Snake45

I started this thing somewhere in the 1968-70 timeframe, not sure exactly when. I got it about 80% done—chassis built, body painted and doors hung, wheels and tires selected—and then for whatever reason lost interest and never finished it. It's spent most of five decades locked in its cardboard cell, serving time on the Shelf of Doom. Over the years, I've hauled it out probably a dozen times with the idea of finishing it. After playing with it for a few minutes, I'd always put it away again as taking too much time on a bunch of tedious, fiddly work to produce a mediocre (by my current standards) result. The most recent time was four or five months ago. I pulled it out, and looking it over, I saw a spot of dirt or something on the roof over the left door. In trying to take that off with a fingernail, I managed to take a great big chunk of paint off. Back into the box you go! You can see the chip, and what I was starting with, in this pic: Over the last couple years I've had a lot of fun buying fairly clean glue bombs at the local toy show and spending a few hours polishing them, touching up the paint, fixing flaws and errors, and getting them to somewhat presentable shape. I've often said on these deals that if I can end with a model that looks like something I might have built in 1968, I'm happy; if it looks like I built it in 1969 (when I was getting a little good), I'm ecstatic. This year I decided it might be a good idea to apply this philosophy to a few of my own long-stalled Shelf of Doom projects—things that I knew were now far below my current standards, but I didn't want to strip them out and start over completely. Earlier this year I finished a '69 Charger 500 started in the early '90s and a '77 Monza started sometime in the '80s. So Judge Snake offered this IMC Beetle a parole from the Shelf of Doom on the same terms. I'd treat it like somebody else built it and do the minimum necessary to get it on the shelf, with the full knowledge that it wasn't going to be perfect, nor exactly what I had in mind when I started the project. I carefully washed the body and took care of a couple little problems with the chassis, mainly a missing tie rod (found it and glued it on solid). Next big problem was matching and touching up the paint. The original paint was AMT Burnt Orange Metallic lacquer, long unavailable. Not only did I now have that big chip on the roof, but in cleaning off a few spots of random molding flash on the body edges, I created more chips. Even worse, when I painted it as a kid, I had neglected to paint the taillight housings. Testors Fiery Orange One Shot lacquer turned out to be a passable match. I shot it over black primer on the taillights and if I hadn't told you, you'd have never known. Elsewhere, I decanted some of it into its cap and used a brush to touch up the chips and nicks. The color match on the roof chip is much closer in real life than in these pics, although of course the touchup spot is an obvious lump or wart in the finish. I'd originally painted the hood and side chrome strips with Testor Silver. I did a pretty good job but over the years some of it had worn away and other parts had turned dark from handling (the stuff never dries, and easily picks up dirt). It looked bad, so I just polished it off (mostly, anyway) with Wright's Silver Cream silver polish. The original plan was to then lay razor-cut strips of masking tape on each side of these chrome strips and hit them with my beloved Silver Sharpie, usually an easy trick, but by this time I'd learned how fragile the original paint was and didn't want to risk the tape pulling up big chunks of it, so I just left the chrome strips alone. It is what it is. All the glass requited block-sanding for flatness and then polishing, not a big deal. When it came time to button up the interior, I couldn't find the kit steering column, so had to make one out of Evergreen rod. I just left the seats, steering wheel, and steering column in white for a little contrast in the interior. Front wheels are Baby Moons from an AMT Meyers Manx (my original one, back in 1969) on common AMT Firestone Supremes, and the rears are some kind of chrome reverse wheels on those lovely old MPC solid vinyl Wide Ovals. You saw a lot of Bugs running similar rear wheels/tires back in the day. So it's not perfect, but it's DONE, after all these years. It is what it is, and I can put the stupid little thing out of my mind and move on to other projects. Next time I build a Beetle, it'll be the Revell kit (I think I have a flared-fendered pink one somewhere in the stash). I've had quite enough of the super-fiddly IMC kit. As always, comments welcome. Oh, I forgot to mention, despite all the various snags and troubles, the doors still open!

Didn't realize that, but now I think about it, wasn't she in Outlaw Josie Wales too? One of the most quotable movies of all time.

Have a good air source, and thin your paint to about the consistency of milk.

Ah, I completely misunderstood your original post, then.

Yah, I think that was the orange (second issue) one; built it around 1978 (not long before I got my real one painted exactly the same way). Sorry, not interested in trading off the wheels.

