tim boyd

That looks really sharp in orange, too! Thx for posting, Mario, and congrats...TIM

Steve Goldman of Round 2 has suggested doing this. Whether or not you do this, or mostly trim the wheel flanges with a sprue cutter as I did, to avoid damaging the tampo printing always insert the wheels from behind the outward face of the tire. Doing it the other way will almost surely damage the tampo printing, and also may leave unsightly marks where the tire sidewall bent to accommodate inserting the wheel....TB

Revell's 1948 Ford Convertible was an early "Pro-Modeler" kit release around 1999 or so. It was compromised to a significant degree by trying to include a street rod version while retaining all the parts to do a showroom stock version as well, with the result being that the street rod version has a very unrealistic stance/ride height. This build was to demonstrate (via an article in the other model mag) on how to redo the suspension parts to yield an appropriately slammed stance. Meanwhile, the exterior and interior were built in the original factory stock style genre. The paint was Testors Model Masters 1968 Mustang Bright Blue Metallic, with an overcoat of Tamiya Candy Blue. Several years later, Revell introduced a chopped custom five window coupe kit based on the kit tool I used for this model, and it included an appropriately modified, dropped front and rear suspension using similar mods to those I demonstrated in the aforementioned article. ****************** Interesting story behind this one. Goes all the way back to the spring of 1984, when I and several modeling buddies, including David Dale and Jim Kampmann if my memory is serving correctly, visited Boyd Coddington (yes, that Boyd) at his then home-based shop in a four or six stall shop/garage built behind his modest home in the nearby LA suburb of Stanton, California. Sitting in the driveway outside his garage was this sparkling 1948 Ford Convertible, with a factory stock exterior but dumped on the ground and wearing the most brilliant orangish-red paint. We were amazed at how it looked, and we all thought "wow, I'd like to build a model of that". We finally agreed that we would do just that, with the stipulation that our 1948 Ford Convertible models (all based on the then-existing IMC/Union/Testors kit) would be restricted to a total build time of 20 hours, and shown at the next NNL Nationals the following October. Modest personalixed modifications were encouraged, but the model needed to be some shade of red, and built in the street rod style of theme. Thus began what eventually became known as the NNL Nats "Cult Theme", which continued (with varying "themes") through the NNL Nats of the rest of the 1980's, and then returned at the NNL Nats of the late 2000's and 2010's. My model used a kitbashed chassis with a simple swap of the C4 front and rear suspension from MPC's annual kits back then, along with a Ford 302V8 under the hood. Much of the interior and the wheels came from an imported BMW kit, and the paint was simple Testors Model Masters Bright Red. I was thoroughly chastized by my fellow NNL Cult Theme participants for taking more than 20 hours to build the model, although by my records it did indeed reatch completion in under the alloted time allowance. The NNL Cult Themes and the models it generated were subsequently seen a number of times in the Street Rodder Modeler's Corner column, as well as the Scale Auto Enthusiast magazine coverage of NNL events back then. ************* This one I called my "High School Hot Rod" in the best Henry Gregor Felson vibe/character. For this one I swapped the chopped top from the Revell '48 Ford Custom kit onto the factory stock lower body of the original Revell '48 Ford Convertible kit, with stock factory moldings and all. Engine was a tri-carb hot rod style flathead, with tuck'n'roll interior from the '48 Ford Custom kit, skinny whitewalls from variours Round 2 tire packs, tube grille and DeSoto bumpers from the '48 Custom, and a primer gray finish. *********************** This was a box stock (IIRC) build of the Revelll '48 Ford Custom kit. I used the side fadeaway fender extensions in the kit, along with the '48 Olds Grille. In spite of some purists feeling the top chop did not flow properly, I thought this was a great kit and thoroughly enjoyed building it. Shown with skirts installed, no skirts and open wheels, and no skirts with the kit's Sombreros. There is a how-to on the fadeaway fender install elsewhere on my Fotki site: Tim Boyd On-Line How-To #5: Building Revell's '48 Ford Chopped Custom Coupe album | Funman1712 | Fotki.com, photo and video sharing made easy. ************************* For this one, I used the '48 Ford Chopped Custom body, but built in a 1970s/"timeless" building style. Dropped, five spokes, bright paint, frenched headlamps with stock grille....a perfect era Rod Action cover car? Engine was a 5.0L with a seldom-seen (in 1/1 scale) cross ram dual four barrel manifold. ********************* This one was based on the Revell '48 Woody kit, but with the dropped front suspension from the '48 Chopped Custom kit. Mill was the Navarro-optioned flathead from the Chopped Custom kit, duals added, otherwise pretty much showroom stock. ***************************** I remember working on this one in my apartment in Lansing Michigan, during my first work assignment at Ford. That would place this one around 1979-80, confirmed by the never-completed Chevy Citation X-11 engine/subframe swap from the then-new Monogram kit. The IMC kit it was based upon was one of those kits that looked great in the box and was a royal pain to put together. The body was sectioned (a scale 5" IIRC), doors, hood and trunk openings were reduced in size and recut with rounded corners, quad front headlamps from he original AMT Styline 1950 Ford convert, grille pieced together from the Revell 1953/54 Chevy Gasser kits. In primer, this is as far as it got before I moved on to other projects. ******************* This bad boy again used the Revell '48 Ford Chopped Custom body, but heavily kitbashed into a Gassers form. You'd have to look really hard to find a 1/1 scale '48 Ford Gasser back in the day, but a few did exist (along with a couple 2000s recreations). The F/R suspension came from the 2000s era Revell '40 Willys trio of kits. Engine was another dual quad cross ram SBF. This one was covered exclusively in an online-only feature at the other model mag's then website. It took 43 images IIRC to cover all the build steps. And building the model with this theme/tonality turned out to be a total blast. ***************** This one was the alter-ego to the gasser posted just before, wherein I attempted to kitbash an entire Gasser conversion using only two kits - the then-new Revell '48 Ford (non-chopped) Coupe and the Revell '57 Ford Wagon Gasser. The Y-Block, suspension, wheels/tires, interior bits, etc. all came from that latter kit, the rest from the Coupe kit. I was happy with the Y-Block which was the fourth different version of that kit in the various Revell '57 Ford Custom and Del Rio wagon kits. I believe I am correct in remembering that this was a cover story in the very last (or next to last) issue of the other model magazine before the Covid debacle and the resulting magazine's death. **********' All nine of these have many more photos posted at my Fotki site: Fotki.com/funman1712. You can find them in these folders: Boyd Scale Drag Racing Door Slammers and Gassers | Funman1712 | Fotki.com, photo and video sharing made easy. Boyd Scale Surfboards & Woodies album | Funman1712 | Fotki.com, photo and video sharing made easy. Boyd Mild and Full Customs album | Funman1712 | Fotki.com, photo and video sharing made easy. Boyd Scale Hot Rods | Funman1712 | Fotki.com, photo and video sharing made easy. ************* Thanks for looking, and quite happy to answer any questions you might have to the best of my recollection. Best....TIM

Just a heads-up if that you are building a factory stock 1963 F100, the rear vertical moldings of the vent windows are black, not plated. Likewise, the roof drip rail is body color, not plated. There is not as much reference material as usual regarding 1963 F100 Custom Cab interiors, and the 1963 Ford truck brochures show illustrations rather than actual vehicle images, but to the best of my ability this shows the correct paint layout for Custom Cab F100s that year. Most of the interior is gray, with the exterior body color being applied to portions of the door panels and the lower section of the instrument panel as in the image below. The door armrests are black. In the case of bodies painted 1963 Ford Rangoon Red, some of the interiors apparently wore the Corinthian White accent panels instead of red, but I would not stake a strong bet on that being definitive/covers all guidance. I welcome any further guidance anyone can add here. The engraved section of the seatback and seat bottom wore a very fine multi-color horizontal pinstriped appearance which I did not attempt to replicate but would be an easy subject for an aftermarket decal or to be included on the decal sheet of the next version of the AMT 1963 F100 kit to be produced at some point in the future. Finally, the 1/1 Custom Cabs for 1963 included the upper body side molding that is so nicely engraved on the new Round 2 tool (it was a disaster in the original 1963 annual kit), and that molding featured a contrasting paint color insert. Given the quick turnaround timing of my project I did not attempt to add that insert this time around, but I certainly will on a follow-up project later. For the 1963 Corinthian White exterior, the 1/1 insert was bright red. Hope this info helps those of you building product-correct factory stock, or aged/patinaed originally factory stock models. Best...TB

It could indeed...there's five total wheel choices in this kit and double sided (whitewall/blackwall) tires, for a total of ten choices not including paint colors for the steelies. You can see the plated chromed reverse wheels in the HPI video; here's the slot mags with blackwalls from my earlier build completion...

Alan...we're cool. My comment was in response to wording of the title HPI Guy chose for his video. Of course, his included paint fading and rust applied to the kit, so those were indeed firsts. Just not the build itself. Best....TB

Just lovin' it, Marty! TB

Not that we really care about these things, but this is actually the second - not first - build of the kit. The first one showed up on the FineScale website on January 23....just 'sayin....TB AMT 1963 F100 Camper QuickBuild and Kit Review album | Funman1712 | Fotki.com, photo and video sharing made easy.

Guys, there's still more to the story here. As mentioned in my book about collecting drag racing model kits, the backstory is that MPC was heavily involved in designing the Multi-Maverick, even to the point of paying for its construction in lieu of paying kit sales royalties to Mr. Montgomery. In an Elapsed Times magazine article, Ohio George reportedly said that he only drove the car once, on an exhibition run, and then it went immediately on the ISCA/Autorama show car circuit. The kit itself was rushed to market to continue the sales momentum from MPC's earlier 1967 and 1969 Ohio Geroge Mustang Gasser kits. The kit was actually really, really well detailed, and unlike most of MPC's drag racing kits back then, it had a unique, all new tooled chassis instead of reusing yet another application of MPC's by then way out of date first gen Logghe chassis. My take is that the kit was a very accurate replica of MPC's (not Ohio George's) initial design brief for the real car; it was only during the actual fabrication that changes were made to bring the MPC vision to actual 1/1 scale reality. Also, according to my book and as pictured in Jesse's post directly above, the "Jolly Roger" kit was actually merchandised as a funny car, with MPC's [much better] second generation Logghe funny car chassis underneath a modified Multi-Maverick body shell. Here is a picture of the Multi-Maverick kit I built from the Hobby Heaven (now Spotlight Hobbies) 2006 reissue of the original kit.....TB

Ron....ran across the SBC Chevy bellhousing from the original AMT Double Dragster kits a few days ago, and sure looks to me like a reasonable representation of an early era scattershield. Sure wish I had run across that when I was building the model....would have fit very nicely....TB

Thanks for the heads-up on those wheels. I do recall the 4-door Vette but was under the mistaken assumption that the pseudo Daytona had different wheels. Best...TB

Andy....those MPC Chevy Panel kit body tools were irrevocably modified, sadly, to the "Barnabas Van" kit MPC introduced around 1968-69. But I have seen some resin rebops of the original body from time to time, that could be combined with the rest of the MPC nee AMT/Ertl 1932 Chevy Cabriolet kit to come up with a reasonable (affordable) duplicate of the original kit....TB

Hi Ulf....I think you may be referring to the Swedish 1/1 scale car magazine that was called "Wheels" IIRC.. The monthly model column was written by Hans Kihlen as i recall, a very talented builder and writer. Very cool that you remember that article! Thanks all for your comments....TIM

Thanks Bob (and all of you who commented on the project). The front tires came from my parts box but my best guess is that they were the Pirellis that were originally found in the Revell "Skippers Critter" kit first released in 1966, and in all the various Revell Miss Deal Stude funny car kith produced over the years. I don't have the new Atlantis kit based on the Miss Deal tool, so I can't say if the tires in that kit are the same as the prior Miss Deal kit offerings.......TB

That luggage carrier is very close to the Mopar trunk lid luggage rack offering for 1971-74 B-bodies. It was a factory installed option in 1971 and possibly 1972, but available as a dealer installed option for all four model years. There was an E-body application too but not sure of the details. And yes, had one installed on my '74 RR, too. TB

There is at least one project under consideration there that is not in any of the above guesses. Now as to whether any of those mentioned in the posts above are also on their short to mid-term radar screen, just one that I am aware of, but there's lots under way there that i do not have a clue about, so i guess just about anything is possible. Only thing I do know for sure is that if you like what you've seen over the last two years, and we all keep buying the "cloned" kits, there is a bunch more styrene car and truck kits under consideration there....TB

This post is expressly for those who do not read Model Cars magazine, which of course is published by our hosts here at the Forum. If you are a regular reader or subscriber, you've already seen much of what is below and can go onto other posts here on the forum. But for the rest of you.... Issue #222 includes a six page how-to feature on a 1930 Model A Full Fendered C/G build project that was heavily inspired by the 1/1 scale Harry Luzader '32 Ford Gasser that was a perennial winner at the drags throughout most of the 1960s. The article also includes instructions on how to add fenders to the fenderless Revell 1930 Model A Five Window Coupe hot rod kit in a pretty easy way (though not with the kit source you might expect). As this is written issue #222 has been available for about two months and is soon to be superseded by issue #223. If you would like to see the details of this build, may I humbly suggest you get ahold of that issue soon, either at your local hobby store, from your favorite on-line model car source, or at this link at Spotlight Hobbies. https://www.spotlighthobbies.com/all-products/media/23385/model-cars-magazine-issue-222/ ***** When preparing an article like this, a writer will take many extra pictures that do not end up in the actual published article. First the writer will edit it down to a smaller number, and then the magazine's Editor and Editorial Staff will edit the pictures further to fit the available article and magazine cover space. In this case, it took most of six pages to show all the build steps, leaving space for only four photos (including a small cover image) of the completed model in the published article. Accordingly, copied below are some of the many "outtakes" (photos not used in the final publication). You can also read more details about the project, about some of the areas I might have done a little differently had I had more time to complete the model, and some expert feedback from some of our forum's most respected drag racing experts, at this link: ****** Enjoy this pix below, and again, if the subject is of further interest, be sure to check out the magazine article while it is still available. Best....TIM The two key parts sources for this project: All the kits (including the two posted above) used in this project... PS: here's the magazine cover to look for...

With Camper top and optional slot mag wheels.... Optional Y-Block supercharger install.... Interior finished in 1963 Custom Cab colors (door panel and lower IP match the exterior color). Note interior locating tabs....snaps perfectly into the body.

Thanks Steve for updating us, and for the straight skinny/info on the WalMart distribution situation. Best....TB

Alan...having observed the 1963 kit up close, your comments apply equally so there. The engineering of tabs and pins in the 1963 is really well done. The interior and the pickup bed floor/front wall literally snap in place in the body, perfectly aligned. No glue needed. All the components that fit the body have alignment pins. It's really a joy to assemble. And a huge improvement over the original kit body, which was littered with sink marks and a pretty much non-usable upper bodyside molding engraving. Even the camper top goes together in a breeze with the alignment tabs etc. TB

Dave and his team have been working on this one for a very, very, long time. Will be very cool to see the result in living (well, not, but you know what I mean) styrene! TB

The Uncertain T tooling hit the scrap pile, probably in the late 1970s per sources I trusted at Monogram when i posed this question about 25 years ago.... not only that, I have a theory on why the kit might had never been reissued (beyond licensing issues), as explained at the following link....TB Building the uber-rare Monogram Uncertain T album | Funman1712 | Fotki.com, photo and video sharing made easy.

Trevor, that's one of the things I want to investigate. When Revell began this project, I told them that the '70 Torino GT/Cobra engine was a great place to start. But they were dutifully looking for 1/1s to research and scale, and preferably ones that were out of the engine compartment (to allow more precision detail). While I never heard back 100%, my presumption was that they were successful in their search. Best...TIM

For those willing to do a quick google search, there is now a full kit buildup/review posted elsewhere on the interweb...TB

Got mine a couple of hours ago. Molded in White. Body color front bumper (chrome front bumper is also included although body color was standard on Mach 1). Tires are tampo printed narrow whitewalls. Engine certainly appears to be a 429 Cobra Jet (will compare engine parts tree to the Revell Boss 351 kit later but appears to be an entirely separate tree...the original Revell design brief and 1/1 scale research effort was targeting a 429 Cobra Jet Ram Air engine...). Even though they appear to be plated on the box art and instruction sheet built model photography, the standard Mach 1 wheels are not plated but instructed to be painted silver. My recollection is that the wheels and trim rings were a brushed polished finish on the 1/1; somewhere between Silver and Revell Chrom paints in reflectivity and appearance. Suffice it to say I'll be using the awesome Magnum 500s in the Boss 351 kit for my project. Decals are comprehensive but are only for the standard Mach 1 lower bodyside blackout treatment. Those wanting the optional side stripes will need to use the second set (silver or black, depending on which one you used on your Boss 351 build) from the Revell Boss 351 kit. Decal sheet includes numerous small detail marketings especially for underhood area, similar to the Boss 351 kit. As mentioned above, the vertical front seat color inserts in black are on the decal sheet, this will save a ton of time vs. having to mask those areas as I did on my earlier Boss 351 model build. The Mach 1 used a smaller hood blackout treatment than the Boss 351; this is not provided on the decalized sheet. (I will need to go to my reference file to recall if the hood blackout treatment was standard or optional on the Mach 1, or if this kit application is unique to the vehicle in the Bond movie). There are no lockdown pins on the Mach 1 kit hood. (UPDATE - a quick check of on-line sources suggest that the blackout hood treatment and hood pins were standard/provided on Mach 1 and other 1971 Mustangs ordered with the RamAir option. So would a Mach 1 429 Cobra Jet without the ram air option come standard with a non-blackout, non hood pin treatment?. I don't fully trust online sources so will need to research this further in my library reference files. I'm betting Rex can help us on this too.) The rear taillamp panel has the honeycomb pattern. Revell appears to have gone to quite a bit of effort to deliver a fully and properly differentiated 429 Mach 1 vs. giving us just a half-hearted update of the Boss 351 kit; they are to be thoroughly congratulated for their effort and delivery on this. This kit (and the Boss 351 companion) are pretty much dreams come true for me. For over two decades I've had partly completed AMT and MPC 1971 Mach 1 annual kit builds sitting partially completed, in part because the engines were so awful/incorrect. Now I can build the Mach 1 the way it deserves. More coming later...TB