Snake45

Thanks Rob and Mark!

Brudda, I'm planning to start a 2022 thread soon. Watch for it!

Last night I was google-imaging trying to figger out exactly what year this random 1G Nova body I have is (turns out, it seems to be a '62), and I couldn't find any reference to an AMT '64 Nova. Did AMT not do the Nova in '64, and then pick it back up again in '65? Mark? Tim? Bueller? Anyone?

VERY cool project, Tim, and beautiful finished model! You are inspiring me to restore/rescue/rebuild my old MPC Mr. Unswitchable, which is currently in pieces, and maybe even do something with my old Dick Harrell '69 Camaro, which has a killer chassis that needs some repair but could stand a whole new body. Maybe 2022 will be the year! Model on!

Great project, I love the color! This is going to turn out great! This year I managed to pick up glue bombs of original AMT annual '62 and '66 T-Bird sports roadsters, and I'm hoping to rebuild at least one of them next year (2022).

Part 3--the finals--went up today:

Great find, congratulations! Love the color--looks very similar to '69 Ford Silver Jade. Model on!

Is anyplace offering pre-orders on the Novas yet? I checked modelroundup and spotlight and megahobby, my three go-tos, and couldn't find them listed.

I've seen that one on more than one "Worst Movies of All Time" lists. I vividly remember it being on a double feature with something else in a local theater when I was a kid. I don't remember actually seeing it; I think I might have gone to see the other movie and then didn't stick around for Santa.

CabDriver, you did GREAT! Congratulations! And, of course, model on!

Mine used to always have maybe 2-3 dozen diecasts on the shelf--Welly, M2 and Jada--and I probably bought one every two months or so. When covid started, the diecasts got scarcer and scarcer. You'd be lucky to see 2 or 3 new ones a month, most of those just color variations of stuff I already had. I don't think I bought a single diecast there in 2021. I think I bought a total of 8 diecasts at Rite-Aid or the local toy show this year, and then got 3 new ones last week from diecastmodelswholesale.com.

Well, as 2021 draws to a close, how did you do with your planned list? Reviewing mine, the results are pretty shameful: 70 Superbird glue bomb—Cannonball group build--GOTTER DONE! 65 Chevelle dirt tracker—Cannonball group build--Started, not completed 67 GTO glue bomb rescue—should be a quick project for a Day Two build--GOTTER DONE! 65 Impala convertible custom--a "double build" with Can-Con's project. --Started, made some good progress, long way from done. Did do a diecast '65 Impala Snake-Fu, though. 66 Skylark Craftsman rebuild completion—possible BOYD project--GOTTER DONE! 74 Corvette promo resto completion—possible BOYD project--Nope. 62 Nova glue bomb rebuild--high school hot rod--Rounded up some more parts, and even enough for a second one, but no real progress. 69 Nova completion—possible BOYD project--Nope 68 Cougar—at least one, maybe 2, maybe 3--Hah! I wish. 69 Javelin promo resto--Nope 71 Chevelle completion--Nope. 63 Corvette--white polished plastic--Nope. AMT '66 Corvette rebuild—at least one, maybe 2 or 3--Nope, though I did do a glue bomb rescue of a Monogram '65 Vette. 64 Cutlass HT—resin body with other original 1964 parts--Rounded up all the needed parts and got the resin body repaired, not much progress beyond that, though. 65 Chevelle AMT Craftsman—resto/rescue--Nope, though I am nearing completion of a '65 El Camino glue bomb rebuild that MIGHT get done this year. Maybe. 65 GTO glue bomb rebuild--Nope. 69 Corvair V8—possible Cannonball group build--Nope 75-79 Nova—one or more possible projects--Not at all, not one. Not even a little. Well, I paint-stripped at least one of them. On the positive side, I DID get 20 models completed this year, including 2 new-builds, 13 glue bomb rescues, and 5 diecasts. Hope to finish off at least two more diecasts before the end of the year, maybe three, and possibly that glue-bomb '65 Elky project.

Just watched Matrix IV on HBO/MAX. I was never a particular huge Matrix fan (though I re-watched the original trilogy on streaming last year), but I imagine those who are won't be disappointed. Plenty of good stunts, SFX and CGI. Lots of meta-references for the fanboys. Same Neo and Trinity. New Mr. Smith and Morpheus--the new Morpheus was obviously cast for his resemblance to Lawrence Fishburne, and I thought he did a pretty good job with the role. Oh, Doogie Houser's in it, too! The two best lines of the movie (IMHO, of course): "They promised us peace, and gave us a purge." --and-- "I get it--the exomorph slinkies up Neo's old umbilicus." This struck me as hilarious for some reason. I'm gonna see if I can work it into everyday conversations, maybe make it a new catchphrase.

