Kmb0319

Here’s a couple of mine... I actually don’t recall the paint and clear I used. Most likely Duplicolor for the paint, but I’ve tried tons of different clears over the years.

BEAUTIFUL work!! Yes, Fathom Green is my favorite, too. I did mine the same except for some dog dish caps and houndstooth interior. Like you said, light does wonders for it.... Shade: Sunlight:

I looked at the body pics and blurted out “HOLY SH*T!!” Twenty minutes later I can’t come up with any other words... I’ll just sit here and applaud for a while....

Matt, this is AMAZING!!! I put a ton of work and extras into mine as well, but I didn’t have the guts to cut my rear bumper. I cut the trunk side seams instead and spread the fenders out... the wide gaps look wrong, but the fit is better. Yours is perfect. I used the chassis and cut the fan shroud out of the AMT 69 442, as that was a perfect fit. My engine was a conglomeration of parts box pieces, as I found the orange lump in the kit completely unusable. In the end, the Cutlass chassis and spare parts engine gave me a far better result. You’ve already far outdone me with your bumper fix. I don’t want to hi jack your thread, but wanted to throw a couple ideas out of suitable replacement parts for the incredible work you’ve doing. I also got an aftermarket set of Pontiac rally wheels from Model Roundup and tires from Fireball for this build. Here’s one pic of my engine and one of the outside. Keep up the great job!!!

OK, I’ve never been one to repost old builds, but there’s something about this little change that made a big difference to me. I built and posted this 70 Camaro build back in 2017. At the time, I wanted to give it more of a “normal” look and shied away from using the Goodyear Polyglas big/little combo that I love to use. I was thinking more of a muscle car/road course car, but I was also not a fan of the Z/28 wheels that came in the kit. After testing a slew of different wheels and tires, I settled on a set of Revell tires and Chevy Rallys, and was happy with the result: But, last week I accidentally broke a front wheel off. I put it on my model table to fix it, and as I was about to do so, I remembered that I had a set of the bare rallys from the AMT 70 Corvette left over from last summer. I tested the one that was broken and thought it made a big difference, so I changed them all. Nothing else is different, but I like this look much better. Thought I’d post it with the new wheels and see if you agree.... all thoughts are welcome. No need for the engine pic... just threw it in.

YES!!!!! So good to see one in a gorgeous color like this, and yours is really beautifully done. Great work!

Pretty much... I bought the wheels from EBay and they’re a little nicer than the AMT ones, but I think that was the master the eBay seller made them from.

Those were eBay finds.... a little Testors aluminum metallizer paint and detail with flat black. Always loved bare Rallys and was really to find them.

That Firebird is awesome!!! Did you sand off the fender flares from the Revell kit?? Also, where did the Formula hood come from? The Vette is great and of course, the Cyclone is a dream! Fantastic!!

We’ve had a lot of struggles the last few years, and 2019 was the worst of the bunch. We are very happy to sweep this one under the rug and move on. On the bench, however, it was a fun year. More prolific than I thought and a couple of my best builds ever as well as kits I had always wanted. I’m getting pretty close to wrapped up... there’s only a couple kits out there that I will want to build, and work will take over, but I’ll get a little in here and there. Enjoy and Happy Holidays everyone!!

Feel a little lucky here... two years ago, I switched jobs and lost the company car from the old position. Needing to buy a car that would potentially be driven on long trips through a territory and budgeting myself to $5K or less, I was thinking I’d end up with some older Camry or Accord. Instead, I found this little gem a mile from my house: She had 174,000 miles in her, but was extremely well taken care of. I never followed them enough to realize Volvo offered a V8 in the S80, but MAN... this thing drives beautifully and sounds like a 70 ‘Cuda rolling down the road. This one is a 2007. I got it for $4500. I just crossed 196,000 miles, and there are no signs of stopping.

She’s beautiful, Bogger.... love the color, finish, stance, and those Cragars are perfect!!!she looks mean!!

Can’t wait to get this and build it myself, as this was my high school car. You did a beautiful job on it as usual, Randy!! Looks ready to hop in and cruise. Especially the quality work on the grill, tail lights and wheels... they make a huge difference to bring this one to life.

Well, two years ago when this thread started, I posted my two 68s and said I was waiting on the Daytona to be re-released. Got it in January, so figured I’d post it, too.

I threw together one of the Revell COPO kits... had some Infiniti Pearlcoat paint sitting around, so I just used that over the gray primer to make my own version of silver.

You are correct in that carpet may not have been the best choice.... truly a sign of a complete rookie when it comes to building trucks. But, it was also dictated by the fact that I had bought a tub of red embossing powder for another recent build, and just wanted to use more of it.

