echoxrayniner

I got my hands on a rather cheap practically new '75 Mustang Mach 1 kit by MPC after losing out on an actual '76 Cobra II kit by MPC, thinking I'd just make it a Mach 1 like I previously did with the AMT kit just to see how well it goes together and how accurate it would be compared(well, easily twice as good as the AMT Mustang II, for certain) but then I found the set of Cobra parts by Missing Link on eBay and thought I'd put my recently designed Cobra II decals to use. Its pretty much as it is from the box besides a few things, didn't bother sanding away the trim, something I never like to do on ancient kits cause I'm always terrified of bending/breaking something while manhandling it, for the rest its just the Missing Link Cobra II parts, a set of slotted mags from a Ford Pinto Wagon kit and... thats it, its still even got the anemic six cylinder in there. I did lose the friggin' hoodscoop at some point during painting but I gotta admit, I actually like this look a lot more.

Thank you, fixed it up - Was pressed for time on that one hah. Even if it was criticism, no problem hah! Without it, nothing would get changed right! And thats actually useful info, I always knew the Six Barrel and Six Pack difference but wasn't 100% sure if Dodge's Magnums were totally exclusive like the Plymouth Super Commando(like they interchanged the Four Barrel name/decals), so effectively I should get rid of the 383 and 440 Magnums as they're Dodge, right? Could leave 'em for the sake of it, I don't suppose people would mind some spares for their other builds haha. I pretty much dragged all the air cleaner decals besides the Six Pack ones on there, now I come to think of it!

@Snake45: Actually, I was gonna base 'em off the Monogram 1/24th scale Mustang, if not only cause the Mustang is more detailed and easier to make a decal sheet for thanks to it hah. But since I got an MPC '80 Mustang, Revell '79 Mustang and a few Monogram Mustangs, I'm gonna do 'em in either scale just to have the choice there. @MrObsessive: Thanks man, couldn't have done it without you! I've bought a '69 Machine by SMH Resins to do the '68 Machine prototype on, which I couldn't have made either without your help, seriously thanks! @av405: Thanks for sending those pics of the AMT Dodge Ram 2500, I'm gonna wrap up the S-10/S-15 emblem sheet and then immediately onto the RAM, get that truck some love! And speaking of lucky purchases... I actually got my hands on a near new, complete '74 Javelin by Jo-Han for around 20 bucks. I'm still supremely taken aback by that sheer amount of luck. On top of that a '75 Roadrunner, '70 Cutlass 442, '86 Pontiac Grand Prix 2+2 in resin and some more to complete the catalog even more. Lately I've bought just about every friggin' 'Cuda kit I could get my hands on to do all the '68+ 'Cudas in full glory as they will always be my favorite muscle cars. Also those 'Cudas are eventually gonna be part of a little 3D design project to offer some '71 and '73-'74 front ends and tail ends in 1/25th scale for the Revell kit, but I wanna complete the giant as sin decal catalog first. Anywhoo: 1975 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442: 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass Rallye 350: 1976 AMC Gremlin Patriot Edition/Spirit of '76: 1976 AMC Pacer Patriot Edition/Spirit of '76: And prepare for a buttload of 'Cudas: 1970 Plymouth 'Cuda(Hockey Sticks): 1970½ Plymouth 'Cuda(V4 Code Strobe Stripes): 1970 Plymouth 'Cuda AAR(I remastered the one I did before in 1/25th scale, its now a full sheet opposed to just stripes) 1971 Plymouth 'Cuda 340/383/440/HEMI: Which also is available as the 383, 440 and HEMI of course. Oh and a little shot of the Ford Mustang II Cobra II decals in action:

Thanks hah! These in specific were made on request by Crowe-T to fit the Revell '77 Firebird T/A 1/25th, cause they got that horrible black outline that doesn't even match the black most people wanna use. It also missed a fair few stripes, so fixed that one up! Though it's actually no trouble at all to resize them for the '78 Firebird by Monogram, I've got a '78 body to match 'em to(I only got the MPC '80 Firebird and '79 Firebird, so can't say how well they'd match the AMT/MPC ones from '77-'78), and I think Crowe-T and I agreed on 17.50$ a set cause it's just such a ungodly large sheet in the end haha. As for the gold, I always design 'em in that ugly yellow as its the exact color code to auto-match the printer to select gold but on print they're proper metallic gold, semi-reflective sheen and all, I'll add a picture of a gold '76 Mustang Cobra II sheet that hopefully shows how it would end up looking:

