Sledsel

Recently bought some small parts from him (since I never purchased before) Came fast and very nice pieces

Good looking build of a decent kit (most will argue that though) With patience it builds very nicely, as yours did.

I like the concept of it all. Nice job

Wow.... Nuff said

Question is.... is the RMM front bumper length corrected? Rear bumper is the same on the Custom, Wagons and Rancheros. Great that it is offered tho The very bottom of the front fender looks worse now than before. Just needs filled. After receiving the reply about the mold shop being in China and the may not know what it actually looks like, I told them to move it back here. Problem really is that the people HERE did not relay the information from THEIR measurements.

Fun kits if you are a little patient. The decal was from one of the Super Stocker kits I believe

Yes, I am totally aware of the history of the multi-piece Revell 57 Ranchero. Modelhaus had the wagon pieces for it in resin, so I may use a Ranchero and cut off the lower 1/4 panels and lower front fenders to try to fix a custom 300 kit if they scale correctly. If that works, I may just resin cast the corrected body for my own use. The Fairlanes are longer and lower than the Customs and wagons. The Del Rio still has some issues, possibly also dealt with by now (they are way behind on release) but is is better than the Custom IMHO

I forgot, I made my own headers

I see a score line for the valance on the fender, behind front tire body line looks more prominent. Th very bottom of the fender should blend into the rocker area and not have the indentation and still seems to have a bulge. Front bumper is longer but too rounded on the top corner. Some work been done on the rear quarter..... I can accept this and work with it much better than the Custom. Maybe I am nit picking, I do not care cuz I am the one who would pay for it. This will build up nice and not be too bad to fix up a little. At least it looks as if they are attempting to resolve issues, and I applaud that part. The thing I wonder is how did they all put out such nice, accurate, crisp bodies 40-50 years ago, and now there are so many with obvious flaws?

I have the set of these. Working on the Sedan now. Next will be the Ford and Plymouth (they will have ford and Mopar engines though) Added some detail, swapped valve covers, other than that, out of the box.

Ron, this started because I mentioned that I "hope" the faults were addressed. Since you have the Ranchero, Hardtop and Custom.... How close are dimensions?

Beautiful build....

I am in no way telling people not to like and enjoy this kit. For me personally, I would have to fix the obvious issues to me. The kit would look "off" on my shelf next to other 57's. As stated, I will end up with one, and will probably section up a chopped 57 Ranchero body for the correct panels. The dimensions should be close, but we will see. If that is the case, the wagon will get the same treatment (unless it has been addressed) with a Ranchero as a donor. The tough part is removing the flatness of the 1/4 panels if I were to try to "repair" the actual kit.

Okay.... Before anything, I would like to state, the kit photos I am posting here are from Túlio Lazzaroni - Lovefordgalaxie. I am incorporating his photos because his builds and photography are excellent. The lighting and colors on these pics really help point out the areas discussed. I am in no way trying to discredit him or his builds, I have seen many of them and they are all excellent. If he has a problem with me using the cropped pics, I will gladly remove them. I am going to address the body issues only. Yea, there are other problems under the car, but I really do not care, it is the initial displayed kit that means the most (to me) There is a tail light bezel issue, but that would be fixed with a few minutes of sanding, so it will not be shown. Besides, it was shown earlier in this post. Front fender: As discussed, it extends to far down in the front, and the valance should wrap around and be connected to the fender. Behind the tire, the body line extending towards the bottom should be sharp end very evident. Also, this area should be concave towards the tire. The Revell kit has this area actually bulged out. By paying attention to the shadows you can see this. Also, the bumper should reach to the edge of the wheel well. These issues really could easily be fixed, getting that body line sharp would take some time. (the green Ford is my dads, I included this because the bumper is off and shows the valance/fender area clear.) Now the rear quarter, and the more difficult area to correct. If you compare both body lines, you can see the difference. The upper line should extend almost to the bumper. This part of the quarter is rounded, whereas the kit quarter looks pretty flat. The lower body line on the kit looks scribbed into the body. There should be a definite break and then a concave area like the front fender. This body line also needs to extend further back. Note: The 1:1 pic is a Custom 300, and the rear quarters other than the fin is the same on all models (shorter on custom series though) Dash speaker speaks for itself. An scale inch high. Again, not a bid deal, sand off or cut and recess.... but still.... As a final note, these items were not measured and checked with a caliper..... they are visual. Apparent to me as soon as I looked at them. I did not need to compare. This entire mess started because I said I hope they addressed these areas for the wagon. Ironically, the 50 year old AMT and Revell Wagon/Ranchero kits have these areas spot on...... How they do that then and not now?

As for getting Dads car out right now for additional pics, I am unable to do that, but I will point out the problems in pics today since I was asked. I am in no way attempting to "stoke the coals" is this fire I seem to have started.

Sweet looking Ride.... Doing a 60 in the same colors...

Very sharp and I heard it is a tough build, so you get a hats off to ya also. As a real car I believe it would be scary fun to drive And.......Where ever the pics were taken, it is beautiful.

Nice job... Sweet looking color.

forgot one....

A few progress shots....

Very nice. I like the extra details you added. Gotta love a sleeper.

Just your standard metal axle chassis. No front axle though. I epoxied cut down finish nails in place.

Thank you Chuck, but I did start the snowball... I do see where people like the kit, and other kits I do miss the imperfections. I do not get all wired up about it, I decide if I can live with them or not when pointed out to me. It was such a let down for me because I do have a passion for the particular car (and the Merc) I did write to Revell and let them know how I felt. I even sent pics of the kit flaws versus the actual car. I was in now way negative, and was offering constructive criticism. I believe they listened and understood that because we had more than a one correspondence to each other. I mentioned b4, I am not here to piss on any ones Cheerios, but to learn.... if that means learning there is a flaw, fine... thank you for enlightening me. I'll decide what I want then.