with a brush. Plus which, you don't have to constantly stop and reload the thing, you just keep flowing it along.

Most GBs can be disassembled with an Xacto, a small screwdriver for a pry bar, and some patience, experience, and finesse. In a couple of cases, though, I've had to grind glass or interior tubs out with a grinder bit in a Dremel. This takes a fine hand.

The AMT (ex-MPC) '69 Cuda at one time had a Hemi, but I don't think it does anymore. There were no NHRA legal '69 Hemi Barracuda Super Stocks, since none came from the factory. Some of the '68s (such as S&M's) got updated '69 front ends and trim, but they then had to run in A/MP. I think there's some aftermarket parts to backdate the kit from a '69 to a '68 if you want to do one in gray & black primer, but of course no '69s were delivered that way. I wanna do a S&M Cuda myself someday, but I'm gonna take the easy way out and do it as the '69 car in either A/MP or B/Gas rather than deal with backdating.

There ya go! I have two first-gen Corvair coupes and a VERY warped promo 4-door, and I THINK between the three of them I have enough stuff to do one stock or stock-ish coupe, and one radical custom (which SamIAm) is waiting patiently to see).

Were they also in the recent reissue of the '86 El Camino?

I've got several, just have to find the time to photograph and post them.

Yah, somewhat more reluctant now, but it's not a deal-killer. Depends on the car and the part. Last year I bought a distressed but not broken '67 Impala promo that was missing the front and rear chrome and the wheels/tires. The body polished out magnificently and I figgered I could always adapt the chrome parts from a "new" AMT kit. But I got lucky and original front and rear bumpers (and taillights!) came up on eBay and I was fortunate enough to score them. (Good thing, too. Turns out the "new" AMT Impala parts would have been a pretty poor fit.) Don't forget when looking for parts on eBay that glue bombs and damaged or distressed promos can be a great source of what you need. Bodies with smashed-in roofs, glue-smeared windows, or hogged-out wheel wells can still have perfectly usable front and rear chrome, and can sometimes be had dirt cheap.

I was thinking I'd seen them in one of the reissues. Thanks for the confirmation.

Those look familiar, I could swear I've seen 'em somewhere. AMT Sonny & Cher Mustang?