FactoryStock54

I've got a couple of those in my stash but I'm scared s***less to start them!

Looking good! I'll be very interested to see your continued progress! Absolutely LOVE those classic Jags!

Man! That is GORGEOUS! Just one beautiful Deuce from back to front!

The UPS man handed me a big box from Roll Models this afternoon; in addition to a couple sheets of Bare Metal Foil and a bottle of paint the following kits were enclosed: 2 copies of the Stephens International re-issue of the classic AMT '37 Chevy Coupe (I needed the stock hub caps from one kit for use on my Revell '39 Chevy Sedan Delivery (I'm retro-fitting the street rod kit as a factory stock; involves A LOT of kit-bashing!) and 1 each of the Revell "Good Guys" 2 in 1s; '55 Bel Air and '58 Impala. (Anybody wanna buy unstarted copies of the old and now pretty-much obsolete AMT 55 and 58 kits?)

I am a musician and composer by trade and I agree; cars and music go hand in hand! I've toyed with the idea of creating a kind of auto-juke box in which cars each have their own theme music (preferably from the year they were produced); so, say a '55 Chevy Bel Air would light up and you'd hear "Sh'boom," or "String of Pearls" for the '49 Merc or "Gimme Shelter" for a '69 Charger etc etc etc. I like listening to music when I build; classic rock seems to fit well with cars, while 20th-century classical music works well with aircraft and armor. . .

Don't think I've ever met a 49 Merc I didn't like, whether it was factory stock or custom. Yours is beautiful! Wonderful paint job; I've had great results applying Future directly over Tamiya TS and AS paints in the past as well. I am especially impressed by the great job of foiling on the trim. . .subtle and perfect!

Thanks! (Affirmation is a wonderfuol thing!) Actually, I think Lindberg got most if not all of the old Pyro molds; they re-released the 1/25 (sic. . .actually closer to 1/28) Pyro classics, Cord, Auburn and 48 Lincoln back in the late 90s , and have re-issued some of the old 1/32 Table Top Classics series as recently as 2006, though not necessarily the most interesting subjects in that line. I have four of the JoHan Mercedes Benz kits (two each of the 34 roadster and 35 coupe) and may well get to these some time this year, though I've yet to decide on whether to paint them or not. Thanks again for all the positive comments!

LMAO!!!!

Probably the Revell 1/32 '56 Ford Sunliner. While it had some very nice molded-in surface detail and a half-way commendable attempt at an engine, trying to get the sectional body pieces to line up properly (not to mention all the sanding and filling required) defeated even my legendary patience! If I wanted that much frustration on a regular basis I'd build aircraft models full time! I also have to come to the defense of the old Pyro Table Top Classics. Considering the price one paid (about 60 cents a pop back in the late 60s) they were never meant to compete with state of the art gems from JoHan or Monogram, but they offered their own particular brand of fun, and some of the subjects they did were absolutely unique (and sometimes mind-bogglingly off the wall!); what model company today in their right mind would even think about releasing a '52 Chevy wagon (!!!!!) or a '32 Plymouth FOUR DOOR SEDAN!!!!!!? I've been buying some of my old favorites on Ebay in the last few years and building them with modern methods and materials (Bare Metal Foil, Tenax, acrylic paint). With a little TLC and patience it's actually possible to come up with something approaching the proverbial silk purse from a sow's ear! Another long-term project of mine is the Lindberg (ex Pyro) '48 Lincoln Continental (which is "not quite" 1/25. . .more like 1/28). By today's standards this kit can only be described as "crude," but again, I think it will be possible to do something interesting with it given careful planning and patience. I am working on kit-bashing a presentable engine and passenger compartment as well as up-grading some of the brightwork. It ought to be quite nice when finished!

Very impressive collection! Great range of subjects (WOW!!! A DELAGE!!!! Never knew one of those had been kitted!) and interesting color choices, well executed! I have many of those same kits in my stash, including the Duesenberg Town Car and Torpedo as well as the 41 Lincoln (I seem to keep losing Ebay autions for the Bugati!) and this brings back a lot of very fond memories from growing up back in the 60s and 70s! I very much look forward to seeing your progress on these builds!

AMT/Ertl 1/25 Edsel Pacer. Used Model Car Garage PE set for the grill and badges and a Parts by Parks distributor on the engine. Turquoise paint is a custom mix of Polly Scale GN Big Sky Blue and PS Dark Green with PS Reefer White top. I didn't much like the wide white sidewalls that came with the kit as I feel they are undersized. I replaced them, unfortunately the best set I could find were a tad over-sized, but watcha gonna do? In all it took me about four years off and on to finish the model. The Ertl kit is quite good and was well worth waiting for all those years! Greatly helping the process along was the fact that there's a ton of great research material on the Edsel available for free on the web, and it was almost as much fun to learn about these cars as it was to build the model! I look forward to seeing more Edsel builds here!