So, this is the first SUV/truck I’ve ever built. It will most likely be the only one, as my thing is muscle cars, but the original Broncos were always a car I liked. I bought the Baja version to get the better wheels/tires and the full rear fenders and flares, but never intended to build it as that exact version. I did a lot of research on colors, and that was a struggle. In the end, my choices are a little different, but I think they work. I also had a minor tragedy to overcome... right after I bought the kit, I set it in the work room downstairs. That night, a feeder line from our Aprilaire Humidifier got clogged, filling the area with water and soaking the box. As I had removed the outer plastic, my decal sheet was nearly destroyed. I was able to save some decals on the sheet, and others were stuck to one of the plastic bags of parts. Those came off and went onto the car, luckily. Most of the decals that I wanted for the non-Baja version were able to be spared, but I had a couple problems with the houndstooth seat inserts. The rear folded partially over itself the first time it got wet and refused to come undone. I chose to do a red/white houndstooth interior with a tan exterior. I also wanted to paint the top of the roof body color, but keep the sides white. Since I went with black wheels and fender flares, I trimmed the edge of the roof in black as well. The grill is white to match the side panels of the roof. I wired the engine as always. The last detail that I debated was the bumper color. I ended up spraying them with flat coat and leaving them silver. My other thought was to paint them black... if I change my mind later, It’s easy to change. The paint is one of those Krylon Short Cuts enamels they have at HL, and this color is called cinnamon. The only issue in my photos is that my front side windows, especially the left one dried crooked. I noticed taking the pics and corrected it later. This really is an awesome kit. Thanks for looking and I hope you like it. It was a nice change to build my first truck! Chassis: Interior: Done!

This is just AMAZING work, and what a cool Jeep!

Well, I also realized that the photo that shows the silver contrast on the wheels and my favorite photo of the model in general was left out accidentally. So, here... you can see the silver contrast more:

Thank you!! I actually did do detail painting on the wheels... I used a little Testors silver to fill in the entire wheel other than the trim ring to make the bare Magnum 500s, which was my favorite look for those Mustangs. This is what I was going for:

Wow.... she looks beautiful!!! Great work!!

Y-E-S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn’t put it in my list because it is on the obscure side, but MAN that thing is awesome! Same with the 70 Mercury Marauder:

I was really excited to get this kit, as the 69 Boss 302 is one of my all-time favorite Mustangs. Having finished it, I’m less than thrilled, unfortunately. Part of it is flaws in the kit, part of it is the fault of the builder. I know there are some inaccuracies, and this new release was to correct the awful front end of the previous version. The front end is a lot better, but still not correct. It seems as though the grill is a little too tall. The tops of the headlight bezels roll into the body crease, which is correct, but they slope too much to meet that crease, where they’re almost horizontal on the 1:1. The other major issue with the new front end is the headlights themselves. On the 1:1, the headlights sit almost flush against the inside of the bezels, but on the kit, you’re supposed to glue the headlight lenses into these chrome backings that have a thick lip that protrudes outward. I did my best to fix that by finding some chrome backs for the headlights in the parts box, gluing them on the inside of the front end, and then using my Molotow pen to make a small trim ring and gluing the lenses directly onto the bezel. I think that looks a lot better , but see for yourself. Another disappointment was my color choice. All along, I planned to do something other than one of the 4 colors the Boss came in upon its release. I had a lime green picked out... and I talked myself out of it. I told myself that I had always wanted a Mustang in Acapulco Blue, and it was a factory choice, so I ended up going with that. It’s fine, and my finish came out good, but I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t do something a little different. The engine and chassis are good... the interior isn’t completely accurate but builds up nicely and the wood decals add a lot of realism. My other big issue is with the body decals... for those of you who have this kit to build, WARNING!!!! The hood and side decals were an absolute nightmare. (I’ve seen a few posts of this kit, like Randy B’s, who didn’t seem to have the trouble I did, so maybe I just did a terrible job). But... this whole “we’re just going to give you the outside of the stripes and you have to paint in the middle” is terrible. Semi Gloss Black is the closest match, but nothing perfectly matches the sheen of the decals. (Just give me a whole decal for the hood like you did for the trunk. But the far bigger problem was getting the decals in place. Mine sucked onto the body and were completely immovable to get them positioned within 2-3 seconds. I tried more water, no luck... I tried even more water and the blunt side of my hobby knife, and they tore before they would move. On the Boss 302 side decals, trying to get the thin ends of the stripes straight instead caused them to roll up. They were the worst decals I’ve ever tried to work with. I added some wiring and details under the hood, but everything else is box stock. Paint is Testors Nassau Blue, which is a little lighter than true Acapulco Blue, but shows the stripes better. Anyway, thanks for looking and I hope you like it. If you have this kit to build or plan on picking it up, be careful with the decals and I hope yours work better than mine did.