Sad trip to Walmart today. For about 6 months now, they're usually out of ONE thing on my regular shopping list, maybe two, but today was the first time I saw semi-widespread shortages. The entire toy car aisle was almost completely empty of Hot Wheels, diecasts, cheap RCs--EVERYTHING! No Red Sharpies, which I use in my model work. Haven't had them for at least 2 weeks. Wanted a mini hot glue gun. Didn't have 'em, had to buy a full size one, which I think is too much for what I want to do. Out of my brand of spray deodorant, as they have been for 2 or 3 weeks. Only TWO cans of ANY kind in the whole store! I bought one. Hope we like it. No unsalted crackers--haven't had them in at least 3 weeks. Had to get salted. No ginger snaps or vanilla wafers, any brand. Neither of my two preferred types of mustard--luckily I've been stockpiling them and have 3 or 4 bottles in reserve. Got the last two packages of my brand of English Muffins. Felt lucky to get them. Had to root around to find one of my preferred DiGiornio frozen pizzas--almost had to buy the Walmart brand. Long lines at the TWO open checkout counters (all they've had open for about 3 months now), even had to wait for a turn at a self serve. Maybe things were bad because it's two days before Christmas, but somehow I have a feeling things are gonna get worse before they get better.

The "car aisle" of my Walmart was almost COMPLETELY empty today! Empty shelves! Empty wall hooks! No Hot Wheels! No Hot Wheels sets! No diecasts! No Tonkas or RC cars! It looked like it had been hit by Toy Car Locusts!

I might have done 2 or 3 of them. Might still have a spare. Lemme look around a little and if I can find one, I'll post. Oh, I think the AMT '68 Shelby has the teardrop hood, too. Do you have one of those in your extensive Ford stash?

After seeing Mike C's nice Welly '65 Impala, I ordered one from diecastmodelswholesale.com, and it arrived in two days. Only colors available now are metallic gray and beige. The wheelbase scales to 1/25.9. As cheap diecasts go, that's “close enough” for me. Should sit nicely on my 1/25 shelf. Before getting into my mods, here's a couple pics of the engine compartment. It's VERY nice for a basic model at this price point—I'd expected a one-piece plate, or even a closed hood. There seems to be at least seven separate pieces here, including power brake cylinder, alternator & fan belt, washer bottle, radiator hose, and air conditioner with related hosing. You can even read the Turbo-Jet 325 HP on the air cleaner! I have engine compartments in kits I've built that don't look this good! On to the Snake-Fu. Here's what I did: *Sanded the tire treads, of course. *Popped the hard-plastic whitewall inserts out of the tires and painted them black. Would have painted them flat red, if I'd had any on hand. Could always do this later. *Painted the steel portions of the '67-style Rally Wheels with Model Master Steel. *White-stemmed the headlights, turn signals, and taillights. *Touched up the taillight trim rings with Silver Sharpie, and added the backup lights with white paint. *Painted the “B pillars” (molded into the body) black to make them less conspicuous. They really should be cut out completely. Maybe next go-through. *Fitted the grille/front bumper to the body better to get rid of an unsightly gap above the left headlights (see the Before pics). This took a LOT of work—over an hour of filing metal off the body. *Black-washed and detailed the grille. *Painted the front valence (below the front bumper and grille) craft acrylic flat aluminum. *Detailed the full-width rear trim panel black. I pondered several ways to do this with either brush or spray paint, but all seemed to be a lot of work with satisfactory results not guaranteed. When I realized the rear bumper was molded in black, I ground a worn-out Xacto blade into a small chisel shape and used this to simply scrape the chrome plating off the panel area. This was also a fair amount of work but came out pretty good. *Lowered the front end for an “attitude rake.” This was very easy and only involved filing the front axle locating notches in the engine compartment piece a little deeper. I think I might have overdone this, but it wouldn't be too difficult to build the notches back up again a little. I'm interested in other opinions on this—do I have too much rake, or does it look good as it is? Let me know. So there it is. The Snake-Fu took much longer than I thought it would (the better part of three full mornings—8-9 hours), but the finished model ended up looking even cooler and more badass than I imagined when I started. Thanks for looking, a special thanks to Mike C for opening my eyes as to the potential of this model, and as always, comments welcome! Merry Christmas!

When I needed one for my '66 AWB Mustang, I vacformed the hood from a '66 Galaxie, cut out the part that's missing on the Mustang hood, and molded it in. It turned out pretty well.

Not my style at all, but there's no denying that's a fine model! Well done and model on!

Finished up the Snake-Fu on a diecast Welly '65 Impala. Looked like an easy job, I estimated it at 2-4 hours tops. More involved than it looked--it ended up taking three whole mornings, probably closer to 9 hours. The finished model looks even better than I was hoping for though. Hope to have pics up in the Diecast section tomorrow.

Only if you build 'em stock.

Color doesn't look too far off '67 Chevy Tahoe Turquoise. Well done and model on!

Very clean build! Well done and model on!

VERY cool! I'll be ordering at least two of these (and two of the gassers) as soon as they become available. In the meantime, I've got a couple of AMT '63-'65 Nova projects on the best that I will drive on with.

Back in the day, I started a model '53 Stude custom. I grafted some sort of front end on it from another kit--a Camaro, maybe?--and it looked a little like this. Never finished it but I still have all the parts in a box. They're kind of embarrassing or I'd show a pic.