OldNYJim

That’s K&S brand aluminum sheet - I think I got that at Michael’s, but you can get a small amount of the same stuff if you buy a can of those nuts with the sealed lid that you open with a ring pull ?? I did basically what you recommended, yes! Laid some plastic sheet INSIDE the block halves so I had something to glue to then carefully cut and angled some filler pieces to fill the gaps. I just laid some Bondo on there, so I’ll give it a smooth-out when it dries and see how much more work I need to do ??

I’m thinking I’d like to go Flathead - the kit engine has some pretty awkward-to-fill axle holes to contend with, but I’d like to use the one in the box anyway if I can! I’ll try and level it out and see how bad it looks ? Did a little on the suspension this weekend - I replaced the straight-thru axle with some aluminum tube and started drilling out all the moulded in bolts on the frame so I can replace them with some DIY metal ones...next job is to get this all smoothed out and then start thinking about the exhaust, and removing a section from that stock gas tank so it doesn’t crowd the axle as much More soon!

A little update...found a Quickchange that I liked for the rear end. Not exactly a COMMON choice for a Shoebox Ford, but I really love how they look, and I found some 1:1s on The HAMB running them so that was good enough for me...sliced the kit axle off the springs and took a look: Definitely needed to c-notch the frame but couldn’t find a file the exact right size...made one out of a chopstick and 100 grit paper ? Worked pretty well! I wanted to use the kit springs ideally, so I moved them inside the frame rails and took a look at how the rear ride height would look if I set the axle to a height where it would still have travel in 1:1 but as low as I can get it at the same time... Not bad! No front suspension on the car yet, but I like how the rear sits anyway! Had to make some lowering blocks to help the axle meet the springs, but that aside just waiting for the glue to dry: More soon!

Very cool!! I’ll be watching! Love a Miata!

That’s a cool little tool! Added to my “things to look at next time I’m at Michael’s” list!

That looks great! This kit is on my to-build list...are you replicating a particular 1:1?

Brilliant!! Thank you so much for updating this! It’s a great technique, I’ll definitely be using this a LOT!

They completely ruined them now, for me anyway - but I can just see enough to figure out how this works...great technique! Thank you for sharing!

Thanks Tom, good tip! In the spirit of using the AMT kit I’d KINDA like to use the kit chassis...but it isn’t very conducive to modifying for the kind of build I’m doing here either ? A little progress on this - levelled the roof out and have something slightly resembling that hearse in my first post...I’m actually fairly convinced after spending some time looking at it that that 1:1 IS stretched, but there’s just about enough room for a coffin back there if the ‘passenger’ wasn’t over 5 feet tall and the driver had his seat forwards enough ? ⚰️ I’m happy with the look anyway, it matches how I imagined this looking: Next job, and I think the biggest, will be the frame...more soon!

Just a little progress on this, as I’m replying anyway...started levelling out that primer to see how much work I’ve REALLY got to do to be ready for paint...there’s definitely plenty more work to go to get those big side panels level and smooth: And I started work on the kit frame - I want to approach this roughly how I did the body, keep it fairly traditional on PAPER, but smooth it all out and add some nice custom details and touches. The kit frame looks like this: I started by removing those flat angled inner arches and replacing them with some scratchbuilt ones with a slight curve, then I removed the moulded in exhaust detail and scribed out that trunk floor so that I can tidy up that area...will probably scratchbuild a fuel tank that fits nicely between the rails, delete the spare tire hump and find a nicely detailed rear axle to replace the stock one: More on that soon!

Yeah, I’m thinking I may be able to do something clever with the cutter! Fingers crossed it works...guess we’ll see ?

I’ve kinda got a plan for the letters on the license plate...if it works ??. I’ve got a nice pearl blue here for the body - I wanted something in the darker blue tones but still with a little pop to it...I need to shoot a spoon and see how it looks when I lay some down. I should do that soon actually, so I can decide if I need to find another color or not ?

Really helpful guys - thanks so much for all the info! As Ace says, there’s a lot of confusion apparently even with the 1:1 guys - I read so many variations of the exact ‘facts’, the more I read the less I knew ?

Oh nice! I’ve always liked these...I suppose it’s too much to ask for it to have engine detail too, but I’m sure it’ll be well done!

I did a little research myself but I figure one of you might be able to give me some reliable info... I know that the 9” Ford rear end was introduced in 57, and was used through the 80s, but how similar are the early-mid fifties Ford rear ends visually? I have the AMT Shoebox 50 Ford kit here and the stock axle kinda LOOKS nine-inchy if you squint a little and take into account the soft detail...was the later 9” part VERY different from the earlier models, or was it an evolution of the design? AMT 50 Ford axle below for reference...thanks in advance!

