Mr. Metallic

I'm going to push the "deadline" back until March 1, 2022 to try to drive more participation

Welcome to Part IV of the "Life Cereal Faux-vivor Fake Out" saga- The Orange Little Deuce This build is pretty much the inspiration behind this entire series. Over the last couple years I've been on a mission to collect the Tom Daniels versions of these Monogram Hot Rod kits, The Boss-A-Bone, the Son of Ford, and SweeTee. I managed to collect 3 builtup Son of Fords in various states of completeness. Between all of them I had parts to build one SOF, a near complete one, and the third would basically just be Orange plastic parts. That last bit is what got the wheels turning as the carcass sat there on my bench, what could I do with those parts? I love the Little Deuce, but the entire kit is molded in white, unlike the three other kits in the series that came molded in white and then a complementary color for the body parts. What if Monogram had used that formula on the Little Deuce? So, I pulled the LD specific parts together with the orange parts from the SOF, and you get what you see here. Fortunately on this one there wasn't a lot of repairs to make. I replaced a few of the white parts from a newer issue kit. After a gentle polishing of all the orange parts, and a few touches of flat black and Molotow, the assembly was pretty straightforward. I did take the opportunity to fill in the backside of the mufflers since it's an unattractive item on an otherwise sterling kit. For the last time, to borrow a phrase from a popular Marvel TV show and comic series, What If... Monogram had released a third version of this kit before they changed the tooling? This is what it could have looked like. For more pics and details follow the link, and thanks for looking. https://public.fotki.com/crstan/finished_models_by_me/survivors/life-cereal-faux-vi/creamsicle-little-deuce/ And, here it is posed with another what if, the molded in black Little Deuce. And here's links to the previous 3 entries in this series

Apparently this part is required

Well, that's good. i can stop looking for one of those gen AMT Vette kits with that windscreen and options. Curious what the experts will tell us this kit is based on and even curious-er to see what actually ends up in the box. edit- this is not the kit I thought it was. i was thinking of the later AMT annuals apparently.

Exactly. At least with the 40% coupon they would get money out of me for SOMETHING if I walked in the store and couldn't find a kit I wanted. Display case, can of paint, supplies, gift for someone else. now they get ZERO dollars from me if they don't have a kit I want. And the way their variety has been stagnant the last year I'm struggling to even find a kit to buy.

Stay tuned. There may be a development coming up on this front, but in resin.

Each store does their own clearance, so not everyone will have that same $7 price. Some stores are even just getting their initial pallet in. But I appreciate the heads up because I will be searching the clearance section more diligently now

Thank you. That's straight out of the origninal issue Monogram Woody Wagon. A very similar setup can be found in the Blue Bandito kit offered a few years ago (which is actually a retooling to bring that kit back to it's original Blue Beetle version)

Thank you. I don't think I can take credit for the box-as-part-of-frame idea, think I saw it on a 1:1 hot rod at some point. Seeing that it's been almost two years since i did much with it, I had forgotten how far along it actually was. i need to get back to it.

No, that is the resin hardtop part from the Replicas and Miniatures of Md's Duvall windshield conversion body.

Very nicely done. That stance is just killer, and the paintjob is stunning.

I think the confusion comes from the fact that when Atlantis showcased all those upcoming new projects at the IPMS Nationals over the Summer they said the new parts pack based kits would include two engines. Since this kit was announced well before those , and is essentially a replica of an actual vehicle, I guess they elected to not add another engine. I was a little surprised too when i saw it only had the Chevy, but the more I thought about it it's not that surprising to me. Super stoked to get this kit in my hands. Soooo many extra parts!!!

Is it me or is there a "deep" groove in the sidewall that would facilitate easy painting of a whitewall on there? if so, smart move for them as this tire will certainly be used in more kits than this one and the whitewall addition would be beneficial.

Welcome to Part III of the "Life Cereal Faux-vivor Fake Out"- a Yellow Woody Wagon This one was fairly straightforward. I swapped parts from an original issue (molded in red) Woody Wagon built-up with the molded in yellow parts from a 70's edition of the Monogram 30 Woody kit. I did use the wood parts from the original issue as well because they skewed more "tan" in color, where later issues of the kit all skewed a little more "orange" (except the most recent release which is all molded in white) One detail I did add to help sell the "phantom third release" theme of this build was to add the front license plate to the headlight bar of the later issue. This was delicate surgery due to the fragile nature of the parts involved. After polishing the yellow plastic and making minor repairs to the parts rescued from the original issue built-up it was pretty much straight assembly on this one, other than adding a few flat black and Molotow accents. To borrow a phrase from a popular Marvel TV show and comic series, What If... Monogram had released a third version of this kit before they changed the tooling? This is what it could have looked like. For more pics and details follow the link, and thanks for looking. https://public.fotki.com/crstan/finished_models_by_me/survivors/life-cereal-faux-vi/yellow-woody-wagon/ And here are links to the previous two builds in this series

Very clean build of a "tricky" kit. The little details you added like flocking really make this pop.

It's only plastic, that's my motto. I understand not wanting to "ruin" a new kit, but if you want something different you have to push yourself sometimes. It's not a rare kit, so i bet if you mess something up someone might have a spare for you. That being said, the last mockup with the Foose wheels looks good, but probably could be lower. Of course you could just make it a curbside if you want to use those pro street tires. Or if you want to use the Foose wheels use the old trick and just cut the tops off to let it sit lower.

