tim boyd

Thanks Phil....you are correct, I missed this one. Thanks a bunch for the tip...TIM

Good question. My guess....chopping the tops on '49-'50 Mercs is just the start. What follows....the bodywork needed to bring one of these to paint ready status is fiddly, complicated, and a real marathon. Been here, done that. These two were done to show different two different approaches to chopping the tops, and were included in the now infamous "Chopped Mercs" issue of Scale Auto Enthusiast back in 1983....(sheesh...that's 42 years ago. Yikes!) This one actually used the MPC snap kit '50 Merc as he basis, and included other tricks like the filled door panel hump and so forth... This one also included a sectioning job IIRC... Sorry RRR for interjecting in your thread....now back to you all! Cheers....TB

Any updates from the rest of you??? Can't wait to see what you've done....even small points of progress count.....TB

Scott....Super sharp....TB

Bill...great to see progress on yours...TB

KK, cool idea to use that Revell '48 Ford convert kit firewall heater on the front panel of your passenger compartment! Details matter!!!! TB

Thanks all for your feedback and comments so far. I tend to get caught up in stuff that is probably on the ragged edge of modeling; these wide five wheels are an example of that. It is encouraging to see your interest, and your posting of similar wheels from other sources. Best....TIM

Greg....just caught this build thread. Great work. Particularly interesting to me as I did a somewhat similar project about fivish years or so ago. Mine had very similar stance, thanks in part to the same front suspension approach you took; but I did not chop the top as you did, and the engine was a Flathead Ford with the R&M of Md Thurston cylinder head covers and air cleaner. The project fought me every step of the way. I encountered many of the same issues you've covered here; really fascinating to see how you've worked through them. Love the Fisher conversion, and the injection plumbing is killer, too. While I was (and am) pleased with mine, yours looks like it is going to reach a whole different level of achievement. Big congrats on what you've done so far and will be following with close interest from this point forward. Cheers, and good luck bringing this one home! Cheers...TIM

According to the latest episode of a recurring video program posted at finescale.com - the online presence of Fine Scale Modeler magazine - Editor Aaron Skinner has resigned and will take a role at Round 2. I do not recall his exact title (it is mentioned in the video), but it sounds like a senior management role in product development. Wonder if any of that is related to the video timing mentioned above? TB

Thanks Nathan. Funny enough, have been collecting parts for a 1967 300 ""N" or a 1968 Chrysler 300 "P" (Chrysler would have skipped over the "O" letter for 1968, just as they did with the "I" for the 1963 which was eventually named "J'). Tentative plan is the 426 Street Hemi 3-2 bbl with A/C as in the original Chrysler product letter as described at the top of page 1. And combining the 1968 Chrysler 300 hidden front headlamp grille with the unique 300 rear end for 1967 only, as well as a unique roofline and color/trim combo. Last week I gave the ebay salvage JpHan interior 4 treatments with Easy Off and actually got rid of all the hand-brushed Testors flat black! Best regards...TIM

Bill...cool car. No worries. Always open to and appreciate any contributions to threads I start! Cheers...TIM

Craig....sorry 'bout that. Mailbox has been updated with messages deleted....looking forward to hearing from you....TIM..

I think that at least some of you are familiar with my series of entries and winners in the 1970-72 series of the MPC National Customizing Contest that ran from 1969-1979. While my winning entries those early years were all funny cars (and later on from 1975-79, customs and street rods), I started but failed to complete several other non-funny car drag racing themed cars for the 1970 and 71 series. These are two of them... #10 - 1970 Dodge Challenger AA/G. This one combined the body of a 1970 MPC Challenger Annual Kit with much of the chassis of the second MPC Mustang Malco Gasser kit, the 1969 Mustang version, that I won at the fall 1969 MPC Flint Michigan contest as a prize for my first-place senior win there. The front end was changed to a one-piece lift-off design, while the Hemi was based on the MPC Challenger kit engine block. The project was probably 1/3rd finished and remained that way until I dug it out and completed the project during 1987-88 when I lived in Atlanta. The paint is Testors Candy Blue over Gold, and you can see I simulated blue anodizing on some of the engine parts with that same Candy Blue over silver finished with Dull Cote. #11 - 1971 Dodge Challenger Pro-Stock. Like many of you old timers (me included), I was inspired by Hank Borger's "Angry Man" 1970 Maverick Pro-Stock project featured on the cover of Car Model magazine that year. I used my original issue 1971 MPC Challenger annual kit to begin a similar project, planned to compete in the 2nd half of the 1971 MPC Contest series. I got as far as bashing the hood scoop, adding hand-made rear spoilers, painted the body Testors Gloss Black, while doing scratchbuilt /kitbashed front and rear suspensions, respectively, and adding the "Plum Crazy' side graphics from the decal sheet in that earlier MPC 1970 Challenger kit used as the basis of #10 above. Just about then, the new tunnel ram intakes, Holley 4500s, and dual plug rocker covers debuted in 1/1 scale, and I didn't have the time or spirit to go after scratching those. Then a few months later, the Jo-Han Sox and Martin 'cuda kit came out, pretty much making my project hopelessly dated. I buttoned up the still engineless model and put it in the display case, where it remained for the next 53 (!) years until I dug it out just about a year ago with intentions to build the engine and finish the car. I did get it done, but it turned out to be a lot more complicated than I planned. You may read about this project update in one of the model mags over the next year, so I am showing pix here of the project in its 1971-2024 form, prior to the update. Here are a few pix of both projects; if you want to see the full details, check out my "Drag Racing Door Slammers" and "Gassers" albums at this link of my fotki site and here as well . Thanks in advance for looking! TIM

Missed this one when you first posted it, Steve. Really sharp and very creative. And glad you found my old kit review to be of value. Very best...TIM

Bill...glad to have helped out...Cheers...TIM

Just spoke to Norm a couple of days ago. To date he has not received any orders for these wheels. If you are seriously considering a project that might include them or want to have a set in your kit parts inventory "just in case", I recommend you send him an order. Just my 2 cents...TB

Smile...I've had several including a new S650 like you I dare anyone to stand next to one idling with the four-stage exhaust set to sport or track (i.e. very loud or extremely loud) and not break out into a grin. Not to mention once someone gets into the passenger, or even better, driver's seat and pulls away from the curb. Lame and boring? Ummm, sorry, don't think so. TB

To Justin's point, this is an original issue 100% box stock build of the Grant King kit, which was the first of the series to be released c.1976....

Thanks, James, for weighing in with your knowledge on this subject. Sure hope you are right! Cheers....TIM

You can, and I will join you. I am not too familiar with Revell Germany's "Easy Click" system kits, but unless someone here knows better (and I'm sure you do), I thought the easy click kits are all curbsides. So my presumption is that this one will be too. If so, this is really disappointing on several levels. It tells us that there are not enough modelers out there, at least in Revell Germany's view, who care about full detail model kits, that it becomes a questionable business decision to make the investment for a full detail kit. After all, they would say, the Asian kitmakers get away without full detail engines and compartments and those kits sell ok, why should we go the extra mile? Second, so much of the thrill of the S650 Mustang is central to the engine and the way it affects the entire driving experience, one that you want to recreate in scale with the full under hood building experience. Third, as Revell Germany is doing this as a snap kit, it makes a full detail S650 kit from one of the other manufacturers much less likely. (I was told, sometime back, that Round 2 was seriously considering a full detail S550 but killed it when the Revell toy version was announced). I understand and acknowledge that many of you disagree with my view that some model subjects deserve a full detail engine, full stop. You are entitled to your point of view, as I am to mine. I guess I hold out some hope that Revell Germany, who has made some pretty killer kit decisions and kit executions as of late, will either find a way to include the engine bits in the easy click format for this Mustang GT, or else will follow down the road with a full detail kit of the GT, DarkHorse, or GTD. Or wouldn't it be ironic if one of the Asians, like Tamiya, one-upped Revell with a truly full detail S650 kit (and by full detail, I mean a separate, stand alone, fully detailed engine and transmission assembly, NOT a 2D visual representation of same)? Rant over. But I don't feel any better. TB (PS - I have also been told that part of the issue with full detail kits these days is that the auto manufacturers are not able to or are unwilling to provide the underhood digital data in a usable form to the kitmakers. That means that kitmakers must research these details separately on their own, which adds time and expense to the project, and is one of the reasons that there is now typically a 2 or more year delay between when a new 1/1 scale product debuts and when we finally see a scale replica. This too, is unfortunate on many terms.

My firs car was a 1969 Chrysler Town and Country...it was my dad's car; he had bought it on the spur of the moment as his factory ordered 1965 Dodge Custom 880 wagon had an engine problem and was right on the verge of going over the 50k warranty mileage limit. He was determined to get Mopar to fix the engine before the warranty expired, which did eventually happen. I had just turned driving age and got my license in April, 1970. Once the Custom 880 was running right again, he returned to driving that car, which then let me take over the T&C when it was less than a year old (I was the oldest child, and my mom did not drive). It was F8 Dark Jade Metallic, a 383 2bbl with the 3 in 1 reclining passenger seat and a fully carpeted cargo compartment. It was a great car to have in high school...so many stories. It was eventually traded in on a new 1973 Silver Frost Metallic "Space Duster" 340 which was my first new car. Dad's T&C was just like this one from Bring a Trailer other than the F8 paint. TB

Oooooo.....ahhhh......sweet! TB

Hi al... Just a quick single image of the beginning of a planned Model A project built in a post WW-II hot rod format. Future Plans include a body derived from the Round 2 "Mod Rod" kit, a banger four from the new ICM '30 Ford Phaeton kit, and the following wheels and tires. The wheels are from Norm Veber at Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland; they are rebops of a perfectly molded original issue part from the AMT Trophy Series '36 Ford kit. As we've discussed on the Forum here in the past, most of those wheels in the early AMT 1936 Ford kits were molded with flaws in the holes along the outside of the rim, and AMT soon changed the tool to mold these holes filled. I found a rare perfect wheel from the parts box collection of the late Chuck Helppie (1977 MPC National Champion and co-founder of the NNL movement) and I sent it to Norm for his lineup, and they are now available for order from him. Here's what they look like properly painted and detailed... Thanks for looking...TIM

Chris...really well done. Thx for sharing...TIM

All....been away from this thread for a while and returned today to see a whole bunch of really great work from all of you. It is really inspiring to see each of you face your build challenges and you stretch for creativity and realism and eventually prevail. For my 2 cents, I would encourage all to persist and bring your projects to completion, even those that aren't turning out quite the way you envisioned. An imperfect but completed model project is always better - at least to me - than a pile of partially completed arts sitting in a box never to see the light of day again. In all, what a great body of work! Big congratulations to you all! TIM l