Snake45

Got it today. Have given it a once-over and I'm VERY impressed. Body profile seems spot-on. Length and wheelbase are VERY close to an AMT '72 Chevelle I happen to have on the bench, so I guess it's darn close to 1/25, although it's definitely narrower--about the same width as a Revell '69 Camaro. Paint is smooth, even, shiny, and seems to be a passable representation of '68 Olds Sapphire Blue (it's also available in a color somewhat like Cinnamon Bronze, and in a very bright red that's too bright for the factory color). Only gig I can find is that, like their '70 GSX, it seems to sit a little high, on tires that look a hair tall and wheels that look a hair undersize. Will try to measure these tomorrow. This one's going right to the top of my To Do list. Shouldn't take more than 2, maybe 3 hours of Snake-Fu in detailing wheels and trim and so forth. Hope to get it done tomorrow and have pics up ASAP. I'll try to photograph it with my built AMT '69 for size and shape comparison. I'm almost as impressed by this one as I was by their '70 Challenger TA. Good stuff!

Thanks for the kind words. Yup, it's just pure FUN to save a glue bomb!

Sweet! Is it light blue or light green? Looks one way in some pics, the other in others. I think mine is light blue. I would LOVE to have one molded in the green yours looks like. I'd polish that beauty out!

Looking very good! Drive on!

"Stand Back"--Stevie's self-proclaimed ripoff of Prince's "Little Red Corvette"--and "Sleeping Angel" are my favorite SN songs, followed by the two she recorded with Tom Petty. I hope Waddy Wachtell got some kind of payday when Beyonce ripped off his Eo17 riff for "Bootylicious."

I've got a kit of a '73-'76 Chevelle NASCAR that I think would be fun to put "on the street." The headlight areas are blanked off. What other kit might have suitable heatlights and their surrounding bezels that I could either steal or sili-clone to make some stock-ish looking lights for this thing? '72 Chevelle? '70 Monte Carlo? '70 1/2 Camaro? What might work?

You can tell just by the sharp angle in the side trim that this is the original '57, not the more modern tool.

I'm looking forward to some of these. I have a couple original Auroras and/or reissued Revells from the '80s or so but will probably buy a few more. I never knew Aurora did a "Tiger Tank" in their line, though I had their Panther at one time (and I think I still have a British Centurion to this day). Googled it and it's true--it's a Tiger II "King Tiger." Might have to get one of those. That "8" Howitzer" sounds familiar. I think I might have had that as a kid, too.

Except for the weird hood scoop, this is pretty typical.

Couple months ago I bought a big box of model car parts that turned out to have, when sorted out, 13 more-or-less complete old models. One of them was this AMT '32 Ford Vicky, which might be an original issue (it's molded in black). The only parts missing were one valve cover, one carb horn ball, and the right custom bobbed rear fender. I decided to do a straight-up restoration as much as possible, to honor what it once was, 55 or so years ago: some kid's carefully crafted pride and joy. Only made a couple minor changes. Since the right rear fender was missing, I pried the left one off, and then carefully cut/scraped/sanded/polished the glue damage off the body. I didn't like the tall, skinny tires, and they were eating into the wheels anyway, so I replaced the fronts with some vintage AMT 1966 Firestone Supreme whitewalls, and the rears with modern AMT parts pack pie-crust slicks with white and red stripes. This change improved the “sit” of the model from slightly nose-high to pretty much level. I know from previous experience that it's difficult to pull off an all-black model, so I painted the interior seats and sidewalls with Walmart gray primer just for a little contrast, which really helps. Other than the tires, and adding a valve cover from a Vicky kit in the stash, everything else here is original. I was able to get the interior out of the body, but not the windows. There were a couple scratches or scuffs on the glass, which I was able to polish out in place. I couldn't get the engine or radiator out of the chassis without risking breakage, so cleaned everything up by soaking in dishwashing soap and washing under warm running water with a wide soft paintbrush. There were glue boogers all over the place. I don't know what kind of glue it was, but it had sort of a maroon color in places, and it didn't eat into the styrene as deeply as most old glue I've seen. I was able to carefully cut or chip about 90% or more of the visible excess glue away, and covered it with black paint in a few small spots. I got the intake off the engine so was able to remove the molding marks from the carbs, paint them Testor Steel, and touch up the missing chrome on the carb horns with Silver Sharpie. The missing chrome on the headers was touched up with Molotow chrome. The grille got a wash of thinned flat black acrylic paint. I filed away the tire-melted plastic on the wheels, trued up the rims, painted the spokes and inner rims Testor Steel, and then re-chromed the rims with Rub N Buff. I deepend the door lines with the backside of an Xacto blade, and removed all molding lines on the body. The body and radiator shell were polished with Trim fingernail polishing sticks. The ancient AMT black styrene polished up magnificently, giving a shine that rivals a really good black paint job with a fraction of the work and none of the risk. I left the original license plate decal in place, just trimming off the excess clear surrounding film and then polishing around it. I like the way it turned out. The tire change and improved “sit” seem to update the thing from about the 1961-63 timeframe to somewhere maybe in the '64 to '66 era. The gray interior subtly sends the message that yes, this is a “finished” model, even though almost everything you see is raw black plastic. I think the Original Builder would be pleased with what I've done with it. Here it is with a '32 5-window I threw together in the early '90s. Old school hot rods! As always, comments welcome.

