93Z34

Prices seem to be down a bit this year so far. It's hard to believe the 59 impala brought so much...The Shelby sure was a sweet car though. Definitely deserved to be the high bidder so far...should be an interesting show this week.

I personally think the Revell 69 Camaro was one of the most underrated models of all time. there wasn't alot of hype when the kit was introduced, but I'll never forget the first Yenko kit I opened. Iw as hooked on that kit and have bought literaly dozens of the various 69 Camaros over the years and it's just as awesome a kit today as it was back in the 90's. Definitely one of the best model kits ever molded in any scale!

Well, I masked the Taurus body tonight and decided I would try to Matt's 2003 Ford with the black scheme he ran at Michigan rather than the flamed car he ran. I was extremely nervous about masking and painting this car as it has been extremely hard for me to get good, crisp tape lines at the color seperations. I spent over an hour tonight masking this car off and I must have done something right because, as you can see, the end result is amazing. :D :o You have no idea how good it feels to FINALLY have a decent paint job turn out on one of my Nascar projects. Now the body will sit for another week or so and then I will add the first coat of clear and then decal the body. I'm wondering what clear I should use though, the Tamiya or Testors Ultra Gloss Clearcoat. I want as smooth a finish as possible for the Slixx decals I'm using...Anyways, on to the pics. I hope y'all anjoy. Any and all input is welcome and greatly appreciated!

Wow Nick, that car is just downright sweet!!!!!! I love that car and it's obvious this kit is a dream to work with because your model looks great! I will definitely be looking for this kit in the future, that's for sure! Keep up the fantastic work!!!!!

Here are pics of our hobby room so far. As you can see, we're being overrun with models and I will undoubtedly have to thin my collection pretty soon in order to make room for more kits. These pics were actually taken about a year ago, so there is actually more kits stacked in this room. At least you have a general idea of what I'm working with here...

I sprayed a car with Tamiya paint and was wondering if Model Master paint can be applied over the Tamiya color. I have an extensive collection of Model master paints, but very little in the way of Tamiya and I have no Tamiya black on hand. Any help is appreciated...

Actually, I shot the car with Tamiya TS34 Camel Yellow from the rattle can. The paint was warmed a bit before I shot it, but I am always leary of heating up spray cans...knowing my luck and all. :shock: I apologize for the last name thing. I corrected it as soon as I realized I didn't have it on there! Thanks for all the hard work you and Gregg put into this site as well Jairus. It is appreciated and it's really enjoyable to come here and share in this great hobby of ours!

As if I don't have enough projects going on at once, I decided to add another to the mix. I dug into the Revell Ford Focus Tuner kit this afternoon and will dabble with this as time permits or when I ture of the other projects on the bench. I haven't decided on the color yet, but it won't make a difference as Kelle spanks me with every model she builds. :-/ Anyways, I'm trying to come up with a wild color or scheme but haven't had any brainstorms yet. Maybe after this is wetsnaded something will come to me....

I did make some progress on the Kenseth car tonight. I got the body in paint and I started assembling the rollcage and prepping it for paint. I used Tamiya Camel Yellow for the color coat and it turned out ok. Definitely not one of the better paint jobs as the paint seems to be very thin and it didn't want to cover the primer coat at all. Now if I can figure out how to add the grilles so they look realistic that will be a big plus in achieving a more realistic looking car. Anyways, here are some pics...

I actually dragged this out last night as well and did some more work on it. I cut the lower grille out and smoother the mold lines and got it in primer. I am using this car for another project I am doing for a column I write for. I will probably not go all out on this like I did the Benson Pontiac, but I will be making mods on this project here and there to bring out the realism. I did drill the fuel filler out and I also drilled the hole for the coolant overflow hose that comes out on the passenger side by the windshield. Again, just little mods that will add to the overall look of the finished car. I still have a roof flap to fabricate and I will most likely tackle that project today as well as start gluing some of the subassemblies together and prepping them for paint. Anyways...on to the pics...

I appreciate the input regarding the yellow on this car people. I got the hood painted black and I glossed the car a couple days ago and this is what the finish now looks like with the gloss applied. It sure is glossy and I haven't even polished it out yet. I'm still trying to decide if I want to go with a factory stock look or if I should throw some aftermarket wheels on it and do some other slight mods to the car to make it a retro-rod style musclecar. I guess I'll decide when the mood hits.... Anyways, here are the pics....

