Spex84

Yep, those Testors low-profile tires in the Smoothster (also the Vantastic) split after a while if they've been mounted on the wheels. The soft rubber ones seem to be most vulnerable. I think there were some supercar/exotic kits that also had soft rubber tires...Ferarri F50 perhaps? I have some old Monogram bias-plies from the '53 Corvette that have shrunk slightly and the whitewall inserts no longer fit, but so far they don't seem to be oozing, sticky, or cracking. Just dried out I guess!

I like this discussion Very cool sketch Joe, and I think it's worth trying. These are plastic models, after all! No real Mercs getting wrecked if it doesn't pan out! I'm a fan of the Sam Barris Merc. The blended dogleg works best when it complements the re-shaped C pillars on a chopped roof. Personally I prefer the the stock dogleg; it gives the '49 a sense of "muscle", and your sketch takes that even further. The Hirohata is a killer re-working of the stock design. Super effective and nicely balanced. To me, custom work is worth attempting because it might fail. That's the whole appeal! It's a creative and technical balancing act, one that 1:1 designers walk constantly. Sometimes they fall flat on their faces, and sometimes they produce cars that we consider iconic, untouchable, beautiful, perfect. I'm plinking away at a full-kustom '40 Ford right now, and it's a fool's errand. The stock '40 is just too good to mess with. That's what makes it so fun! /// A couple ideas/tips: -don't let the rear skirt/fender bulge touch the rear door cut line...in drawing this is referred to as a "tangent" and is to be avoided. -in order to justify the new divide that splits the car, it might need a trim strip that follows the front fender down (a la the Hirohata), or a scoop or some teeth recessed in the leading edge of the skirt....or go the other way and emphasize the newly divided pontoon fenders with colored panels (this can backfire, see the Barris "Chrysler City Coupe" from a few years back). -some kind of chrome dagger/gravel guard on the leading edge of the skirt might work...like Troy Trepanier's "Sniper", or the '53 Ford. It might also backfire and draw too much attention. -if you move the front of the skirt back so it doesn't touch the door line, it might make the rear quarter look short...and to get that long, low look back, you might have to extend the quarters to look more like a '51 Merc. Or...section the heck out of the car and remove a lot of vertical height so the quarters look longer.

I glue my wheels, but mostly because A: I don't want them accidentally moving on me and B: I can never get the wheels straight unless I glue them that way. If I could engineer 'em so they were perfectly straight/square AND rolled, that would be neat. But it's not priority. Years ago I picked up a die-cast Impala with big fat low-profile tires (Jada, I think). One day I pushed it aside to dust the shelf and the tires squealed. Cool! I spent a few minutes "drifting" the car around my desk, complete with in-scale squealing tires. I may have made some engine noises

You're doing some great work here! The parts are working together very well, and nice work widening the Jag rearend, it's looking really good. That Brizio car was one of my absolute favorites when I first saw it in Street Rodder magazine...must have been what, year 2000? 1999? The proportions, the Jag mill, the straight pipe exhaust and intake stacks...easily one of my top 5 street rods of all time. I was obsessed with it, but had actually forgotten about it for the last 5+ years or so.

Dude. This is incredible so far, thanks for sharing it with us! Love the combo of vac-form over 3D printing. Makes me feel inspired to start a multi-technology, multi-material project. I don't have a 3d printer, but I could be making MDF/bondo and plaster parts and then vacu-forming them. Had the opportunity to try that a while back, and it worked pretty well.

I would delete my original comment as it seems to have derailed the thread, but can't get the edit feature to work.This is my last comment on the matter. Continue, gentlemen.

Frustrated that this very enjoyable thread is devolving into racist and bigoted bullsquirt. More photoshops please.

Hand striping? You're brave! Love the panels...they're all kinds of wild n' groovy.

Wow! Love the detailing, great paint and decals. Great work . ..oh btw, one of your velocity stacks (pass side rear) is having a slight malfunction

I think both of these are pretty darn cool! The Foose truck will look great as a 50s or 60s custom, just needs to be kitbashed with some of the available AMT parts! It could also look great as a neo-retro custom, slammed on wide whites. The engine and suspension could be swapped to other trucks or cars for that pro-touring/g-machine style, and the body has various mods that help it look less awkward than a stock '56 (most notably, the re-located front wheel arches)...mods that I'd make anyway on a custom F100, so now I don't have to worry about all that bodywork anymore. The thing I like about the '56 is it's not a completely re-designed version, like the proposed Foose Cadillac...it still looks 99% like a '56 F100. A really good starting point. And the suburban has that oddball charm, can't wait to see some of them done up as forestry rigs, push trucks, etc.

Wow, that's looking super smooth. Love it!

Neato, haha. My first thought is "who demos a '56 Chevy???" but a few years ago somebody put a '57 in a derby not too far from where I live...I didn't see in in person, but found the youtube video later. Poor thing got taken out in about 2 hits.

