Custom Mike

And the assembly of the rest of the interior. I had the kit interior, and a '68 Satellite interior I got from Missing Link Resin Casters. The stuff from Missing Link is incredible, it looks just like a kit part, but it isn't a match for the picture of the interior of Jay's car. The Road Runner interior isn't a match either, but it's a whole lot closer, so I went with it. I painted the floor body color, added some Blue flocking, and painted the seats with some Dupli-Color White Primer, along with the door panels. I added some body color to the tops and bottom of each door panel, a strip of Detail Master Krome Foil to the top edges of the door panels, then glued it all together!

Now onto some interior work. Another first for me, I had to make a gear selector and turn signal stalk for this one, since the Road Runner kit has a stick and no turn signal stalk on the column. So a straight pin was cut in half, bent in two places for the gear selector, and a glob of Acrylic Filler was applied to the ends of both. Once it set up nice and hard, I sanded them into shape, slapped some Semi-Gloss Black on 'em both, and drilled some holes into the steering column. A drop of Super Glue to each, and we've got a column mounted automatic with turn signals!

Thanks Rodney, I wish it had been a better casting of that hood, but it is what it is. Alright, time for some more work, this update is some engine accessories. The fan belt assembly is painted, the alternator was painted and detailed with some Tamiya Clear Red, and the fan was shot with some Semi-Gloss Black. Another update in a minute!

Now onto the plug wires. I grabbed a resin distributor from Replicas & Miniatures Co. of Maryland, along with one of their coils, some White 30-Gauge wrapping wire, and some Flat Black paint for the wiring. A bit of drilling with a pin-vise, and a bit of work, and we have an engine with spark plug wiring! That's all for tonight, gotta get back to work on this one now!

OK, here's where I modify the kit side windows. The Road Runner comes with a full side window, I don't like it, so I cut the rear side windows loose using my trusty panel scriber, cleaned up the new edges, and polished them up nice and pretty. They're still pretty thick, so I may replace them with some Clear Styrene, we'll see once the interior is completed and test-fit into the body. Then I got to work on the engine I got from Leith, a freind of mine over on Scale Avenue. It's the 340 from AMT's '71 Duster kit, which looks just like a 318, so we've got the proper engine for Jay's ride. Some Model Master Chrysler Engine Red was applied, and the freeze plugs were detailed with Citadel colors Mithril Silver. The transmission will be painted with some Metalizer after I've completed the rest of the engine, just to keep it from getting all over the pretty Red paint.

Thanks guys, I'm sure he'll like it, at least he better! Now for something completely different....the chassis. I tried something on this one a bit different. NO GLUE!!! Nah, just kidding, I painted the front suspension components with Citadel Colors Burnished Gold to simulate the "Cosmoline" coating that Chrysler used on these cars. It's not quite the right shade, but it's close, and it looks good to boot. The leaf springs and gas tank were painted with Model Master Metalizer Steel, and various components were painted with Semi-Gloss Black. This is the cleanest chassis I have ever done, it makes me want to keep this one instead of giving it to Jay!

Bill, I was afraid to try anything other than spot putty, this is my second time ever with resin parts, so I'm a little gun-shy still. I'll try the super glue trick next time, I've got a bunch of resin parts so I can duplicate my old 1:1 '72 Charger someday!

Here's the results after all that extra work. A Dremel and some bent riffer files, and we have somewhat recognizable bracing where the lumps used to be. It's not perfect, but I was worried I would take too much off, so I settled for this. There are still two pinholes on the topside (The filler wouldn't stay in them for some reason), but I'll have to learn to live with 'em! I drew some bracing onto the smoothed-out lumps, and got to work making it look like it should... Here's the final results prior to primer and filler for the holes in the back edge... After filling in those holes, and adding the bracing detail at the back side, I had to sand it all off so the hood would sit level with the fenders... And a shot of the topside. The two sinkholes at the rear corners are gone, but my two pesky pinholes are still there...so be it!

When Dr. Cranky asks you to continue, you must comply! OK, here's where I rant and rave like a maniac about the resin hoods I bought for this build. The first one I received (I was so disgusted by it I just trashed it, no pictures available!) was a completely unrecognizable lump of tan resin, kind of in the shape of a hood, but it had zero detail and tons of pinholes, so I located a second one. The caster sent me 4 pictures of the topside of the hood (Two in White, two on different models), and I figured I'd take a chance, it looked really good. Once it arrived, I found out why he didn't send any pics of the bottom side. Two massive lumps of resin resided where the under-hood bracing should have been on either side of the hood, along with lots of raised...well, zits would be a good description of what it looked like. Then there was the thickness issue. Now I know I suck at resin-casting, but the hood I tried to cast for the Momad came out the same thickness as the kit part, the same with my modified '57 Chevy hood. They may have looked horrible, but they fit perfectly on the kit they were meant for. Not this beast...not by a long shot. Altogether it took an additional 7 hours of work to make this hood look somewhat presentable, here's where it started... The top side, not too bad, the Plymouth script will have to go though.... And the bottom side, this guy is actually charging people for this stuff... The drivers side of the hood. Yeah, that's the correct thickness, isn't it? And the passenger side of the hood, it's even thicker....

Jim, it's gonna be a basic Royal Blue, no fancy colors on this baby! Kinda ugly, but it'll at least match the picture he gave me of the car. I found a near perfect match at Wal-Mart in their cheapo paint line, so we'll be using that, should be a fun one to spray! Joe, your hood looks 1000 times better than the ones I got, who did you get it from?

