bonehead23

I went a little nuts last month, and in two separate orders, got a total of 18 old NASCAR kits for fairly cheap. And five more are due to arrive on the 28th. My gift to me.

This Buick was made the same year as the "Bud Monte Carlo" and it is just as cool, easy to build and great graphics.

Years ago, when this kit6 was new, I read that the beer company told Monogram to remove all those kits from store shelves, because they didn't pay royalties for the trademark. That spurred a rumor that this kit would be valuable in the future. Well, folks, I found a store that had 13 of them marked down to 3.50 apiece and I bought all 13. the checker was totally thinking I was insane. But I built one, and years later, this kit is NOT any more "valuable" than any other, I ended up selling a few, but I have four more unbuilt.

I got a box of decals from an friend, and there were at least 4 sheets of #4 Kodak decals...and curiosity demanded I seek out the kit. It is an old AMT offering, and blew me away with the detail, and ease of assembly. In spite of what people say about old AMT kits. Some NASCAR kits are selling on line for cheaper than newer kits.

My son has a friend who is addicted to Jurassic Park...he has an entire bedroom full of dinosaurs and dioramas...so how perfect is this, a Christmas gift for him. I hate to give it away because it was a limited edition, one of 5,000, and when I went back to the site to get another, it was gone.

I have been on a NASCAR binge ever since I discovered a site that has dozens of them...apparently they didn't sell very well. The graphics were a little bit of a challenge, but they went on perfect even though the kit is 20 years old.

Flintstone body, and a 350...Mighty Mouse demanded a Mouse Motor!

A mild custom '41, chopped, lowered, all chrome, emblems and bumpers gone, and a Chevy six...which is better than the flathead in the kit. And some classic Hurst mags.

Both are finished

Representing an all original never wrecked or repaired Studey, just surface rust and a piece of missing trim and a holey muffler. It would be like "Grampa's daily driver that he bought new and kept it running until he gave it to Dad and then it got parked when Dad passed in 2017. Runs and drives nicely but interior and all rubber parts need love. Engine was overhauled in 1987, a fresh battery, oil, new gas and she fired right up. Ran when parked".

I have some builds that are total junk, and those seem to be my son's favorites. We have recently been "home improving" with a totally new bathroom and kitchen, and young son is eyeballing the living room. Nothing has changed out there since we moved in 22 years ago, so he got some new furniture... I had at least 2 dozen cars on shelves, but I found them all put in a box one day and all new furniture . I asked if now I need to take ALL my cars to the garage, and he said, "NO! I like the junkers. Can you build one more?" The next day they were all displayed on the new shelf! With room for "one more". I picked the '53 "Stewed" because it had been robbed of all the race parts so it was the perfect victim. I decided to make it a "restorable running car" rather than a total junk pile. Weathering commences; chassis is done, down to the hole in the muffler (drilled the hole and applied bare Metal, then carefully picked it open.) The interior was sprayed flat black and dust drizzled on; seats were covered with Elmer's glue and paper towel sections, then rips and tears added, and more dust. Now the body has been painted in layers of grey, black, red and a lot of dust drizzled on, ...stay tuned, it will be worked on today. Meanwhile, after the Stewed photos, I added some shots of my "other junk". Enjoy.

.062 Resin core...I could not find solid core; resin will work but by no means do not EVER use acid core; it will destroy plastic.

Today's episode is "welding" the frame to the floor pan, getting parts painted and suspension is in. And the body fits; wheels are where they should be.

Today I measured three times and cut once. After the glue dries, I will cut off the frame at the spring mounts and continue. Some folks questioned "DOHC Hemi" but it is included with the Coronet as an option. The heads have some nice detail and underneath it has four valves per cylinder. Too bad that detail gets hidden. One of the coolest parts in the Coronet are the Mickey Thompson Sportsman tires! When the plastic box containing all the parts is empty, it will be time for paint...but that is a long way off.

