OldNYJim

Appreciate you sharing it with us over here! Great looking build!

Really nice work on this build! I’m enjoying watching it come together

Happy Tuesday one and all! A little more progress at the bench this evening… First project was one I had in mind since I started this project, but hadn’t got around to yet… The kit taillights that Revell provides are some pretty little teardrops, but I wanted a nice in-scale chrome surround for them that I could paint separately. I drew one up for 3D printing… …and printed a few slightly different sizes on my printer (they look like grains of rice, before clean-up): And after cleaning and curing I think I’ve got something usable: Just need to chrome a couple and get those lenses glued in and they’re ready to attach to the body… Next job was painting the inner fenders I’d been messing with last week. I figure as we can’t be sure that they’re correct for a 3-window body that they might’ve come from a different car, so I aged them a little more than the body - same technique, just a little more used looking: Oh, and in a minor detail I buffed the headlamps (which have received some clearcoat since you last saw them, and couldn’t resist another mock-up to see how it’s coming together… Next major jobs are assembling the interior for good, once I’ve painted the seats anyway, figuring out the glass and those taillights and then we’ll start getting down to actually gluing some big pieces together and adding finishing touches - thanks for looking, more soon!

Wonder if he’s going to refund all the people that donated money for him to move back to the mainland and buy the car back? Not much change of that happening now (as if there ever was…)

This is a great looking project - I like the work you’re doing on this one!

Thanks fellas!! Appreciate you taking a look! So, I’m trying hard to make some progress on something every day…made it every day so far this year! Even if it’s just a half-hour, which is about all I had spare this evening. That said, this evening’s effort was putting the main components of the engine together to fill that nasty gap between the grill and the firewall… Got the block assembled, glued plug wires onto my magneto and started some basic wiring…used some of these micro o-rings on the valve covers: Gluing them was a little tough - they’re super small and the tension of the plug wires made it tough to get them held in place with white glue, which is what I tried initially: Once the glue I already tried has dried overnight, I’m going to snuggle them down with a little CA I think, but it’s a start… And the glamor shot… Good think I went with that recessed firewall, but it all still fits! Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

I bet tho, with it on a stand with a mirror underneath you’ll be able to see them…worth making the effort even if you cant immediately see them from the standard ‘curbside’ view! Plus, we have a photo so we know they exist…?

Thanks Ian! And thank you too Bill! That’s ROUGHLY what I did with mine, except I made it three pieces so I could keep the top and bottom fitting nicely, then just filled in the sides. Looks like your way worked great though! Had a busy Sunday today, but got a coupla three of hours in at the bench… Started fitting the axles and underneath-stuff to the frame: The rear end too some finessing to get everything aligned perfectly - lots of little pieces that have to coexist and align right, but got there in the end. By contrast, the front end practically fell in…still needs the steering linkages and brakes but it’s close… Painted the interior tub and sides and did a quick mock-up: Not that you’ll be able to see too much in there when it’s done anyway… And finally, a quick motivational mock-up or two… Still plenty to do, but it’s starting to look like a thing! Thanks for looking, and all the nice comments so far!

Some useful info here, from FSM: https://finescale.com/product-info/kit-reviews/2023/07/workbench-review-mpc-125-scale-1975-datsun-lil-hustler-pickup-plastic-model-kit “I chose to glue the tailgate in place in the up position, but it can be made posable. You can also pose the tilt nose, but the instructions don’t point to a precise location for the hinges, and the parts do not have positive locators. You’ll need to test-fit to ensure you get the right fit for the nose when it’s closed.”

I was just thinking about this project this week - really pleased to see an update!!! That paintjob is gorgeous! Love the color

I’m not sure that I had seen that build, but I’m a fan of Bernard’s work! He builds some great looking hot rods! Thanks for the link!! A little more progress today… Polished out the frame, as much as I dare anyway (hate burning through those corners, but I got it close as I could without mishap…) and got the aluminum floor that I made previously in place. The crossmember is just dropped in there right now, just so I could see how it looked… Still working through the suspension and everything that bolts to the chassis, but I’m nearly done with painting - today’s project was shooting some chrome… Revell gives you three decals for the ‘40 Ford dash in their 5 window kit, and my preference was the standard gauges on the left, number 17: Eighteen was my backup, but both of them fractured into nothingness once they released from the sheet as I tried applying them, so I had to go with the white gauges: They’re still snuggling down with some decal set in this pic - we’ll see if I wake up to a disaster tomorrow or not…. Nice thing with this particular kit part - there’s a ‘glass’ for them on the clear parts tree - looking forward to installing that… Next up, finishing up the tires with a gray wash of cheap acrylic…just wanted the Firestone lettering to stand out a little and make them look a LITTLE used: Worked ok I think: And I couldn’t resist a mockup of the frame, body and wheels & tires just to get a sneak peek at how some of these parts look, all together: Still plenty to do, but I’m pretty happy with how it looks so far…more soon, soon as I’ve done more!!

