Snake45

Couple recent toy show finds. Monogram '70 Challenger TA. Looks worse here than it is. It's molded in that pretty metallic brick red (first issue?) and should respond to a general cleanup, plastic-polish, and detailing. Missing the taillight(s), if anyone just happens to have a spare set (if not, I'll just scratchbuild some). Could use the kit TA stripe decals, too, if anyone can spare them. MPC snapper '33 Willys, a kit I always managed to just miss. It's not in bad shape. The idea will be to lower the ridiculous stance a bit and get the whole thing to look a bit less cartoony. The Paddy Wagon junk will come off and I'll try to polish the blue plastic. Seems to be a snapper Revell '34 Ford. Again, not in bad shape, just dirty and in need of a little Snake-Fu to bring it to life. The flames seem to be tampo printed. I really don't like them, but will probably leave them for now. I don't want to paint the thing, and I don't want it all-black, either. I probably have some better flame decals around here somewhere. Should be an easy, fun project just to get to displayable condition for the shelf. This '65 GTO just spoke to me--OB seemed to have gotten the sit and attitude just right for a late '60s-early '70s street fighter. I dig it! Should respond to a good cleaning and polish, and black paint is easy to touch up. It's complete except for the hood scoop insert, but that's not a deal-breaker--I can either sili-clone one from a kit, or just leave it open--I'm sure that was done at the time. Kinda looking forward to getting stared on this little monster. Gonna see if I can re-chrome the Cragars with a Molotow; if that doesn't work, will probably paint the spokes gray/steel and call 'em knockoffs.

I bought a Revell '68 Charger yesterday just to use a 50% Michael's coupon. Thinking of doing it in dark blue as a "Then and Now" build to match with the MPC I built in 1968. No one has any comments about my suggestion that the side sculpting is overdone on the Revell body? I guess I'm the only one who sees it that way, then.

Had 50% off coupons for both AC Moore and Michaels this week, so added them to my Hobby Lobby run. Nothing I really needed at HL, so spent my coupon on the AMT boat, which I've never had. Absolutely nothing I needed (or even wanted, that I don't already have two of) at AC Moore. Used the coupon on some Elmers Carpenter's Wood Glue (sandable), which I've found is a great putty or filler in certain situations. My old bottle had dried up last time I tried to use it. Same story at Michaels. Spent my coupon on a Revell '68 Charger--never know when I might need another one. It was open, but I checked and it's complete.

I WISH I had a LHS to support. The closest to me are nearly an hour each way. At this point, I'm lucky to have a Hobby Lobby.

Sweet! It's absolutely amazing how your stock rear wheel openings minimize the wrong shape of the bottom edge of the spear. Or did you fix that, too? You're making me want to dig mine out and build it.

Why oh why hasn't Lindberg reissued this? Lord knows they've reissued just about every other piece of garbage in their vault. Licensing issue, maybe?

Don't forget the '69--same roof. In fact, the old Monogram '69, being 1/24 and completely outclassed today for any serious use, might be the best choice of all. I recently picked up a cheap Monogram '69 glue bomb just to harvest its roof for this conversion. Of course I'll post progress, if and when I ever make any.

One of the recent Car Culture mags had a detailed story on VR recently--within the last six months. I think I posted about it up in the General section at the time.

The frame was originally glued on upside down (and inside out). Now the frame is right side up and where it's supposed to be. I leave the upside down plate as a reminder of the thing's humble glue bomb origins.

This build was inspired by several nice builds of the Revell '68-'69 Corvettes that I've seen on here in the last few months, so, thanks, fellas! Got it at the local toy show last year. Fell in love with the beautiful ruby maroon paint job, and thought it would be be a good candidate for one of my quick, easy “rescue” projects. The paint was very orange-peeled, so I tried to rub it out with my standard Wright's Silver Cream, which put a nice shine on the peel but didn't level it out at all. So I started wet-sanding it with 3M #1500 and cut through to primer almost immediately. Oh well, better to have that happen at the beginning of a job than at the very end, and I wasn't wild about having to live with the molding lines running across the front fenders anyway. So it got an Easy-Off bath. Here's what I started with. Notice that the OB glued the taillight bezels and license plate frame on the outside of the body—and the license plaste frame upside down to boot! Since I had to repaint it anyway, I decided to remake it MY way. I thought a Motion Performance SS427 with the removable uptop would look badass (I already built a '69 Baldwin-Motion coupe), and doing it in '68 Corvette Bronze would make it badass with class. Did Motion build any such '68 Corvettes? Who knows? But they COULD have. Motion Perfomance was a speed dealer and custom shop; they didn't do standardized packages like the Yenko Camaros. If you wanted it and could pay for it, Motion would build it for you. Someone COULD have driven a Corvette Bronze '68 Vette into the Motion shop with a glovebox full of money and said “Fix me up, fellas.” I took the hood and wheels from the recent Yenko issue of Revell's '69 Coupe kit, which near as I can tell is pretty much the early-'90s Baldwin-Motion issue with a new luggage rack added. The side exhausts might be from there, too, I forget which kit I pirated them from. I copped some smaller front tires from the parts box to get the front end ride height down a bit and give a little badass rake. Everything else on this model is original from the toy show glue bomb, and I did nothing whatsoever to the engine, chassis, or interior. The role of Corvette Bronze in this production is played by Testor Fiery Orange (3 coats) over Walmart Black Primer. Then three or four airbrushed coats of Model Master Clear Top Coat enamel, all wet-sanded with 3M #1500 and final polished with Wright's Silver Cream. It's not quite dark enough and not quite red enough for '68 Corvette Bronze, but if you google-image “1968 Corvette Bronze” you can see at least a couple cars that look pretty close to this color. Oh well, it's pretty, anyway. This was my first try at using the “foil under paint” technique, which I did on the rear deck CORVETTE, the hood SS427 emblems, and the front and rear deck crossed-flag emblems. I'm quite pleased with how the technique worked, and I'll definitely be using it again. I really like how this one turned out. I like it SO much that I just MIGHT go ahead and build a nice dedicated interior, chassis, and engine for it. And here it is alongside the box-stock '69 Baldwin-Motion Coupe I built in the early '90s. They make a pretty nice looking pair IMHO. As always, comments welcome.