Got this sad AMT '62 Corvette cheap at last month's toy show. I kinda dug the Modified Production hood lump, and it seemed to be complete, and the paint looked savable, so it followed me home. I liked the decals, but they were already flaking off in places, and I couldn't save them and polish the paint both, so they had to go. Scraped them off with a fingernail under hot running water which worked well. The paint, a purplish maroon or burgundy, responded well to a light polish, but there turned out to be quite a few chips exposing white plastic. Folk Art Berry Wine craft acrylic "enamel" (water based) was a passable match, though not perfect, and it wasn't particularly easy to work with. I was able to fix the windshield frame with "fauxberglass," and to polish out and re-use both the windshield and the roof glass (neither of which fits very well). Painted the wheel dishes Testor Flat Aluminum, and evened up and then re-chromed the rims with Rub N Buff. lowered the rear axle hole in the one-piece chassis as far as possible with a needle file, to jack up the rear end a little. Shot the flat black interior with a light coat of semigloss clear. I replaced the headlights with new ones from a "Boyds" reissue, and the wide front tires with thinner, more appropriate ones, but everything else on this model is original and was re-used. Someday I might even build up a proper tunnel-rammed engine for it. If I can find new decals for it, I'll re-decal it as original, but until then, it could pass as an early '70s street goon. And here it is with a survivor MPC '66 Corvette drag gasser I also rescued/rehabbed a few months ago (a much more extensive job). As always, comments welcome.

Very cool! Like you, I love survivor/glue bomb rescue/resto/rehab jobs, and you did a fine job with this one! Ain't it great to take some random old junk and make it live again? Well done and model on!

Here's the ancient survivor/glue bomb '32 Vicky I just finished restoring today, along with a 5-window I knocked together in about a week a couple decades ago. Old-school hot rods!

Finished! Off to Under Glass--hope to see you there tomorrow (10/28)!

Don't have time to do the full writeup tonight, but hope to have pics Under Glass tomorrow. Preview of Coming Attractions:

I didn't do a thing to it except find all the parts in the big box and set them together. It's the styrene equivalent of a "barn find."

Looks better than the one I scored at a flea market (in a box with 13 other models of similar vintage). Of course mine is more than 50 years old--seems to be built from an original issue.

Oh, no!

I saw spiders like that at KMart yesterday. Not 100% sure they're the same thing you saw, but they looked like they could have been big enough to be. https://www.kmart.com/totally-ghoul-50inch-giant-posable-spider-brown/p-009W007794379001P?plpSellerId=Kmart&prdNo=7&blockNo=7&blockType=G7 I see on the website they have others, too.

VERY cool! What's the scale on this thing?

I just got a Summit Racing Christmas catalog in the mail. They have three 1/24 truck/cycle combos at $25-$26, so these might be Maistos. '48 Ford F-1+'58 Duo Glide '50 Chevy 3100+2001 Heritage Springer '99 Ford F-350+'38 Knucklehead They also show several 1/24 trailers from $17.99-$20.99: Tear Drop (w/bicycle and kayak), Shasta Airflyte, Airstream Bambi, Winnebago.

Very cool! IIRC, Dyno Don ran this car on the "run whatcha brung" heads-up circuit of about 1969, which was the direct forerunner of Pro Stock, which debuted in 1970. He was in good company, running with Jenkins, Sox, Landy, Sam Auxier Jr., etc. I believe I've seen a photo of this very car running in a 4-way match with Jenkins, Sox (or was it Landy?), and Jungle Jim Liberman's seldom-remembered '69 Camaro ZL-1.

Finished the '32 Vickie restoration last night, more or less. Pics Under Glass soon, I hope.

Looks pretty good! What paint is it?

Was at my Hobby Lobby today. Appears to be the only new kit. Didn't even get to use my coupon today.