Tcoat

Was an old Barrett Jackson auction. Bet it wasn't cheap! Could give you some ideas. https://www.barrett-jackson.com/Events/Event/Details/1959-CHEVROLET-EL-CAMINO-CUSTOM-PICKUP-213936

I am either doing a very specific car/truck and attempt to match the colour exactly (sometimes from a 40 year or more memory) Or... Use whatever I happen to have laying around that isn't a flat military colour. Makes deciding really easy.

Had this kit in my hands a few times and put it back. This may change my mind! The silver and orange scheme could be cool! Roof colour could be extended to the fins and between the chrome.

I have doors. The hinges are a tad ovescale but they are more to hang the doors on in the open position so it isn't too obvious. The closing part of the deal is just a bonus. Once all black you will hardly see then anyway. The doors were made by skinning over the cut out resin parts with very thin styrene and the hinges are the Lindbergh kit parts for the front doors of the Dodge. They fit better than the pictures make them look and will need some tweaking after paint anyway. The doors are not wrinkled like they look here that is a trick of the smudged marker ink and the resin showing through the styrene. This is how it will be displayed. The inside of these doors was really easy to model since the structure was covered with paneling and the latch mech is all hidden. The outer lips are all scale thickness.

LOL Don't let the music posters fool you this ain't no hippie van. Still have some things to scratch build unless somebody can point me to a 1/25 scale M1 helmet, Canadian 64 pattern webbing and a 70s era duffle bag. Oh... and a case of stubby bottle Labatt's Blue beer.

Front end dropped a tad more so stance is finally right. By today's standards it looks extreme but was pretty normal back then.

Paneling, and decorations ready. Some will be paper and some decals. This will be my first venture into printing my own decals. The posters are all accurate to what I had except the Cooper one. I had a promo poster for his Vancouver 1975 concert but there do not seem to be any pictures of it and I had to go with close enough. The small ones will be 8-track tape labels. The only concession I made to accuracy is the inclusion of the two model magazine covers as neither existed back then and I wasn't building models at that point in my life. Besides, I don't think I could post the real magazines I had back then here anyway! Yes it truly was a child of the seventies. Just look at that paneling!

Quick mockup to make sure everything fits. About a 1/4 inch taken off the bar stool height so nobody bumps their head!

Opened up and padded dash removed. Resin isn't so hard to work with and my trepidation at the task was misplaced.

OK so last night I pulled out the windshield (they must know me as they sent 4 of them) and noted that the wipers are vacuum formed right with the "glass". They are exactly the same position as the First Gear diecast. After much searching a managed to sort of get a look inside the first gear cab and it does indeed have the padded dash. Based on these I am going to change my opinion and say that the Flinstone is indeed a reworked First Gear diecast. They closed and cleaned up the side barn door gaps, replaced the working hinges with something more in scale and shaved all the handles off.

Love the semi weathered grey wood of the box. Looks sort of not really worn and weather beaten but not freshly stained and varnished either. Middle of the ground like a truck that is driven but not worked hard.

I remember seeing the adds for these in comic books back in the day! Had no idea they had been rereleased. They are so cool! Are they still $3.00?

Oh I was under no impression it would be a slip on fit and fully anticipated having to make adjustments. That was why I kept the frame, floor and "plywood" with carpet sections separate so they could be altered as needed with minimal impact to what had been assembled. The alterations were very very easy to do and since the undercarriage is far from accurate for an Econoline to start with there was no harm. Had to remove the rear crossmember and spring mounts for length, move the springs and axle an 1/8th inch forward to get the wheels centered in the wheel well and move the two front cross supports back about a 1/4 inch to clear the front wheel wells. The whole operation took about 1/2 an hour including touching up the paint.

Boy I love this build! It is just oddball enough to be cool.

The Flintstone bodies I just received came with very specific instructions to use tire cleaner for the wash and automotive primer for the first coat. They stated that model paints will not stick for the primer. Once the auto primer is on then it says use whatever you want over it.

Sorry! My intent was just to show how nice that engine is not confuse people.

