Spottedlaurel

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.

As Snake say it's the old Monogram kit and it's pretty decent, I finished-off the same Revell issue last year: I lowered mine and fitted alternative wheels and tyres along with some brake discs. I may have had a bit of glass/interior fitment issue, but I don't remember doing anything too complicated to get over it.

That's very nice, the metallic colour really accentuates the shape. Good call on the wheels too. I once saw those Dunlops on a '60s Jaguar saloon and they looked great on that too.

Thanks everyone for the kind words! Thank you Michael. I might be able to help you with getting hold of a Leopard kit..... The wing mirrors actually have little wipers moulded-in! As far as I recall, the Motip paint came from one of the local independent car parts shops. The code is 56000, but I can't find what make/model it would have been applied to. I had no luck looking on the UK website, most of the results I got were on Dutch sites. Thanks, I keep looking at it and thinking it's amost too subtle! Definitely worth looking out for one, there's the TRX Turbo version as well which contains the same parts as far as I can see, just a different decal sheet.

Thanks @disconovamanfor getting the list going! Looks like I'm the 4th for 1970. I had pondered a couple of Chevies I already have in stash but I realised I've done too many of them in the last year or two and it's time to spread the love. By chance I've just managed to get this 1970 AMT Challenger on eBay: Once it arrives I'll see if a Viper V10 engine will fit. If it's not viable I'll do a Mustang or something Japanese.

This was my entry for the 2021 Cannonball Ruse community build. No WIP thread, I added some in-progress shots and info on the CBR thread. Basically it's a combination of these two kits: I shouldn't imagine the Skyline needs much of an explanation, it was my chosen race car to be disguised. I thought a flat painted GT-R would still raise eyebrows, so after trial-fitting an assembled chassis from a previous build under lots of bodyshells I found that this curbside Leopard was ideal. Some reasearch revealed that they have a very similar wheelbase and the Leopard having a long nose for its straight-six meant it was just right for the GT-R running gear. The Leopard is a bit of curiosity. As Nissan already had the Laurel and Skyline in the range quite why they needed something else of similar size I don't know. I'm not sure if this first generation was exported to many other markets, we certainly didn't get them in the UK or Europe, but subsequent models did reach the States. The owner of the UK importer had one or two brought over for his own use. Basically I dropped the Leopard's bodyshell onto the GT-R floorpan and interior tub. I also had to cut open the bonnet and vent within the front bumper, but otherwise they merged together remarkably well. Well, I think so, judge for yourself...... Paint is automotive Motip metallic beige,which had a rich , almost coppery, tone which was typical on cars of that era. I finished it with Halfords automotive clearcoat. Wheels are Volk GTP with Bridgestone tyres from a later Aoshima Nissan Leopard kit. I had to go through the usual thing of working out how to mount femaile fitment wheels on the male fitment hubs. I gave them a bit of dark grey wash to tone down the chrome. Minimal work was required here on the conversion. I had to add a bit of a lip where I'd scribed-out the bonnet, and perhaps ideally I should add a bit of infill at the back of the engine bay, but it doesn't immediately look like there's two different cars here. The Skyline's radiator worked perfectly, I just had to trim down the intercooler (not seen here). I added the larger brakes, strut brace, turbo set-up and intercooler from a Nismo Skyline. The racecar apparently was around 400bhp, so with some mod's let's say mine has 500-600bhp. The interior was based on the racecar's tub, with the LHD dashboard from a Nissan 180SX (for ease of overtaking), Skyline's seats swapped over, rollcage trimmed down for road use, then the rear seat and side panels from the Leopard. Even the cage fitted inside OK, the only issue I had at the last minute was the rear seat fouling on the glass (hence the sawn-off portion which embarrassingly I've forgotten to touch-up). I had to trim the front end of the floorpan very slightly. I should have also added a bit at the rear to suit the Leopard's longer overhang, but that had to be sacrificed to get it finished in time. The Nismo Skyline also donated its exhaust system. The black trim was a challenge, there was a lot of it! I used brush-painted Revell #9 enamel, with the worst of any overpainting scraped back with a knife (this reminds me of my working days on the drawing board, using a razor blade on tracing paper to make changes and correct mistakes). Might sound tedious, but for me still preferable to masking..... The Leopard kit was quite neat in how it used plated backing pieces behind the front and rear lights, it was good not to have to add BMF or paint it silver. This was another build that got laid-up for several months during my house move. I was rather tight for time getting it completed by the December 1st deadline, and I will be the first to admit one or two items suffered as a result of that, but I was pleased to get it finished and looking vaguely plausible. It ended up with parts from at least five different kits. Thanks for looking!