I made some more progress on my Challenger over the weekend and thought I'd post some pics to show how this car is progressing... First, I got the foiling done on it last night. Out of all the steps in the model building process, I think I can honestly say that foiling is my least favorite thing to do. > I do have to say though that the end result is worth the headaches and crossed eyes. It actually took me two days to foil this car as I redid some of it because I wasn't happy with the looks of the finished product. I also included a couple images showing the stupid rear spoiler I am relegated to using now thanks to my idiocy of opening the holes in the rear decklid. This is the one area of this car I am definitely not happy with, but have only myself to blame because I wasn't paying attention. :-[ I also began assembling the interior as well. The seats ae glued in, but the dash is just there for mock-up purposes. I still have to detail the door panels and get those installed and I have to flock the headliner in the body as well after adding the glass. Suspension wise I rubbed the rearend assembly with a cloth I use to buff my metalizer paints. The results are unbelievable and I am exptremely happy with the finished product there. I glued the rear end to the chassis pan after buffing the flat black out with this cloth and it looks great! I also buffed the exhaust that I painted with a mixture of stainless steel and aluminum plate to achieve a different finish. I installed the exhaust after buffing the pipes out to a more realistic shine. Finally, I thinned the fan belt assembly to more accurately represent the actual assembly. One of my pet peeves is the grossly overexaggerated thickness of the belts, so I filed them done to look a bit more realistic. So, with all this being said, here are the pics of what I've gotten done so far. Any input, tips, and constructive criticism is greatly welcomed and appreciated!

Here's my latest Muscle Car accomplishment...

I sure do appreciate your input!!! I am not a Mopar expert by any stretch, so any tips and help I can get is more than greatly appreciated! I will definitely be able to apply these tips to my current 70 Challenger 340 6-Pack and my 69 Dodge Super Bee 440 6 Barrel...Any pics you might have that i could use for detail reference would also be greatly appreciated! :wink: I'd love to see pics of your 'Bird!!!!!

Well, here's another old project from the same time frame as my 70 GTX kit, the fabulous 90's. As you can see, this car is in pretty rough shape. I had tried to paint it a bright green back then after opening the trunk. Well, the paint turned out crappy and it ended up in CSC and this is the mess that was left behind. Well, in keeping with my commitment to finish my half started projects, I decided to tackle this one along with the 70 T/A Panther Pink Challenger I have started. 2 more old Mopars to add to the collection. I'm not sure what color this car is going to be yet though. I am tempted to try the new "Green Go" from Testors, but I am also thinking of a bright yellow with the black Bumblebee stripe across the rear quarters. Anyways, I'll keep y'all posted as this project moves along. I was able to get the body re-primed after fixing a cracked "A" pillar and a cracked valnce that the front grille sits on. The priming job turned out halfway decent so I'm hopeful the rest of the kit will move along nicely as well. On to the pics...

I swear James, I don't know how you do it. You manage to turn out some of the nicest, most well execusted models I have ever seen and you do it on a regular basis. I wish I could get just half the results you get with your work! That Hamlin car is fantastic! Once again you have shown your talent and ability to execute by kicking out another fantastic build! Keep up the fantastic work!!! You're definitely an inspiration!!!!

Thanks James. Personally, I think 16 years is a long time to build a kit, but hey, what do I know, right? Your compliments definitely mean something as your work is absolutely stunning!

Believe it or not, I FINALLY have gotten to the point of putting the finishing touches on this GTX. Again, this kit was started back in 1990 from one of the original issue GTX's with the "Metal Glo" finish that came with the little envelope of Turtle Wax. I originally wanted to just finish this project in a semi box stock configuration, but that went to heck once I started thinking of how easy it would be to add some detail to the 6-Pack engine. I added plug wires, ignition coil, vacuum hoses, heater hoses, and brake lines to the engine compartment. I know I could have added more, but with this detail, the engine compartment looks a bit "busier" than a box stock compartment and it adds to the realism. With the air cleaner being as large as it is, if I added carb linkages and the like chances are they would be hidden from view anyways. If you follow along with the thread, you'll see the car was painted Moulin Rouge, which, according to the documentation I could find, was one of the rarest colors ordered in 1970 on the GTX. The interior is flocked and I tried to replicate the overspray on the chassis and so forth as well. This was another project I enjoyed immensely once I got back into building again. The one HUGE downfall is that I lost the Air Grabber scoop for the hood, hence the pics were taken with the hood removed. If anyone has a spare Air Grabber scoop, I would be interested in trading for it to be ble to finish this thing fully. I also only installed the driver side rearview mirror as the dual mirrors were an option back in 1970 and not many cars came with the passenger side mirror. Anyways, I hope y'all like the pics so far.

