papajohn97

This is among the best of the ‘41 Willys gasser builds I’ve seen on here. Paint, decals, BMF trim, every aspect so well done. I would love to steal this one from you and add it to my 60’s drag cars! Bravo Tony! Question on the wheels and other kit chromed parts: how did you tone the chrome down? Did you strip and metallize them? Spray them with Dullcote? Spray them with Tamiya Smoke? I’d like to use whatever method you used on this one the next time I use kit-supplied chrome parts, the wheels look so real.

Glad to hear your cataract surgery went well. I’m going on four years with my implants and the only minor issue has been normal scar tissue build-up after one to two years which resulted in a slight amount of fuzzy vision. My doc fixed this in each eye with a quick painless YAG laser shot, took less than a minute and no prep or pain. I’m approaching 70 and while my vision is wonderful the remainder of my body is aging as expected. This is encouraging me to not waste any time and to build the better kits in my stash sooner than later. Enjoy your new eyes!

What a fascinating creation Claude! This beautifully concept model cause the following thoughts for me: 1) if Bill Mitchell had commissioned his design crew to build him a lead sled to cruise the Dairy Queen’s of suburban Detroit in the evenings when he wasn’t out street racing his Mako Shark, this would be the car, 2) I love the open roof but my mind kept filling it in with a smoked glass roof - did you happen to consider this option when you were building this Riviera ? 3) This model made me flashback on a distant childhood memory, the “Fisher Body Craftsman Guild” car styling competitions when school age kids (mostly boys if I recall) were encouraged to submit a 1/12 scale clay model of a futuristic design for a crack at a GM scholarship to become an auto stylist. Anyone else remember those presentations at high school assemblies???? Another fantastic model Claude! You are one of the most artistic creative model builders posting on this forum. Bravo!

Very cool race car Gary, love all model subjects related to Briggs C. Hoping Revell releases a variation of their new-tool 1/24 of this car (or even better yet the lightweight coupe and a holy grail new-tooled Type D?). Also seems like the new 1/24 XKE kits are fertile ground for all kinds of AM resin parts?

Thank you Mike for building and posting yet another classic legendary SS’er, beautiful job as always and my favorite genre of drag cars. Also great job mounting those (I assume old) Fred Cady deck-alls! Amazing how well his decals hold up with age.

PS - just saw your “Class of 2022 Finally”, this finished ‘65 Ply along with your other builds are really nice! That Firebird is also very sweet. .Love your taste in auto subjects!

Nice job so far David on this “box art” Moebius ‘65 Ply. I particularly like how you’ve masked and painted the seat inserts slightly darker so that they appear like woven cloth inserts with the surrounding outer upholstery. Little things like that can really punch up the realism on a car model build. Like most othe builders here, I always appreciated detailed feedback on specific kits and your comments reflect my experiences with these Moebius Plymouths (which I happen to LOVE and have built four so far, I can’t wait for the upcoming Dodge releases!). While the axle/ wheel design on these kits are less than perfect, I think they are still much better than the old small diameter molded plastic boss axles that are on the AMT/Round 2 (former Lindberg) ‘64 Plymouth and Dodges. On the last few AMT/Round 2/ Lindberg kits I’ve built, I’ve just assumed that at least one of the plastic axles will eventually break and have resorted to drilling them out and replacing the plastic pin axles with 1/16” brass rod/ tubing which is pretty easy to do and makes for a much more robust finished model IMO. Looking forward to seeing this beautiful black max wedge sleeper come together.

Another fabulous job Michael, hard to believe that’s a resin kit-bashed effort, it looks like what I’m hoping the new Moebius AWB ‘65 Dodge will look like. Great job dude!

Very very nice job on this Merc Bob. The paint, the brightwork, the fact that you were able to get the trunk to operate and look good closed (something I failed at on my recent build). This color also really suites this car and really makes the chrome, brightwork and wide whites pop. Even when built as a totally stock, these '49 Mercs look like a mildly customized car from my late 50's- early '60's childhood. Totally love what you've achieved with this old AMT kit. A+ dude!

Amazingly fine job on this ancient kit, especially the engine detailing. Funny that Aurora omitted a passenger seat in this kit which I believe was a requirement on the mid-60’s in the various series these Chaparral 2’s competed in. I would love to see this 1/25 kit re-issued along with the Ferrari Berlinetta, Maserati 3500 GT, Porsche 904 and Aston Martin DB4. Had no idea they also kitted a Cunningham.

OMG! What an amazing resource! I may be up late tonight (and a few future nights) reading the issues from the 50’s - 60’s. These old HR issues are like the HAMB website on steroids! Thankyouthankyou!!!!

Fabulous job David, love the look of the whitewalls & mags with the red paint, very mid-60’s vibe. Also very envious of your 1:1, what a sweet looking ride! Your build made me think about the upcoming Moebius ‘65 Dodge releases, can’t wait to buy and build a few of those!

Just now joining the crowd watching this WIP. Very cool car Tom and amazing Swiss watch maker detailing that you’re doing on this one. I love the pic of the pink primer undercarriage with the black frame and all the eye candy details. I have always loved Tamiya’s Pearl light red but have only used it on a custom I once built, never thought of it for a drag car. Looking forward to seeing this one finished.

