The Modeling Hermit

You're not far off in your assessment. The car and foreground was photographed on a diorama and then photo-shopped into a picture that I took of an edge of my town.

The 53 Hudson is a very enjoyable and rather easy kit to build, and results in a quite presentable miniature.

I recently went through my stored models to inventory and photograph them. This is one of those; a 65 GTO convertible. It's the only photo I have of it and it is now buried back in storage.

You have amazing attention to detail.

I worked in a Chrysler Plymouth dealer when these were new. I loved these cars and wish that re could see a reissue of this model. They were very enjoyable to build, and I think mostly that's due to the fact that there weren't a ton of parts. You did a beautiful job on your build.

fantastic artistry there

This is an abandoned 32 Chrysler that's slowly being engulfed by its surroundings.

That is fabulous.

Thanks for sharing the build shots. I was starting to think that you had a shrink ray hidden someplace. LOL

I've shown this one on here before, but it's way down and buried. This is an update as I now have it permanently paired with a trailer. My wife recently came home with this "chrome" tank trailer, and my first thought was that it would look perfect mated to the WS. The "Star" has had the chassis extended as well as the sleeper, giving it a more western states look. It has also been changed to dual exhaust and the stacks from the Ford L series were kitbashed and installed. It also has a modified sunvisor as well as other touches to give it some class.

This isn't even my type of car and I'm loving it!!! You have excellent attention to detail. In the mid seventies, I had a neighbor turn a near exact copy of this into a dirt track stock car. Since he's about my age, he could probably be retiring off what it would cost to replace the car now.

Dave is right. There's nothing to not be happy with. It looks wonderful.

I'm not sure if I've posted this here before. If I have; forgive me. This is a Peterbilt 353 that I built a few years ago from what Revell offered as a 353. It took some hefty changes to get it more accurate, and I really owe a lot to Tim Ahlborn for his references and support.

That is an amazing rendition of the full size counterpart. I also know what you're saying about building something that's not your favorite style. I run into that with the little pony type cars, which I find boring, but will push myself to make them as perfect as possible, and have a determination to get them built. We modelers are a strange lot, but we sure do have fun. Thanks for sharing your excellent work of art.

Sorry Mike. I have so many models in a limited amount of space that I build them, get one good photo in a real world setting, and then place it in storage. I've only got room for a couple hundred cars and trucks on display at a given time, but I'm working on that.

You did a great job and nicely displayed. Wayne this is a very pleasant kit to build. I built the stock version without any difficulties.

You did a nice job on it. I remember being on a trip years ago and a patrol car was pulling somebody over. It had a sign on the hood too, but it was lit and resembled a neon sign. That would have been in the mid to late 60s.

This is a reissued promo of a 1958 Oldsmobile 98 4 door hardtop. The first car I ever owned was a green over white 58 Olds 98 4 door hardtop that I purchased along with a 48 Chevy coupe. I tried many times to get a model of it, but kept just missing them. I finally settled on a red over black example. I much prefer 2 tone cars, but the red top looked odd. I was fortunate in that it was also peeling, so I finished removing the red paint and then buffed and polished the car, as well, as adding BMF. My personal feeling is that it came out looking quite elegant, just as the real car. It's no wonder that the 58 Oldsmobile is my all time favorite car.

This is an enjoyable build. A word of caution is in order. Read the instructions very carefully. It all goes together quite well, but there are some things that we're not used to like the front and rear windows are placed on from the outside instead of the inside, which I really appreciate. The emblem decals are very well done, but some of the emblems are thick so be sure to have your decal set handy. You will need it. There is one negative on this kit that really rather puzzled me. With all the care that the company went to in making realistic headlights, some of the best examples I've seen in a kit, the tail lights are all one chrome piece. One is expected to paint in the tail lights. This is not a huge issue, and certainly not a deterrent to purchasing future kits. I was just surprised by it. Sorry, but I only have the one photo.

It looks a lot better than some of the models I take weeks to build.

I was actually quite displeased with my first rendition of this diorama, and reworked it to this.

Perfection to the maximum, and then a couple steps even beyond that.

I've had this JoHan 1956 Pontiac Starchief 4 door hardtop around for a few years, and tried it in some other dioramas, but I've now reworked it in Photoshop. The photo was taken with my old Olympus camera with settings that I wouldn't use now. The diorama base is the generic one that I use for many, if not most of my photos. The photo seen here was accomplished by selecting a sky background, overlaid with a Mountain scene of mirror image sections which were then editied to blur the mirror imaging. Another layer of foreground was added before finishing with the actual car diorama.

This is a JoHan 56 Oldsmobile that I recently completed. I placed it on a generic diorama base with a female figure, and took the photograph. I used an Fstop of f/22 at 8 seconds with an ISO at 800. The distance from the car was 28 inches. After the photo was taken it was edited for clarity in Lightroom. I then went to Photoshop and chose an interesting sky, followed by an appropriate scene, after-which I blended in the car with its diorama. That was followed by the addition of the arch to frame the scene. The female figure was dressed in pants which clashed with the setting, so I edited in a more formal skirt for her. My goal was to have a photo that would be reminiscent of the car ads of the period.

He sure has been an inspiration to me.