FactoryStock54

I have a dedicated workshop for model building, a converted bedroom, on the second floor of my house. I built a large main workbench, L-shaped, out of an old fouton bed frame with eight 2 x 2 legs attached. Also built two large work tables for the painting area. Pretty nice set-up, though since my divorce I haven't spent as much time building as I used to. Maybe it was a form of escape and now I don't need it as much? Who knows.

Wow! I LOVE the canted B pillars and the 51 rear quarter panels! Great job! All the more impressive as it was done with the AMT kit!

Hey! Soup-making is one of my favorite winter-time activities. (We're smack-dab in the middle of a dangerous ice storm right now and there's nothing moving outside). I recently cooked up a pot of Cock-a-leekie soup (chicken/beef/leeks/barley in a my homemade chicken stock); perfect for weather like this! Eat it piping hot with a hunk of homemade wheat bread. . .yum!

Hey, that is VERY cool! Nice save!

The 33 Chrysler!

And here is the AMT 51 Chevy Fleetline, a photogenic little beauty in Tamiya TS Metallic Blue. I LOVE this body style (a hand-me-down from the 49 Cadillac); it looks good from every angle! While I don't think Chevy ever offered this particular shade of blue in 51, as a kid I remember playing with one of those Japanese friction motor toy cars (the ones from the 50s where if you took the body off the frame you could see the Japanese label from a re-cycled can of fruit on the inside!) intended to be a replica of the 49 Caddy and just fell in love with the color. Built this one out of the box. Added spark plug wires in the engine compartment. Airbrushed the two-tone gray interior (Polly Scale colors) with Bare Metal Foil on the door handles and window cranks. Exterior trim on this car took a LOT of foiling (seemed like even more than the 59 Cadillac!).

Thanks! Next up is the Lindberg 53 Ford Crestline Victoria. Paint is Tamiya TS Dark Blue (slightly lightened and shot through the airbrush) over TS French Blue straight from the rattle can; buffed out with Micromesh and sealed with a couple hand-brushed coats of Future. Interior is hand-brushed Polly Scale Great Northern Big Sky Blue. This build is out of the box all the way. I opted to leave off the connie kit as I feel it spoils the nice clean lines on this car. I may build the convertible some day with the connie kit and wire wheels.

Thanks guys! Yeah, that Studebaker is one honey of a kit! I'd sure love to see more Studes in kit form--a 48 coupe, a 51 Commander, a 56-58 Golden Hawk, 59 Lark, 62 Hawk Gran Tourismo. . .even some pre-war cars (36 Dictator maybe?) including a few trucks; the list is endless! I understood that Ertl had been planning on issuing a '50 Commander before the firm was sold to R/C, but that seems to have gone the same way as the '49 Olds they'd announced. . .oh well. Thanks again for the good words. I'll post a few more builds here in the near future.

AMT 57 T-Bird. Tamiya TS Light Metallic Blue from a rattle can. 2-tone blue interior from Polly Scale colors airbrushed with my Badger 360.

A few shots of the Monogram '53 Bel Air. Tires from the Monogram '53 Corvette. I did a bit of detail work in the engine compartment (PSF 6-cylinder distributor, heater hoses, fuel line, throttle linkage, more-accurate 6-volt battery etc.). Paint was Polly Scale US Gunship Gray and PS Reefer White.

Next up, the AMT 53 Studebaker Starliner Coupe--one of my all-time favorites! This one was finished a month or so ago. Paint is Tamiya TS Coral Blue. Tires sourced from the Lindberg 53 Crestline Victoria.