Enjoying your WIP on these Mopars Ron. Love the look of the silver with the mags on your last posting. I’ve built three of these Lindberg/ AMT/ Round 2 ‘64 Dodge kits (as well as two of the Plymouths) - I love ‘em, they’re great BUT….the plastic axle pins on all four wheels are crazy weak and may eventually break on you. I’ve had some success drilling out the front spindles and rear differential/ axle housing and replacing all four plastic pins with 1/16” OD brass rod or tubing. I’m hoping your plastic pins survive but if they don’t, rest assure it’s an easy one to fix, good luck!

Thanks guys, John - the AMT ‘62 Bel Air kit comes with poseable front wheels. I wish AMT included extended arms with pins on the spindles and a tie rod like Revell does, one of these days I need to add one to this and a dozen other AMT builds I have with pigeon-toed front wheels….

Pro-mods are generally not my cup of tea but I love this build, not just because of the craftsmanship and details but the styling transformation that you’ve achieved with this ‘64 Dodge body, it really works as a stretched front end, chopped roof, boxed rear spoiler pro-mod. Fabulous!

Love today’s B-T-C car Mike! How did you kit bash this one? Reliable Resin body and Polar Lights engine/ chassis? Beautiful blue paint and decal work, overall appearance and stance came out looking very accurate! I have yet to model a first gen. flipper FC but your builds are motivating me to give one a go. I got to see the original 1:1 of this car with JJ behind the wheel win the night at OCIR (in ‘69?) when I was a pimply 16 yr old and “Age of Aquarius” was climbing the Bill Board chart. 45+ years later, I encountered this same car at the “World of Speed” auto museum near Portland, OR before they shut the place down. Wished I’d taken some pictures of it!

What! No magazine cover? Just kidding Mike, this is a very nice build of legendary JJ’s pre-funny car period gasser. When I picked up the Moebius Chevy II gasser kit, this was one of the cars I thought I might build so it’s great to see a finished one. Also, I don’t think I would have even noticed the black/ white decal overlay issue if you hadn’t mentioned it, look’s fine as is. I’m thinking now of doing the Moebius kit as an altered wheel base car, Doug Thorley’s “Chevy-2-Much” but procrastinating because of the extensive body/ chassis surgery required. I also still want to build a “Seaton’s Shaker” with two of the Revell Chevelles, with all the cutting and puttying, maybe another “binge build” is in my future? You and Altered Ego (Jeff) with your amazing productivity, you’re leaving the rest of us in the dust here!

Thanks Jeff. Four of the five are posted here. The fifth build I did in my “binge build” was a sloppy version of Dick Brannan’s “Lively One” ‘63 Ford 427 using the recent AMT Round 2 re-issue with the one-piece chassis and pin-in-sockets replacing the four old self-tapping screws. Among other issues, the front end slight jacked-up stance came out all wrong so I parked this one on my shelf-of-shame…. John Witzke did an A+++ build of this same historic stocker which he posted here and which I’ll just say I was hoping to do at best a B grade version with the kit chassis but ended up with a D minus. If anyone wants to model this car, I recommend copying John’s build using a ‘60 Starliner doner chassis along with the correct resin interior and the excellent Slixx decal set.

Agree with others here on your color selection David, perfect for an early period gasser. Turquoise was really popular in the 50’s/ early 60’s and it really clicks with the satin black. Nice job! Please build and post more classic drag subjects!

Yet another beautiful cover car! I’m blown away by how quickly you knock these builds out Mike and each one is a very clean and high quality build. Do you display your collection with the mag cover behind each one? It would constitute an easy winning “collection” entry at a model contest someday (and an article in MCM?). So does the body flip up on this one? If so, post another pic or two. Much thanks!

Nice clean build Mike on this R code racer. I really like the side profile slightly jacked-up look you achieved in the front stance, did you use the lower front axle holes provided in the kit chassis or did you have to adjust them? Some kits tend to be too jacked up IMO, yours looks just right. Just when I thought I had all the mid-sixties SS kits I would ever want, now I gotta look for one of these!

Yep. I’m addicted to ‘em. I remember your Zintsmaster, Tom, it was an A++ build!

Thanks Bob. I masked around the scripts and then dry-bushed them using gold enamel. This technique is probably be too dull to use for chromed scripts but I think it works pretty well for the gold.

Thanks guys! Hi Mike, I probably had the same grainy pic that you had. I read somewhere that this car was painted a bright yellow (more “mustard”?) that was factory color on Chevy trucks in the early 60’s which I wasn’t crazy about this shade even if more accurate. I sprayed mine in a Porsche 356 light yellow from Scale Finishes that I had left over from a previous project. On the decals, I believe the SMP set that I used is intended for Don’s white ‘63 Impala Z-11 and so are not accurate decals for this ‘62 Impala but that’s all I could find and I wanted to build the yellow ‘62. Often times I build for fun over accuracy. I was also not crazy about the litho-like rastor graphics art that SMP uses for their decals (vs Slixx’s crisp clean vector graphics) but at least their decal film is nice and thin and they look ok from a foot or two away. Decal availability seems to drive the drag subjects I build and I need to get back to making me own on a future project.