Hey! Thanks for all the kind words! I've always been a huge fan of American classics, and Mr. Boyd is correct; back in the 60s and 70s these subjects were quite common. JoHan offered these beauties in addition to their stunning 34/35 Mercedes kits; Monogram had a fantastic series of classics including the 41 Lincoln Continental, the 37 Cord, the 32 Packard, 32 Cadillac and 34 Duesenberg families as well as the 31 Rolls Royce (cabriolet and phaeton) 36 and 39 Mercedes Benz and the beautiful Bugati Type 35 kits. MPC gave us the 32 Imperial and Chrysler roadster, the 28 Lincoln and the delightful 1914 Stutz Bearcat (pictures of which I will post here in the near future!). And this was only the stuff available in 1/25 or 1/24! Pyro, Airfix and MPC offered an amazing array of subjects in 1/32 scale as well! Can't imagine any model company in this day and age doing a new tool of a 20s or 30s-era luxury car, not to mention the original Cadillac of 1903 or the very first V-8 of all time; the 1914/15 Cadillac! It's a real treat to take these fine old kits and do them up with modern techniques, materials and paints. Didn't have stuff like BMF, CA, Tenax or useable acrylic paints "back in the day." Many people may not realize it but we are living in a true Golden Age of plastic modeling right now! It would be nice to see more re-issues of the great old classics; for me that would be the best of both worlds and times! Thanks again for your compliments!

Here are several more views of the Sport Phaeton including a good look at the engine compartment. Gunze Sangyo Wood Brown was used for the wood trim on the interiors. I used several different acrylic metallic paints including Polly Scale ATSF Silver (for the wheel rims), Citadel Mithril Silver (for the exhaust manifolds) and Gunze Silver (drybrushed to highlight instrument faces etc).

Lusted after these kits as a teenager back in the 70s; finally acquired a few copies of each on Ebay a couple years back and built them over the last year or so. Mostly OOB with minimal painting, I did do a little detailing here and there with a hand-brush; painting the rims, some of the plumbing in the engine compartment and the interiors; I used Polly Scale water-based acrylics, including Clear Gloss. I also used BMF for the trim on the Sport Phaeton. Easiest to build was the Town Car, hardest was the Cabriolet (why I'm not sure!); the Sport Phaeton was probably the most fun. Enjoyable builds for the most part in spite of a few very fragile parts (buying multiple copies is a must) and plastic that had become rather brittle over the decades. These kits were state of the art in their day and remain some of the most beautifully-engineered car kits of all time. They are plentiful (and cheap!) on Ebay and I highly recommend them!

Forgot one that I've been jones-ing for for a long time now: 61-63 Corvair! (Monza, Spyder or anything from the "classic" years before they went and ruined it!)

Hope this new avatar passes muster! I took the badly-out-of-focus photo on an old Kodak b&w back in the late 60s(must've been about 11 or 12). I scanned it and ran it through my editing program with a little text.

As I am the "culprit" here, let me just say that I've chosen another avatar until I can upload one of my own. Sorry for the inconvenience; it was not my intent to step on anybody's toes and I was not aware that the image was proprietary as it was "in the bank" when I signed up. I am active on the ARC/Air forums which use the same type of format, so assumed this image was "free and clear." I know better now and will get something ready to upload in the very near future. Cheers

Sweet lookin' Jag! Especially nice work with the interior upholostry. I've got this kit in my stash as well, and plan to do it in British Racing Green from a Tamiya TS rattle can, though this will probably have to wait until I get up the courage to decant the paint for use with my airbrush. Again, very nice-looking build! I look forward to seeing your continued progress.

I'll play! In no particular order of preference: '54 Chevy 210 '55 Ford Crown Victoria '53 Hudson Hornet (this would please the vintage NASCAR crowd too!) '39 Plymouth coupe or sedan '35 Ford coupe, convertible or sedan (tudor or fordor) '37 Ford fordor (factory stock) '38 Ford '34-'36 Chevy '48 Studebaker Starliner, '51 Stude Commander '59 Studebaker Lark '63 (?) Studebaker Grand Tourismo '46-'48 DeSoto '37-'40 LaSalle In general I'd love to see more two- and four-door sedans, which far outnumbered coupes and convertibles in "real life."

I love just about ANY factory-stock American car from the 30s, 40s and 50s; the era of the wide-white sidewall! I have a soft spot for Studebakers, Packards, Hudsons, Nashes and other American independents, but trying to find models of some of these can be quite challenging (and yes, I have done and will do resin).

The tool that has made the biggest difference (for the better!) in my car modeling has to be MicroMesh graduated abrasive cloths. Nothing better for bringing out a realistic high sheen! I use them wet in sequence from 1800 to 12000 and consider them absolutely essential now. Surgical scalpel; this tool is the duck's nuts for trimming Bare Metal Foil; again, don't know how I ever lived without one; makes the old X-Acto blade seem like a hack saw by comparison. Seam scraper: prep work on the model surface makes the difference between a great realistic build and an amateurish rookie one; getting those seams to disappear was always a major PITA, but no more! Microbrushes (originally developed for the dental trade) are indespensible for detailing; also great for applying CA and accelerator. Flex-i-files have been mentioned and I would agree they are a great invention! Simple things from around the house would include Q-Tips, toothpicks (round and flat) and craft ("popsickle") sticks

Well, I may be dating myself with this, but I understand that "dating yourself" is good for the prostate; I was 8, it was 1966. The first car model I remember doing was an MPC 1/32 Aston Martin DB-5 which was 75 cents at the local drugstore! Quickly returned to buy up as many of the MPC (Airfix) cars as I could afford as well as 60-cent kits from the Pyro 1/32 Table Top Classics series, then some of the old AMT and JoHan 1/25 kits (which were "pricey" at $2.25!)

Badger 360. . .don't know how I'd live without it!