Just drop me a message if you'd like the decals, having 'em printed takes a while though. Also, I've finished painting the whole ordeal, just gonna plumb the engine and whatnot - of which I'll add pics and edit this post soon, not at home for the weekend D:

Actually, that's something I really wanted to do - I've been on doing a elaborate sheet for the Revell Ram VTS kit to make detailing it easier but I really wanted to do a similar sheet like I did with the Ford F-150 and Chevy C/K, get all the badges and emblems out there. The eBay listings for 2nd gen Ram kits/promos... for a European like me? Stupidly expensive apparently, good looooord. So based on that, @av405 - I'd love to take you up on your offer, hah. I only got the Revell kit to work with unfortunately, so having shots of the AMT Ram would help buuunches. Also at some point there's gonna be some Cadillac love, dontcha worry, I'm still actively chasing down Jo-Han Cadillacs from the seventies(that no-one wants to ship to the friggin' Netherlands, hooray). And as for updates, it's been a slow roll lately, between the decimating heatwave nailing Europe, me flaying my hand at work and my girlfriend and I having a short holiday - I've fallen behind a fair bit, there's give or take 20 ongoing things as well as around 8 requests stuffed in between. So uh... I hope guys don't mind waiting a bit, working down a list! D: 1970 AMC AMX(1/25th, but also in 1/20th) 1980 Ford Pinto Wagon Rallye(first of many, the Cruisin' Wagon and soon the Cruisin' Van are in the works) 1972 AMC Gremlin X Randall 401-XR: 1974 AMC Gremlin X Randall 401-XR: 1977 AMC Gremlin X: 1968 AMC Rebel "The Machine" '68 Prototype(thought it was nifty, saw a '68 Rebel resin body by SMH Resins that I desperately wanted to have): 1970 AMC Rebel "The Machine": 1978 Dodge Adventurer 150 "Li'l Red Express Truck"(first of many, got the Midnite Express, coming up are the Warlock & Warlock II as well): 1978 Dodge Adventurer 150 "Midnite Express": Back to wooooooork.

With a ton of help, photographs and measurements provided by av405, I'd designed a set of Nite decals for the F-150 and Broncos of that era. I bought a F-150 Shortbox kit and lo and behold, it was missing the body, bed, hood and frame even though the seller claimed it was complete. Though very fortunately, I spotted another one going dirt, dirt cheap and immediately jumped on it so I could actually give those decals a go and see how they'd turn out(fade effects are a right b**** to nail). And with AMT/Round 2 coming up with a '92 F150 Lightning re-release I thought having a Nite in all black alongside a bright-as-heck red '92 Lightning eventually would be a neat idea! I jacked up my hand significantly at work a week back and one of the few things I can do(albeit... slow, very slow) is actually do some work on these kits. So far, so good!

Since I got that Firestone F-150 kit coming my way I might as well do the F-150 Pace Truck, and of course the '79 Mustang Pace Car to go with the Cobra and GT versions I got coming up. And small update time, I ruined my hand the other day(painfully as hell too) so working on the decals' slower than ever before, but I'm still going on albeit at a glacial pace(churning out a sheet or so a day at this rate, not even counting requests and commissions) and going down a long, long list. Also as per previous post, a total list can be seen at either: - Fotki; - My own website; - This Inventory PDF(without pretty pictures). As for the new sheets; 1970 AMC Javelin SST Mark Donohue: 1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass S Hurst/Olds: 1974 Oldsmobile Cutlass S Hurst/Olds: 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Special Edition: 1976 Ford Mustang II Cobra II(big, big thanks to Missing Link for the resin pieces): 1978 Ford Mustang II Cobra II(don't worry, any color combo is available, I just always kind of liked the weird green): 1976 Buick Century "Free Spirit" '76 Indy 500 Pace Car(mah baby): And the gargantuan amount of new tire decals: ... Back to work.

Bought one of those SnapTite kits on the cheap after being told they can be quite nice with a little work put into 'em, especially the older F-150 SVT Raptor. This one... Is kinda bare bones in comparison, but the real sinners are the not-clear tail lights and the silver-backed headlights... So I had to improvise and made a decal sheet for it to try and make it look even a slight bit more like the real-deal, making some head lights and tail lights, daytime running lights and figured I'd get a older generation/slightly custom Raptor side decal, just 'cuz I like it. For the rest its utterly stock, just sprayed over(albeit poorly with the fenders in mind) and decal'd up.

