papajohn97

Thanks guys! All my photos including the interior shots were taken using my iPhone 13 (non-pro) with the ultra-wide angle lens. I always forget to take photos of the interior before final assembly so this feature on my new cell phone came in handy. The distortion reminds me of the advertisements of that period where they made the interior look as wide as a bowling ally. Those “wide track Pontiacs” looked like they took up two lanes!

Thanks guys! Good question Stef! The ‘62 NHRA rules for all stock classes including SS and FX for exhausts requirements were: AMT’s instructions show using either the stock exhausts OR the racing headers + extensions but I decided to install both to comply with the period rules. I probably should have shown a bypass junction between the header extensions and the stock exhausts between the mufflers and the engine but just got lazy (building five at a time can do that to you!). I just installed the front end of each stock exhaust up between the engine and engine bay with no connection to the headers. I have yet to see an undercarriage photo of this or any of the ‘62 409 SS drag cars showing the exact exhaust configuration, maybe someone here has a pic they can post to help clarify what they actually did. May have just been two short bypasses off the exhaust pipes near the trans?

This is the one stock build I completed while simultaneously building four other 1/25 drag subjects (I don't recommend doing that unless you like mixing up radiator hoses and batteries!). I heard that this AMT kit was very nice and was not disappointed, multiple engines, separate components for the chassis, exhausts, gas tank, inside door panels on the interior. Felt like I was building a Revell kit! The exterior was painted in metallic "Orchid Grey" from Scale Finishes, the brightwork trim in Alclad over black enamel or foil, all other colors in Tamiya acrylics. I think these first year Starliners are beautiful but then I also really like GM's '59 - '60 bodies, they still look so futuristic to me. If Don Draper got demoted at Sterling Cooper and had to trade down from his Caddie, I can see him driving to the office in this lavender Starliner. Cheers, John

This is the third drag car I built as part of my "build five at one time" madness, Dyno Don Nicholson's '62 Chevy Impala 409 powered super stock. I used Revell's 1/25 kit and decals from SMP along with Fireball resin carbs and Detail Master distributor/ plug wires and some scratch-built fuel lines and linkage. I highly recommend this Revell kit, I encountered absolutely no issues and it looks very accurate IMO. Cheers, John

I started a "batch build" of five 1/25 car kits over the summer in an attempt to reduce my ever growing stash, four 60's super stock drag cars and one stock Ford. Two of the drag subjects I picked were Hayden Proffitt race cars, his championship 409 powered '62 Bel Air and a 426 Wedge powered '64 Plymouth. Little did I know that Mr. Proffitt would pass away on August 19th at the age of 94 at his home in Texas while I was at about the mid-way point of my builds...weird timing. He was a legend in So. Cal drag racing in the 60's, driving Pontiacs, Chevies, Plymouths, Mercurys, a wild early "topless" funny car with a Corvair body and an AMC funny car. Both of these kits are AMT/ Round 2 and I used Slixx decals for the Chevy and Yesteryear decals for the Plymouth. The Plymouth decals were intended for Hayden's automatic Hemi-powered sedan (SS/A) but I decided to use them on this hardtop stick shift Wedge Belvedere. I added Fireball resin carbs and Detail Master distributors along with scratch-built fuel lines to both carbs. The Detail Master aluminum velocity stacks I used on the Plymouth are not period correct but I suffered build fatigue after five simultaneous car builds and decided not to attempt to scratch- build more correct lower/ flatter factory Mopar velocity stacks. Both are quite imperfect but were fun to build and look good enough to me to park next to my other 60's SS builds. I never saw Hayden Proffitt race but have read that he was fierce competitor as well as a very nice gentleman to all that knew him. RIP Hayden. John

I agree with others here, for an old mold kit, it’s an excellent one. I built and posted a stock version recently (here), the only problem I had was getting the openable trunk lid to close/ seat against the body. I finally gave up and bonded the trunk lid closed but have seen other posted builds without this issue so it was likely operator error on my part and not the kit. Looking forward to following your build progress.

I really like recent vintage Revell 1/25 kits. I’m building their ‘62 Impala side-by-side with the AMT ‘62 Bel Air (which I also love) but the Revell kit is just so much better engineered and debugged. Other standout Revell kits that were a joy for me to assemble include the ‘40 Ford coupe, ‘50 Olds and ‘57 Chevy 150. Some of recent AMT kits such as the ‘60 Starliner and the ‘62 Pontiac come close to Revell and a few of the older AMT kits such as the ‘49 Ford and Merc are amazingly good for their age. Moebius kits are also very good although a few have some challenging flaws that test one’s modeling skills (‘61 Ventura/Catalina).

