noname

I saw Lamborghini and thought, "oh no not another exotic!". I'm glad I looked further because that is a nice looking car and you are doing a killer job so far. I love the vintage European exotics. Just like every other car, the old ones have sooo much more character to me. How old is this kit?

That is a nice and unusual subject matter. And of course you always do a good job. I bet that looks good sitting on your shelf.

Great weathering.

Yes they do come with the kit ( Maverick ). I will probably just use them. I don't think most people would know the difference and would look that closely at them. When I do my Belvedere I think I'll use aftermarket wheels anyway.

Thanks for reminding me Whale. The lugnuts were silver but I removed some of the paint while cleaning up the wash. Maybe a darker colour would be better. I didn't know if the same treatment was necessary for the rear as they were black, but I think I'll take your advice. I certainly don't mind you giving advice. I strive for realism. I may repaint those front wheels anyway. I'm thinking I'm not going to like the cream so much and may pick up more white or more Tamiya white primer so I can paint the car orange. Did you notice the slots in the front wheels are too long? You'd know better than I but the 1:1 photos I have show the slots in the outer part of the rim face to be smaller.

Thanks guys, it's specially good when someone in the 1:1 business says your doing it right! Here are the finnished wheels. I was planning on painting this thing white but realized I didn't have near enough to do the car. I do however have some cream colour as can be seen on the front rims. This seems to be quite close to the factory "Ivory " colour. I might put the striping from the Maverick kit on it as well. Not sure yet.

Got that big fat Hemi pretty much done!

Pretty cool subject. Wheels look great!

Thanks Texrat and Whale, I appreciate the comments. I haven't had a chance to work on it much lately but hopefully will get something done by the weekend. I am working on the engine now. Tried to Alclad chrome the valve covers but it didn't work out. Might try again but I usually don't have alot of luck as my compressor hasn't any pressure regualter. I need to get the fittings to gear up my other compressor. I've seen some Hemis with the valve covers ornge like the block. I kinda dig that.

Well I went ahead and added the roof supports or whatever you call them. They aren't exact but I'd need some really fine half round styrene stock to do it right. Plus the inside of the roof on this kit isn't exactly realistic. Quite a difference if you look at some 1:1 photos. I think what I've done will do the trick. Specially when it's painted and finished. The chasis is all together and painted flat black. I'll put up a pic. after I weather it. I'll also wait to show the engine after it is finished. It's getting there slowwly but surely.

Here is a number of little things I often do for most of my builds. It may be hard to see some of the objects in the picture below but I thought it would be easier to post them in one picture. The seats have had the seams sanded and filled where necessary, header collecters and flanges were thinned, fan blades and belt were thinned as well, all the molded in wiring in the firewall was cleaned up, valve covers drilled for plug wires, steering wheel was cleaned and thinned (horn ring), and I added a little detail to the front of the intake manifold. The heads already had some detail so I left those alone. All ready for priming as well as the chassis. I left off the sway bar as that usually is not necessary for drag racing. This kit doesn't come with front shocks and it probably does not need any as they would just be covered by the front wheel. I like to add detail to my models but sometimes things that would be unseen are left undetailed. I had to rebuild the engine mounts but decided not to detail them because they would end up be almost invisible with the engine and headers installed. Why bother eh? I may add a few bolts to the chassis for added detail but will try to use paint to make it pop. I enjoy detailing chassis' but find more and more that this is an area of the car that will barely ever be seen. So I will spend more time on the engine.

Wow, you really turned that one around!!!

Thanks Marlowe, very kind of you to say. I think I'll take your advice on the decals. I find these things have a way of always turning into more work than originally thought. Kind of like a 1:1 car. Speaking of which, I noticed the edge along the side of the roof on this body is a bit sharp. After looking at some 1:1 pics., I think I'll give it a sanding to tone it down a little. I've also noticed the door jams are wrong on the iterior. I won't mess with that though because it is pretty much covered up with the roll bar and seats. Too bad Revell wouldn't invest some time into a nicely detailed 62-65 Dodge/Plymouth. Wouldn't that be nice?