Started this one when the kit first came out around, what, 1995? First order of business was to reprofile and recontour the dolphin-like front fender bulges. This was a LOT of careful, tedious work and resulted in pretty much a complete reshaping of the whole front end. How much work? Well, if I ever want to build another one, I will start with the Coupe kit, which does NOT have the front end shape problems, and convert it to a roadster. It will be easier. That's how much work it was. That done, I was sick of looking at the thing and sentenced it to what turned out to be 15 years on the Shelf of Doom. Around 2012 I got tired of it stinking up the SOD and decided to drop-kick it through the goal posts and be done with it. I do eventually want nice Marlboro Maroon '67 Vettes in both roadster and coupe, but decided this particular model wasn't worth the effort of getting the “real” paint, so just squirted it with Testor One Shot Mythic Maroon, several coats. The color isn't far off but of course it's much too flaky for factory paint. Interior is some kind of Krylon or Rustoleum or Walmart tan, I don't remember. “Good enough.” The other main thing I remember from this build was the difficult final assembly. AFTER the body and chassis were mated, which wasn't too bad, nothing wanted to go right. The side exhausts, windshield, windshield frame and vent windows fought me every step of the way, and every time I thought I was done, I found two more parts to be glued on. Thought it would take me a half hour to do all this and it ended up taking most of a day. I never did mount the mirrors or door handles—finally just got tired of wrestling the beast to the ground and declared myself the winner and shot these pics and put it away. I will always hate Revell for not including the optional hard top. There is no excuse for this! As always, comments welcome--good, bad, and ugly. Come at me, bro!

I've done a couple of Then And Now builds, and hope to do more. Basically, I'll take one of my old builds, clean it up but leave it pretty much as-is, and then get another copy of the same kit (or closest equivalent) and build it the same way (or as close as I can stand) using my current day skills. My old builds often exhibit many of the "pet peeves" and other flaws mentioned in this thread.

Nicely done, both of them. Model on!

For those who want a head start on building an accurate '67-'68 RS Camaro out of the Revell kit, start shopping for a resin repop of the grille from the original annual AMT '67 SS350 kit or promo, or the AMT '67 Pace Car promo. The difference between the two is that the SS kit one will say SS350 and the Pace Car grille will just say SS. Modelhaus made these but of course they're gone now. But I believe others have also repopped these parts--I've seen them on eBay. NOTE that you do NOT want the RS grille from the MPC '68, which is both too small and not accurate. You want AMT '67 parts. I'll illustrate the differences when I do my tutuorial. Also, don't worry about whether your repop grille is chromed or not. Most of it will be painted black anyway, and you can handle the little chrome necessary with foil or Molotow (or even Sharpie).

Bill, those side lights look perfect and the technique sounds like something just about anyone can do.

Very clean build of one of the most beautiful cars of the '60s. What's not to like? Well done and model on!

That looks great, Jim. You're making me want to build one--my highest compliment! Model on!

And can you imagine getting into any kind of accident in one of those things? The idea of running one on the public streets absolutely terrifies me.

I once came into possession of a '49 Merc kit and decided to build it with everything I hated on it--spotlights, fender skirts, flipper hubcaps, whitewalls, continental kit, extra chrome trim, purple paint with horrible green scallops, and on and on and on. The idea was to take it to a club meeting and see how many people told me I'd built an absolutely perfect '50s custom (and I have no doubt, there WOULD have been some). And then I decided I'd be better off spending my time and effort on building models I actually liked.

Great score, congratulations!

I don't remember what it is, but I seem to remember that from the mid/late '80s.

I believe the original issue of the Revell '67 Camaro has the correct '67 SS hood. They're not that hard to find, and someone might be willing to swap you for the cool Stinger hood. BTW, I'm getting in the mood to do a tutorial on fixing the Revell '67 Camaro body, similar to my piece on fixing the AMT '67-'68. If you really want to do a first-rate model of your car, you might want to wait for that. Unless of course you already know what to do.

That pic could have been taken at my AC Moore. When I was a kid, that's about what the model section at a typical supermarket, drug store, or hardware store looked like. The model selection at typical "dime stores" was three times that size, or more. Models were everywhere!

I always thought Revell overdid the "flares" around the fake reverse-scoops on the doors on this body. To my eye, the old MPC body is more accurate in this area. Am I right or wrong? It doesn't look like it would be easy to work these down to a more accurate appearance, either.