I’ll throw my 7 requests in... trying to consider Revell’s business model. So, my list is made up of either kits that could utilize a lot of existing tooling or a new tooling that would then offer all kinds of possibilities for future releases to get the most out of them. 1. 1969 Mustang Coupe - I like the 67-68, but I feel like the 69 is completely forgotten as anything but a fastback. They have almost all the tooling there... new body, rear glass and interior bucket is all that’s needed. Not as well known this way, but she’s pretty: 2. 1971 Pontiac Grand Prix - they already have most of the platform and engine with the excellent 72 Cutlass kit or the 68 Firebird 400. This is my favorite of the early GPs with its rear single headlight and bumper/taillight shape. This also provides the platform to go forward and put out some later MC/GP/Cutlass kits, as I believe the chassis stayed the same until the downsizing in 1978. They even have the later MC body from their snap kit tooled up and ready. 3. 1971 Chevelle - The excellent new 68 Chevelle gives them the chassis. I think the 69 is coming, but it’s nearly identical to the 68.. the 71-72 would capture the last of the era and be more differentiated as a kit without having to tool up a lot of new pieces. The 427 and 454 had a different crank but were nearly identical outside, other than no chrome valve covers by 71. Heck, they could use the 350 from the 69 Nova and I’d be happy, too. It’s still a Chevelle, one of the all-time great muscle cars, but the end of a great generation that hasn’t been kitted in a long time. A good kit of this would sell very well. 4. 1970 GTO - Another product of the 68 Chevelle chassis, with some suspension components and the 455 from the 72 Cutlass with minor changes. They are unlikely to remake the 69 GTO in 1/25 scale, so this adds the first decent kit of a very popular generation of Goat with a lot of the parts already on hand. 5. 1972 Ford Torino GT - My favorite of the Torinos, the curvy body was unique. You already have the 70 Torino, which is an excellent kit, and the 75 to draw from. I know Johan had their 72, but that’s been off the market a LONG time, and was a popular kit when it was available. 6. I’ll join the chorus calling for a nice kit of the 71-73 Mustang. The AMT/MPC one gets re-released occasionally, but it’s a terrible kit, right up there with the 72 GTO. I know it would be a new tool, but a 71 Boss 351 would be amazing. It’s just a huge gap in the modeling industry that there has never been a good kit of this generation of Mustang. They could certainly utilize the chassis to make a same generation Cougar, probably a Grabber Maverick... (btw, it’s not one of my 7, but couldn’t the 75 Torino chassis be used to make a mid 70s T-Bird?) Also, please make the kit with these wheels: 7. My last one is different. If Revell isn’t going to redo a 1/24 kit into a 1/25, there’s no point in asking for a better Challenger or 71 Road Runner. They’ve got the Foose Coronet out there, so no point in asking them to redo that or put something out where there already is an offering from another company. A 72 Cutlass coupe or 442 fastback is easy, but might not be high demand. So, I’ll make a big departure here. There are a lot of builders out there who really enjoy the full-size cars, and it seems even a few young car enthusiasts I’ve talked with have a fascination for how enormous these 70s cars were. (I was just at a classic car lot with 3 teenagers... they loved the Mustangs and Cudas, but couldn’t stop talking about the sheer size of the 75 Eldorado and the 69 Impala) My last request is for an early 70s boattail Riviera. There’s a whole thread on this site longing for that car to be made into a kit, so I know it would sell, and it opens a market where nobody is playing right now. Additional kits that come to mind immediately are an Eldorado, an Olds Delta 88 and a Pontiac Grand Ville convertible, but I’m sure there are others. But in the meantime, they’ll get some mileage out of one of the most unique designs in automotive history: Finally, I’ll ask Revell for a part, not a kit. PLEASE.... give us some good muscle car tires!!!! You make the best kits by a significant margin, but the tires offered are sorely lacking. Round 2 gave us the Goodyear Polyglas big/little setup, and they’re good, but we need something more from you. I know that you’ve started to pad-print... first redlines, now Firestone Wide Oval on the new Boss and 70 Firebird kits, but we still have nice printing on crappy tires. Just cast a nice set of 235/60s, and maybe some 255/60s for those who want to stagger the rear. Every one of my suggestions above could use them, as well as the AAR Cuda, all of the 67 and 69 Camaro kits, the 68 Chevelle and Charger, and in and on.... It’s really frustrating to get a great Revell kit and immediately have to spend more money to get tires.

On Memorial weekend, we went by some good friends of ours’ house one evening. This was our first time going to their place. Jeff, the husband, is a big car guy, and I knew he had a couple Vettes, so I was looking forward to seeing them. One of them is a 1976, and will be a complete restoration project. The other is a “little nicer.” He has an all-original 1972 LT1 with 49,000 miles on it. I actually helped him buff it out some, as while the engine and chassis are perfect show quality, the paint is faded on the top surfaces from years in the sun before he got it. He took our 10-year old for a ride first, and it’s all he’s talked about since. Then he and I took it for a spin, stopping at the auto parts store for some compound and polish. All in all, a great evening. I got one photo as he was starting to back out of the driveway with our son: Right after that night, I went and bought the AMT 70 Vette LT1/ZR1. It’s pretty identical to a 72, so it was a good subject to use and build him a replica. Paint was a small challenge... Hugger Orange was too light/bright and didn’t have any metallic in it, which his does, but Fiery Orange was too metallic. The best match ended up being Hemi Orange. Everything else is pretty standard... lots of wires and hoses according to research pictures. I also ended up using Revell wheels and tires, as Jeff’s Vette has Radial T/As on it, so I wanted to duplicate that. This past weekend was his birthday, so I’ll deliver it to him in the next day or so. His wife said he’ll be really excited... she expects that he’ll keep it on his desk in his home office and take it to car shows with him and set it on the 1:1 Vette while there. It was a fun little project. Thanks for looking and I hope you like it. Interior: Engine: And all done: