Beans

Working on modifying the kit, and by modify I mean chucking the chrome grill piece in the parts box, drilling out the molded in mesh and rebuilding the grill while using the dremel to square off the headlight openings. As long as I haven't totally destroyed the kit front at that point I will work the side markers to smooth out the bumpy area.

Didn't get to the body work yet... Had to deal with this: Two steering wheels supplied with the kit. The one I want to use is on the right. For sake of this post I will call him Stubby. Not sure how that happens but there definitely isn't enough clearance to mount that correctly. Plus no steering column to speak of. A trip to the old military parts bin and one 120mm or 105mm tank shell is going to donate it's life as a steering column. As per usual for me, the show car is an automatic, the kit is not..was not. New steering column complete with gear indicator, automatic column shift and turn signal lever (which will be trimmed and capped.) Next will be fitment fixes and front grill modification (oh and headlight opening mods too...can't forget that.)

Coming off of the completion of the Supernatural impala (and all the crazy little things I made) I wanted to do something that required a little less fine detail. I also wanted to continue with my overall project of building cars from the Supernatural show (being a fan of the show). So next up is the AMC Gremlin as driven by the Character Charlie Bradbury. The show car is a 76 Gremlin. Being stubborn, and cheap, and already having a 75 Gremlin kit, I decided to just modify that one. Normally I start my kits with the engine..... Well the show car has in inline 6. The kit doesn't come with an inline 6. No inline 6s in my parts box.... hmmm. Skip the engine and come back to it when I can find a decently cheap inline 6. Moving on to the interior. Having scratchbuild burnout, I decided to not worry about the door panel detail and can live happily with it as it is. Flocked (Embossing powdered) the carpet areas, then used my reference photos and some internet research to try to match the seat upholstery for the back seats and the seat covers for the front seats. Used bandaids and masking tape to replicate the front blanket seat covers. I added more slight color variations on the front seats and cleaned up the black vertical lines after I took this picture. Need to blend the back seat pattern in a little more and darken it, and totally missed the spare tire so added that and need to carpet it. Overall it is so far so good.... Oh, test fitting the interior to the body did show some fit issues. Fun with the dremel to come...

Looks great!. Love the green. I'm still struggling with the fit issues with my Gremlin build. May have to start another WIP thread just to share the pain.

Thank you. I learned a lot about what works and what doesn't when making small things.

Why is it when there is an option of two parts, the one I want to use is molded in a way that makes it difficult? (rhetorical question) Back into the 1/35 parts box for 120mm tank shell (or maybe 105mm) Now stubby has a new steering column complete with gear indicator and shift lever. Still have to trim and cap the turn signal arm. Also played around a little bit with upholstery for the rear, and seat covers for the front.

Which kit are you working off of? The build is proving to be a little more challenging then I thought it would be initially. After all the little detail work I put into the Impala I was hoping for something pretty simple.

Thank you. Don't know that I will ever do that many little scratch builds ever again but it was worth it this once.

Here is a few from a Thailand trip I took for work.

Hope the wagon build works out. Really want to see your finished project on this one!! The Sedan looks great.

Awesome idea!! It may not be new but it is new to me.

Stay tuned for the next installment of the Supernatural Series collection....

Well here is the last submission for this thread. All she needs now is a little bit of clean up and polishing and she is all done. Overall this was a really fun build. The kit itself was really good in my opinion. A couple of fit issues but nothing that derailed the project. Somewhere along the way I decided that this would be the first in a collection of cars from the show.

How often do people put out offers for something they are interested in? I tend (as a bidder) to get a lot more of those special offers of 5% off on things that sellers are really trying to push out, but haven't really put in offers to sellers on things so not sure if that is something that every really works.

Strangely enough, his store used to have a whole bunch of other things in it. Different engines and such. Now only the two items.

Lets see if I can figure this out... 7.5" / 3.75 =2" / 25 = .08" (assuming we are reducing it to 1/25 scale)

I am sure a lot of it comes from the business question of, do we create products targeted at a younger new audience, who aren't currently buying, in the hopes of getting them to buy? OR do we target the older consistent audience, who is currently buying? There is risk in both scenarios.

Test fitting all the trunk stuff.

I think of this idea every time I see what new releases are coming out and how the majority of them seem to be re-releases of subject matter that is by no means new. Not sure how many versions of a 1970s van or oddly customized Toronado the next generation of modelers is looking for.

Similarly I would use Evergreen, but a flat length with a half round on top of it but not as wide for the black. Both sanded to shape and depth. If a definite distinguishable seam is wanted then you can scribe around the edges of the half round.

Had one of these pass me this morning. to quick for me to get a picture of it though.

Agree. I prefer to call them the Pinto II.

the 1/25 sportbike he offers doesn't look too bad.

We grew up with the ability to buy (cheaply) and fix up the muscle cars that most kits represent. Today that is nearly impossible. A lot on my interest in building is based on a love of the subject matter that I can relate to. I honestly don't have a clue what the young adults of today have the interest and ability to do automotively any more.

Thank you both. This is definitely my most in depth and challenging build. Simply opening the trunk turned into a bunch of unforeseen things I needed to change. From the interior trunk frame and trunk lid inner molding, to the rear chrome trim, to the regular fitting issues with this kit, and converting the transmission to the automatic then having it all fit so the hood closes. That along with more scratch building than I have ever done before and will think twice about in the future makes this a challenging but fun build overall.