And the final update for the night, the last addition to the body to make it a Satellite. I took some angle strip styrene, and glued it into the wheel wells to make some trim, another first for me, and amazingly easy to do. All 4 wheel wells were done in 10 minutes!

Yeah, Tonio, I get it every time someone finds out. I just make sure they know if I'm going to do it, it'll be on my time-table, don't expect it any time soon. This one's been sitting for over a year, so I figured it was time! I did a quick test with some Tamiya masking tape, then tried some 3M Blue Painter's tape. I went with the 3M stuff, it just looks right to me. I checked my reference pics again, and saw that the trim on the B-pillar needed to be flattened out, so some very careful sanding stick work ensued...

And now we start adding the Satellite trim to the body using some half-round styrene strip... Oh, and did I mention this Satellite had a White vinyl top? Yeah, something new for me. After doing a ton of image searches, I finally found some good close-ups of the location of the B-pillar trim for the vinyl top, and added some half-round where it needed to be. Then I set up my roof seams, more half-round was used, then it was sanded flat to better represent the seams once it's all done.

Well, here's what I've been doing lately. I've had it sitting on the bench for a while now waiting for a good resin hood (We'll get into that later...) and trying to locate the correct hubcaps. The hood finally arrived, so I got to work so I could get it out of the way. Jay is a guy I used to work with, and once he found out I could build a model, he wanted me to duplicate his old Satellite. So he bought AMT's '69 Road Runner, and paid for the Keith Marks GTX decal sheet (For the tail light/trunk panel), and I found a stock Satellite hood in resin. Twice. Both sucked, one much less than the other. The name of the offending resin casters will never be revealed, unless one of you asks "Has anyone ever used these guys?", which will be followed by a tirade from me. But enough about the hood, you'll see what I'm talking about later on that part. Here's the beginnings, a picture of the actual 1:1 Satellite hubcap that seems to have never been made in 1/25th scale, and the prep work on the body, here we go! Have you seen me in 1/25th scale? If so, I want to know! Mold lines removed, and body shot with Dupli-Color primer... The door panel lines have been deepened... Along with the trunk, tulip panel, and tail light housings.

That's it, I give up...I'll never get to the point you're at now Randy, this is simply unreal work! You sure you're not really 40 feet tall and this is a full-sized car you're working on?

Jeff, here's a pic of what Dave's talking about, there's also a red reflector on the armrest. I did a ton of researching this car when I built mine, if you need any pics, let me know!

Great work on the chrome trim around the seats Jeff, what did you use for that? I did mine with Detail Master Krome Foil, and still ended up with a few wrinkles at the corners, yours are beautifully smooth! And as far as the Black Primer with Clear, I used that myself years ago before I figured out how to get a good black paint job, and it worked out great. I don't know who came up with it either, but I did mine back in2001, so it's been around a long time!

Thanks guys, this was a real spur of the moment idea, and it actually worked out better than I imagined. The Hemi actually has way more room than I thought it would, I just had to move the firewall back about a scale foot. The amazing thing was the Super Bee's chassis, once it was cut down lengthwise, it fit almost perfectly, just a bit of trimming at the back corners to fit in the bumper!

Another Revell 1999 Eclipse, but this one's just a little different. This one was started years ago, at the tail end of when Steroids were rampant in Baseball. It was named after Barry Bonds because it's just ridiculously juiced up. Shoving a 426 HEMI into a 1999 Eclipse is kind of like Barry (Or any other athlete that has been that stupid!) stabbing a needle filled with Steroids in his butt, it's made both insanely powerful!!! It's got a shortened chassis from AMT's 1970 Super Bee Pro-Street kit, along with the suspension, rims, back tires and the 426 Hemi from the same kit, front tires from my parts box, and a turned aluminum Nitrous bottle from a friend (Thanks a million Dan!). I had to scratch-build a new driveshaft and inner fender wells, I detailed the engine with a aluminum distributor from Parts by Parks and spark plug boots from Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland. Then I finished the engine off with a low-rise intake, carbs and velocity stacks from my parts box, and threw on a PE alternator bracket from Detail Master. A new floor pan was scratch-built with my fiance Pam's help, the firewall from the Super Bee kit was cut-down to fit, and new side windows were made from Clear Styrene. I flocked the floor pan, and painted the rest of the interior with Dupli-Color interior paint. Throw in a parts box exhaust system and a wild Nail Polish paint job, some pin-striping tape to make it all look better and you've got this beast. I painted the clear hood with some Testor's Transparent Green, and called it good, enjoy the pics! Follow the link below for the build-up! http://www.public.fo...eclipse-barry-/

Hmmm, looks like one I need to find a copy of Alyn! As far as the bubble top goes, I agree! Snag a '62 Bel-Air and start hacking! It should fit on there very nicely!

Beautiful Ute Luke, I love the rear suspension too! Now about that last picture, how did you set that up? It looks like a "Beauty Shot" from GM themselves, I'd love to be able to shoot some pics like that myself!

Robert, got a picture of the rims you're looking for? I've got three of this kit, and a ton of old Mopar factory rims, so I'm sure I've got what you're looking for!

Beautiful color combo Ryan! The pinstripe is a great touch too, great work, and good luck in the contest! I was going to use those same rims on mine, now I know how they would have looked!

Doc, your work never ceases to astound me, the paint work is simply incredible. There go my hopes for world domination via a model contest!

Justin, that color combo is great, not something you're gonna see very often at all. Now about those monster turbos.....you're gonna be buying a lot of tires for this baby!