bh1701

Very nice work on both models! Bart

Everything about this one looks great! Bart

Looks fantastic! I liked your build of it so much that I went online today and I bought one myself. Hope mine turns out as good as yours did. Bart

An interesting subject. You did a great job capturing the look and feel of the real car.

Looks great - good work!

...and now for something completely different! The Ford Levacar Mach 1 Around 1959, Ford developed this concept car that was basically a hovercar that blew air out of vents on its bottom to lift it up about 1/4" to 1/2" off the ground. When it was displayed, it was on the outside a circular platform and was tethered to the center of the circle. It would glide around the outside edge of the circle. AMT made a model of it at that time, and it came with a rubber hose you could attach to the back. When you blew into the tube, the model would rise up off the ground. I remember building this kit back around 1960, and was lucky enough to find an unbuilt kit recently on an auction site. The color is Tamiya TS-95 Pure Metallic Red. The decals for the rear fin were unusable, so i created my own replacement decals. When it sits on the display base, there is a small clear plastic block under the center of the model that lifts it up from the base. Thanks for checking out this blast from the past! Bart

I don't know if any kits ever had them. I think Ford started using the Blue Oval on their cars until around the 90's on Taurus, Tempo and the like. I think there was a Taurus kit made at one time, but don't know if the Ford Ovals were decals or just molded into the body. Bart

Thanks, but they'd also be a bit too big. I need them to fit the size of the Ford Oval in the grill opening on the Explorer Sport Trac. The size of the oval in that grill is 3/16" - so these would be much larger than the oval shape I am trying to fill. Thanks again for searching for these. Bart

Thanks for looking for them. They'd be too big for me to use. I'll let you keep them in case you ever might need them yourself. Bart

Thanks, Melvin! Keep in mind that I need ovals that are about 3/16" wide. Bart

Thanks - those look really nice. Thanks for letting me know about them! Bart

Thanks! And hoping all goes well with the kidney stones! I have had a couple and they are definitely no fun. Bart

I would need them to be around 3/16" wide (.1875"). They are being used on the front grill and rear tailgate of a 1/25 Ford Explorer Sport Trac. Bart

Does anyone have any 1/25 scale Ford Blue Oval decals? I just need 2 for a model I am working on. But a couple extra would be good in case I would mess something up! Thanks, Bart

Does anyone have a source for 1/25 scale Ford Blue Oval decals? I just need 2 for a model I am working on. Thanks, Bart

Bill, Thanks for the info. I forgot that Bare Metal makes decal paper, too. Not exactly what I think of when I hear the word "Bare Metal"! A question for you: Let's say that my decal would be a colored dark red rectangle with some white text inside of it. If I cut the decal tight to the edges of the decal, would any of the white decal base be visible at the edges when it is applied? Bart

I am looking for some white decal paper (for Laser printers). I am not having much luck finding anything on the internet. Do any of you have a good source for a quality product? Thanks, Bart

Thanks, Phil I found this kit on eBay. I had eBay alerts to notify me when any Cougar models were listed. I considered both unbuilt and built models. It took a while, but I finally found this unbuilt kit that was 99% complete. I also saw others that were way overpriced or were missing too many pieces. If you aren't already doing this, you may want to consider it. I found it interesting that for a while you will see nothing, then all of a sudden 4 or 5 items show up! Bart

Al, I added some pics to the Community Build forum for my 67 and 69 Cougars. Didn't know that there was a section exclusively for Cougars! Thanks, Bart

Here are my 2 Cougars to share. A 1969 Cougar and a 1967 Cougar (which started life as a 68 Cougar and was back-dated to look like the 67 Cougar).

Keith, The technique I used was a "stamping method". I used a pencil with a clean, unused flat-top eraser. It was one of the cheap plastic pencils with refillable lead that had a flat-topped eraser on it. If the eraser is rounded at the top, I don't think that would work as well. I used Metallic Silver craft paint and would get just a little bit of paint on the head of the eraser, and then would touch it gently to the taillight ribs. Don't drag the eraser across the ribs; just tap it gently to the surface like you'd do with a rubber stamp. It sometimes took multiple "stampings" to get the paint built up to where it was visible. I like the craft paints since you can remove paint from any unwanted areas with a sharp toothpick that has been lightly moistened with water. That worked well to remove any paint that ended up between the ribs where the red taillight should be seen. If you really screw up, you can remove everything with water while the paint is still wet and just start over again. I did create a post a while ago where I asked for ideas on how to do this. You had made some comments on that post. You may want to revisit it to see the different ideas that were suggested. Good luck with your taillights! Bart

Steve, The use of wire might be a good idea. It would probably be easier to hide in the photos. If I am paying better attention when shooting photos, I would try to put the plastic strip in a position where it would be hidden by the sides of the roof. One of the features I like about the plastic strip is that it is flexible enough that the horizontal portion of it can be bent up or down as needed to fit close to the underside of the roof. I had also considered using thin clear tube or a thin plastic tube for the vertical section with the wires running inside the tube. This whole contraption was something I thought up while falling asleep one night. My prototype was thrown together quickly, I will continue to try to come up with an improved version of it. I will be interested in seeing what you come up with. Bart

No good reason for using the 68 steering wheel - except laziness. I considered trying to modify it by adding that big projection out from the center, but figured not too many people would notice the 68 steering wheel in it! But, good catch on your part to notice it! Plus, I always thought those steering wheels with the big projections on them were pretty ugly! Bart

Being able to see the interiors of cars in photos is sometimes hard to accomplish. It's especially hard since the lighting on the car is lighting up the exterior and not the interior. For my latest model photos, I took an extra battery box and an LED light to make this contraption that slides in under the roof of the model. It's mounted to a thin piece of plastic that has a 90 degree bend to it. I also made several paper sleeves that can go over the LED to dim it down if it is too bright. If you position it correctly, it should not be visible in the photos. The contraption How it slides in to the body (the interior looks bright in this shot since the exterior was not lit up for this shot) A finished photo ( I should have done a better job of hiding the contraption from view!)

I picked this up from an online seller. The kit was actually a 1968 Cougar, but I wanted to modify it to look like the 1967 model. That required sanding off front and rear marker lights from the fenders, Cougar script on the rear fenders, and GT emblems on the front fenders. To get the correct Cougar emblem on the rear fenders, I used a decal set from Keith Marks. I also sanded off the trunk lid details and the XR7 logos on the sides of the roof since the decal set also included those. The pin stripes are also from the decal set. The color is Phoenician Yellow from Scale Finishes. Phoenician Yellow was for name used by Ford; Mercury called it Jamaican Yellow. The kit was missing one of the stock wheels, so I had to use the custom wheels from the kit. Since these were intended for the Drag version (with the wide rear tires), I had to trim the posts that the rear axle attached to so that the stock tires would fit correctly. Painting the chrome strips on the rear tail lights was a lot of fun! I usually take photos of my interiors before they are attached to the body so that I can capture all of the details. Trying to photograph the interior once it is in the body can be challenging - both from a focus and lighting perspective. I tried something new with these photos - I took an extra battery box and an small LED light that was left over from the lighting I did for a Star Trek shuttlecraft. I attached the LED to a thin piece of plastic and added a 90 degree bend to it. I can slide that light into the top of the interior to get some light on the interior in the finished model. I have a few sleeves made out of paper that I can slide over the LED if it looks too bright; these help to diffuse the light and reduce the intensity. Bart NOTE: Interior light was used on the first 2 photos NOTE: No interior light for the next photo. My interior lighting invention