spencer1984

Thanks, guys - glad it was helpful! I used Tamiya TS-8 over white primer, then clearcoated.

Here are the finished pics of my S&H Torino. Overall I thought it was a really nice kit - not perfect, but it's fun to build, goes together easily, and looks good when assembled. The biggest shortcoming with it was the instructions, which were riddled with errors. I've already seen one modeler fall victim to them, so in the interest of getting some better information out there I made a scan of the booklet, corrected the drawings, parts callouts, and decal order of operations, and posted it as a PDF at http://spencer1984.com/85-4023.pdf Feel free to share, repost, copy, etc. with whoever may find it useful. I also have a full writeup/review of the kit here. As always, any comments/criticisms are welcome.

Awesome work, that looks great!

Thanks, guys! You're welcome. I had to laugh, though - that response reads much different next to Clint's angry mug

I've seen the transkit for sale, nice to see one built. Beautiful job on this!

Thanks guys! Not sure why, but I always liked the look of Ford's sedans from this period over their coupes or convertibles. It is, though the comic is on hiatus while its creator is busy with other work...labors of love need to take a back seat to paying the bills sometimes. The character is a WWII-era superheroine who uses disguises and concealed gadgets to fight crime (sort of a cross between Batman & James Bond), so her car needed to look fairly standard at a glance but in reality it hides all manner of props and weaponry. The guns in the engine bay are supposed to rise through a pair of doors in the top of the hood. The 1:1 prop car had them on a longitudinal rack, but could get away with using all of the overhead space because it had a late model small block Chevy installed. Since I tried to use period-correct (or at least "period plausible") equipment, my engine was too tall for that and I went with a crosswise scissor lift behind the supercharger instead.

That looks great, the Countach wheels are a nice touch!

Beautiful work! I had one of these kits years ago, and never could quite get it to look right...so hats off to you for getting such great results from a very tough kit. What color did you use for the silver?

I got to see Ken Lashley's Silver Spectrum Ford when it was at New York Comic Con 2013, and as a combination of a comic book car, sleeper, and fat-fendered Ford it was an absolute must-build for me. I used an R&R Resin body on the AMT kit, with lights, fuel fill, trunk latch, and steering wheel from the Revell kit. The bumperettes were removed, and the bumpers, grille, hubcaps, beauty rings, and trim were redone in BMF. The engine is my own idea, since the story is set in the '40s but the 1:1 had an LT1 engine for driveability. The supercharger is from The Parts Box, carbs are from Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland, and the guns are modified from AMT's Batmobile. Everything else was scratch built, in an attempt to be "period possible" rather than truly "period correct.". As always, all comments/criticisms are welcome!

I'm agreeing with the others, I think you did some really good work here, especially considering that it's a first try at weathering for you. Use some of the tips that Mike suggested, and you'll be a regular at this!

Very cool, that looks great!

Very nicely done, that looks great!

Very cool, I like the black and green together!

Awesome work, I love the "sleeper" aspect! What color did you use?

Fantastic work! Are those Aoshima wheels?

Back to work! Interior is now finished, the only mod I made was replacing the radio cord with a section of coiled wire. Everything went together with no drama, even the dash decals

Engine is now finished aside from the ignition wires and breathers. Overall the fit continues to be excellent - the pulley shafts lined up perfectly with the holes on the front of the engine, the headers practically snapped into the heads, etc. The distributor still doesn't bother me all that much, but I don't care for the way they did the alternator. The belt is molded so that it goes into the side of the fan and the pulley sticks out past that, plus the back is hollow. The power steering pump is better, but overall the belt assembly is pretty weak. The valve covers are identical, but the way they're attached to the sprue you can put the attachment points towards the back on both sides; nice touch. The carburetors are also nicely detailed, and I like that Revell gave us a decal for the oil filter. Work continues on the chassis. Like the engine, the overall fit is pretty spot-on. There was a tiny twist to the exhaust system, but nothing that didn't straighten out as soon as it was glued in place. Revell provided dimpled ends in the exhausts for anyone who wants to drill them out. I think they could have done a better job getting the rear axle halves to fit together, the joint here is ugly and could use some spots of filler to clean it up. Other than this, though, no complains on the assembly here.

I'm building this as close to box stock as possible, rather than try to make it a truly accurate '74 model. I'll just consider anything that's "wrong" as part of the performance upgrades Starsky added to it.

Awesome project, I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with it!

Not this time - my Ford Blue is the darker shade used on earlier engines, so I did this in Tamiya Brilliant Blue over gray primer

Good call, the intake is definitely a little long. I have a feeling that once the carburetors, air cleaner, valve covers, and wiring is added the extra length should be somewhat hidden. At least it fits the valley perfectly, so it looks like width is correct. Height doesn't seem so bad in person. I got some paint on the engine tonight - meant to mask off the distributor first but my enthusiasm to see it in color got the better of me. I also started work on the chassis. Revell stuck their usual copyright in the space over the rear axle, so that had to be sanded off. The rear axle fits together nicely, and is drying right now - once the glue is set I'll sand off the seam and paint everything satin black. No real surprise, the front end has a fair number of parting lines that have to be cleaned off. The tie rod, stabilizer bar, etc. struck me as being a little squarish, but comparing it to other Fords (AMT's '67 Mustang on the left, Revell's Pro Modeler '70 Torino on the right) makes everything look much finer and sharper. I'll probably hit the corners of the bars to round them off when I'm cleaning up the parting lines, but otherwise will use this part unmodified. I think you may be right - the blocky, angled front of the block looks more like the Ceveland motor.

I tried for an angle as close to what was shown as possible - if you'd like to see a different view, just let me know!

Right now its surrounded by clothespins until the glue sets, but I can shoot a 3/4 view tomorrow morning.

These pics are mid-process: in the first pic the coil tower and the tower at about 5:00 are as they came in the kit, the rest of the towers were drilled out before I took the photo. In the second pic I drilled far enough that the cap held the drill while I shot it, very quick & easy to do with the way Revell set it up. Yeah, not sure how they managed to muck up the orientation like that...the instructions are wrong throughout, too, so when it's time to install the upper radiator hose they just show it kind of sitting in a flat spot, rather than plugged into the socket like it's supposed to be. The box art got it right, at least.

I took a look at this kit over the weekend, and started work on it this evening. So far I'm very impressed with the thought that went into it: no, the engine isn't 2,000 parts, but the fit is excellent, the detailing is very well done, and the way they assemble is quite clever in hiding assembly joints and the necessary evils of injection molding. The fine detailing on things like the bolt heads and fuel pump are especially neat, though my award for the Best Idea So Far (Engine Division) is the distributor. Revell actually has tiny dimples cast into the top of the towers, so if you want to drill it out the drill bit self centers on the tower and eliminates the risk of wandering through the side. Very, very cool. Unfortunately, there is one downside...but it's with the instructions, not the parts. They tell you to install the intake manifold backwards, with the distributor at the rear. Not only is it wrong, it's impossible: the manifold and block are keyed so that they only fit together one way. Oopsie. I have the engine parts gluing together now, and will have it in paint tomorrow.