papajohn97

Nice job on a less than perfect old kit. Your two-tone color choice stirs memories for me. My first car was a ‘56 210 two-door post sedan in close to these exact colors, the first of several “wished I’d kept that one” cars from my youth, purchased for just a few hundred $ back when they weren’t considered “classics”....Thanks for posting and bringing back some memories!

Beautiful job Jim! Hard to believe this started from a poor fitting flashy kit, the finished model looks fantastic from every angle. Your paint and decal work is gorgeous. Are the front and rear black riveted window frames decals? If so, they must have been a real challenge to apply. If the body can be removed, I would love to see more pics of the engine and chassis details you added. My drag car modeling interests generally don’t go much beyond ‘67 but your build here is inspiring me to expand my range. Thanks for posting!

Very nice clean build of a cool subject Marty! I’m in awe of builders like you who make their own decals- did you use a special printer (Alps?) to make these decals or just a common ink jet printer? Love that you can personalize them (“Marty’s Speed & Machine”). I also love early/ mid 60’s SS because they were so much closer to street cars than later years and I can also imagine most of these Jr stockers were driven to the strip (as well as work/ school/ church/ grocery store!). I agree with the previous post - more pics please (chassis and under hood). I have a set of the Fred Cady 55 Chev “Monster Mash” Jr stock decals to go with the AMT post two-door sedan kit and your build is inspiring me to move that one up in the queue....

Incredibly beautiful paint work, look’s like it came out of Larry Watson’s paint shop. You’ve mastered the airbrush in one model build!

I just ordered a 2nd one of these kits in fear of them disappearing and/or shooting up in $$$. I also ordered the Lee Smith decals for this car (actually his was a Belvedere - Satellite vs Belvedere trim diff seems really subtly to me, especially on de-trimmed drag cars?). Fremont Racing Specialties offers a reasonably priced set of the Lee Smith decals and Joe does fabulous decals, just wanted to pass this option by you while you decide which way to go. Engine start looks good! Looking forward to watching your progress on this one.

Hi Bob, I identify with your car model paint struggles. After years of painting aircraft/ ship/ armor model subjects, I dove into car modeling a few years ago and experienced the steep learning curve of “shiny” - it’s HARD! I’m still learning but have settled in on two methods that seem to work best for me. I prime everything with either Tamiya light grey fine lacquer primer unless the final color is white or light, then I use Tamiya white lacquer primer. If there’s a Tamiya rattle can color that works for the subject In doing, I use that for the base color and clear coat it with Tamiya TS-13 clear coat. If I need a different and/ or accurate original manufacturer’s color, I order the flat base color from Scalefinishes.com (or Zero Paints base color if it’s a contemporary auto or race car) and airbrush it over the primer, then clear coat it with TS-13. I’ve used Testors rattle can lacquers which are pretty good paints but their rattle can nozzles are not as good as Tamiya’s (sometimes the spray is too thick or sprays splatters/ drops). Also, I only use Scalefinishes flat base coats for two-tone paint schemes, rattle can lacquers tend to bleed thru masked edges when you do a heavy/ “wet” final coat. I avoid all the super hard/ non-sticky two-part urethane clear coats such as”2K” because of they are very toxic/ carcinogenic. The few times I’ve tried spraying auto subjects with acrylics, I have found them to be too thick, too soft, too sticky. Also, they are incompatible with any hard lacquer clear coats. These are just my own opinions/ experience, there are others here that do amazing paint jobs using totally different materials and techniques than I describe above. I applaud you for trying different paints and finding your own best methods. Love your Nova so far! Awesome engine! Body look’s good in grey! John

Beautiful build of a magnificent car! I can see this one parked on the greens at Pebble Beach. Well done!

Love these topless funnies, a short period in FC evolution (‘66-‘67?). Did you use the Speed City resin set for this build? I wonder if it might not be too much work to convert the recent Moebius AWB ‘65 Ply Golden Commando kit into this topless version? Cut off the roof, add a sheet of Evergreen styrene and a long diagonal cut section of styrene tubing?... Your build made me search for other topless FC’s on this forum, only came up with John Teresi’s beautiful Flying Dutchman and amazing Beach City ‘Vette builds. Anyone ever build a topless Canuck Nova? Thank you Dave for pulling this one out of your archives and sharing this beautifully executed and unusual drag car. You’ve inspired me!

Michelle, I commend you on this and other recent “modeling outside of the box” postings. You are doing some really creative scratch building and kit bashing, a nice break from the rivet counting obsession some scale modelers pursue (and most of us fail at!). I knew nothing about “Hot Wheel Accelracers” but your funny description about the special tires made me laugh and led to a Google search. Thanks for sharing!

Darn that’s purdee. Love the vintage Halibrand wheels, very cool old school look. You sir have impeccable taste as well as amazing fab & paint skills.

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Hey Jeff, awesome collection of AWB A/FXer’s/ match racers. I just joined MCM forum in March and missed your Dec postings, so I’m glad they came back to the top of the finished drag cars listings so I could check them out - nice collection! We have similar taste although my favorites are SS’ers between ‘60 - ‘65 before they started to morph into funny cars. I’ve completed 14 over the last few years and have another 10-12 in my stash which I hope to complete unless burn-out sets in. I have a resin ‘62 Ford Galaxy light weight and Brannan’s “Bronco” AWB ‘65 Mustang on the bench now and hope to finish and post them in the coming weeks. Decals seem to dictate what I build... Like others here, I’m really interested in that Chrisman Comet with the set-back engine as well as Dyno’s AWB Comet - please post more pics of both, even if they’re still in process. Thanks for sharing your cool collection! John

Hey Gareth, really love this very well executed stock build of this classic ‘64 Ply kit, super clean, amazing foil work, beautiful interior with an amazing dash, period correct beautiful metallic blue. I built the AMT “Lawman” SS version of this kit and agree with you that it’s a joy to build and more realistic looking IMO than the ‘64 Dodge version. And your natural light photos are actually pretty good. Thanks for posting!

