Snake45

He trained a rattlesnake to do his laundry, I'm tellin' you the man was insane....

Very, very, VERY nice! Your wheel and tire choice and stance are right on the money, and your build is very clean. Wish I'd done this one myself--what more can I say?

I hadn't noticed that, but now that you've mentioned it, I'll take a look. I'd given some thought to replacing the wheel openings on the funny car body with stock ones from the Revell and driving on from there. Did some good eyeballing of both bodies, and measuring, and it's amazing how close they are. I THINK I could chop both bodies somewhere below the centerline crease and swap the panels and have a no-putty job, that's how close they look. The rear ends are virtually identical in width, too--could also probably swap the whole rear of the car including the Malibu SS emblem on the rear fenders. Now that you've mentioned the roof, I'll take a good look at it. What specifically looks wrong about it to you on the Revell body?

I'm no expert on WWI stuff but that looks pretty good to me. I couldn't have built it. Would still like to see the P-47.

I've got an AMT '65 Chevelle funny car body, which still had that before they made it into a dirt tracker. I'm going to clone the rear panel off that. I think I've figgered out a cheap and relatively easy way to do that. Will take and post pics, if you think there's any interest.

Yup. From the new Fruit Wagon kit.

Picked one of these up with a 50% off coupon at Michael's today. It's got goofy new donky wheels and tires (which I might be putting up for trade here sometime) and one more useful thing: The "Malibu SS" emblem on the decal sheet. I don't recall this decal on the original issue of this kit (and I can't find my copy of it to check). This emblem was on the rear fender of normal SS '65 Chevelles but molded into front fenders of the Revell Z16 kit, one major impediment to building a common SS or Malibu from this kit. Now all I have to do is come up with the common, non-Z16 rear end panel. And I think I've figured out a way to do that, too.

No pics today but I did get a good deal of necessary work done. I thought I would Git Er Done today but I'll have at least one more session. But for those interested, here's what I got done: *Built a new "keg" gas tank. Decided it wasn't worth stripping and repainting the old one when I can't see using the new one from the Fruit Wagon on anything else. Painted it three times--first a base coat of Testor Flat Tan, then a heavy dry-brush of Testor Leather (only brown paint I have on hand), about 90%, then a light dry-brush of black. Instead of trying to paint the keg straps, I just cut two strips of black vinyl tape and wrapped the thing with those. It doesn't look half bad--much better than the old one, anyway. *Pried the instrument panel insert out of the dashboard. Repainted all the instrument dials black, then scraped the black paint off the numbers and dials back to the white plastic underneath. Filed/sanded the insert (originally chrome, which I'd painted with gloss brown paint) perfectly flat, then gave it the same 3-step "wood" treatment as the keg. *Filed/sanded the injection sink marks out of the chrome keg mounting deck so everything's nice and flat, then airbrushed it all Black Chrome Trim to match the frame. *Pried off the intake manifold. Filed and scraped all injection marks off the log manifold and the six carbs. Repainted the manifold Testor Steel and the carbs Model Master Jet Exhaust, a dark goldish color I like a lot for carburetors. Removed the molding flash and cleaned up the six velocity stacks as best I could. I hope they fit better now than they did first time around. Will know next session. *Tried to clean up those weird Lincoln valve covers but I wasn't able to make any satisfactory progress on them. So I dug up an old glue bomb copy of this model I bought for $1 about 20 years ago, pried the valve covers off that, and went to work on them. They were heavy with paint and glue. I decided to file all that weird vertical finning off them and leave them plain. Originally planned to leave the two distinctive mounting bolts but after spending almost an hour just filing the fins off the top and bottom edges, I just broke out the BAF (Big Ass File) and cleaned the tops of the covers off flat. They're very plain looking now but at least they don't look like the valve covers on every other copy of this kit ever built in the last 50+ years. Rattlecanned them with Walmart gray primer, and then with Krylon Satin Nickel, a flat silver color. I think they'll look okay. If those velocity stacks all fit in place now, should be able to finish up the engine tomorrow (or next session if I don't get to work on it tomorrow). *Decided that the kit "custom" wheels, even though I'm gonna use them, are just too toy-like looking as they are. Experimented with some Black Chrome Trim and Steel paint on one of them. It seems to be an improvement. Now I have to do the other three. That will probably take another two hours next session. (Does anyone know what those wheels are supposed to be? They look like the love children of Cragars and Apaches.) Still have to find and install some headlights (maybe taillights, too, if the mood strikes me), and find and install a windshield. I think for right now I'll be going with a low, cut-down windshield. Still have to repaint the steering wheel and those other three wheels. I should try to find a shift lever but I'm not gonna get anal about it if I don't. I guess I could make something out of plastic rod. The end is in sight on this little evil mess. Next pics I post of it SHOULD be finished shots.