Funny, that was one of the doodles I did when I was thinking what to build - but I figured I’d just copied it from your other bubbletop build ? excuse the crudity of my drawing, my wife hid my crayons ?? Chassis is looking great!!! Keep going bud!!

I can’t wait Tom! I wanted to do a build for each category, if nothing else...might bring some of my other bits and pieces to display too! Thank you sir! There’s no hiding with this one - there’s so few parts you have to make sure they’re all PERFECT! ?. I don’t have to much issue with gummy-ness with the Createx - although I only use their reducer with it. I do notice it doesn’t sand very well unless you let it set up for a week or so - it tends to roll up like a pencil eraser so if you get a blemish to fix it’s often easier to just wash it off with warm water and start again. All that said, I find their stuff super easy to lay down nicely and they have some great colors!

From TD’s website: “REVELL- USA: Well, it looks like the BAJA BANDITO kit is toast! In addition - due to MAJOR contractual differences - my involvement with the “new” REVELL-USA is over.” Bummer ?? I’d still buy a Firebomb, but in the interest of the designer getting his due I’d prefer a Baja Bandito...

Interesting! Thank you!

On a slightly related note, I’ve been wanting to build a Beetle - is this kit decent compared to the Tamiya one? Anything terrible about this one that should make me spend the extra on the Tamiya kit instead?

One of the themes of NNL East this year is Box Art Models, and seeing as Tom Daniel is one of my favorites it seemed fitting to do something of his! I had a bunch of Paddy Wagons sitting around here, so I pulled out An early issue one with the silver chrome to do my version of his original 1960s box art design: Out of interest, I compared the frame of my early kit to one of the later reissues, and whilst the later ones aren’t terrible there’s definitely less clean-up to do on the earlier one: Some Bondo and sanding later.... I’m using a black primer to get the color I want from the Createx paint I’ll be using for this - took a couple of little bits of sanding and smoothing after the first coat was laid down but got it ready for paint eventually: This is the Createx color I picked out - I wanted a dark blue to match the box but also something with a little pop to it to catch the eye...I’ve used this color on some little pieces of other builds before but never a whole lot - excited to see how those big panels look in this shade! And a little paint on the frame - I reduced it a little too much so it pooled a little on this first coat but the second and third coat leveled it out nicely: The engine on the box art is red so I shot some Tamiya chrome silver and a base and then a candy red over that for the first few engine parts - this block will definitely benefit from some detail painting: Next job is to get the multi-part body panels ready for paint...more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

What a great start! It takes a lot of fusion and imagination to see how to use all those little sections and pieces of different bodies to get to where you wanted to be. I’ll be watching!

Thanks fellas! Gonna start on this one, right after breakfast: Saw it at the corner store this morning and seemed appropriate ?‍♂️?

So, the web theme for NNL East this year is the AMT 63 Impala kit that was reissued last year: I did some brainstorming on what to do and was pretty much set on doing some form of drag car with the kit, until I saw this 63 online: I think it’s a hearse conversion, but it’s retained the low roofline of the stock car, and seems to be a sedan which has had the rear window moved back and the roof lengthened rather than using the more-logical (but rarer, I assume?) station wagon as a basis. Then, I fell down a rabbit hole of reading about the interesting world of ‘street freaks’... ...and a plan was born! I figured a street freak version of that hearse would be a pretty interesting build, and I liked the idea of combining some of those gasser influences into a street car. A quick mockup before I started hacking plastic... I can already tell that this build is going to involve more scratch building than I planned on, not least because the kit chassis has almost everything moulded in, but I’ll start with the fun stuff. My plan is similar to what the builder of that 1:1 seems to have done - just lengthen the roof and slide that rear window right back. Used my new Tamiya scriber, mostly, to score some lines like so... Then removed the rear deck lid from the section I’d removed: And reattached the rear window portion as far back as it would go: Those black styrene strips are to keep it aligned whilst the glue dried, and to give me something to attach a new panel to, to extend the roof: The roof panel itself is pretty flat, but those curved edges seemed like they were going to be tricky to recreate so I built up a little thickness of styrene bar in the gaps so that I can sand them smooth and shape them to match the existing shape: And that’s about where I’m at so far - I’ll get some sanding and shaping done on the body tomorrow when the glue’s set up, and then we can start figuring out how tricky it’s going to be to make this thing into a jacked up pseudo-Gasser! More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Just a little progress - got some primer on this, this week! Wanted to see how much more sanding and filling was in my future...turns out some, but not too much! Nice to see the body all one color finally!