Snake45

Sounds like Jerry Reid in Smoky and the Bandit.

I'd buy at least one of each of those. Maybe two. How I miss that Revell Fiat body.

This doesn't really answer any of your questions but I built that Testor kit out of the box about 20 years ago and had NO problems with it. In fact, I recall getting it together start to finish in something like 19 or 21 days, which is about world-record speed for me. I was very pleased with the results. Wouldn't do another one but only because I don't enjoy playing with dozens of tiny little parts. I'd rather build a curbside of this car next time.

How do you get it to stick to the wall! That's so cool!

NIB, baby! Oh yeah!

I now see there's an easier way to narrow the rear of the Revell body if one wants to go that way (and I think the next time I build this kit, this is what I'll do): 1. Razor-saw out the entire trunk, and the body panels/trim above and below it. 2. Razor-saw a slot in the middle of the roof, going from back to 2/3-3/4 of the way to the front. 3. Pinch in the rear fenders to meet the AMT taillights and bumper, and temporarily glue the AMT rear parts to the Revell body (white glue, double-sided tape, tiny spot of superglue, etc.). If you need more styrene removed from the roof slot, this could easily be done with a fresh sheet of say #280 sandpaper, run vertically in the slot till you get it where you need it. 3. Reinstall the trunk piece/pieces, narrowing on the sides to fit the now-narrower opening in the body. Reinforce with sheet styrene on underside. 4. Glue roof with liquid cement if/where the sides of the slot touch; if they don't, fill the slot with your favorite filler--putty, epoxy, whatever (I like Loctite Superglue Gel--ask for it by name. 5. Remove AMT rear panel and bumper and drive on with the build. You might need to make minor adjustments to the width of the back glass, interior, and/or chassis Yeah, a lot of work to fix a flaw that the factory shouldn't have made. But remember: It's going to sit on your shelf, LOOKING RIGHT, forever.

Very, very cool and interesting! Did you get the sheet styrene I sent you yet? Oooops, just read one particular line in your OP and believe you probably did.

I've been using an almost identical method for over a decade now, and love the results. I don't have a scriber, I just use the backside of a used (it doesn't need to be sharp) Xacto blade for everything. I shoot for going about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through the plastic. I don't have any special "wash," I just use whatever flat or matte black paint is on hand and wipe the excess off with rubbing alcohol. Non-moving body seams (fender caps, rocker panels, etc.) I don't scribe nearly as deeply, and I don't put any black in those. For white or light yellow etc paint jobs, I'll use a medium gray paint for the "wash" instead of black. Excellent tutorial, excellent topic, excellent thread. I almost want to cry when I see a nice model where this hasn't been done but the guy just ran some black into the kit door lines at the end of the build. That almost looks worse than doing nothing at all.

What irked me today? Everything irks me all day, every day. It's hell being a Grumpy Old Man.

I collect bootlegs of Warren Zevon concerts. I've got a couple from I think it was 1995, where he toured with an Irish band called Something Happens as his backup. They had a Hammond B3 organ (or something that sounded like it) and when they did "Werewolves of London" with that organ, it sounded like a Three Dog Night song! :blink:

Been a while since I've seen it but it sounds like Joe Pesci in Goodfellas.

Finally got around to doing the last thing I've been dreading on this model, namely, shooting some red primer to show areas of rust repair. Ironically, Model Master Rust paint plays the role of Red Oxide Primer. In addition to the areas behind the rear wheels (where my '65 Buick Special rusted through), I had originally planned to shoot the top of the wheel opening and a small part of the rocker panel on the left side, and the entire wheel opening and entire rocker panel on the right side. But I wussed out and only did what's shown. I can always go back and add more. Should I? Looking at it, I think the right side, with part of the rocker panel in primer, tells the rust repair story better than the left. Oh well, I think I'll just drive on through for the moment. I can shoot more primer on it sometime in the future if the mood moves me. Meanwhile, at the other end of the thing, I've got a choice of hood bumps. Eventually I'll make my own but for now I'm gonna drive on with one of these two. By removing the bogus air cleaners, I can use this scoop, which I found in the parts box. I have no idea what it's from but it's molded in orange and I think it's a Monogram part. I would probably paint this satin black, or perhaps primer gray. The other choice is this one, cut from the hood of the AMT '72 Nova “Old Pro” and reshaped with a file and turned around. This one would be painted satin black and carry either a Holley Carbs decal or a Weiand Manifold decal from the Chevelle wagon kit (both decals are too large to use on the other scoop). If I go with this one I could top the carbs with a couple of velocity stacks. What do you think, which should I use?

That's on my list of "Stupidest Lyrics of All Time." It's real near the top, too.

Very, very nice! I too like to "improve" promos but I don't think my work is as clean as yours. Model on!

Oh yeah. A woman can't remember where she put her car keys 10 minutes ago, but she can recall every word you said in your sleep one night back in 1997!

When I was a kid, the bassist was the kid whose mom owned a van they could use to haul all their gear to gigs.

Thanks for all the kind words and comments, everyone!

Okay, let's see what I can find. Here's the AMT body and rear panel/bumper, and the Revell, just to illlustrate the problem. The AMT body (and of course the rear panel and bumper) are a little narrower than the Revell. I had to "hollow out" the ends of the AMT bumper a little bit, and I think file down the Revell body a little, to get the bumper to go on there and look more or less right. Then there were gaps between the AMT taillights on the ends and the Revell body. I glued a hunk of .030" styrene in on each side of the Revell body to fill the gap. When everything was dry and solid, I just filed the "backslant" into the tips of the Revell fenders to match the AMT taillights/rear panel. It's not 100% prototype correct, but IMHO it DOES now look about 100 times better than the stock Revell rear end. So my '69 Nova now has a '72 trimmed rear panel. Guess what? I don't care. It STILL looks better and more accurate than the kit parts. And all those unbuildable AMT '72 Novas stinking up the Snakepit now have a reason for existence. BTW, my very first instinct was to chop off about the last half inch of the AMT body and graft the whole mess onto the Revell, but the width difference prevented that. (I also gave a certain amount of thought to narrowing the whole Revell body to match the AMT parts, or at least taking a pie cut out of the trunk, but being basically a Lazy Old Guy, I decided that was just Too Much Work.)

I know it's ZZ Top, from one of their first two albums. I think it might be "Just Got Paid Today." How'd I do?

Very nice, looks great! Model on!

One of my very first model cars was a Palmer 1966 "Mustang GTO." I bought it because it was 99 cents and the AMT Mustang I really wanted was $1.49. Fifty cents was a lot of money to a 12 year old in 1966. The Palmer Mustang was horrible. 4-piece body which didn't look like a Mustang when assembled, one sprue of chromed generic "customizing" parts, and the whole mess was undersized to boot. It was THE LAST Palmer model I ever bought, having learned my lesson about price and value.

Maybe he didn't use all of one engine.

That one's I Love Rock N Roll, Joan Jett.

Going only slightly off-topic for a sec here: Am I the only person who thought Jackie Brown was a much, much better movie than Pulp Fiction?

I managed to mount an AMT '72 Nova rear panel and bumper on mine. It's not a direct drop-in and it takes a little work but it can be done and it looks 1000% better than the kit parts. If anyone's interested, I'll try to dig up the old in-progress photos and post them.