You must be a glutton for punishment. I built three of those (each a little better than the last) back in the days before the Revell kit appeared and I can't imagine wanting to build another copy of the wretched backbirth. I did pick up a glue bomb cheap a couple months back just to harvest its roof for a planned '67 Bel Air/Biscayne conversion. Well, good luck with it anyway, and I hope you at least have fun.

I remember her mainly from The Gauntlet.

I've used Sunny in the past (with Testor enamels) and it worked fine. My current can says Klean Strip (from Walmart) and it also works fine.

If that's true, then MPC screwed the pooch completely on the '69 Camaro and Firebird molds by not raising the body side line. Why would they do this on new molds? And that also begs the question, why was the '68 Firebird nor any variant of it ever reissued?

You read that from me, and the Firebird body has the same problem. The only cure to do a GOOD one is to start with a Revell '69 Camaro body and convert it to a Firebird.

Somebody on here called that kit "fiddly" and BOY were they right. Next VW I build will be a Revell.

Definitely in my Top Five Gun Movies of All Time. I first saw it on cable and thought that the gunfire sounds were the most realistic I'd ever heard in a movie. And they were LOUD even coming through my TV--that scene must have been awesome in a theater with Dolby sound!

Here's that IMC VW Beetle, and it only took me about 50 years to GITTER DONE (more or less). Hope to have pics up Under Glass soon.

December 17 Update: Richard Bartrop: '29 Ford Disconovaman: '55 Nomad. SECOND COMPLETION! GOTTER DONE! Moving on to Monster Blazer, MAKING GREAT PROGRESS! 89AKurt: '50 Chevy truck Jantrix: '37 Chevy rod Snake45: Mako Shark FOURTH COMPLETION! GOTTER DONE! IMC VW Beetle FIFTH COMPLETION! GOTTER DONE! Moving on to '40 Ford coupe, Get Smart Sunbeam Alpine Lordmodelbuilder: '64 Chevy Blazer Eric Macleod: Deusenberg. THIRD COMPLETION! GOTTER DONE! Scale Asylum: '64 Dodge 330 Junkyard Jeff: '41 Chevy truck FordF-100: '67 LeMans Vintageford: '49 Ford shelved, looking for new project Magicmustang: Tommy Ivo double Buick rail. FIRST COMPLETION! GOTTER DONE! Foxer: AA/Comp rail GerN: '32 Ford Superbird McMonte: '70 GSX MAKING GREAT PROGRESS! Mod3lLover: '59 Corvette Dave Darby: '29 Ford Doctory Larry: '7? Pontiac Grand Am John Verkerk: Several good prospects—have you picked one to GITTER DONE? Two weeks left, folks! Anyone else want in?

Heat was actually a remake. Did you ever see the original, LA Takedown?

Heat?

It says: None of the '33 Willys bodies are currently available at this time. The only bodies currently available are the Hugh Tucker '28 Chevy roadster, '41 Willys pickup cab, and the chopped '34 Ford 5 window coupe body.

I wish I'd gotten a couple of those bodies. Drag City seems to be out of business now. Is anyone else making an unchopped '33 Willys body?

I have a vague recollection of seeing one in a flea market about October. But it might have been the landplane, might have been something else entirely...there was a booth that had a much of model airplanes, Monograms and such, prices were in the $20-$30 range on most things as I recall. Next time I'm over that way I'll stop in there and check. What's the highest you'd pay for one? Too bad you don't want one of the Monogram Piper Tri-Pacers. I have a couple of those (complete in bags, no box) and I'd be willing to swap one off reasonably.

Last 2 or 3 times I was in there, they had a few dozen kits on the shelf, but nothing I wanted/needed even with 50% off.

Very, very nice! You're making me want to go guy one of these (one of my ultimate compliments). Well done and model on!

I have one but it's not up for grabs. Didn't realize it's now rare but just checked eBay and there are only two of them, going for stupid prices. Yikes! I'll keep my eye open for one for you, though.

I gotta admit, that's one of the coolest '68-'69 Buicks I've ever seen.

It might actually be 1/25. I seem to recall comparing their '66 Bonneville to an MPC and finding they were the same size.

I used those on my AMT '62 Corvette build, just 'cause they were about the best thing I had on had at the time.