jaymcminn

Good job so far, Peter. I actually did something like this a few years back with the Revell kit- it's wearing a Modelhaus resin Carson top (with modifications, of course) for the '50 Ford. To get everything to work right, I grafted in the tulip panel and windshield header from the Ford. I like the idea of a modern custom for yours!

A little change of plan... I finessed out the remaining minor bodywork issues using Duplicolor red oxide primer and decided I really liked the color. It's still going to get painted flames in white and light blue or turquoise- in fact, I might get a little more ambitious on the flames than I had originally planned. Motor and wheels will be painted light blue or turquoise to match the flames. I've started mocking up the frame-to-engine fit and the ride height- pics on that later. In the meantime, here are some pics of the primered body. This was the first time I used the technique of brushing liquid cement over shaved moldings to prevent "ghosting"- I was amazed by how well it worked!

That's some amazing work. Really beautiful.

Gotta go with the '62 Bird here, although all of these are great builds. And I am so stealing that wet hood backdrop idea from the Ferrari F1 pic!

That pro-touring Volare might be my favorite model car of the year. Nice work on all of them!

Great weathering and decal work.. Your scratchbuilding skills are fantastic!

A few years back, I got into a bit of a slump where I would start doing initial bodywork on projects and get bored with them. One of those projects was this '49 Ford. I did the chop on the top and opened the rear wheelwells before filing it back into the box. Fast forward a few years- I'm out of my slump and starting to reopen a few of those boxes. Starting back to work on this Ford, I was a little disappointed with the look- I had gone a little too far in smoothing the body out and it looked a little... blah. I added the drip rails back on with styrene stock and added a thin trim strip to break up the slab-like body sides. Then I molded the front and rear pans and trimmed the stock front grille to work with the roll pan. It's looking better... I then attacked the engine bay. The basic idea of this car is to be "clean and mean". The paint will be gloss black with flames (my first painted flame job, should be fun!) and the motor will be the Hemi from the Revell '32 Ford, which will be sporting RMCM's 8-carb log. The engine bay will be sanitary- no battery, no clutter, just engine. The goal with this one is to look as good (or better!) with the hood off as with it on. To that end, I sanded off all the molded-in engine bay detail and filled the areas that needed to be cut out. Wheels will probably be Revell '40 Ford wide whites and steelies with beauty rings and bullet caps, painted red or orange. For the interior, I'm thinking of trying the Ken Hamilton Mexican blanket technique using different colored thread over masking tape. This would be used as inserts on the factory bench seats and door panels. I'm trying out a few new things on this build (the flames, the interior treatment) and am pretty excited to see where it winds up going. As always, any questions or comments are welcome!

That looks fantastic, but it's riding a little high there, don't ya think? (just kidding... it's perfect!)

Great work, Jim. That color's wild!

And a few more with different lighting...

So here are the pics of the finished Revell '58 Impala... here's the link to the build thread. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=50895 Overall I was really pleased with this kit- the overall look is spot-on and the more unusual touches, such as the separate chrome trim, worked out pretty well (although I still used Bare-Metal Foil on the upper part of the rear-quarter trim, which was pretty badly scuffed). I wound up using the lowered mounting holes in the kit front suspension and jacking up the rear suspension by three scale inches, which required moving the axle back by a similar amount to space the wheel properly in the wheelwell. The dummy side pipes are aluminum tubing, but I'm not sure about the tailpipes- with the dummy sidepipes would the real exhausts be concealed? Anyway, on to the pics...

Got this one finished yesterday- here's a pic for you., More pics and overall building impressions of this kit in "Under Glass" soon!

Latest update... I finished the interior/engine bay/trunk unit. Next up is to mount this into the body shell. I foiled and applied the chrome trim pieces to the body (what a nightmare!) but don't have a pic of that up just yet. The chassis is nearly there- I used the lowered front suspension holes and had to raise the rear suspension by about 3 scale inches to give it the right rake. Final assembly should be tonight or tomorrow- in the meantime here are pics of the completed interior, with floor shift and parts-box steering wheel with "wood" rim.

I actually liked it without the "B" pillar and as a 2-door- kind of a phantom Nomad hardtop wagon. Seriously- that's really nice-looking.

Yes, the 409 was a bored/stroked 348. Externally they were nearly identical.

So I was actually able to get some work done over the last couple of days... the motor was painted Inca Gold. I debated replacing the undersized kit distributor but eventually wound up using it- drilled, with white plug wires. I scratchbuilt a coil and added a fuel line as well as finding a nice air filter in the parts box, but otherwise it's out of the box. Next I moved onto the interior. I mixed this creamy pale yellow base color with Testors acrylics... Then I masked the outline of the seat inserts with Bare-Metal Foil and painted the inserts white... and then I masked off the stripes, spraying them in bright yellow and brown. To be honest, I don't think an actual customizer in the '60's would have painstakingly reproduced the stock upholstery pattern in different colors, as tuck-n-roll upholstery was a lot more common back then, but I really like the effect and the colors really work with the exterior. Next step is to finish the interior and start on the chassis!

SOLD. Oh yeah.

That paint is amazing- the flake really brings out those curves. Good luck with the photoetch- have you thought about contacting Model Car Garage or another aftermarket company about doing a custom fret for you from your artwork?

Tough call... you've put a lot of work into the Corvette frame already, but the setup might not be the most realistic, and you could wind up with fit issues further on in the build that will take more time and effort to fix. On the other hand, you'll have to put some work into swapping the suspension stuff onto the '54 frame, but it might make for an easier time later on in the build during final assembly. I'd go for the suspension swap, if it's not major surgery to do that on the '54 frame.

It's not going to be scraping the ground or anything like that. The front will sit a little lower than the rear for a really nice traditional rake. I have a set of the dummy lakes pipes from a Revell '49 Merc that might go on, but I'm a little on the fence with that for right now. Thanks for the comment about the fade stripe in the center of the roof- I was a little unhappy with the look of the thing before I went back in and added that extra touch. As far as progress goes, I actually fabbed up an AMT Impala 409 with the Offenhauser valve covers and M/T tunnel ram intake, but it's just a little too mean to go in this one- Im going to save that particular motor for a '32 Ford project I'm kicking around in my head. The engine in this build will be the stock 348 with the custom finned valve covers, but I might scrounge around in the parts boxes for a different air cleaner or something to make the engine bay stand out some. Still on the fence about whether to paint the engine Inca Gold, in keeping with the sort of show-car look of the build, or to paint it in Chevy Engine Red. I've been mixing some test colors for the interior- the overall color will be a pale yellow with the seat stripes painted in white, brown, and gold. The carpet will be a flocked in a gold color from Ken's. I'm looking forward to getting some progress made the next few days- I'm finally getting a few days off after a week of crazy hours!

I just don't get the way Trumpeter breaks down parts... are those injectors molded in halves?

That's a very clean build and a really sharp look for this car... great job!

Jeez, Doc, you've been slacking off... I expect to see another ten painted bodies by Christmas! Seriously, amazing work there, especially on that purple pond rescue '32. I really like the color on that one!

I know how it is with those projects that fight you all the way- you're doing a great job on the kind of project that would send most modelers running away! (I should know- I contemplated putting an Offy engine into one of these for about ten minutes before I got a splitting headache and had to lie down) We're all pulling for you to get this one done!

And yes, they're all in bare plastic- generally by the time I get primer on 'em I'm fully committed to finishing the build.