Ferbz

Thanks for the informative replies, everyone! Using a known brand of reducer makes sense. I'll get some and do some experimenting. And thanks for the Stewart McDonald guitar source, Ray. I'll check that out.

Thanks Wayne! Yes, I rounded all the corners of the hood so they match the corners of the trunk. I'm going to go with a simpler paint scheme, fingers crossed.....

Thanks Greg! My solution to getting a smooth profile to that top: I cut the top of the trunk and rear fenders away from the body and slid them forward so that the rear window opening moved forward the amount of the top forward when the A and C pillars were cut down. Not a normal thing to do in 1:1 scale, but it's effective and certainly possible in 1:1 scale.

One step forward, two steps back! This 53 Ford is my intro back into the hobby after many years of being away. Things were going really well until about mid way through the painting process. The idea was to try and do a tri-tone paintjob similar to the latter version of the Barris built Larry Ernst Chevy. After getting the body straight and in white primer, I sprayed a gold basecoat. I probably should have stopped there since it was looking pretty good in gold, but I really wanted to try that multi-colored paint scheme like Ernst's Chevy so I proceeded to spray the other colors. While spraying the Red-Orange color, the Testors spray can started spitting the paint out! Needless to say, that ended my 'brilliant' idea. The colors I chose weren't working they way I imagined anyway, so I soaked the body in Simple Green to strip the paint and I've started over. It's now in white primer (again!) and I'm headed in another direction with the paint scheme. It'll be a miracle if this thing turns out decent. If it does, I'll be sure to post the pics. In the meantime, take a look at these pics of the process this car has gone through thus far........Ugh! Pic 1: Custom bodywork complete and test fitting grill and bumper. Pic 2: Putty work and windshield test fit. Pic 3: Final white primer coat before basecoat color. Pic 4: Gold basecoat. Pic 5: Jacked up color coats! Pic 6: Paint stripped......stay tuned.....

Hey gang, Years ago, I was airbrushing nail polish paintjobs thinning them with Dupont automotive nitrocellulose lacquer thinner(since the nail polish I was using was nitrocellulose lacquer)with great results. I was also conveniently spraying my basecoats and clearcoats with nitrocellulose lacquer based Plastikote automotive spray cans, but I've discovered that neither nitro lacquer thinner nor Plastikote nitro lacquer are available these days. I had the idea of switching to acrylic lacquer based paints since automotive paint supply stores DO carry acrylic lacquer thinners, and acrylic lacquer based Duplicolor automotive spray cans are available, but I don't know which brands of nail polish, if any, are acrylic lacquer based. Anybody out there have this info? Thanks in advance! Here is an example of a nitro lacquer paintjob I did. The gold base, candy red, and final clearcoat was Plastikote spray cans, while the black fogging and gold pearl clear was nail polish.

Thanks horsepower! I've heard that technique referred to as a 'cheater section' where essentially the section is trimmed from the bottom of the body and the fenders are raised up. I considered doing that but opted for the conventional technique. The section worked out fine except for the hood. Unfortunately it was my only AMT 39 hood but I have a Revell 39 hood I may try to replace it with.

Thanks everyone! I'll be sure to keep you updated on this build as I go. As I mentioned, it got started to distract me from my other project which happens to be further along. I'll be posting that one soon. In both cases, please be patient as I'm a really slow builder

Thanks Steve! That is pretty advanced for me but I want to give it a try. I cant think of another way to accomplish that window trim and get it looking right.

Your chop looks good, keep going! I agree with Chip: 40 Ford chops are not easy to get right. It's a quirky top to begin with. Looks like you're on the right track!

Looks cool! Good to hear you got the tape to work for you. I've used Bare Metal Foil for my scallops designs in the past.

I started this AMT 40 Ford coupe as a temporary distraction from a previous paint project that blew up on me. Any of you do that kind of "therapy"? I'll save that for another post....stay tuned. I started researching 1:1 chopped and sectioned 39/40 Fords and discovered there were quite a few notable 1:1 cars that were built over the decades. One car that really stood out was Doug Rice's 39 Ford. Pretty cool history on that car if you want to look it up! Who knows how far this project will go but it was fun getting it to this stage. The top is chopped with the A pillars angled back slightly. I want to try scratch building 39 Ford front window trim which will make the windshield opening appear a bit smaller(I'd appreciate any advice on this on how to do this by the way)The body is sectioned and temporarily taped together for test fitting here. I sectioned a 39 hood but may have to redo it since the section job I did is a little off and no longer sits quite right. The 40 grill will be cut out and replaced with a 39. The fenders are widened similar to Rice's car and the running boards have been cut away. My intention was to build a curbside out of this but I may have to build a hopped up period detailed flathead for this car. It would look right at home in it, no?

Hey gang! I've finally gotten around to signing up on this forum as I've had my eye on it for some time. I'm slowly coming back to the hobby from a 10yr break and it feels great to be building again! Like many of you(I imagine)I've been a model car builder since I was a kid and just never grew out of it I've been a member of 3 model car clubs over the years: Monterey Bay Scale Auto Association, Las Vegas Kit Kruisers, and Bay Area Scale Hot Rodders(BASHRs) and have participated in contests and shows like Goodguys and NNL West. My favorite cars to build are customs but I've built a drag car, Pro Street car or two as well as some wacky stuff! I enjoy sharing whatever knowledge I can pass on so if you have any questions about any of the cars you see me post here, feel free to ask. A big part of what I enjoy about this hobby of ours is sharing and exchanging ideas and techniques. My continuing accomplishments as a model car builder would be zero without the generous skilled builders that were willing to share their knowledge and experience with me. I'm also an artist so I'll be posting some of my drawings too! To start off, I'm posting a couple pics of a 57 Chrysler I built some years ago to give you an idea of my style. Enjoy!