Snake45

RJ, you just sold a Welly Challenger. Ordered a blue one yesterday (to split shipping with a Supernatural '67 Impala). Ordered from diecastmodelwholesale yesterday afternoon and they emailed me last night it's already been shipped.

If that one has a Hemi, a 4-speed, and a bench seat, it might be the very car in the magazine. October issue, BTW, which I failed to mention. Looks like the conversion might be beyond my skill level, especially for something so rare/pricy. Guess I'll just do it as the R/T, then.

That video reminded me of an old saying: "Nothing is impossible to the man who doesn't have to actually do it."

I believe you're right. I recall being surprised years later to learn that '56s had chrome headlight bezels too, having "learned" that the '56s were body color from the MPC instruction sheet. I have no idea where THEY got it.

There are three things you can do. 1. Learn to love it. It's not a '66 factory color, so it's not like it's "inaccurate." Lean into it. 2. Strip it and start over with some other paint. 3. You can flat-coat it, which will cut the sparkle back to the level of a normal metallic. Now you might think you can do this, and lay some clear gloss over top of that to bring back the shine, but when you do, all the sparkle and flakiness will return, just as before. I know this because I had the same situation not long ago and tried it myself. I wish I had a GOOD solution to your problem. Perhaps someone else will.

Very clean build!

The P-51's horizontal tail is hosed, too (looks like a Grumman product), but it's easily fixed with good drawings and a little file work. The engine in the Corsair is the most "Mickey Mouse"-looking model part I have ever seen--literally--but again, that's easily replaced with something better. I think I have at least one example of all the Otaki/ARII WWII fighters--and piles of some of them--but haven't built them all.

Nice! I've seen these at Walmart a couple times but have never pulled the trigger on one.

I'll do the areas that will show in flat black, but otherwise don't bother (except of course the headliner, which is painted to match the interior).

These cars are hella cool (better looking than the '69 or '70, IMHO), but refs for them are not exactly thick on the ground. The new issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines has a nice resto feature on a '68 Hemi Super Bee with some good detail pics. It's metallic blue and VERY sharp looking. I'm awaiting a Modelhaus resin '68, and I know a number of us here have either resin repros or restorable glue bombs in the to-do piles. Since we're on the subject, would it be possible to convert the MPC/Modelhaus R/T to a Super Bee? Yeah, I know, anything's possible, but how much trouble would it be, and exactly what would be required?

I've got one bought as a glue bomb. I was able to carefully cut the glued-in buckets away from the body and they should be usable, but I only have one of the headlight assemblies, but I should be able to sili-clone it no problem. The big problem with that body is that someone hogged out all four wheels openings and of course butchered the rockers, so that would all have to be rebuilt. Ironically, the windshield frame is in perfect shape, which is pretty rare in old glue bomb Sting Rays. By happy coincidence, I have another original '63 body which was a coupe someone cut the whole top off of. It's pretty decent otherwise. I might try to Snakineer some way to graft the whole sides of that body onto the '63 roadster to make one good restorable '63R body with exposed headlights. As I hate waste, I'd then probably use what's left of the ex-coupe body with some scratchbuilt sides and rockers to make some kind of custom. Lord Knows I got plenty of extra '63-'67 custom parts of various sorts to use up--hoods, side exhausts, taillights, grilles, and so forth. I don't have a pic of the original roadster body, but here's the topless coupe that might end up the body donor for it:

The one I just bought is molded in yellow, and I don't think It has those decals. I do remember that issue, though.

IIRC, the original issue of the MPC '57 said you could also build it as a '56, perhaps by painting the headlight rims body color, but I'm not sure how accurate that is. I like the dual headlights of the '56-'57s much better than the quads of the '58-'60s. From time to time I contemplate combining the front end of a '57 with the sharp rear end of a '62 to create an "ultimate" 1G Vette.

Yes, absolutely. Much, MUCH better kit. And you also need to track down an old MPC '57 and do that too. And you need to post us pics of everything. Now that we can upload direct to site, there's no excuse not to.

Did anyone ever do the two-tone green decals for a black '80 Mustang Cobra? I always thought these were pretty sharp looking. I recently picked up a cheap Lindberg '80-ish Mustang and would love to do one of those.

If we're going into diecasts, I have a diecast 1/24 '57 Chevy SD, and a slightly undersized (maybe 1/26 or 1/27) '55 Chev SD that IIRC doubles as a bank. I'm going to hit both of them with some Snake-Fu one of these days and stick them on my shelf.

Some of the late '60s funny cars had airbrushed headlights on them that looked quite realistic. Unfortunately, the illusion only works from one particular viewing angle. View it from any other angle and it will look flat and wrong. Doing it from head-on might still look better than all-chrome headlights, though. I might have to try it.

YES! That's who it is!

Well they took the ice zombie out on the back of the dragon, so maybe Dany flew the dragon AROUND the wall, so he didn't technically cross it. As to the chains and swimmers and all that: You've got a point. Personally, I wondered why the Ice Zombie King didn't just jump in the water and reanimate the dragon at the bottom of the lake, and let the dragon drag his own scaly ass out. But I guess that wouldn't have been as dramatic, would it. And my award this week for Needs The Biggest Codpiece EVER is....Tyrian! What guts! I think they need Rick Grimes, Michonne, Carol, and Darrel Dixon to show them how to take care of bidness....

No spoilers, but I'll just say, a Certain Character had it coming...and he knows who he is! Good riddance!

Yeah, that should be the FIRST thing you try. It won't work now.

I too love the color!

Model airplane friends tell me WD-40 works well for this. Others recommend Goo Gone. I've never tried either so can't personally recommend them. Try on some scrap clear styrene first to make sure they don't affect the plastic.

True, but as I said, the nicely paneled aluminum interior wasn't the rule--especially in the first-gen funnies like the '65 AWB Nova here. Snow's car was a next-gen car, a stepping stone towards the tube-chassised, glass-bodied floppers that Funnies would start becoming in 1966 with the Comets.

Okay, had a chance to compare three pristine bodies: Prestige, the "Legendary Classic" issue shown above, and an original unbuilt '67 roadster. Except for the FI emblem on the fender, the LC and Prestige bodies are identical. So is the original '67 until you look closely. The latch dealies on the deck lid are better engraved in the newer kits, and the sun visors are different. And, as shown above, the top of the windshield frame is different, too, but you're not likely to notice it with the naked eye unless you try to fit a new top to an old body, or vice versa. The new hard top fits so that it covers up the top bar of the windshield frame. The old top leaves part of the frame showing. The '67's panel wagon top fits the '67 pretty well, but would take some tweaking to fit the new bodies. On the inside, the molding pattern is similar but different between the '67 and the newer bodies. I don't know if the whole body is new, or if they just did a new top (horizontal) mold to fit the original sides (vertical mold pieces). But I did notice that the front turn signals are a bit better between the new bodies and the old annuals. Very interesting!