Sooo, you have one in your hands? What is the second engine? You're teasing us. EDIT- never mind, I saw your post over in the Atlantis 2021 thread. So, no second engine? I guess the two engine deal is just for the upcoming "parts pack" dragsters that aren't replicas of an actual vehicle. So stoked to get this kit in my hands. it may be a "clear the bench" build

This build is stunning. Stance, paint color and wheel/tire choice are spot on. Well done!

this is looking very cool. Since you mentioned the frame/integrated bed idea I'll show you one I was working on awhile back. I cut my own frame from thick styrene sheet so it had the exact drop I wanted in the rear, while maintaining the swoopy feel of a stock 32 frame. if you notice the front of the frame loos like a 32, but is actual slightly longer and more arced to provide a heavy drop up front. So, out back you can see how i essentially made the rear frame rails taller to act as bed sides. And here you can see how I intended to finish out the bed. The gas tank is set on rails, to almost simulate a bed floor. Just for fun, here's the final mockup I did on this project. Can't believe it's been almost 2 years since I touched it.

That may be your best approach for that. Maybe someone else will have an idea

I assume you mean Molotow? if so, that is actually an ink, and is very thin, so sadly it doesn't surprise me that it leeched under the tape. Since you're stripping it again, when you get it out take a little time to go around the trim with the reverse side of an x-acto blade. Scribe a shallow notch around the trim so after paint there is something to guide the blade when you do BMF. Another method for BMF is to apply masking tape next to the trim and use that as the guide for your blade. once you make your cut in the BMF peel up the tape and it should take the extra BMF with it.

Since this kit is very imminently hitting the shelves I thought I'd bump the thread. Also, anyone out there get them in their hands yet (like industry insiders) that can confirm some of the details, like which second engine did they include, and what the new tooled tires look like? No conjecture, just actual box contents please.

Went there yesterday for the first time in months. Not much has changed. There are a few items on the shelf I would like to get eventually with the discount, just don't have the scratch at the moment. They are "would like to have at the right price" kits, not must haves. '86 Olds C6R Ford GT

There is no re-patriation possible. They take the tooling hostage. If you want to keep producing your product you must either produce it there (China) with that tooling, or create your tooling from scratch again. With the added caveat that if you decide to recreate that tooling you jeopardize future production of other things they have the tooling for as well. When you're dealing with the government of the country with one of the largest economies in the world that has been put in the position to have a vast majority of the entire worlds production in their tentacles, then they set the rules, legalities be damned. Companies are learning their lesson the hard way that even though once China gleamed as a beacon of cheap labor and cost, the Chinese got tired of being exploited and decided to fight back. They essentially hold everyone hostage with their blatant disregard for copyright, intellectual property and basic law of other countries. No matter how generally accepted those laws are by the rest of the world.

In case you missed it, this is part of a set of models I built based on the 4 classic Monogram Hot Rod kits from the early 60's portraying phantom plastic colors not offered by Monogram for these kits. This particular one is the Little T: Black Tuxedo, based on the Little T kit. This one was based on the 80's release of this tooling, molded in black with "gold" plated parts. I also used the Little T specific parts from a couple trashed out Little T builtups. The most difficult part for this build was finding a usable interior. While the interior from newer issues is similar, there are details that many would notice instantly. In order to keep up the ruse that this was a true survivor I HAD to use an original issue interior. The two builtups I had, the interior was hopelessly glued into the body. After searching for some time I decided to sacrifice the original issue body in order to get the original issue interior tub out of it. To do this I cut away the body, just below the lip of the interior. This made the lip very thin and fragile. To make matters worse, the top had been glued to the interior, resulting in damage to the upper surface of the lip. So, after severing and grinding away the remains of the body I then mixed up some "sprue glue" as a filler. For those not familiar, this filler is created by dissolving plastic in liquid cement to create a paste. I went with this method because I wanted to retain the appearance of bare plastic, so normal fillers wouldn't work. As a side benefit this goo, once cured, actually made the lip stronger. After some careful sanding, I had rescued that sad interior. Then it was off to restoring the other parts. For some reason, the axles are always the first thing to break on any of these Monogram hot rods. In order to use the original issue brake backing plates (which disappeared with the 70's Street T version) with a modern replacement axle I had to modify the new axle to allow the tabs on the brake to slide over them. I also had to fix the damaged lower edge of the uptop. To do this I took the opportunity chop the top a bit but removing about 2 scale inches from the lower edge. I also had to come up with a molded in white telephone, which was a prominent and quirky feature of the Little T. To the rescue came an old AMT kit from which I liberated the earpiece. After polishing all the black plastic parts it was pretty straightforward assembly, with minor details called out with flat black paint or my Molotow pen. To borrow a phrase from a popular Marvel TV show and comic series, What If... Monogram had released a third version of this kit before they changed the tooling? This is what it could have looked like. For more pics and details follow the link, and thanks for looking. https://public.fotki.com/crstan/finished_models_by_me/survivors/life-cereal-faux-vi/little-t-black-tuxe/ And here's a link to the previous build in this series that I shared