Interesting! That’s a fun rabbithole to go exploring down, thank you!! A little more progress this evening…started out with painting the tires, or making a start anyway. First step is Vallejo black, over-reduced slightly so it flows out and has a little satin sheen to it: Followed by Vallejo Tire Black (actually a dark gray) misted around the edges and mostly on the treads: I have a couple more steps to complete on these tomorrow, but I like this two-step Vallejo system (which actually has a third step if you want to dirty them up some) for easy realistic rubber parts: More on those tomorrow… Seeing as I was painting the tires, first stage of paint on the wheels too…didn’t want a bright chrome, didn’t want a dull steel so I went in-between: More detailing on those tomorrow once the paint has sat in the dehydrator overnight… And next project this evening was getting the dash in color. Well, bare metal…used Vallejo steel and then Mr Color drybrushed and stippled over top in a similar fashion to how I did the body: Was going for a ‘was painted but we DA’d it, kinda look - a little rough but fairly clean and a little character…excited to work on this some more over the weekend too! Happy Friday everyone, thanks for looking - hope you’re all warm (12” of snow here today…) More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Doing that super complicated chop and reshaping of the good and then shooting it a super dark color and having it look THAT good is a testament to the surgical clean work you did there…just beautiful! Nice job!

That’s really interesting - what were those used for? I settled on a different color, but I wanna store that idea away for another build - cool idea, thank you!! Tonight’s project was shooting some color on the engine - spent some time looking at reference pics today and decided that if I was doing this for real I’d want to use this cherry block that I found online, for sale: Nice clear original motor, ready to drop in! They painted these early blocks silver from the factory, and so I’m pretending I picked this thing up, added some minor upgrades (really side-grades, the valve covers, the magneto) and dropped it in that frame that I’m still clearcoating. Challenge on this part is making sure the silver block looks like it’s silver PAINT, as opposed to metal-looking paint that isn’t the right shade for the metal that the block is made of. Went for a Tamiya shade that looked about correct to me: And I’ll gloss coat it lightly to give it more of a ‘paint’ look than a bare metal look. The (aftermarket? covers should look like this, roughly: So they got shot, along with the valley cover and some other little bits, Tamiya flat black and then Vallejo chrome (a bad chrome, good aluminum): And I like the Holley carbs that have this silvery-gold tone to them, whatever the alloy is that they’re made of: So I started the painting work on those with a mix of Vallejo Chrome and Vallejo gold: Didnt quite nail that yet, and they’ll need some detail painting, but plenty of time until I need to glue them on… Incidentally, back on those inner wheel wells - spotted this survivor 3-window on Instagram today…the plot thickens… Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!!

Nice work so far! Some wide-ish styrene strip on the doors would match the seats nicely (not that you asked ?) I’ll be following along!

Thanks Bil! I tweaked it a little this evening - not quite done with that particular project yet… Absolutely! And it’s fun because we get to mess with a perfectly good part that would’ve been fine just as it is ? I think that 3 window version may even be a THIRD variation ?. Exactly what I found too - a lot can happen to a car in 90 years…tough to guarantee accuracy…luckily I have some wiggle room - thanks for the feedback Graham! A little more work tonight - I’m in that annoying prime/paint/clear cycle that means you’re doing a lot, but nothing finished…started laying some clear on the frame though… A frame is about a minus ten out of ten on my scale of fun things to polish, but I want a shiny frame so I’m giving it some careful attention… Next major component that needs paint is the engine, so prepped all of those bits this evening and got them in primer ready for inspection and tweaks tomorrow: Havent totally decided on engine color…I need to research what colors these early Hemis came in to see if anything jumps out at me, or if not it’ll be black or bare metal…probably black or the two… I’d like to run a magneto on this, just for some vintage cool - printed a too-modern MSD magneto this evening: Which I’m going to tweak to be one of these, I think: And…that’s another evening at the bench! Thanks for the nice feedback so far, everyone - appreciate you taking a look! More soon…

This would be clean impressive work at 1:24th scale…let alone half that! Nice job - keep going!!

