Musclecar Mike

Thanks Jim!

Hey guys, does anyone have the address and hours for The No Name Model Car Club show/swap meet coming up on Sunday? All I know is it is in Pinellas County. Mike

I found this one on good ol' eBay. I have had great luck with getting vintage MPC & AMT kits for decent money on eBay. I too have a soft spot for these cars. Thank you for the compliment on the build.

I really appreciate the kind words you guys! I enjoy posting my work here. Thank you!

JC, you are correct. They are both built on the H Body platform which originated with the Vega. This body style, the Sportback, is essentially a '77 Vega with the updated '78 base Monza nose. From the front fenders back it is a Vega. The last H Body marketed as a Vega was in '77 and this Sportback body style was only available in 1978. That is why I make the Vega reference. No biggie just an FYI.

Hey gang, here is a '78 MPC Monza Sportback I built straight out of the box. My niche is building factory stock models and that is what my vision was for this little gem. I added the spoiler because I thought it gave this Monza, aka Vega, a mini muscle car look. Kind of a "day 2" type deal. The Sportback was the last of this body style GM built. I personally think the Vega was a sharp looking little car. This has been a kit I have always wanted to build. The kit was a typical classic MPC build. Plenty of dry fitting and finessing. It's promo roots shine through with an interior tub with molded in seats, plate type chassis, and molded in driveline. The 2.3 Durabuilt engine was neat and had great detail for it's vintage. Only problem is the '78s came with a Pontiac 2.5 Iron Duke. Not wanting to go through the trouble of sourcing a 2.5, only one I know of is in the MPC Fiero kits, I painted and detailed it the way a '77 would appear. That was the only year the little mill was painted Chevy Engine Orange according to my research. The rear hatch was my first attempt at re-scribing body lines. Early versions of this kit had an opening hatch and this late version had it molded in place. The panels sucked for a lack of a better term! Paint is Testors Lacquer Root Beer Metallic which is a close match to the factory Saffron Metallic the Lordstown plant sprayed the 1:1 '78s. I stripped the wheels since the factory wheels were not all chrome. Plus the all chrome looked way too toy like. Hit the wheels with Metallizer Aluminum with a semi gloss clear over coat to resemble the factory Argent silver finish and BMFed the hub caps. A fun kit that tested some of my skills. I enjoyed the challenge! Working on a MPC Jeep CJ-5 now. Seems to me they put a little more effort in the Jeep kits. I also have a few MPC C3 Vettes and pick-ups waiting on some bench time. Again, these kits look like the boys at MPC engineered them a bit better. Please leave comments and critiques. I'm here to learn and share. You guys and gals inspire me to build more and to build better!

Radames, I recently built this kit. You mentioned you built one back in the '90s. You may remember that the inner fenders need to be shaped to fit inside the body. The instructions call out having to shape the the inner fenders but give little direction as to where. The ends are molded square and need to be sanded into a rounded shape. Just a heads up for ya, brother. I enjoyed my build and it came out really nice. I picked mine up at a NCRS Corvette swap meet last year unopened inside the box. To my surprise I found a short shot hood. It was missing the front right corner. I managed to over come that little challenge and painted my Vette Ontario Orange. Your build is looking super sweet, and I look forward to seeing more. Mike

Very well done. Great looking first gen 'bird.

Done deal, brother.

Fantastic craftsmanship, Jason! Love the finishes on the seats and dashboard.

Mike, I really dig the Tahoe! Great work. I'm guessing it started out life as a promo. I can not recall any Tahoe kits ever being on the market.

The Deora was build number two since returning to the hobby this year. I built one as a kid and wanted to build another as an adult. It came out way better this time around!! Built straight out of the box just painted and detailed. The rear roll pan took some pieces of flat narrow plastic stock and filling to look decent. I glued the the windshield and door shut. The hinge for the windshield is wonky and I remember on my first attempt at this kit years ago it didn't finish off very clean. The front roll pan was left off. I didn't think it looked all that great installed and there was no way I could come up with for cementing it in place, filling the the gaps, and still being able to install the chassis. On the shelf it doesn't look any different without it. I took creative liberty and didn't paint the exhaust outlets black like the 1:1 show car. I thought it looked cleaner with them body color. Let me know what you guys think. Always working on taking the skills to the next level.

Thank you for the kind words Eric & Andy!

Ed, thank you very much!

Here is my latest build and first completed build post. This Vette is the third build I have completed since getting back into the hobby. I picked this kit up at the NCRS Corvette show swap meet back in January for only $5! It was sealed inside the box so when I got it home, I unbagged it to find the right corner of the hood was a short shot. I managed to to rebuild that portion of the hood and the rest of the kit went together with very little fuss. The only other odd ball thing I encountered was the fact you had to shape the ends of the inner fenders to fit the inside of the body. This was called out in the instruction. I painted the Vette Testors Inferno Orange lacquer which to my eye was a close match to Ontario Orange on the 1:1 car. The rest of build was just normal detail painting, foiling, and few photo etched parts. Hope you guys dig it and feel free to leave comments, I'm here to sharpen my skills and grow.

Here are my rides. A 2013 Corvette Coupe 1LT trim, LS3 with 6 speed manual, and a 2005 Harley Dyna Low Rider with a Twin Cam 88.

Great build Ulf! I have this kit in my stash as well, but haven't found my inspiration to build it just yet. Your build may get the wheels turning. When my family and I moved from NJ to FL we drove down in our '81 Citation 4 door hatchback. I remember going to Patterson Chevrolet in Hamliton, NJ with my Dad when he bought it new. We had it for about 3 years and sold to neighbors who had it another 3. It was a good car.

I want to say thank you to each and everyone of you for the welcomes and the nice compliments! I am thrilled to be here!

Thank you for the welcome and for the compliments, Dann! The fit of the windshield is less than ideal. With a little bit of dry fitting you can get it to almost fit as is should. I tacked it I n place with Aleene's Jewel-It fabric glue. It's super strong and dries crystal clear. I still had slight gap in one of the corners but nothing very noticeable when finished. I ended up glueing the windshield frame and door shut on my model. I built this same kit as a kid and remember how wonky the windshield hinge end up being.

Thank you for the welcome and the compliment, Zachary! I plan to post more pics of the '72 Vette, the Deora, and a GMC wrecker in the under glass forums tomorrow. When did you live in Tampa? Did you live in the area when Lakeside Hobby Shop was around? That is the place that got me hooked on model building back in the '80s when I first moved here.

Hey there guys & gals! My name is Mike and I have been clicking around on this forum for a little while. I just got back into the hobby seriously this year. I built a lot when I was a kid and never lost a love for the hobby. Really enjoying sharpening my skills and the challenges each build presents. I'm a life long gearhead who loves to research each build so that I can make each model as close to the real thing as humanly possible. Old MPC kits are some of my favorites but I do love the accuracy the newly tooled kits offer, so I build both. I guess I consider myself a AMT & MPC guy. Building the kits that I built as a kid in the '80s, much better now then I ever could in the old days, and the the ones from '70s my older cousins built is the mission I'm on now. As a GM guy my whole life my focus has been on the Generals muscle cars and few interesting pieces such as Vegas as of late. There are a few Mopars in my stash as well. Anyhow, enough rambling here a few recent builds.