Completed this one at the weekend, WIP here: My intention was to build it as a quick, simple summer holiday project, to make the most of another year when we couldn't go away. However, due to moving house it didn't work out that way and it sat in a box for 2-3 months until I got some modelbuilding space set up at the new place. Here's the finished result: Standard bodywork and interior. Tamiya TS-9 British Green rattle can paint over Halfords automotive primer. I try not to use clear over solid colours, but it kept getting a texture on it that wouldn't polish out so I gave it some clearcoat in the end (can't recall if it was TS-13 or Halfords). Wheels are Aoshima Racing Hart 14" with the inside of the rims trimmed back to match the tyre width. They are female fitment but the kit was set up to take male-fit wheels - my method of overcoming this and getting it to sit lower was rather crude and involved a healthy amount of CA glue..... I went for the tan interior to match a 1:1 car I remember from some years ago. Exhast tailpipe is from a Fujimi accessory set. With no engine I treated it as a curbside build, it'll only ever be displayed in my cabinet. There is scope for the underside to be nicely detailed however, and it certainly gave me a good understanding of how they work even if I just painted it all black. It's made for a nice addition to the shelf, and I think it's the first Mazda I've ever built.

Very nicely done! Does he offer anything for the Esci/Italeri Mk2?

That looks great, and I like how you've based it on something seen at 1:1. The early 1980s was when I started buying custom/rod magazines here in the UK and I remember this look starting to appear.

That's come together really well. The front end looks great, I can think of several 1:1 cars that had a similar look.

Very nice Michael! Great to see one of these built, you've done a really good job on it.

Very nice conversion and build. The mid '70s Monto Carlo is one of the few American cars I remember as a 1:1 from my youth, we had someone living down the road who must have worked on one of the USAF bases and they had one in the early-mid '80s.

Great to see another of your projects on the go Steve, good luck with it! I definitely think there's something of this style to come on one or two of my future builds, I just need to find the right subject and constituent upgrade parts.

A belated thank you for all the comments and interest. I was getting very close to my house move so got someonewhat distracted by 1:1 life. Hah! The answer to that was clearly no, here I am finishing it off four-and-a-bit months later. Last WIP shot for the sake of completeness. Just got the interior mirror to tidy up and fit now. I worked out a way of fitting the wheels which I shan't elaborate on too much, other than to say it was crude but effective! Getting the ride height right was more important than accuracy as this is little more than a curbside build. I also mustered up the enthusiasm to paint the dark trim inside the glass, with that done it was just minor bits and bobs and most things had been prepped/painted back in the summer. It should hopefully be appearing Under Glass soon, my second completion in a week.

Nice, I've never seen those available as accessory sets before.

Nice one Luke. That's certainly brightened up a dull, damp start to the day here!

A couple of separate eBay purchases which turned up on the same day: Including some interesting packing material with the Mazda. I'm not sure if that price sticker on the Camaro is correct, even in the late '90s kits were rather more than £1.50 here! Maybe it went through a charity shop at that price at some point? As ever with these 1990s kits for me, it's more likely that it will be an engine donor and the remnants will get built as a curbside someday. The Tamiya Mazda is unpainted and mercifully built reasonably cleanly without too much glue. I already have another bought in similar state,so hopefully there's enough to build one good road car from the two and then do something more extreme with the remainder. Also, I like these wheels and I can think of one or two other kits that they'd fit nicely. The poor old driver looks a little green around the gills.

Great progress Dennis, some thoughtful re-engineering there. P.S. Happy birthday!