Hey Niko, thanks for the details on your plastic rod header fabrication method. It sounds very similar to the solder technique but I like the finished appearance you got on your Ply gasser build, I’ll have to give it a try. Unless I’m doing a kit that’s molded as a drag version, I’m finding that scratch building headers, even with solder, is a lot quicker than trying to use/ modify existing headers from another kit in my parts box.

Thanks Brian & Bainford. Dang! Had no idea about the AMT competition parts pack, looks like a much better option than the T-Bird funny car for an Allison. Price is about the same on evilBay - seems like everything is $50 with shipping these days. Wonder if prices will be this high when model swap meets start up again?....

Has anyone built this kit and posted any photos of the finished build? I’m thinking of locating one for the Allison V-12 engine (the old AMT parts pack version?) and am wondering if there are any other usable drag parts that can be salvaged from this Model King re-issue. I’ve read that the Thunderbird chassis portion of the kit is a real turkey.. thanks, John

Hey Bob - Just in case you haven’t considered them, here are two excellent kits that could be used as a basis for vintage gasser builds: 1. Revell’s recent ‘50 Olds coupe, modern tooling, builds like a Tamiya, looks totally accurate IMO when done. I built the Mexican road race version because of the cool decals but hope to do a gasser version some day with mild mods to the suspension, engine and adding some narrow rear slicks. 2. The AMT ‘49 Ford “Gasman”kit: This kit is from old molds but the re-issue is excellent and includes a lot of nice vintage drag parts. I have stayed away from the older Revell gasser kits with the opening doors (original SWC Willys, Anglia, Henry-J) because of my bad experiences attempting them when I was a kid, very spindly assembly, poor engineering, lots of flash. I should try one again sometime just for fun, maybe this re-issue J? Would love to put a 1/24-1/25 Allison or Rolls-Royce Merlin V-12 in one.... John

Another retired dude here (5 yrs). I like to build every day, some days only hour or less, other days 4-6 hrs if my wife is busy with her “stuff”. Not so much on weekends if kids are visiting. I build at least two kits at a time so I have something to do while paint or bonds cure and it prevents me from rushing which leads to disasters/ regrets. I love auto builds but mix it up with aircraft, ships and an occasional tank. I had a production line of early 60’s super stocks going since last year but am currently taking a break from cars and am building two of the five P-38 kits I have. I try to do one complex 1/350 ship subject every summer. Cars are still my favorite, gratification is quicker, they don’t take up much space and if I take a hammer to it, it’s not a $150 plane or $300 ship!

What a beautiful Buick GS! Wish I could build and paint at your level of “imperfection”, looks like a “1/25 stock automobile” category model contest winner to me! The metallic teal with white interior scheme is absolutely gorgeous and your foil work doesn’t look like foil but actual SS trim pieces (wish I could do that). Thanks for sharing Gene and please build and post more 60’s GM masterpieces!

I love it! One of the best best builds using this AWB Chevy II kit that I’ve seen, especially that side shot, it all just look’s “right”, nice job! I have been holding off paying thru the nose for the less-than-perfect AMT rat pack kit hoping Moebius might still release the SWB sedan or coupe kit (a gasser?). I think this car might still be in the NHRA Motor Sports Museum collection in Pomona, CA. This museum officially re-opened on May 1 (reservations required) and I highly recommend a visit to all drag racing modelers here. Amazing historic original drag cars, photos, memorabilia.

I love WWII armor models but have little experience on them and have struggled on the few I’ve tried, a Tamiya Matilda and this one, Dragon’s 1/35 Type 95 “Ha-Go”. I purchased a four bottle MIG early IJA acrylic paint set to try to reproduce the cover scheme. I worked on this last year, screwed up the tracks and threw it back in the box and on the shelf (of abandoned builds, dreams and general doom). I was bored this afternoon waiting for paint to dry on a P-38 build and pulled this little tank back into the bench and patched it together and touched it up with my new favorite paint, Tamiya XF-84 “dark iron”. It won’t win any contests but I’m glad I rescued it from the shelf. My favorite modeling subjects are still autos and aircraft but I enjoy getting out of my comfort zone now and then and stretch my abilities on a ship or tank. John

Wow! Amazing build/paint/ finish. One of the best BMF applications I’ve seen on this forum, particularly the large areas on the lower portions of the body, not a wrinkle in sight. Especially that last photo where the lower areas of the body reflect the pebbles on the ground like a glass mirror! What’s your secret(s) to such perfect BMF?

I agree with afx on those headers, very cool. I’ve been using thick solder but will have to try that styrene rod. Would love to see a short tutorial on how you did yours.

I’ve tried airbrushing Molotow onto masked areas such as body trim and interior door hardware and have had mixed results. To get a chrome look, it needs to be applied fairly thick which can sometimes lead to a messy mask edge bleed through and can overwhelm molded in details. It also sometimes comes out less than glossy, almost like a dry spray effect. I’ve gone back to airbrushing Alclad over black enamel to re-chrome parts or paint trim (as an alternative to BMF) and only use the Molotow pens for touching up gate areas or scratches on kit supplied chrome plated parts or chrome on small parts or details.

Very cool build! I bet the Int’l UFO Museum in Rosewell, NM would love to have this build in one of there displays. A+ for both originality and execution.