Very nice, really looks the part! Don't worry about no clearcoat. Most of these things were far from being showcars, and weren't really all that shiny.

I tried, but you gotta register and log in to see it.

Styx?

Johnny Carson had a term for this: Scorefog. I am not making this up.

I saw Edgar Winter in '74 (I think) with Rick Derringer, and I believe Johnny did a brief cameo too. I think the opening act was Brownsville Station. They were much better than their one-hit-wonder status might indicate. I bought two of their albums--good stuff!

Oh, thanks. Now that's gonna be in my head all day. (Not really. I've never heard it. I don't believe I've ever heard any Dead Kennedys song--not that I know of, anyway.)

I don't mind backpacks, but people pulling around giant purses on wheels drive me nuts. If you can't pick it up and carry it, you're carrying around too much stuff, sweetie.

That might work! That stuff is some kind of solvent, maybe akin to acetone, and I've had it frost plastic. It's hell on paint, too, which is why I almost never use it anymore.

Well the '27 engine was a great idea but I opened up that old box and it's not in there. Don't know if it might turn up elsewhere, or if I traded it off to someone years ago. I have a slight vague recollection of the latter. It's not something I'd THINK I'd ever use. So I'll go with either the stock engine, or the hot-rodded engine from the Revell '29 truck. I might see what's in the AMT (ex-MPC) '29 truck/woodie kit, too. Is there some particular color associated with such hot-rodded old engines, or should I just go with basic black?

I'm not a huge fan of them. Someday I'll come up with something the same overall sizes (width and tire diameter) but more "traditional" and I'll replace these. Will use these on the new-build yellow one, though, just because they're "right" for that.

Yup. But I've been building model airplanes all my life and so am pretty good at creating "seamless seams" from halves of things. Normally in car modeling I only get to use that awesome skill on engine blocks.

The yellow one will be a new build--I'll leave this one alone. No interior, engine, or chassis. The "glass" is either heavily smoked or straight black plastic, I forget which. I just polished it up and glued it in. I think you can see EVERY PART of this model in these pictures.

Next time you're at Walmart, toy store, flea market, etc., take a look at diecasts and other toys. These sometimes have oversized blowers & scoops and stuff coming through the hood. In fact, I think I have a '57 Chevy sedan delivery diecast that has or had one of those. I'm plugging the hole in the hood. If I can find that oversized blower, it's yours.

I believe you're right--and I saw him do it live, too! (I think ZZ Top was the opening act, if you can believe it.)

Started this one when the kit first came out, what, almost 20 years ago? The Testor Boyd's Aluma-Coupe Yellow paint didn't work out for me AT ALL so I stripped it and sentenced to a long term on the Shelf of Doom. Finally got tired of looking at it there so a couple years ago I squirted it with some kind of Duplicolor metallic red, shot right from the can. The stuff laid down and buffed up pretty nicely. Now, older and wiser, I'm ALMOST in the mood to try a yellow one again. This time I know the secret--white or yellow primer under that Boyd's Yellow, not gray (will prolly use Floquil Reefer Yellow, which I keep on hand to do model airplane propeller tips). And I have JUST enough of that stupid paint left to do it, too....

Very, VERY nice! Every time I see one of these things built, I want to dig mine out and actually put it together.

I keep seeing these TV commercials for the Dart starring "Darryl" from The Office. They're very clever and entertaining (and short!), but I notice they don't show you much if any of the actual car. I wouldn't know a new Dart if one ran me over in a crosswalk.