Wonderful thread, thank you Gramps (Gary) and others for these posts, stirring old memories for me. My introduction to Chaparrals was a 1/24 Cox ‘2’ (2A?) slot car that my dad gifted me back when it was first issued (1965?) which, along with a Model Rectifier controller, brought big track slot car racing into my childhood. IIRC, It seemed like Cox used actual magnesium for the wheels and chassis although it could have just been corroded low-alloy aluminum? Fun times. I have yet to build any scale model Chaparrals but have picked up 4-5 of the 1/32 slot car versions that have been issued over the last few decades. The most impressive collection of scale model Chaparrals that I recently saw was displayed at the IPMS Nationals in Chattanooga in 2019: Unfortunately I failed to record the name of the person who built/ displayed these beauties when I photographed them at the “display only” area of the contest, maybe someone here knows who built these and can give them credit?

Very nice job Justin on thus ancient tooled 1/25 kit. This subject matter is really interesting to me (anything related to Dan G., a 60’s open wheel Lotus that’s not BRG, early rear engine Indy cars). I’ve been holding off picking up this re-issue because of the 1/25 scale. The photo with your Lotus parked next to the 1/20 Tamiya Ligier really shows how small this completed model is compared to 1/20 open wheeled race car models which I’m a big fan of. Now if Ebbro would issue a 1/20 kit of this car based on Tamiya’s Lotus 25 (like they did recently with the Lotus 33), I’d be all over it!

A well deserved award Steven, hard to believe you didn’t take home a “best of show” as well with this one. Absolute perfection in every way!

This satin “F6F Hellcat Navy Blue” looks absolutely perfect on this ‘49, I love how it contrasts and complements the chrome trim and glass. Very nice!

Very nice Mario! I particularly like the black wash you did on the grill and wheel covers and the toning down on the rear brightwork between the trunk lid and bumper (which the kit provides as a shiny chrome part). I’m currently building a yellow Dyno Don version of this same Revell kit and agree with you that it’s a beautifully engineered and molded model. Love all your builds, so realistic looking, particularly with the dio backdrops you use for your photos. Please post some more!

Thanks Spike for the decal feedback. I agree with you on Indycals, they are great to work with and hand-cutting them is no longer as big an issue for me. I’ve got several black JPS Lotus kits still unbuilt and will order these black background IndyCals decals instead of risking use of old Tamiya/Hasegawa kit decals.

Lovely JPS Lotus, shiny black is the ultimate scale model painting test and this one is an A+. The decals look great as well, did these IndyCals come with a black background printed within the gold pin stripe areas as well as behind the gold/ biscuit printing? If so, it looks like it matches perfectly with the Tamiya TS-14 gloss black.

Your Nova look’s good in that yellow, looking forward to seeing this one come together. Best of luck to your wife for a smooth fast recovery, you’re a good (and smart!) man to defer scale modeling to care for your wife, the bench will wait for you! My Molotow pens seem to go dry/ funky pretty quickly and I’ve switched to applying it from a refill pin using a thin brush and am getting great results so far on small applications/ touch-up.

Oooo! Very very clean build and gorgeous paint and toning down of the kit chrome. I like to decal the emblems but not every kit comes with them and the after-market emblem decals are expensive and not available for every kit; I need to try this “BMF under the paint then sand” technique, I have a soft spot for shoe-box Chevies, my first two 1:1 cars (1,000 yrs ago) were a ‘56 210 followed by a ‘55 Bel Air. Both were wonderful cars and both less than $400. I recently picked up the Revell ‘56 210 kit at Michael’s for $25, after seeing your build now I want this Monogram ‘55 convertible as well.

Fabulous job on this gasser. I’m particularly impressed with the fuel line plumbing, the belts/pulleys, the use of paint metallizers on the wheels and engine area, the paint, the ghost-free decals, the smooth foil work that doesn’t look like foil. Pretty much a perfect build and one of the best Willys gassers I’ve seen posted anywhere. What Eduards PE set did you use? Is it one intended for one of the 1/24 Airfix or Trumpeter fighters? Great idea.