Oh it is really easy. I use an empty, cleaned Tamiya thin cement bottle. Fill it about 3/4 with Future/Pledge/Pledge with Future/Whateveritwascalledwhenyouboughtit. I the squeeze a pea sized dollop of Dollar Store water colour black into it. Mix it really well by stirring and shaking. Then add another dollop about the same size. Repeat. I keep adding the water colour until I can no longer see through the mixture. It will look WAY too opaque in the bottle. I then brush some onto a part that has some texture to it. The mix should flow to and fill the low points while leaving the raised sections relatively unchanged. Let it dry. It will look horrid when still shiny but once hit with an overcoat of flat (I prefer Testers dullcoat) it will calm down and become more subtle. If I am happy with the mix the I go to town with it. If too deep I add a bit more Future and if not deep enough more black. When using it you need to make sure that you keep gaps you want filled as horizontal as possible so it stays put until it drys. Of course to flows better and leaves less on the flat surface of the paint when put over a gloss coat. When on a flat coat you get a bit more discoloration of the base but that often works well in your favour. If you want to wipe some off just use some untinted future on a tissue before the tinted drys completely. One thin cement bottle of it lasts me about two years and I use it on almost every single painted part. The one on the left has been coated. The big vent fins were allowed to fill and dry. The panel lines were just how gravity pulled it in after a coat was applied to the whole surface. I left some on the flat white for weathering and wiped some off to get a mottled effect. There were no other weathering products used here just the black tinted Future and a flat over coat. Base coat Tint coat applied to whole model still glossy Flat coat end result

Yep! I read about the dust. I have been an Occupational Health and Safety professional for 30 years so was prepared to deal with the situation. Where I work machines 4 million brake rotors a year so I am no stranger to fine dust! For hand sanding I used a mask and kept the surface damp (not wet just a fine misting now and then) so there was virtually no dust to contend with. When I had to break out the Dremel to thin the inside rear I went with engineering controls over PPE. I determined the main direction that the dust would fly and taped my shop vac nozzle to the bench. It probably captured 90% of the dust created before it became airborne. I still wore a mask as the remaining 10% was still significant. At the end of it all I had a minuscule amount trapped in the mask.

I don't have a diecast to compare but looking at many pictures I do not believe it is molded from them. Ithe lines are very crisp and the gaps for the doors very small. The diecast have huge gaps because the doors open. If it is based upon the diecast it was heavily reworked. The chassis size discrepancy (which I anticipated that is why none of the interior was glued in place yet) would seem to be the slightly different shape of the front of the Dodge and the difference in the thickness between the injection molded Lindberg body and the resin casting. The Flinstone casting is very thick in the rear since it was obviously designed for all the doors closed and no real view back there. I had to thin it down considerably since I will be opening the windows in the rear and the saide barn doors.

I have a body! I need to find some slightly smaller tires. These just look like balloons. The chassis needed some considerable rework as the body is about 3/8 inch shorter than the Lindberg kit.

Oh another blast from the past! I built this as a kid. Well if you count glueing stuff together in 1/2 an hour "building". It was the glow in the dark version. Of course it didn't look even remotely like this beauty. Love the rat whiskers.

Beautiful redo I lusted after the Big T back when I was a kid and was so disappointed when I got the Little T for Christmas. Still have some parts around someplace I believe.

That blue with a white roof would rock!

Thanks! I am 100% happy with the interior, engine and chassis but only 75% satisfied with the body and trim. This was my first go at gloss paint and Bare Metal Foil on car trim about 2 years ago and it is not my best work. This project keeps getting pushed aside while I learn some car modeling techniques and gain experience. Even after reworking them 4 times the taillights are still just shapeless blobs on the back of the car so I am most certainly going to scratch build them after I get the right materials. I will see how it looks once I get the grill, bumpers and top tonneau cover on it but may just end up striping all the trim and paint and starting over on the body.

Thanks. It was intended as a quick learning tool for gloss paint and turned out to be one of my very favourite finished products ever. Pay very close attention when assembling the cab and box to the frame. The holes seem fine when dry fitting the individual sections but become impossible to line up once painted and either the box or cab are in place. Here is how nice that engine builds up. All I added were the oil filter, fuel and vacuum lines.