Adding another update on 5/13...almost ready to paint! So wa-a-a-y down at the end of this post you will see the latest progress . Now back to the original post comment. I noticed in the magazine a section called "Models started and finished in the Model cars magazine Forum." OK, I'll bite. This is the beginning of the start. I got the Christine kit from my son, so I had to build it...but I also recently found an old Pro Street Coronet. The Dodge floor pan and tubs fit ok, but since the Plymouth has a full frame and the Coronet is a Unibody, I will cut the tubs and mate them with the Plymouth front half, tying the frame to the tubs so I can use not only the narrowed rear end, but the stock interior panels, front suspension with lowered spindles, and firewall. The Dodge front half is too narrow thus way too much work when I can use a lot of the stock parts easily. Of course I will use the DOHC Hemi option! My son came in as I was sorting parts, and said, "Cool! You're pimping it out!" Indeed I am. And I will document every step of the way and post it here. Do you suppose I will finally get one in the magazine? Today, (5/5/2022) I put the engine together...but even though they look nice, Detail master distributor kits are a real headache, all those tiny parts...but it comes with boot material and looms. Today, (5/7/22) things are looking better. I had to do some surgery to get everything to fit, especially the huge engine.

I don't know why exactly, but I spent too much for this '62 Tempest kit, and then got a '66 Nova with the stock chassis, parts from the Mooneyes digger for the front axle, and the 421 from Revell. It all worked out nicely. Tamiya Mica Red provided the perfect shade I wanted, and the white is just masked primer and clearcoat.. Testor's Revving red is close, but darker, and the Tamiya paint has a golden glow in the sunlight. The blue '63 is a Model King issue AWB, just for comparison. Both were "holy grails" I finally snagged and built.

I have a lot of 1/32 scale kits; some are nice, some are not so nice...but the other day I wanted to build something unique, and since I am not a real Porsche fanatic, I thought I would try this 1983 issue Matchbox 935. I don't know why I waited so long to build it, but once I opened the box I could see it was very nicely detailed and spot-on proportion wise. Box stock of course, but nice as a 1/24 kit would be, down to the turbo and small details throughout. Testor's pearl white was used for color, and the very old decals worked perfect with no problem at all. Funny how newer kits have decals that disintegrate! The hardest part was the multi-piece body consisting of 16 parts. I managed to get it right. I liked it so much I became a closet Porsche freak and am working on two more small scale kits.

AMT and several others have cranked out a '66 Nova or two; pro street and stock, but nobody ever did a '66 gasser. I filled that void with a Moebius chassis and AMT '66 body. It was amazing how the AMT '66 body fit the Moebius '65 chassis perfectly, Slixx provided the decals, Tamiya Pearl Yellow provided the tweety colors. A MPC '57 flipnose provided the engine; solder and shrink wrap provided the headers.

I searched the garage stash for a couple years trying to find that old JoHan ElDorado chassis (I know it's out there somewhere) to put under a '50 Pickup but could not find it. Then Round 2 reissues the "Californian" and I could not wait to get one so I could build this truck, a replica of a friend's rig back in 1986, using a 3100 cab and fabricated stake bed. I made mine out of the Californian chassis, GTO tri power added, wheels and tires from a stock '66 Nova kit, and the bed made from a '60 Chevy bed floor, and hand-cut strips of woodgrain plastic for stakes and regular sheet for fenders. The real truck was low, lean and mean, and very fast due to being the center of gravity was so low on stock suspension and packing a 455!

Here's a unit that would be nice as a first responder to crashes at the drag strip...Allison power might make it fun to just crack off a few 1/4 miles as well.

Every collection needs a first responder...and I got the kit out of sheer curiosity because I knew it had some nice wheels! But it turns out, though a very old reissued tool, it has some charms and some cool custom and speed parts, but I put it on steroids. Here's the other City of Troy fast responder, the Fire Chief!

The police want to get there fast. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Meet "Crazy Copper" ultimate street racer pursuit vehicle.

Here's a little pickup that used to be a '77 Pinto wagon. Packing a 302 and some shiny shoes.