Terry Jessee

Monogram Deuce roadsters. The brown one survived a cleaning woman at Sunnyvale years ago. I had perched a tray of models atop a hotel cabinet. She swept the top of the cabinet while dusting and knocked all the models onto the floor. A friend and I managed to get the Deuce back together in time for the NNL, but in spite of our best search we never could find the top braces. So I've left it that way. The paint job was a happy accident. The yellow plastic reacted with the primer coat to give the paint a mottled appearance. So I left that, too. Eventually, the model wound up on the cover of my last book. The black roadster appeared in that book, too, in the chapter on painting.

The late Chris Etzel was one of the best pattern-makers in the business. He used those patterns to create some wonderful race cars. This Kurtis Midget has resin, white metal, nickel, and photo-etched parts. The markings--according to the instruction sheet--are for an Offy fuelie that was based out of Tennessee in the mid-50s. I've included a shot of the model sitting next to a '53 Ford pickup to give you an idea of relative size. The Midget is in 1/24 scale, so would be even smaller in 1/25 scale. This pre-dates Revell's Midget kit by about 15 years. The ultra-thick windshield is actually from the Revell kit. The Etzel kit came with a vacuformed windshield but it seemed kind of small.

Years ago I built an AMT '50 Chevy snap fast pickup and had a good time with it. I gave it to a friend later, but thought it'd be fun to do another. The first shot is the original kit with just some decals on it and a set of stakes from somewhere. Second shot is the same model once completed. The third and fourth photos are the new one. Both old and new were painted with red automotive primer, then wet-sanded to bring out the original orange plastic color. They they were clear-coated with clear flat. Some areas have been glossed to break up the surface. Forgot to add the taillights before I took the photo of the new truck, but have added them since. Fun kits to play with. Wish AMT would bring them back.

It was a complete kit. All resin except for "glass."

Cool idea, and really well done.

Yes.

This is a resin kit from LeMans Miniatures in 1/24 scale. The car ran at LeMans in 1970 with Vic Elford and Kurt Ahrens driving. Somebody missed a shift and over-revved the engine on the second day, and the car was retired. Great profile...

I built the box art model for that kit. Had a resin pickup box from All-American Models on the Sportside chassis. Actually, mine was supposed to be a prototype display for trade shows, but they used it for the box art with some pretty heavy retouching--note the mirrors, interior, and wheels.

No, they're from a Revell Honda Civic. They looked like the mirrors in the photos of the truck. And the hood seems to fit fine.

This is a resin and photo etch model from an Italian firm called Automodelli. It's a curbside. Near as I can find, they're no longer producing kits. This is 1/24 scale. The model is a Ferrari Berlinetta (coupe) as raced at LeMans in 1950. It was driven by Yvonne Simon and Michel Haig. Think it DNF'd.

In 1990, I started a campaign to get Monogram to do a Chevy Caprice police car. I was writing for another magazine at the time, and encouraged readers to write in and get a printed copy of the letter to Monogram instead of just signing a petition. We were working on the boxy '90 because we didn't know about the Shamu the Whale version that was coming. Bob Johnson button-holed me at Salt Lake during GSLMCC later that year and told me that they were planning that kit, but it would be the new Caprice. He didn't explain further. Revell and Monogram had merged by then, so the kit was released by Revell as a snap kit, but a really nice one. And so we got the Caprice police car and all of its variations. Here are a few (one in progress--a modified Impala). The black Florida patrol car (with the incorrect color separation) was built from an orange plastic test shot with no plating. All the chrome parts were foiled.

Kind of an interesting story behind this. Porsche discovered that the rules for Formula Three did not prohibit cars with bodywork that enclosed the wheels. Consequently, they took an RSK and converted it to "center steer." They entered the car at the F3 race in Rheims in 1958 and won the race with Jean Behra at the wheel. Next year, the rules were changed to ensure that all cars were open-wheel. I started with a Fisher Pattern and Model RSK kit in 1/24 scale. The kit came with rear wheel spats and big fins, which I removed. The rest was built out of the box. Numbers are dry-transfers. Neat little kit.

Bilek (Ukraine) reissue of the Peerless Max/Italeri Dodge WC-54. This version came with a bunch of resin accessories and new decals.

This is the Motor City Resin Casters '73 Chevy El Camino. It's loosely based on a truck from a TV show I've never seen. Found photos of the truck on Barrett-Jackson's website after the truck went up for sale a few years ago. Chassis components are from the AMT '69 Olds 442. The engine is from MPC's '84 Chevy pickup.

This is the Pegasus UFO kit with modifications...

In the Longmire books, Walt Longmire describes his sheriff's truck that he calls the Silver Bullet. For some reason I always thought it was a Dodge. But I got in touch with Craig Johnson and asked him about it. He said that Silver Bullet was a Ford F-250 4X4 Extended Cab. This AMT '97 kit was as close as I could get to what I wanted, so I used it. Door decals were done by a friend, and I did the lettering on my printer. (Need to redo the little stuff. Looks like the clear coat didn't agree with the ink.) And unlike the Bronco in the TV series, the Silver Bullet wears a light bar. Got a ways to go yet, but this is where I am so far.

This would have been a contemporary of the cars used in "Mad Max," so I did mine that way.This is a Cavalier Models resin kit. It was used for a story on masking multi-color paint jobs 20 years ago.

Beautiful.

Both of these are AMT snap kits.

I had fun with paint in years past. These are all variations on AMT's Extended Cab snap kits. I painted the black one, then gave to Rick Hanmore who finished it. Jim Wilfong had it for a long time and I managed to talk him out of a year ago. These were all for magazine and book How-tos.

It comes with the Chevy 3500 HD cab from Motor City Resin Casters. Be aware that Jeff is a one-man operation swamped to the gills and does take some time to get product out. But product is excellent.

Frame is a combination of a Modelhaus front (to make a more detailed Extended Cab chassis) and the rear from a 454SS.

Yeah, I know the muffler and catalytic converter are reversed. Terry

The red and yellow cars were featured in "Hot Rod Model Kits" (2000). The blue one in the first photo was borrowed, so I built a replacement recently so I could have all three together again.