Yeah thats one way, I scribbled up a couple ways to see what the total inventory is at the moment, either via PDF download(clicksy) or that page mentioned above. I also created a Fotki page for easier overview as well: https://public.fotki.com/RaysKits/ . For the most part I wanna clean up the main page with better formatting and such but ho-boy, I totally seemed to have bricked it, any edit(even just opening it and saving it) just errors it out >.< Also I got two versions of the '75 Laguna S-3 coming up, one stock and one stock but adjusted to go around the fender of the NASCAR MPC Chevelle kit.

I already had ideas of doing the '81 Turbo Regal Pace Car, not to mention it's not too incredibly difficult to replicate for what its worth. Gonna add it to the ever growing list, hah! And yes, I'm gonna be adding the '73-'74 emblems as well at some point, I cut it off at '75 due to the wide availability of those emblems but I apparently already added a '73-'74 K5 Blazer emblem so, might as well get 'em all right. And mini-update, the Cutlass-ing has begun now I have the Jo-Han promo: 1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442: 1975 Buick Century "Free Spirit" '75 Indy 500 Pace Car: Onwards to the '74 through '77 Olds 442's and the Hurst/Olds inbetween, '76 Century, '76 Skyhawk, the GMCs and Chevy pickups and inbetween a giant, gargantuan, 1/8th scale Firebird.

I gotta ask though, given I know the square root of jack **** on sales figures for model kits, but it's fairly well known that NASCAR kits are a tough sell at any given time(atleast, during the 80s and 90s when the whole friggin' world was flooded with them and now they just can't seem to sell 'em off cheap enough), what the hell was their plan with this one? The decals are fantastic and the instructions solid, but why half-ass it with the model kit itself on an already harder to market product and crank the price through the ceiling while you're at it? I'm kinda torn with like, should they have cheapened out on the kit more(like not using Cartograf for decal printing) to make it a more competitively priced product to match the accuracy and detailing that the modeler in the end has to fix up using spare parts or resin bits, or should they have cranked it all up a notch, kind of group effort resin caster-styled focus on high quality and accuracy but equally high purchase price? I mean, not that it makes a friggin' difference given the Olds seems to sell like hotcakes anyway making half my point moot...

Man... I know we're all kind of uptight for accuracy and honest I only ever would buy this kit to form some '77-'78 decal sheets based on it(for the regular Olds even, not the NASCAR) but... woof, this is a spectacular train-wreck. This is truly disappointing though, a new player out on the field, big hype and enthusiasm(even if it came from the company itself), high end quality decals and all that for it to trip over its own feet on the way in. Hell, if anyone wants to off-load the body, lemme know hah.

@Oldcarfan27; I'm pretty much only doing the decals utterly in hopes of someone getting inspired enough or something along those lines to get a Buick Century body out there(same case for the series of Cutlass decals I'm doing for the post-'75 models and Chevelle Lagunas), aside from that to scratch the proverbial creative itch. Not to mention I can't help but loving it, so maybe! There's lots of folks practically begging for non-NASCAR A-body Oldsmobiles, Chevrolets and the likes so part of me is hoping I can spark a flame of sorts. And actually, you raise a good point about the tailgate panel on the Chevrolet, it's got a bit of a striped pattern in the panel, maybe it's brushed aluminum or something? Either way, I have no idea how well I can attempt to replicate it so it remains visible on small scale, I'mma get on doing some test-ish stuff to see what I can get done. Also thanks for the heads up on the EFI badges, I'd forgotten to do a bunch of Suburban badges so I've got reason to revisit already! And actually, thanks for the pile of ideas for the F-150s and the Pintos, especially. I've bought the Firestone F-150 and the MPC Pinto Wagon just to do 'em all at some point hah! @Can-Con; I've tried to source as much as I possibly could on that thing to do it proper right off, the pattern and the bird are easy, the real trick is gonna be translating the bright colors to print. It's always a bit funky, there's a bit of a guessing game how light you gotta go with one thing(on print it ends up darker by a fair notch) and how much lighter and/or darker the next color should be, but despite it I'm gonna try and see it through, love the Indy 500 Pace Cars but this one always stood out to be something fierce, I absolutely love it. And thanks for the heads up on the Skyhawk, I knew there was a Buick brother of the Monza but I had no clue it got a Free Spirit edition of its own, especially motivated for the Skyhawk given I've got the new AMT Monza 2+2 that I wished to turn into a Spyder but alas, no wing and the likes... Just stock or that ultra goofy looking body kit, but now I know there's a Free Spirit edition... Oh yes. @Jordan White; Ahh you beautiful man, you! I found a very similar article on Car and Driver that for some idiotic reason(hell the whole website is) forbidden to be shown in... Europe. Screw us, eh. But now thanks to you I got a nice overview to work with! As a whole, I've added these to the(over 220 strong item) list for the time being, with more of the unique edition trucks and possibly some vans as well in the future: 1975 GMC Sierra Grande Beau James & Gentleman James Editions(1/24) 1976 Chevrolet C/K Spirit of '76(1/24) 1976 Buick Skyhawk Free Spirit(1/25) 1976 GMC Sierra Classic Impact Edition(1/24) 1977 GMC Sierra Desert Fox(1/24) 1977 GMC Sierra Classic Sarge Edition(1/24) 1978 Ford Pinto Cruising Wagon “Standard Version”(1/25) 1978 Ford Pinto Cruising Wagon “Special Version”(1/25) 1979 Ford F-150 Freewheelin'(1/25) 1980 Ford Pinto Squire Rallye(1/25) Oh and should point out that I'm desperately wanting to do the 1979 Dodge Little Red Express and Midnite Express stepside trucks, I got all the stuff I need to properly do them besides a body to work with. If anyone could be so kind to run me a scan on the ever-so-old '79 MPC kit(or pictures alongside a ruler), I would be literally eternally grateful!

