Can-Con

Got this AMT '70 in a trade with fellow board member MK 11 this week. [Thanks again Mike!] Really glad to get it and I plan to start on it as soon as I finish up the 2 cars I'm working on now. Gonna need some body work in the rear 1/4s and a few other parts that I can source from a common AMT/MPC '69 that I have. Biggest thing missing is the front bumper/grille assembly which is pretty hard do come by but I have a resin "cast off" coming from a member of another board. Not perfect but I should be able to work with it. Plans are for a basically stock build in Grabber blue and black.

They are a different kit, Jim. And those '23 roadsters are getting hard to find now. I wish I had bought a couple when they were available. But, the chassis from a Revell Buttera T kit should fit right under that with little or no problem.

This is what I've used on the '61 T-bird and '64 Pontiac I'm working on right now. Don't spray it with lacquer clearcoat though. It acts like spraying lacquer over enamel and wrinkles really bad. What I do since I'm using lacquer clearcoat over it is mix it in my clear and then it won't have that reaction,, usually, at least not yet for me.

There's another thread on this topic that explains exactly what parts went where. We even compared parts from all 3 kits, the AMT GMC, MPC '72 Chevy stepside and the "newer tool" AMT '72 Chevy longbox. Seems most of the newer tool is in fact the AMT GMC in spite of that would have been a lot easier to make the exact same kit by just adding the new box to the MPC Chevy and keeping the GMC as it was. I'm surprised Casey hasn't put up a link to that thread yet. So, Carl and all those others yearning for a rerelease of the GMC stepside, Sorry but it can't happen now short of a lot of new tooling. And if they did that, they might as well go all out and do a whole new kit.

It's not the size that's the problem, it's the wheel itself. The full size wheel with the 5 on 5 bolt pattern has a 1-peice front. The smaller wheel with the 5 on 4 3/4 is a 2-peice. Much like a Magnum 500 wheel but with the spokes curved in instead of out. It may not be a big difference to some but it is to those of us trying to replicating a car we owned. BTW, the midsize wheels were available in 14 and 15 inch sizes. BUT, the wheels on most models are made to fit the tires, not the other way around so those Monogram 1/24 "14 inch" wheels actually scale out to around 16 inches in 1/25.

Depends on the kit. I'd rather have the parts plated and remove the plating as needed than to need it plated like bumpers and headlight buckets and have to send them out. It's a lot easier to take it off then to add it.

"Candy paint" is basically just any transparent paint over a base of another color, usually silver or gold. But you can use any paint as a base. Since it's your first experiment with this and your using Tamiya spray cans I'd recommend their transparent red over the metallic red ,, the one that looks like metallic pink, That will be easier to get a consistent color with less light and dark areas then using strait silver or gold as a base. Use light mist coats to build up the depth of candy you want then clearcoat it after it's dried a few days. That's basically how I did the paint on this truck only using Duplicolor instead of Tamiya.

It's "Metalspecs" transparent blue over Tremclad metallic silver with more Duplicolor on the roof but with a much finer flake that looks more of a pearl finish. It looks a bit more to the purple side in these pics then it actually is. And a shot of the 409 sitting in the mocked up engine bay.

Very sharp ?

All the bodywork is dome and she's finally ready for paint.

It's been a while but I did get some color on this one last weekend. It's a custom mix candy green with a bit of candy yellow added over a chunky silver flake.Maybe should have put a gold base instead of silver but it has an early '60s feel to the shade it turned out.

Yea, she was sharp. Here's the only pic I have left of it. unfortunately, those old 110 cameras weren't great and this is a pretty bad pic. Wish I could have kept this one.

Pretty cool Charlie. I didn't know you dabbles in "customs", I've never seen these two before. Love the Suburban.

Same here, and I'd bet most members here are the same, if you have a question, just ask. And remember, there are no bad or "stupid" questions, just ones that haven't been answered yet. ?

Looks great Roy, and thank you for not doing the front signal lights and cornering lights in yellow like incorrectly shown on the boxes. ? I had one in the early '80s too and it also was baby blue when I bought it but I painted mine Chrysler plum crazy with a light grey vinyl roof. They were great cars, weren't they. ??

Keith Marks does a decal sheet for the Riviera but I'd recommend the Model Car Garage photoetch sheet instead.

Thanks Jim.

It was announced that they were going to do it but it was never released.

I had a '69 and a '72 when I was young and foolish. Wish I could have kept both but,,. Anyway, I have built this kit a few years ago. Made a couple small alterations to it. One thing to look out for is the engine should have a valley cover under the intake manifold but doesn't. You'll have to do something with the seam from the block 1/2s or it might show. Here's a couple pics of mine and a link to the build album. https://public.fotki.com/SteveMilberry/projects/66-riviera-custom/

Simply beautiful. ?

Oh, yea, Pretty cool engine too. Someone was going to cast some in resin a few years ago but I haven't heard anything from it since. I may build up a small block with some wild intake system for mine and use a tranny from a '69 kit on it. Here's a link to the instructions on the Drastic Plastic Fotki site, https://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/mkiba-build-under-c/amt-instructions/show-rods/amt-chevrolets-expe/

I've got one to redo too. Unfortunately, no engine though. Are you doing factory style red/black paint? I'm using the custom wheels from the AMT '65 Olds 88 annual on mine. A friend cast a couple sets of them for me. It'll be interesting to see how yours turns out.

I don't think that came that way though David. We've had many Pontiacs in the family over the years and I don't remember any of them being "Pontiac blue". Every Canadian Pontiac engine I've ever seen was regular Chevy engine orange/red. Doesn't matter in this case anyway as being a custom, the engine in this build will match the body color. BTW, if you do a Google image search for "Parisienne 409" that is the only blue one that comes up.

Very nice. Definitely the best build of one of those I've seen. My 1/1 was the same colors but it had the white landau roof too.