Thank you sir! And thank you too! And thank YOU! Interesting point on the rear wheel wells…I suspect you might be right…but in my research I also found this photo, apparently of the wheel well of a 3-window car: So…now I don't know what to think ?. Luckily, that Hemi out front isn’t factory-correct either, so I have a LITTLE leeway, but the fact my ‘improvements’ might be making it LESS accurate are going to bug me…more research required tomorrow - thanks for the heads up on that!! Tonight I did some research to try and figure out if those parts-box seats were based on something real… I didn’t come up with much useful info, or find much that looked like them…but also it’s hard to tell Google to search model car parts from just a picture…I’m really trying to figure out what they SHOULD look like so I can paint and detail them somewhat accurately - I’m leaning towards them being a representation of some kind of fibreglass racecar seat, but more research required there too… A little progress I DID make tonight…shot a quick spritz of primer on the dash, having drilled out the various switches and knobs so I can replace them with separate parts. The molded-in details were actually crisp and nice, but I prefer being able to paint parts separately and not have to try detail painting little stuff like that: Found a parts-box steering wheel that seems like it might be pretending to be a 40 Ford wheel, which matches the dash nicely, so started cleaning that up and added a turn signal stalk roughly where the column shift would’ve been on an ACTUAL 40: A product I like for making little clear parts as seen at the end of that turn signal lever is this product from Michael’s - it dries crystal clear and is also great for gauge faces, small lenses for lights, and probably a hundred other things too: Just a small update tonight because it’s cold here and my brain works slow when I’m cold - more soon, thanks for looking!

Happy Monday y’all! Super cold here, which made for a long tiring day (sub zero temperatures most of this week, on top of a bunch of snow we got over the weekend…) but got a little done at the bench tonight… First up, started working thru painting some metal parts. As I sorted through the parts I realized I wanted more of them to be chrome than I’d originally realized…gotta lay some clear on a load of little bits and get them smooth for some nice shine… Rear axle is aluminum tho, and will be masked and painted with some different shades this week to add to the realism, the old T leaf spring will be steel, as will the rear brake drums, another aluminum shade for the Moon gas pedal and some other colors for a couple of other pieces…it’s fun mixing and matching different metalizer products for different looks: Something I heard from an artist whose work I follow recently was “you’re probably not using reference material as much as you should be”. He was speaking to ‘regular’ artists, people who draw and paint, but I’ve been thinking on that a lot recently and making sure to collect a lot of reference pics even when I think I know how a part should look…here’s some I gathered as reference for future detailing on that quick change, for example: https://public.fotki.com/NewYorkSpeedShop/11-cars/reference-material/quick-change-axles/ Next up, I had in my head that those headlamps would have pinstriping and be painted, even if nothing much else above the frame is, so I went through my stash of decals just for a change of pace this evening. I was trying to find a couple of small decals with an arc to them to somewhat mirror the curve of those headers I was messing with yesterday, for some visual symmetry when the car’s viewed from above. Went through a bunch before finding a couple on the Revell kit decal sheet that did exactly that - doh! Should’ve started there ? Theyre still wet and snuggling down with the decal solution right now, but they laid down ok… And finally, I made a start on the inner rear fenders tonight. I’m sure you all know what the flat Revell kit pieces look like, but I wanted to add some detail to make them look more like a real set: Nothing for it but to get the files out and start carving away material… Excuse the roughness, they’re not finished yet, but I didn’t achieve much this evening and they were an extra thing to show for my time at the bench ? Thanks for looking, more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

One of my ‘grails’ - I always wanted one of those! I’ve been planning a King T replica build using more easily available stuff for a while tho - I saw a video recently of a Hot Wheels collector who owns the 1:1

Really impressive (and clean) work Bob! I’m enjoying watching this one come together

I remember that race being a kind of a dog, with the rain (flood) delays, multiple stoppages and people getting wedged under the barriers…EXCEPT for SVG’s performance. I was on the edge of my seat at the final restart, and that’s rarely the case. Great start so far - I’ll be following!

That graphic is really useful - thank you for posting!

That’s a perfect little roadster - love it! Nice work!

Thanks Greg! A little more progress today…I spent a couple of hours scratchbuilding some headers, and then didn’t like them as much as the parts-box (AMT?) ones I found originally. I liked the sweeping arc on these, although they sat a little too low so I sliced them up and removed a few scale inches to get the look I wanted: Next thing that I wasn’t super looking forward to was chopping the windshield frame - I should’ve done it before I painted the body, but I really wanted to get the body painted ?. Got it snuggled in there nice, just a little loose with no paint so it should snap right in after some primer and color: Just need to clean up the edges once the glue has set overnight and I can paint and chrome it. Reshaped the kit glass to fit, so that’s a chore I wasn’t looking forward to handled… Also shot a BUNCH of parts today - basically everything but the interior tub and the engine. The frame will be black and everything attaching to it will be either black or some kind of metal tone - the Createx black base is a really good undercoat for Vallejo metal colors in particular so it made sense to just shoot everything with that now. Here’s a couple of pieces shot with Vallejo aluminum - the black undercoat gives a nice reflectivity: And that’s about it for this weekend - ran out of time, but I’m really excited to shoot a bunch of metal-looking stuff this coming week and then start figuring out the engine. Thanks for looking, more soon, soon as I’ve done more!