That's... kinda harsh, ain't it? Granted, USCP is bigger than the average resin caster so expectations are on a high bar but... still, if that's the mentality to roll with, then why make anything if someone's achieved greatness once before and discontinued it? I'm just glad they're being made, USCP's been doing quality work so I don't expect it to be anything half-assed even if it isn't decked with a lot of parts and PE parts.

@Dale Gribble; Coincidentally I'm currently working on the '84 Cadillac Coupe Deville sheet, though to mimic the Schwartz Performance pro touring car, still gonna add all the stock Caddy/Deville scripts and emblems to it though, so there's that! @Oldcarfan27; Thanks for the kind words man, I'm keeping a solid pace but attempting not to go full on overkill as much as I can hah. @Force; On it, I'mma try some color combinations(that still are indistinguishable from gray/beige/brown) that the printer will take better as grays just flatout become red, gonna get it done for ya' one way or another! @Ron Hamilton & @dimaxion; I've finished the '68 Javelin SST, gonna do the twin-stripe '68 AMX as well for completion's sake. Also, speaking of post 1970 Javelins, does anyone have a Jo-Han '72 or '73 body they're willing to measure out for me, perhaps with some solid side pictures? @Jordan White; Definitely! I've been wanting to do some wacky 1970s GMCs and Chevrolets like for instance the Spirit of '76 C/K, so the Desert Fox is something I also really wanna get done. Anyhoo, some updates: 1973-1998 Chevrolet C/K & GMC Sierra emblems and tailgates(companion piece to the Ford one) 1991 C-1500 454SS(with the '92 decals in there too): 1968 Javelin SST: 1978 Aspen R/T Richard Petty Kit Car: And the Plymouth companion, the 1978 Volare Richard Petty Kit Car: 1973 Gremlin X: 1992 F-150 Nite Edition(both color stripes and Bronco emblems, just to cover some ground): And a little spoiler for the slightly bigger project I'm working on right now as we speak(at friggin' 12AM on a monday, what the hell is wrong with me): And so it continues, I got about 15 active projects at the moment, though they're all getting their dues! And also, one thing I should mention, I reckon I am at the max length that the text editor can handle for the main page post, I can't even do a bit of a overhaul with less heavy images and less text without getting page errors left right and center so just assume that the new stuff only gets shown off like this instead of added to the pile on the first post.

Hah thats actually friggin' perfect! I tried to make out the license plate over and over and just couldn't make out any letters whatsoever. Very much appreciated! @Ron Hamilton; Can do! The '68 Javelin AMX with the twin stripes running over the body or the one Javelin with the stripe running alongside the top of the fenders and doors? Or both for that matter, cause why not.