"Rodder's Journal" #70 has an article on a (supposedly original) moonshiner '39 Ford. From the RJ website: "Moonshiner John Phillips purchased his ’39 Ford Standard coupe new and built it to run liquor in Alabama and Georgia. Much like early stock cars, the Standard was stripped of all its nonessential components and fitted with a radical full-race flathead. Throughout the coupe’s storied career, Phillips corresponded with some of hot rodding’s biggest speed manufacturers—including Vic Edelbrock Sr.—for speed equipment and go-fast advice. Miraculously, the car hasn’t changed since it rolled into storage in 1953, and we have the full feature on the survivor in TRJ #70." I've read the article and while I'm not quite convinced the car is 100% legit, there were some really cool tidbits of info: -trunk held shut with turnbuckles so it can't pop open -floating model T spring added so the car looks normal both loaded and unloaded -oversized truck radiator, with hood sides crudely hammered so the wide radiator fits -slightly wider steel wheels -extra headlight/fog light ]http://nebula.wsimg.com/190597b38eed4e68573bb3217a91e08a?AccessKeyId=7C2E9993607837544222&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

This thing is incredibly cool. I'm enjoying all the work and engineering you've put into it so far!

Yeah! I love it, very cool parts choices, paint, and detailing. That 50/50 paint mix seems to have produced a more 50s-appropriate color than what comes out of the can. What are the front tires from? They almost look like New Tool Ala Kart? I like 'em. Funny, I have a stalled project that is basically...this, but with a blown 409 and intended to be painted orange 'flake with red-tinted windows. Had some serious trouble with a badly warped body, so every so often I pull it out and reinforce stuff, trying to get the body to hold together better.

I love the concept!!...but the wheels don't really do it for me, and by minimizing the fins and rear bumper, somehow they've made it look a bit like a Henry J

I'm enjoying this so far! I had started a Monogram '30 coupe in this style a number of years ago, but bailed out and changed the build style. Looking forward to seeing this project progress, very cool parts choices and engineering so far

Incredibly sweet paint, the car is looking fantastic so far. Nice tire holder

You're doing great work with this Plymouth! The stock wheels are so much better than the "custom" ones, and I'll remember that Silly Putty masking trick. Very effective. The re-built fender welting is an excellent touch...one of these days I'll have to build this kit, as I've developed an odd liking for the '41 Plymouth (I used to think they were ugly) and wouldn't mind having a 1:1 version some day.

Wow! Great weathering, it's very convincing. Corvettes in this condition are a familiar sight in north america. Excellent photos, too. Thanks for sharing this build with us!

Whoa, this is WAY ambitious. My suggestions, if you intend to do this yourself: -buy a 1/25 version, and build it. Look at photos of the real car, and observe how the model has been simplified and re-engineered so that A. the parts can be successfully molded and B.the parts can be assembled in sequence without the builder getting stuck. -learn to use 3D modeling software enough that you can make your own parts; then you will have the beginnings of the skills needed to modify the 3D model you have purchased. The Impala you bought looks like a good model! But it's very complicated and will no doubt have to be significantly tweaked for printing. For instance, if some of the surfaces need to be smoothed further or closed ("made watertight") because they might be modeled as hollow shells, which cannot be printed (lots of video game cars are "shell" style models rather than solid objects). -3D model something simple and set it up for 3D printing. I used NetFabb to process my files from 3Ds Max into a format that could be printed, also to calculate volume (and therefore final pricing for the print). -Observe the detail levels of the various materials available from 3D printing services (ie detail plastic vs rougher and cheaper solutions). Get your model printed by them, and examine the results. -Now you'll know how much work, time, and money the "loop" of development will take. You can probably iterate faster if you have your own 3D printer rather than sending away for prints/having them shipped to you. -Make molds of the part to learn about resin casting and how to build good molds for the best results...this is important because it will inform how you modify the original 3D model for both good printing AND good molding of the 3D printed parts. I'm sorta dipping my toes into the process right now with some tires, and that's about all my pocketbook and skills can tolerate right now!

I don't see how those bodies could be both high-detail and $50. I just 3D printed 2 tires with shapeways, and it was $26. Last year when I priced out a body, because of the dimensions and volume of material it was going to cost $500 to print. Yikes! Something I've been thinking about--right now prices for 50s/60s promos are fairly nuts. But in 20+ years, will anyone be collecting those anymore? What about the cottage industry of replacement bumpers, floorpans, re-chroming, etc? I agree that there's a ton of stuff available. Some of it will go extinct, sadly, but for every set of 1960 Buick bumpers we can no longer order, there will be a modern mud drag truck engine, or some other offering that fits into a niche previously unexplored by the aftermarket.

Cool, I was waiting to see if someone would tackle a stock-style roof insert. Looking forward to seeing more

Whoops, bad link. Let's try that again:

I really enjoy this old kit. I think the roof "feels" like a model A in a way that the new Revell kit fails to achieve (but the new kit has many advantages!!) I'm building one right now, with one more waiting in the wings...and if I get the chance, I'll buy more. http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m312/Spex84/ScaleModels/30 Ford coupe 60s Style/30FordWIP_Sept12016_sm_zpsxvouhgbb.jpg