First up is the AMT 56 Ford Crown Victoria, completed a couple years ago. I borrowed a set of white wall tires from the Monogram 59 Cadillac. Paint is Polly Scale US Navy Sea Blue and Reefer White, buffed out with Micromesh. More to follow shortly

One of Pyro's very first model car kits. Pretty bad by today's standards, but where else ya gonna find a 48 Lincoln? The scale seems a tad smaller than 1/25. . .maybe more like 1/28? Some of the parts, like the steering wheel are definitely under-sized. I've built one--not very well--and have two in the stash. The main issue as I see it is trying to keep the front fenders/clip properly aligned. Any ideas on how to do this would be greatly appreciated! I've been collecting parts from various kits as I plan to kit-bash a proper-looking flat-head V-12 (splicing heads from a couple AMT 40 Ford flatheads; carb/air cleaner from the AMT 49 Merc, with scratch-built exhaust manifold from aluminum tube). Also a more to-scale steering wheel (from Monogram 48 Ford), and will probably de-chrome the dashboard; drill out the headlight bezels and try to do something about the over-thick molding on the grille. Wondering if the wide white sidewalls from the Welly 1/28 '53 Eldorado would work with this? Interior is very visible, so may add flocking as well as some door handles/window cranks from the spares box. . .the whole 9 yards.

What a fantastic build! Great scratch-building/bashing! Excellent dio/background too!

Oh great! Rub it in why don'tcha? But seriously, excellent work on those Avantis (I love all things Stude). The one I was working on most recently was supposed to be metallic green (Tamiya TS color, looked sweet!) but that didn't work out so I ended up using Tamiya TS Silver Leaf which also looked great, except for exposing every last flaw on the surface of the model (which I hadn't noticed!) I guess I have enough parts to go back and try and finish it, but right now I'm so gol-durned frustrated that I think I need to just box it up and put it away for a couple more years. I think I can safely say that I HATE just about every single one of the old AMT kits with opening doors, though this is the only one that's managed to fluster me so much; I've done good work on the '56 Crown Vic, the '57 Fairlane and the '58 Impala, but each one has some weird little flaw related to the body warping out of alignment due to those stinkin' opening doors! Maybe I just need an extended vacaction!

In "Gone in 60 Seconds" it's Eleanor, the 67 Shelby Mustang GT that our intrepid car-thief/hero can never get away with clean. . . But what about a model you try and try and try to get right and just can't? My model unicorn is the old AMT 63 Avanti. . .no matter how close I come I just can't get it. It's the one kit in my adult life that drives me up the wall (often because of the tricky glass). I despair of ever bringing one to a satisfactory conclusion. I have a well-done chasis with a beautifully wired engine and have painted/foiled several bodies as well as I've ever done anything. . .but there's just something that evades me about this kit! What are some of your model unicorns?

Thanks for the links!

Wow! Great paint job--fantastic two-tone fade! Just wondering; how many '53 Studes got the funny car treatment in real life? I ask this because the factory stock bodies were notoriously flimsy with no real sub-frame support (a PITA for restorers). I suppose if one started by welding the doors shut that'd be a start; but it seems like there'd be a lot of potential for twisting and warping at drag-track speeds. Anybody got photos? Anyway, very fine work on that great old chestnut!

Fantastic work! Gotta agree; I like the blue convertible the best, but the others are great too! Those 57-58 Plymouths had the best-proportioned fins of any car from that decade, the epitome of Exner's magnificent "forward look." Was the convertible a resin body, or did you convert the AMT/Ertl/RC body? Guess I wasn't aware of a convertible being kitted . . . Whichever, it's absolutely gorgeous!

Why do I build model cars? Well, I've loved cars, especially "old" cars for as long as I can remember. Now, at 50, a lot of my modeling choices come from a very nostalgic place, a way of holding on to a pleasant piece of the past. Also, I've always had a severe visual impairment which prevents me from driving, so building models is a way of sublimating my unrequited car-craziness, a way of getting around the whole "loving the thing you can never truly have" thing. Building and displaying models of the cars I love is as close as I'll ever get to them.

LOVE those fat-fendered beauties! Great job on the '48!

I LIKE IT!!!!! Great job!

Fantastic work on the engine compartment and interior (the CD in the stereo is a nice touch!).

Super fine build! Nice clean work on that Motor City Flathead. Excellent use of the old gray matter for the wheels. Great color choice too! I'm thinking one of my next projects will be a body-off resto of the ProModeler '48 convertible I built about 10 years ago; your build is inspiring!

Great looking Impala--I always like the look of the connie kit on those late 50s Chevys! Fantastic paint and detail work!