@Oldcarfan27; I tend to have to custom-make the file up in the end so any color combination is possible! That being said though, I am actually in the progress of uh... "dissecting" for the lack of a better word all the Firebirds from '77 through '81 so I can easily change the colors on the fly(including the '80-'81 Turbobird), and I'm definitely gonna make a 10th An. Firebird sheet. Also thanks for the ideas for the Conquista El Camino and the various Firebirds, gonna add 'em to the list! Working on the '78 Firebird Macho T/A at the moment so I'm definitely on a roll to get all the slightly more obscure Firebirds in 1/24th and 1/25th scale. @Pat Minarick; Good idea! I knew I missed a important Aspen/Volare. Besides it shouldn't be too much effort, just the Petty numbering on the doors and engine call outs on the hood and the small stripe that runs along the top of the fenders to the windows, plus maybe thinking of making the little rivets available on the decal sheet as well for the sake of ease. @Force; I got the little test-run for the seat decals, I dont really know if they look anything to what you're looking for, they got a bit of a red hue due to the RGB printing process and the pattern is a tiny bit more garbled than I expected, I'm thinking of enlarging the pattern a bit to see if it'll end up going through better next time, unless this is satisfactory for you! And before I go through the pile of updates, a quick note to those who ordered, the printers' decided to take a short summer vacation... at some point, I dunno when or even if they did already but I put my order for print in on June 20th and they still haven't even printed the friggin' things so I'm really sorry for the delay! Anyway, time for the big ol' pile of updates: 1969 AMC Javelin AMX-390 "Big Bad": 1982 Ford EXP 1.6 Turbo: 1980 Ford Mustang ASC McLaren M81(Along with Mustang GT ENDURO decals): 1979 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am(1/16th scale, for the MPC kit): 1973-1996 Ford F-Series(and Bronco) Emblems and Tailgate Stripes(the '91-onwards F150/250/350 single emblems got a thicker outline than shown): 1979 Mercury Capri RS Turbo: 2017 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor: 1971 Dodge Charger R/T "Gone in 60 Seconds"(the Charger that you see for all but 11 seconds and gets crushed and torched immediately, yay): 1976 AMC Gremlin X: And a ****load more is to come, I've been contacted to make a AMC AMX for 1970, 1971 and 1972, contacted for a gargantuan scaled 1/8th Firebird Turbo Trans Am from 1980, for a 1970 Torino CJ429 Type N/W so I'll be a busy S.O.B. for the next period. Hell, I'm not just being contacted, I'm also doing it to myself! Bought a '75 Cutlass kit and I'll be doing the '73 through '77 Cutlass 442s and Hurst/Olds editions for those as well.

Yeah, they sure look like mine! Though I did wonder for a brief second, the silver's metallic and all(bit like the taillight center section) instead of white, which was the best I could do for it all given the real one has dark grays and whatnot and the ALPS I had 'em printed on... well it didn't do grays or semi-transparents hah. And I gotta admit, I was sure that the blacks were also less jagged, hell for an example, this is the one I build with 'em: So it's possible its a knock-off, I honestly have no clue. I made 'em for the most part for myself with the secondary idea to just sell 'em to those interested. And for your friend, I have a website with all I've got on offer with contact info/means there.

Hah, those decals would appear to be mine, the main stripes are black and silver metallic but I reckon that's them at least. Holy Christ they got around if they ended up at a swap meet, I pretty much only sold a handful to a few people! But seriously solid work on it man, the yellow is pretty much spot on and it looks friggin' epic.

Man this was a good little kit, Aoshima's kits are always the type that go together quite nicely and got detailed up the wazoo. I was kinda thrown off by spotting a note on the side of the box's print literally going on about the quality being less than what can be expected cause it was a '70s kit but uh, yeah, with the P.E. parts, the detail, the build quality was absolutely staggering. All it took to detail the thing a little better was a Molotow chrome pen, that's it. Figured it would be a nice companion piece to the '77 Mustang II, given they're basically just intercontinental brothers.

Its got a couple of cracks on the rear decklid there, man, may need a touch-up methinks

Man this was a weird one. AMT and MPC had a handful of competitive kits going on through the seventies and I so wish I had a MPC Mustang II to compare this one to cause it felt like such an oddball kit. Opening hatch? Cool and all, but why the smushed micro-interior? Why the oddly open front with no structural support for the airdam and such? Why the absolutely massive tires? Either way, kind of enjoyed it, for a kit from the mid seventies it actually builds up rather alright. Did run into two issues despite it being a still sealed kit from the seventies; one being the metal rods that the wheels would've been attached to had... vanished, or were never packaged so I improvised with four 1.3mm nails. Yeah, this Mustang's sitting on nail axles and **** me sideways it actually kind of works and two is that neither the hood nor the hatch fitted even a slight bit, guessing warping's to blame. The paint's a mix of Skoda's Race Blue and BMW's Atlantis Blue Metallic, the decals I made myself.

Oh I'm right there with ya', I'm genuinely surprised the only offerings available are(albeit top quality) resin versions. Hell Revell is halfway there with the '76 Ranchero, they already sculpted a gorgeous front end on the Torino. I wouldnt mind seeing a '77 Can-Am and Grand Prix, Christ I would actively give my soul for a boattail '73 Riviera in 1/25th scale.

Ahh thanks for the heads-up, I'll get those on the sheet ASAP! Appreciate it!