I sure wish I had the talent to build these big rigs like you do Tim. I really enjoy seeing your work and the mods you do to these rigs to get the diferent variants of the same model. Simply outstanding work all the way around Tim! Another masterpiece, that's for sure!! :shock: :wink:

I think it all depends on just which Pete and KW kit you're looking at building Ron. The old AMT Pete 359 kit is a bear to build and has alot of fit problems that need to be corrected in order to get a decent looking model. Alot of modelers don't care for the way Italeri manufactures their trucks either. It can be a pain having to glue each side of the cab together, but I really never had an issue with that way of building. If anything, I find that it can sometimes be easier for the detailing and so forth of the interior. I guess basically it caomes down to whatever each modeler prefers in terms of assembly. I like the Italeri Peterbilt kits and also the Revell Pete and KW kits, but many of those kits are now discontinued so they can bring a big buck on places such as E-bay. Amt has the advantage of producing kits that noone else has tackled in recent years. Even though their toolings are old compared to today's standards, you definitely have more of a choice and personally, I'll take all the big rig kits I can get my mutts on, regardless of manufacturer!!!!

I've been back to work on this the past couple of days and have gotten a bit more done on it. I actually missed working on this project and am enjoying the effort I've been able to put forth so far. Today I added more detail to the engine including an oil dipstick, wires and looms and have drilled the holes for the heater hoses. I also added valve stems in the wheels and detail painted them as well. I'm not very fond of this style of wheel simply because of the shallow detail in the plastic. it makes it extremely difficult to make them look decent, but at least the effort was made. The engine is now glued to the chassis and I will fabricate some throttle linkages probably later this afternoon or evening. I also have some holes drilled in the alternator to facilitate some electricl wiring detail as well. So much for building this box stock, huh? : I hope y'all enjoy the pics. Please feel free to share your thoughts, observations and comments.

Here's a question that I'm dying to know the answer to. We all seem to start projects and then, for whatever reason, they end up tossed back in the box and more kits are started. I'm wondering why y'all start a project and then set it aside to start something new. I know for me it can be a range of reasons. Anything from screwing something up and getting frustrated to not being happy with the results so far to just simply losing interest. I have over a dozen projects started on my bench and tossed in various boxes on my shelves and I am trying to make aconscious effort to get them finished. So why do y'all start a kit and then shelve it for something else?

Gee Bill, I'm also looking for a couple more myself. Let me know how much they're selling for and maybe we can work something out! I want to use one to convert into a 4wd shortbox to replicate my 1:1 truck next.

Well, for better of worse, here is the finished product of the Revell Dodge Ram VTS kit. The kit was built basically box stock with the exception of the grilles in the front bumper being opened and mesh screen installed instead. I spent about 4 hours polishing the red paint which is Duplicolor with the new Model Mast Laquer Ultra Gloss Clear covering the paint and decals. I actually glossed the paint, then applied the decals, then cleared over the decals to seal them. I did quite a bit of detail painting as well and tried to give the kit pieces a different look and feel to better represent the 1:1 truck. I had some fit problems with the headlights and front bumper assembly as well, but I was able to conquer those without much cussing or plastic throwing. I will most likely be posing this truck with the hood in the open position as well. Overall it was a fun build and a definite break from the normal subjects I try to build. It was a quick, somewhat easy build that has gotten me back in the mood to model, which was the reason I tackled this kit in the first place. Now I'm getting back on my 70 GTX in the hopes of getting that car done for the NNL East in March. Stay tuned for even more and unusual projects from my bench over the coming weeks and months as well....Now...on to the pics.

After having been sick most of the week, I finally felt good enough to do some work on the Dodge Ram truck today. I was able to detail the wheels and finish assembling the suspension. I still have quite abit to do, but the kit is coming together rather nicely with the exception of a couple setback which I won't get into here. Anyways, I cleared the body after applying the decals too and the finish turned out almost flawless and extremely glossy. Here are the pics: