Spottedlaurel

Be careful what you wish for: There is this funny little kit. It's small, and the bodyshell is split in half lengthways through the bonnet, roof and tailgate! I know someone on another forum who built one, it was a bit of a challenge. I haven't dared attempt mine.....

Lovely job you've done on that one Tom. Great colour and detailing, I'd be very happy to have that in my cabinet.

Nice work so far, it's looking good. Land Rovers are one of those vehicles where you could build almost endless variations - if it wasn't available from the factory chances are someone has built/converted one afterwards.

Not quite today, but recently: A 1973 Wartburg! One of a few low-price, Eastern Bloc cars sold here at the time. I don't remember any of these from when I was young although I do recall various examples of Moskvich, Skoda and Lada. I didn't know what it was until I looked online, apparently a 1951 Alvis Three Litre TA21. I liked the timless quality of the setting, apart from a few details it could have been at any time in the last 70 years. Also interesting to see what we were getting as a largish luxury car at the time, compared to 1951 cars from the USA. 1972 Volvo with a lot of patina. I've seen it in use a few times. And a rather smarter 1976 244. 1990s sporty stuff.

Turned out very well, it looks great. I'll have to look out for one myself.

That looks amazing! The detailing around the windows works so well and really elevates the look of it.

My AMT '70 Challenger arrived yesterday. Need to have a bit of a play with it over Christmas to see how the V10 might fit and what wheels/tyres will go with it. Got to work out how to give it a reasonably subtle look, more resto-mod than pro-touring. Maybe brown/bronze paintwork?

Nice one Dominik! Imagine it at 1:1, it certainly makes a statement.

That looks fantastic, well worth the effort of tidying it up after all those years.

Great to see this one progress in such a methodical way, it's coming together very nicely.

Potential entry for the CBR 2022 Buildoff: With a Viper V10 engine and 'box, subject to a trial fitting session.

Nice work Steve. You've captured the subtly different look of the V8 very well, great period colour too!

That's fantastic! The detailing on the engine has worked very well.

Great to see them all - fantastic quality and an interesting variety. There are one or two that I missed first time around, like the wonderfully realistic looking Impala(?) convertible.

Not crazy, looks good to me!

A nice little selection there. Is the Isuzu as nice as other Hasegawa kits?

Stunning! The overall look, colour choice, quality of build etc all come together perfectly.

I'm not sure if this is a rebuild, a refurbishment or a restoration?! Anyway, I'm putting it back together after many years of it being dismantled and scattered amongst various parts boxes and drawers. It's all the fault of @disconovamanAnthony is starting to document the build a similar Monogram '57 in the Replica Buildoff Community Build, mentioning that he got his in the mid '80s as his first-ever kit. It reminded me of the '57 I built about the same time, maybe one of my first dozen or so kits. It can just be seen here around 1986/87, in my teenage bedroom alongside the Camaro High Roller: It was brush-painted with black Humbrol enamel and I used most of the custom parts including the hood scoop, bucket seats, rollcage and raised rear end. At various times it had the ex-Corvette America wire wheels and slicks on the rear from an ill-fated NASCAR build (which as an aside is what I'm going to re-do for the Replica Buildoff). At some point 30 or so years ago it went into the parts box and didn't resurface. The wire wheels eventually ended up on a Maserati 3500 GT, and the hood scoop on a Dodge Monaco. Sorry if this is getting complicated...... In the meantime I built another Monogram '57, taking a rather different direction! The Camaro glimpsed above donated its running gear to that one, leaving me quite a few parts which I'm hoping will be enough to rebuild the original version. The paintwork isn't actually too bad. A bit thick in places, and there are a few specks of dust, but I'm hoping some sympathetic wet sanding and polishing should get it looking decent again. If I strip it and start again it won't have the same personal attachment. Mercifully I was reasonably restrained when it came to attaching the glass, with no glue smears or fogging to worry about. It just needs a good clean and polish. I'll use foil on most of the brightwork this time, although what I did originally seems to have held up pretty well. I'm not sure if it was Humrol silver #11, or a Tamiya silver paint pen. I know I used the #11 on some of the engine/gearbox, and I wish the modern stuff had the same effect. I'm aware of one or two missing pieces like the headlight lenses and grille badge, but I'm sure they'll turn up or I can adapt something else. I don't know yet what wheels I'll use - I do have the 5-spokes around still, but as they got replaced at least once then I might continue the process of experimentation and fit something else. I need to finish off one other build first before I can allow myself to get into this one too heavily, but I'm hoping it will be a quick, rewarding project to do over the Christmas break. It won't be perfect, but it'll be great to see it in one piece again!

Spent a few minutes last night sifting through boxes, amongst remnants of the NASCAR Regal I want to recreate for this build-off I managed to find all the important pieces of the '57! I won't clutter this thread up any further, I'll start a WIP on it in due course - could be a fun Christmas holiday project. Back on topic, I'm looking to start the Regal over the forthcoming break too - I need to finish one other kit first. I might struggle to do much on the bodywork in the near future, but there are plenty of other things I can get on with.

Really nice work, the detailing is so sharp. They look great!

It'd be a challenge, but I'll give it a look over Christmas and see if I can find enough parts to make it vaguely complete again.

Great to see your progress on this Luke. About the same time as I built mine then! I'm fond of the Monogram '57 for that reason, and have built another since. My first one was brush-painted black Humbrol enamel, and I still have it in parts. I look forward to seeing yours progress. I've got one more build to get off the bench, then I can start my replica project.

Thanks all for the comments! If I'm sufficiently patient I can generally get the rest of a build to go OK, but painting of the main body colour is still a black art to me and one of those things where I feel I'm only one step away from disaster. That rarely happens nowadays, I'm basing it on things that went wrong 30-35 years ago, but all the same I never take it for granted. The British Green isn't a colour I'd rush to use, but having seen 1:1s ith the tan interior I knew it was a combo that would work well here. I didn't quite resort to that,but I wasn't far off ? Perhaps the ideal combination would be the Tamiya kit with the bonnet opened-up and fitted with the Revell engine?

Thanks Roger. I'm not sure if I'll attempt something like this again - I think there was a fair degree of luck/chance in how this worked out and that might not happen next time! P.S. Hope all is well with you in your area of Kentucky.

Nice one, thanks Steve. Good to know it's feasible in 1:25 styrene. After I typed that I found images of 1:1 examples that had been converted.