I put the interior in for a mock up and the panels do look better. I'm still messing with them a bit. Just trying to decide if I should make the effort to make the roof look stripped like it's suppose to be. Of course nobody will likely ever see it. Whale, I was going to go with orange with white lettering but realized I don't have any white lettering. Not too many people have an Alps printer. It could be done on white decal paper but then each letter would have to be carefully trimmed. So maybe I'll try a two tone scheme. Never did that before. Maybe orange and white. Then I can put the letters on the white section. They could be just about any colour darker than white. Thinking like the Golden Commando here. Or maybe I could use the black decals that come with the kit (Maverick) but paint it another colour other than yellow. Lots of possibilities!

Here is my fourth and final try. Still doesn't like ideal to me but I've wasted enough time on this. I'll try to clean it up a bit more and add a little more detail to the surface maybe. I don't think it will look soo bad after everything is together. The body is coming along. Just a few ghost lines to clean up. Not sure if it needs more sanding and filling or if it is just peaking through the primer. I should have put some Future over it before priming I guess.

Marlowe that looks great. Not everyone has a die cast like that! Thanks for the comments guys. I've already started to make another set of inner panels. Maybe I'll leave these ones a little wider to make room for the side glass. I find making these shapes difficult. Maybe I should change the blade in my hobby knife. I usually sqeeze out what I can. You know there is people all over the world as we speak who do not even have a #11 blade!!

I spent the last few days trying to solve a problem. I noticed the inner door skins had pieces out of the top edge to make room for the glass. Didn't look right so I filled them in. Then I noticed it looked unrealistic having the thicker inner doors with thin window posts. So I have been trying to figure out how to thicken the posts. Also, these cars often had the interior taken off the posts and roof itself. After realising the glass in these kits aren't very good, I decided I'd make my own windows. So the plan is to put the glass in after the body is painted and sandwich the glass in with the pieces I made below. What do you guys think? Here is the piece inside the car. They need a little cleaning and the centre post will need to be done separately. I don't know, doesn't look quite right to me.

I don't mind Tubbs. But if you don't mind me pointing something out, if you put big enough tires on the car to fill the wheel tubbs your car won't be period correct. Maybe this is suppose to be a contemporary car with a nostalgic AWB look. If that is the case than it doesn't really matter. Anything goes!

Oooopssss!..Sorry everyone, I'm such a dork!!! I had started a 66 GTO at the same time and that is in fact a chopped GTO chassis. Thanks for pointing that out Whale. Next time I'll check more closely before I throw a photo on here. Here is the proper chassis. Dave, this is my first attempt. It's not that hard. The problem I had was that my cuts weren't quite square so I had to fill in some gaps with styrene. Of course you'll have to use putty regardless. The GTO was a little harder because of the side trim. Glueing the chassis back together can be a chore too but definately doable. I also ran into trouble with the GTO chassis after I realized my tires wouldn't fit. So I ended up cutting off the backhalf. Trying to decide wether to rebuild the back or scratch the whole chassis. Scratchbuilding a tube chassis would be more likely but keeping the stock front chassis and suspension would give it that homemade look. I also have an AWB 64 Belvedere and a 66 Nova planned for the future.

Nope, that is the proper chassis. Hopefully I'll be able to update this soon. Thanks for your interest guys.

Scoop looks proper.

Thats neat. I would be tempted to leave as is as well. The hood looks good. I'm working on a 55 Nomad right now myself (along with three or four other projects!).

I've been working on this one off and on for a couple weeks ( along with a few others ) and decided I'd share some wip pics along the way. First I did the necessary body work. Here is a pic of the wheel opeings moved forward and the chassis after a piece was taken out. Of course you'll notice the gas tank removal. And here is a photo of the interior with newly constructed wheel wells. Thanks for looking.

Amazing job. It does look like real. The weathering plays a major role in my opinion.

Good job. Nice to see a Volvo for a change.