Snake45

My last few brushes have come, believe it or not, from generic "value packs" from the craft section at Walmart. You get a bunch of them--a dozen or more--for 3 or 4 or 5 dollars, I forget. More than half the brushes in these packages are far too big for model work, and pretty much junk to boot, but each has contained at least three or four nice and very usable smaller ones. One in particular, I've been using for over 7 years now and it's still chugging along and has performed and lasted better than "name" brushes I've paid $5 or more for.

Very nice! You pretty much nailed it.

Very nice, very clean, great color! Well done and model on!

Very clean, and a color combination you don't see every day. Well done and model on!

Thanks!

And 1/24, not 1/25.

Here's the rear end of the cheap Welly diecast. They got hella closer to the real shape than AMT/ERTL did, wouldn't you say? Too bad it's very slightly undersized--I think it might be 1/26. The front end/headlights are way better than the AMT reissues, too. Only thing wrong with this thing is they stuffed up the shape of the roof, much the same way Polar Lights did with the '64 GTO. I wonder if that can be fixed?

I've never built it but the Academy 1/72 WWII airplanes have a pretty good reputation. I have their P-51D and have gripes about its accuracy in a couple areas (I"m a Mustang nut and purist) but I don't recall any particular fit or assembly problems. For 1/72 -1 Corsairs I like the Hasegawa; I have several 1/72 -1 Corsairs and IMHO it's the best (I've never owned the Tamiya, though). I don't think you'll have any trouble with it. If the 3-color Corsair camo scares you, don't forget you can just paint the thing overall Glossy Sea Blue (a very dark blue with a very slight greeny tint) and call it a late-war -1D model. Great thing about that scheme is the GSB is EVERYWHERE--wheel wells, landing gear, even the wheels themselves in some cases later on. I specialize in 1945-1956 Navy airplanes for this reason--paint jobs just don't get any simpler!

I don't doubt you. I had a '79 302 auto (Pace Car) and it was pathetically anemic. And its vaunted Michelin TRX tires were great on a sunny day but made rain feel like snow and snow completely undrivable. When it got wrecked, I replaced it with a used '76 Buick Skyhawk with V6/5-speed and that little mutt had a LOT more pep than the '79 302 Mustang.

Modelhaus might have reproed the rear bumper and taillights, but I didn't know they were so badly needed so I didn't order any. I did get at least one of their repro promo front bumper/headlights. I'm contemplating using that on this build, at least temporarily until I get around to building a good one. As our President often says, "We'll see what happens."

FABULOUS post, thanks so much, and especially for the GREAT pic of the real rear end. Saves me having to google one up. The black strip surrounding the lenses themselves is something I'd forgotten. Agree with you completely that AMT would have been better off in this case to just mold the taillights right into the bumper. I'm probably going to leave my whole lenses red, like a Tempest/LeMans, and not worry about the chrome trim on them. This build will be as a '70s street bomber, not a factory stock original, so it's not unreasonable that the lenses could have been replaced with more common items from a junkyard. Or maybe the whole car was "converted" from a Tempest and that was just one little detail they overlooked. Thanks again for the post and pics!

That OHC 6 looks great! I have a first-issue MPC '69 Firebird I started in 1969 that I'm planning to finish with the 6. Thanks for the inspiration!

Thanks! I'll check that out!

Happy Happy Joy Joy! My joint had a few--just a few--things on sale, but they included the Porsche 914 I was planning to buy anyway with the coupon for just $7.49! Also got another Yenko '69 Corvette--already have two but for $6.74, the wheels in that kit are worth almost that to me. (I should have bought two!). And a 2018 Mustang snapper for $4.99--wasn't planning to buy this at all, but might be my last chance EVER to buy a brand new model car in a store for $5. Only airplane marked down was the 1/72 Academy F4U-1 Corsair for $4.49--for that price, I can use it for parts. Thanks Mike 999 for letting us know--I might have decided not to go to HL this week without the heads-up.

Agree with you completely. The deal-killer was the 13" 4-bolt wheels. If they'd designed it with normal 14" 5-bolts, it would have looked hella better--and probably been much better accepted.

No, although I do have another glue bomb (unpainted) where they were installed exactly backward, just as you describe. I was able to pry those out, but hadn't reinstalled them so hadn't noticed how bad a fit they were. Both that glue bomb and this one are the '80s reissue, molded in tan, and I have an unbuilt one of those, too. This one I'm kinda doing for practice to see what what the other two would need to be built "right." Were the taillights on this kit ALWAYS this bad? How about on the original promos? Anyone have pics of the rear end of a first-issue kit or a promo?

You can't argue with a Man With A Plan. Drive on! BTW, I have two Ponchos on the bench at the moment, driving toward completion: Resto/rescues of glue bomb '72 and '65 GTOs.

You can do that when your perspective's not...y'know....

The Mazdas always reminded of that goofy spaceship with the stoner pilots in Heavy Metal.

Those exposed headlights look great. How did you do them? I want to do that on a '69 GTO.

It's not just you, but I think it's an improvement over the 15 years or so where EVERY SINGLE CAR you saw on the road was "smiling" at you. How I've come to hate that look.

Here's what I mean about the taillights. These aren't glued in badly, as it might look--they're glued in exactly where they're supposed to go, there's just a big gap all the way around them. I've now re-glued them solid, and have been filling the gap with Elmer's Carpententer's Sandable Glue, several applications over a few evenings. I'll be sanding the lenses and bezels together to a better shape, and then finishing the appearance with Stop Light Red paint and foil or Molotow or Silver Sharpie, or something. Whatever works. I even have an idea involving some ruby-red cellophane I carefully saved from some Valentine candy. We'll see what happens....

No, it'll definitely be "lived in." I have at least three brand new copies of this kit, and one day I'll do a "nice" one. (In fact, I have one in progress as a '71 conversion.)

Dunno about using it for a '65 Impala 4-door, but that's the top that SHOULD be on the Revell '65 Chevelle and the Polar Lights '64 GTO. I have an otherwise nice diecast '65 GTO that could use it, too. AMT got that top right on their original annual '64 Cutlass and '64-'65 Chevelles and GTOs...and no one else has gotten it right since. Sigh.

Very nice job on the old backbirth! Your taillights and rear bumper & panel look exactly like the one I'm working on. I'm trying to fix up that whole area so it's at least a little closer looking. Boy, we really NEED a new kit of this car, don't we? And I'm not even that big a fan of it....