bill-e-boy

I pulled a Lil John 34 coupe build up and compared it to the 29 closed cab. Wheel based on the LJ chassis will need to be lengthened a tad but this should be fairly easy As I consider Lil John to be the originator of the billet phase the use of one of his chassis for a closed cab build up would be fitting. A wheel change to some blingy directionals, a bit of chassis work - too easy View of LJ underside Even has a Ford in a Ford to appease the faithful View to show how much the chassis will need to lengthened The 34 kit body is way out of scale and does not look right - but what a great chassis

And a background shot of my workbench and environs

A bit of an update Interior complete, engine wired and detailed, mounted in chassis. Chassis complete with suspensions and exhaust added. Some lines added to chassis It is low, real low - not even bagged. I lowered rear with lowering blocks and spring relocation. Front end lowered with dropped spindles Paint done and rubbed out and waxed. Presently foiling and getting ready to detail badges and other little things

Been following this and I am impressed with the builds and the positive comments from all the hobby heavyweights (sic) I have stashed away a box with a Lil John 26T chassis and running gear with a closed cab pick up body waiting for a build up. Parts are left over from a 26T sedan cut down to a pick up with an A chassis that is a staled project - need to get back to it ASAP

The Tamiya Mica Red is a stunning colour choice I have just finished rubbing out and polishing a Chrysler 300B that I painted in the same colour and I am mightily impressed with it

With Testors paints I have always thinned it 1x paint 1 1/2 thinners - Testors thinners or laquer thinners - Airbrush is Badger 250 running at 22-25 pound I have a hot box where the paint and model sit before, during and after paint - just a big 2ft square box with a 40W lamp - and dimmed for a couple of days to post cure Generally orange peel is light and easily rubbed out with polishing kit One other trick is application - a couple of light coats, a couple of wet coats and progressively add thinner with a couple more wet coats - watch out with metallics as you can get tiger stripping when using over thin paint My method FWIW

Brass Grab some Tamiya brass and mix in some flatting agent (also Tamiya)

Nice set of 56 models in the groups Partial to the 56 Dodge as I have the real thing. Same model Custom Royal Lancer 2 door pillarless

A modern equivalent would be the OHV Ford engine in the Tamiya Lotus Seven Those old Thames and 4 door Prefect cars were dire. Under powered and fell over easy if cornered too fast. 0-60 in about five hours because that how long it took to find a long enough steep down hill run with a tail wind. And then you were lucky to get to 60. LOL

AMT 32 Sedan, chopped with slanted back A pillars, XKE Jag front and rear, kit Ford 427 with C6 from spares box grafted on, scratch built headers, card and air cleaner from 69 Torino Cobra, custom mixed Humbrol enamels with clear coat. Built around 79/80 before it was known that the dies were missing. Windows tinted blue clear film to match running gear colours. Wire wheels are from a Monogram kit with the rears widened. This was the flavour of rodding at the time - retro rod with modern running gear. This is the mid 70's reissue.

AMT 32 5 window that I built about 30 years ago.

One thing I have to say is I had to spend an awful amount of time cleaning up the moulding lines on the body. They are faint but they are there all the same and need attention

Yup, as usual tossed about a few colors as well. Nearly chose two tone but decided to stay with the mono color. There is a nice build up of this car by one of the name builders and that is a nice color choice too.

Got some paint on The chassis is semi-gloss black. Pix shows splash apron top masked up for body color on the top as it shows through the grill and I wanted it to match up with the body color. The other pix a body and underside getting color on. Paint is Tamiya Mica Red laqueur in the little jars. All color clear coated with Tamiya as well. Its a nice product to use and I get good results. What am I going to do with all the Testors enamel jars I have.

The 55/56 Chrysler is way bigger than the Dodge. In 1/25 and in real life See pix below where I have piggy backed the 56 300B on top of the 56 Dodge and a chassis shot I did a build up of a MCW 56 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer earlier this year. The interior is tub style so I cut the sides off to detail them then glued it all back together I did not go much further with detail upgrades and stayed with the resin chassis and built it curb side I modeled it after the full size car I own The 55 and 56 Dodges were very similar and were the last of the old style chassis. The 57 is a totally different beast. I suppose the 57 Plymouth "Christine" may be considered as a donor but there are a lot of differences. Same deal between the 56 P and 57 P cars as for Dodge Doug - the rendering looks awesome

Without eyeballing the kits side by I would look an AMT 53/4 Ford for chassis an a starting point for the interior tub The Poly-head motor is an issue as the only one I know of is a 3D print. The 6 banger from the 41 Plymouth is correct and so would the drive train be if that was used If a Hemi is wanted an AlaKart Red Ram motor would be the one one to aim for I recently completed a 56 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer resin kit and I looked at the 56 Ford Vicky as a donor chassis - they are amazingly similar in real life

I was wanting a more modern looking air cleaner than the original oil bath type. I made up a cover on the lines of the original and added the top from an air cleaner from the parts box To show the contrast I painted both in off white so I could see which worked best

Machined adaptors for the disc brakes and glued to wheel backs Painted the discs with gunmetal and the calipers in off white which is the contrasting colour I did not like the kit power brake booster so some time on the lathe to turn up a chamber and the rest made from various shapes made up to suit This was also painted with off white

I had a model wrapped in bubble wrap a while back and it crazed the windows - plastic in bubble wrap is similar and to be flexible plasticisers are added to the plastic. The haze on your real cars windscreen is haze from the plasticisers used in the plastic or vinyl in the dash panel. It also attacks paint Better to wrap in soft paper such as tissues or toilet roll which is cheaper - use it to wrap and as a filler around the kit

The color is Tamiya Mica red in their new laquer bottle range with same clear coated. Not polished out yet To get the stance down at the rear I added lowering blocks, shortened the rear spring hangers and remounted the front of the spring higher in the chassis by making new pockets For the front I relocated the stub axles higher and shortened the spring a little and bored out the spring mount so it would mount higher

Thanks guys for for the kind words Yup you are correct Tim - no photo-etch or resin stuff available then so had to do it the hard way and do with what we had to hand NZAnglia - over the hill in windy Palmy

Oops - should have been posted under glass

Present build Teaser pix to start off

This is an old build from the 80's AMT 29 Roadster from the Ala Kart double kit with black Duco paint - the real deal with no clearcoat - just colour sanded and rubbed out Interior, screen and guauge panel from the Ala Kart Wheels and tyres from an 80's release of the Revell 56 F100 Motor and blower from scrap box with carb from an AMT 69 Fairlane Cobra Rear end from a Lil John Buttera kit The chassis is fully scratch built as back in the day we did not have a kit to rob a pinched 32 frame from. I used an AMT 32 for the frame rail dimensions and went from there Look at the pix and you will see lots of added detail stuff mostly from scratch I will post pix of some of my older builds over time as I get around to photographing them

It is common when lowering a car to move the the front wheels forward when you can. This so that the car does not look like it is tripping over itself