Snake45

The glue bomb I recently acquired is molded in an attractive aqua blue. I'm giving some thought to polishing out the plastic.

How does the Roden compare with the older Italeri Dodge kits? I have a couple versions of those. I think I have one with a 37mm antitank gun mounted on it.

She wasn't a regular. Was she The Lovely (and Evil) Mrs. Reynolds?

Channeling Dave Barry here, "Meat Jacket" would make a great name for a rock band....

Speaking of big impressive machines, someone posted this on one of my gun boards the other night. Who knew?

Wow, there are some GREAT projects here! This year I've finished two long-stalled projects (20 years or more), plus at least two others that have been on the workbench well over a year--maybe two. Hope to get at least one or two more off the Shelf of Doom before the end of the year.

Tim, how does it stack up against the AMT (modern-ish) '34 5-window? If it were available, would it be worth building for reasons beyond just nostalgia?

Here's the AMT (originally labelled as MPC) '69 4-4-2 I built shortly after it came out in the '90s. It was built to strict IPMS out of the box rules. I remember it being a fun and completely troublefree build except for two paint issues. One, took me a while to find a good engine paint. Ended up using Poly S Copper, the closest thing I could find to Olds Engine Gold. Second, I tried to direct polish the Model Master Burgundy paint (no clearcoat), thinned with lacquer thinner and airbrushed. It came out very smooth but very blotchy, with the color all over the place. So I laid a couple more coats of paint on it, and then a couple coats of Model Master Clear Top Coat Enamel, and polished that, and it all came out fine. Here's something you don't often see from me, an engine pic. And here it is with my new Welly '68 4-4-2 diecast (with added Snake-Fu). As always, comments welcome.

I've done that, too, but was afraid in this case the tape would pull up or chip the paint. The paint (apparently applied over bare, unprepped plastic) was already chipped in a number of places. The hot water and thumbnail trick worked GREAT! Try it next time you have decals to take off.

I LOVE the T/A Challenger! Definitely my favorite Welly and my favorite "cheap" diecast of any kind. It's 1/25, or at least it's smaller than the Monogram and is pretty much identical in size to the Palmer/Lindberg 1/25 '74. I've got a '67 Firebird to Snake-Fu, probably today or tomorrow, and hope to photograph and write them up and post them here very soon. I like the Welly TA Challenger SO much that it's going on the shelf with my "good" models, not relegated to my "Diecast Ghetto."

Yah, I know--your posts were where I first heard of this model.

That '32 Vicky survivor I just restored, all four wheels were damaged by the ancient vinyl tires. I was able to file off all the melted areas (some of it still a bit soft), and re-used all four wheels on better tires on the resto.

It should sit nicely with the GSX--or even the '65 Riviera. I've been doing some homework on the wheels. Although most pics show them wearing the SSII wheels (poorly portrayed in the diecast, nicely done on the AMT kit), the SSIs (AKA Magnum 500s) were optionally available in '68, and those are far more common in scale than the SSIIs. The next problem is this isn't a simple straight-axle chassis, it's got the posable front wheels, and so swapping them out for model parts might be troublesome.

The orange (or is it red?) First Gear Chevelle is still available and not that expensive, but I'm looking for a Fathom Green one and not having much luck finding one.

Some of the very best narrow Cragars I've ever seen were in the original annual issue of the JoHan '66 Marlin. If you can find somebody repopping those in resin, they'd be great. Don't forget that if you have or find a nice set of deep ones, they can be narrowed. It takes some careful work, but it CAN be done. I've done it (with Torq-Thrusts).

Very nice indeed! Well done and model on!

I'm not generally a fan of this new-age stuff, but that's just badass!

And here's a few pics comparing it to the AMT '69 4-4-2 I built a while back. You can see that the length is pretty close--the Welly is just a hair undersize in length, maybe 1/26--but it's noticeably narrower in a head-to-head comparison. But, overall, I think it looks pretty good, except of course for those wheels.

Got this Welly '68 4-4-2 yesterday, laid about 2-3 hours of Snake-Fu on it today, on the shelf and DONE! Overall shape is good. As you'll see below, it's just a teeny bit undersized. The paint, a good match for '68 Olds Sapphire Blue, is even, smooth, and shiny--very nice! I was particularly impressed with the vent window frames--these are much more delicate and accurate than we usually see in diecasts, especially cheap ones. Was also impressed by the correct body seam lines at the rocker panel. Door gaps aren't half bad, either. I didn't have to Silver Sharpie the window moldings, though I DID have to do the wheel arches, as I believe the chromed arches was standard on 4-4-2 (or at least all the ones I saw on google). I did spend some time detailing the grille with Testor Steel, and the backup lights and front turn signals with Testor flat white and then a craft acrylic pearl white. I hit the chrome hood vents with a black wash. Oh, and I had to saw off the screw bosses on the chassis, they ones they use to screw the thing to its box. They were huge, and would have been visible on the finished model. The model's weak point is definitely the wheels. The tires are about the same height as the common AMT L60s (though not quite as wide), but the wheels themselves are noticeably undersized. And they don't look much like real Olds sport wheels, or anything else I can think of, for that matter. I just painted the center sections with Tamiya Metallic Gray and let them go. Overall, though, quite nice. Not quite as nice as their '70 Challenger TA, but pretty darn nice, and better than most cheap diecasts. I like it!

I saw that unbuilt kit at a local flea market about a year ago. Price was reasonable, too--I think about $20. I should have bought it.

Looks kinda like a younger Baba Wawa. But, amazingly, better!

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't have a JoHan '75 Cutlass. I know where I could buy one for $45 or $50, but not gonna pay that just to get this goofy project on the shelf. The headlights will be the hardest part. I'm not going to restore the thing back to stock, which of course WOULD be a lot of work. I'm going to do it as if someone had taken a real NASCAR and done just enough to it to get it licensed and street-legal-"ish". A real street freak.

You're doing as well as you can with it, but from what I've seen, I think the First Gear would probably be a better starting point.

Nice research, but has nothing to do with what color JoHan molded it in, which, as we've seen, could be almost anything.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!