Dragonhawk1066

The Chevelle is done! Thanks everyone for following along! What a fantastic kit, as most of you probably already know from building your own. I'll take a few days to decompress and then get started on my next project, the AMT 1971 Plymouth Duster 340 that will be done as factory stock and in Model Master Go Mango with a white and black interior.

Here's my 1968 Chevelle that I just completed along with a little back story. The owner bought her back in 1997 before the prices of Muscle Cars started going crazy with the intention of doing a complete restoration. Life and other things got in the way so it sat until a few years ago when he finally had time and resources to get working on it. The goal was to have a "triple threat" vehicle that looks and runs like a winner. He wanted it to be right at home at the strip, on the streets as a cruiser, and on the show grounds. After 3 years (actually weeks, lol) he feels like he accomplished his goal. Oh yeah, never mind the boxes on the seat, he just got back from the auto parts store when he took the pics, lol. He kept the 396 badges on the car to keep up the "wolf in sheep's clothing" façade, lol. The owner also kept all of the original parts in case he ever wanted to put it back to factory stock. He pulled the original 396 and replaced it with a 454 bored up to 496 cubic inches (not really, but who can tell in 1/25 scale plastic, lol), and topped it off with an Edelbrock intake and a Holley Carb (from Fireball Modelworks). The air cleaner is a machined unit from Off The Sprue. The paint is Tamiya TS-11 Maroon and is cleared with Tamiya TS-13. The lower panels are painted in Tamiya TS-14 Black and the trim is done with BMF. The interior is done in Black craft paint with some satin varnish mixed in for a little sheen. A column mounted tach was added and a triple gauge pod on the console behind the shifter. The exhaust is custom made with scratch built mufflers and 3/8 inch styrene tubing for the pipes, and the headers came from the AMT '67 Chevelle Pro Street kit. The wheels are custom made deep dish Rally's in the rear and the kit rally's in the front, while the front tires are also from the kit and the rears from Fireball Modelworks. I added Battery Cables, ignition wires, heater hoses, valve stems and door locks for extra details. This is a fantastic kit and was a joy to build. Thanks for looking!

I had to call a last minute audible on the wheels, as the rears just wouldn't quite fit right inside the fenderwells. I tried shaving the wheel backs to no avail and the only solution was to grind away the inner fenderwells, which I was just unwilling to do at this stage. I also bent one of the rims while working on the fit, and couldn't get it back to a decent round shape. I had a minor conundrum as to which rims/tires to go with, Convo Pro's with skinnier slicks or steal the deep dish rims off my brown '69 Camaro and keep the drag radials. The wife preferred the rally's, so the conundrum was short-lived, lol. I painted and detailed a pair of the kit rally's for the front after these pics were taken and while they are molded a little differently than the rears, I can live with it. The lower left is the bent rim, which looked even worse in the tire. The paint also wrinkled while trying to fix it. I pretty much finished this one today, even with the wheel issue and hope to get some good outdoor pics tomorrow.

Very nice! I've always liked the Thunderbolts, for some reason they just look right in race form.

Nice job on the paint!

Well done! Great color choice!

Very nice! I like the color choice, would that be Testors Root Beer?

Very nice! That is a fine looking paint job!

Looking good so far! Great interior/exterior color choice as well.

I'm really hoping mine's OK, maybe I should open the envelope and test it. I have a love/hate with the stuff, it's a necessary evil, LOL, and like you I feel there's no suitable substitute. Sharpie's are OK for a small touch-up, Molotow can't be touched or handled. I have seen some great examples of the trim being taped off and Alclad airbrushed on, but I can't use that solvent based stuff in the house and am not set up to use an airbrush in my shed.

So does anybody know if the AMT '69 Daytona Postage Stamp Edition kit is essentially the same (meaning as crappy as) as the MPC '69 Daytona kit that was at Ollie's for $9.99 a couple of years ago? I'm assuming it's at least the same as the older box art versions.

Looks great! Brings back a lot of memories of my youth!

Nearing the finish line on this one. I got the rest of the wires and hoses hooked up in the engine compartment yesterday. I put the glass, visors and rear view mirror in this morning and mated the body to the chassis/interior this afternoon. I just have to add the wheels, a few trim decals and the bumpers and mirrors and she'll be done.

Unfortunately, I've heard a lot of bad things about the recent batches of foil. I got a sheet in 2-3 months ago but haven't used it yet, I hope it's OK. I still had enough of my last sheet to do the '68 Chevelle, and might have enough left for my next build too, the AMT '71 Duster. After that it's onto the new stuff and cross my fingers it sticks, lol. I have heard that when the foil doesn't stick very well, using something like Elmers or Mod Podge or anything else that can be brushed on to the surface where the BMF will be applied and dries clear, is known to help a lot.

Very nice!

Looks great!

The interior is now finished with the addition of the column mounted tach and gauge cluster mounted behind the shifter. I put together a couple of boxes from a set that I got on ebay, but I'm not sure if I'm going to leave them in the interior or not. I also painted and installed the 100% custom exhaust system. It was a bit of a struggle bending the styrene tubing to go around the rear axle. I had the inlets and outlets reversed initially, but when I got to gluing everything in, I could only get it all to line up this way. It looks a little off, but still not too bad.

Well done, and a great color! I had one of those Jo-Han kits back in the late 80's that I used to match my 1:1 '74 Cutlass Supreme. Mine was silver with a burgundy vinyl top and interior and a 455. I would love to have another one of each right about now.

That's a great looking Boss! I really like the color choice!

Good looking Torino!

Very nice! That's a really sharp blue!

The smoke needs to go on in light coats. It takes a bit to add up and start looking like actual tint. I was the same way initially until I saw some how-to's on it. I went really thick and it looked like garbage.

Great tip! I make mine a different way, but I'll definitely have to try this sometime.

I took a minute on Wednesday to spray some TS-71 Tamiya Smoke on to the inside of the rear window. I made a pair of mufflers yesterday, one of these days I'll get myself some casting products and cast a bunch so I don't have to make some every time I want to use different mufflers. I'm also slowly working on the rest of the exhaust using styrene tubing. I got the interior done for the most part as well. I just found a tach to put on the steering column and a gauge cluster to put on the console behind the shifter, so I need to strip the chrome, prime them, and then paint them before adding the decals. I'm really trying to be patient on this one, and so far it's paying off. I just hope I can keep it up and not rush anything and end up ruining it, lol.

Very well done! Your car building skills are already at a pretty high level!