Nice job David on this max wedge Lawman. I particularly like the paint work in the interior and the mag spoke wheel paint detailing. Don’t beat yourself up over the paint lines, two-tones can be a challenge. I gave up doing them with lacquers due to paint bleed at the masking edges and have had much better luck using the matte base paints (Zero, Scale Finishes) and then clear coating. I highly recommend cataract surgery, it was a breeze and my eyesight is now 20-20 (I wore coke bottle lens eyeglasses and hard contacts most of my life). I had both eyes done for distance and just use stronger reading glasses for modeling (3X or stronger). Wish I could have had this surgery when I was younger, it’s a real life changer.

Amazing job on the interior and engine detailing. I had no idea that this old AMT kit came with the Webber carb option, makes it look like it has one of those 377 cu in +500 hp SBC engines that were used in the Grand Sports.

I’m impressed with your BMF trimming, particularly around those radiuses bends on the front fenders. I also like the paint detailing you did on the molded-in wiring on the firewall and inner fender wells and the panel highlighting on the doors and trunk. Overall very nice job on this Max Wedge street sleeper!

I’m building one of these right now too! (along with 4 other early 60’s super stock subjects). I’m painting mine as Hayden Proffitt’s black Yeakel Mopar Max Wedge super stocker and hope to post it soon. My first black paint job was a complete disaster (Zero Black Base + Tamiya TS-13 clear coat over Scalefinishes Super Grey Primer, big mistake!), just stripped it back to bare plastic and going back to good old Tamiya Gloss Black lacquer over Tamiya Fine lacquer primer. These Round 2 ‘64 Belvederes are fabulous kits, everything fits nice and looks right. Yours is coming out sweet so far, particularly that beautiful interior. Looking forward to seeing your Lawman come together!

What a gorgeous XKE! Love the color and the aluminum painted wires. More pics please of the interior, engine, under carriage!

Thanks guys for all the positive feedback. I have the Revell ‘49 Merc woodie wagon kit which I hope to also build a stock version of and post in the near future. The Revell kit unfortunately only comes with a tri-carb Cadillac V8 so I’ll need to replace it with a stock flat head, maybe an excuse to buy another one of these excellent AMT Mercs?

This one is built from one of the many recent re-issues of the old AMT kit (first tooled in '63?) and is still an amazingly good kit. I used a factory original color, "Lima Tan", as a base paint from Scalefinishes.com that I chose based on a beautiful car that was listed on bringatrailer (here). My model came out more of an olive greenish tan than the bringatrailer car which is metallic and more of a pinkish tan but I'm ok with the hue on my finished model - it look's like a period correct tan that I remember a lot of cars being when I was a kid. I sprayed Tamiya TS-13 rattle can lacquer clear coat over the base coat. The brightwork window frames and side trim were masked and airbrushed using Alclad Chrome over black gloss enamel with a little Molotow pen touch-up, all other colors used were Tamiya acrylics. I made a circular mask and sprayed the wide whitewalls onto the stock kit tires using Tamiya FX-2 flat white acrylic. The driver's side mirror was added from my parts box. I decided to glue the trunk lid shut after spending way too much time trying to get it to close properly with the rear off the body. Assembly was pretty easy except for the fit of the grill with the grill center piece and the bumper, I had to do a lot of tweaking to get it all to fit and it's far from perfect. I also managed to encounter some crazing on the bottom of the drivers wing window which only showed upon after assembly is a mystery to me - I used the Testor's "clear part cement and window maker" adhesive which is pretty mild stuff and did not apply it where the crazing occurred....oh well....always something.... I can see why these Mercs were/ are so popular to customizers, such clean classic well-proportioned styling. Love this kit! Cheers, John Here's an outdoor shot, amazing how different/ lighter this "Lima Tan" color look's under sunlight (could be my cell camera's bad exposure?):

I’m an amateur at figures but have had pretty good luck just painting them using a simple-minded “paint-by-numbers” technique (out-of-the-bottle flesh for face and hands, green shirt, blue pants, black shoes, etc…) and then applying a dark brown oil paint in white spirits thinner wash. Here is a German tank crew I did using this technique: I think figures don’t need to be perfect when they’re in a diorama setting, they give scale and context to the scene and most eyes are distracted by other details so it is more forgiving for imperfections. Just paint them and stick them in your scene, they’ll be better than you think!