Joe Handley

I'm going to have to watch this thread just for the nail polish part, planning on that for my '49 Merc too.

I've been there with Pactra and Model Master Lacquers on lexan R/C bodies, sometimes they would spot up or run in weird ways then have had Pactra's Candy Red and Blue fog up on me.

Well, finally got the A-Pillars and windshield cut down on the Merc. Still have to glue the filler panel in place and do something to fill in that gap as well. Oddly, it looks like the vent window portion of the windshield glass came out with nearly the same rake to it that the separation I filed into the sides have.......didn't intend for that to happen!

Not a problem, kinda looking forward to others giving this a try and putting their own spin on this!

Looks good so far Art!

Thanks, all I did is mark off where I wanted the breaks after the dog leg to be and the final shape in Tamiya Masking Tape then started filing away with a K&S Hobby File set I bought years ago from the HTU I used to work for. After that, it was just a matter of filing the character line to continue the shape of the bodywork above it (Bill might have to chime in here, but I'm thinking that might even be difficult in 1/1 with the shapes involved and having to form the doorskins into those shapes) and carving things into the shape you see, then finish sanding the areas with a course sanding stick that happened to fit nicely into that spot. Not really which was worse, trying to get the shapes symitrical in the tape, the amount of time and effort to do the same with the files once I started working at it, or the mess it left behind!

Yup, but with a fully functional back seat too! I still have to dig up that concept drawing for this build to get the final effect of what this build is supposed to look like when done.

Here's that filler panel made from the roof, I had been scratching my head trying to figure out what to do, then I got to thinking of the builds done by Ian Roussel on Full Custom Garage where he used stamped panels from other cars on some of his builds and started looking at the roof to see if it had the right shape, turns out it's close enough to work!

Thank's ESPO, I ended up chopping up what was left of the roof and using that to make a filler panel.

Any reccomendation for how to fill the area where the package tray is? I want to extend the daisy panel all the way to the back seat.

It's now topless!

Thanks guys, and I was noticing that too Modlbldr, it was intended to look like a cruiser skirt on a '49 Ford once I sheet it in a piece of Styrene, but I noticed that likeness as I started to get the shape filed out of the body too. I haven't seen any pics of this kind of change to the Dogleg before either, so unless it was done 60+ years ago and lost to time, dust, and rust, this could be a first!

Decided to start a build thread for this car.

Figured I'd start a build thread for the '49 Merc I posted in my thread in the General Section. First of is why it is a failed chop, and why it will be topless. I tried taking some plastic from between the roof and the windshield then lean the whole back section forward by doing pie and relief cuts , all while eliminating the posts and making it a hard top. While I liked the results of the front and just wasn't sure about the back half, I put some Squadron Green Putty on too thick and it caused issues with the plastic around the windshield frame. I had started to try and fix it with sheet styrene, but it got put away and forgotten about until recently. First off, the damaged areas at the front. And now the areas in the back I did the cuts and filled with styrene and putty. Now a month or so ago, during a slow period at work, I sketched up a Merc where I bisected the line running from the headlights to the back bumper at the dog leg, basically turning the front section onto a faux pontoon and shaped the part behind dogleg into a cruiser skirt. Well, I had the box laying around and decided, why not give it a shot, so here we go! The planned area for reshaping marked out with tape. And now the results! Now here's what I found to paint it with, if I get that far.......Colorgirl Forever Festive Red Metallic, think it should work fine here!

Model Master liquid cement in the square-ish container and Squadron White putty for most stuff.

Found what should be the perfect red for it Covergirl's Forever Festive! With is being the first time I've ever shot nail polish too, it could get interesting....................

Think I might try it this way first, as it does match more closely with the sketch I did that hasn't been posted yet, then experiment more on future builds with those being closer to the rough sketch I posted above. Where would be the best place to section this car, the upper or lower half of the body? I kinda want to, but not sure where.

Apparently it's not a Coddington car like I thought, it was, however, originally penned by Larry Erickson, who also sketched the Alumacoupe, Caddzilla, and what became the '05-'09 Ford Mustang. I'll be honest, the Merrodder looks more like a heavily stylized Buick to me.

That's why I left some of the shape there, I wanted it to still look like a Merc, so didn't want to erase the dogleg completely, like in the Barris Merc and others, but I also didn't want the wholesale change in the car's appearance, like the Boyd Coddington built Merrodder either.

I'm still refining the appearance, both of the model and of the concept drawings. Can't find it at the moment, but there is an updated drawing I did a week ago with a bit of a Santa theme, once I figured out where it went, I'll post that too. Color wise, I'm going to have to see what kind of metallic or candy reds available, may have to check out the cosmetics department at the OSCO Drug I used to work for and see what nail polishes they have there now. As for the chop, what I was trying for was an easy way to chop the top without having to cut down the windshield much, if at all and not cutting the back at all. As you can seem the back wasn't too successful, at least not when compared to the front......prior to the mishap that turned it into a failure that is. All I did in the front was cut out the plastic between the top of the windshield and where the front of the roof curves back over into the top itself. I just did some relief and pie cuts in the back then moved the roof forward to mate up with the a pillars/header. The next victim will have a rear chop more like the successful ones shown in the how to chop a Merc thread, but I'm planning on keeping the stock back window, as don't care much for the shape of the '51 Merc back window compared to the '49.

Well, did some work on an AMT/RC2 issue '49 Merc that has a failed chop attempt.......that top will have to come off, but I figured it might be worth experimenting on. It's not perfect, but should be close enough for 3D proof of concept. I haven't fabbed up, let alone added the cruizer skirts yet to flesh out that part of the design though.

I got Mom's with my discount through the HTU I used to work for, I think it was something like $50 or so and bought it for around $35.

Just heard she passed, only a few days left before 2017 comes in.

Picked one of these up for Mom a couple years back, works nicely!' https://www.amazon.com/Puzzle-Storage-Up-1000-Pieces/dp/B008R5YSQM

Good god, over 300hp in that?!