Chuck Most

And here are a few shots of the finished model. NOTE- I lowered the car by re-drilling the axle holes, used the Kelsey-Hayes wheels from a '66 Park Lane, and dressed up the engine with a '66 Riv air cleaner and Lincoln valve covers from the Double T kit. Aside from that the kit is box stock. And just for fun, here it is with a '66 promo, which has been in the family since it was new. My great-uncle got it when he took delivery of his new 1:1 '66 Connie.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with AMT's '65 Convertible, and its countless reissues. But that kit actually shares no parts with this one, as AMT updated its Lincoln annuals for 1966, to reflect the subtle but extensive changes made to the 1:1 car for that model year. This kit also shares a few parts with the '66-69 Promos offered by AMT- I test-fit a few parts from a dismantled '67 promo with parts from this kit and they fit perfectly. The box top- which displays the custom building verison. The side panel, which outlines some of the kit's features and the 'custom' engine- more on that in a minute... End panel, which shows off the factory stock building version- Overall, it's exactly what you'd expect from a typical annual kit of the period- chassis has all the underside detail molded in place, interior is a tub with faint but believable side panel engraving, and there are metal axles fore and aft. One thing the old annuals always got perfect (or at least very good) was the body proportions- other than a grille insert that's just a bit too short (mostly due to the way it installs- you slip it up into the bumper/grille from underneath) and headlamps that look just a touch underscale (not to mention molded to the chromed bezels), the kit most clearly looks right. About that 'custom' engine. Unlike the familiar '65, the MEL in this kit is stock-only, but completely chrome plated. This isn't the correct engine for a '69 Continental- the MEL began being phased out in early 1968 in favor of the new 385-series (429/460) big block. While some early '68 models did have the MEL, by 1969 the 385-series was the only available engine. So to be completely correct you'd need to rob the engine from a Revell '70 Torino and make a few minor detail changes, as well as graft the automatic from the Lincoln onto the 385, as Lincolns were not available with manual transmissions in 1969. That being said, the engine in this kit is a very good representation of a 462 MEL, and though it does have a hole in the block for the metal axle, it isn't the huge notch you're accustomed to seeing and is easily filled in. I believe at one point Missing Link sold a resin repop of this engine, which is a much better looking (and somwhat more detailed) engine than the one in the '65 reissues, and would be a good swap into one of those. Other highlights are the printed narrow whites, the decals (which still worked, 43 years later) which are printed on one big sheet of carrier film, so you'll need to trim around the decals otherwise you'll have a LOT of visible carrier film when you apply them, and I have to say I really dig that '69 vintage AMT box art! This was the last Lincoln kit produced by AMT (as an annual or otherwise), and I kind of wonder if the tooling for it still exists. The '65 tooling obviously survives- it was last reissued about five years ago. This kit, on the other hand, hasn't resurfaced since the year of its introduction. If it does I hope that Round 2 sees fit to bring it back- bonus points if they tool up a correct 385-series engine with automatic. EXTRA bonus points if they do that and still include the very nice MEL.

So much for my cunning plan to use an original '75 kit grille on the '76 reissue...

Rob... it is said that a handful of those were built for Oldsmobile's own use, but they were never made available to the general public. There is some dispute to that story, and most of the Olds experts say that the ones you'll see at car shows nowadays are all home-made conversions. But there does seem to be some scattered bits of evidence that Olds made a little over a half-dozen of them. You'll notice the car in the photo you posted has the Olds one-piece glass and trim. Some people insist that the Olds-built vehicles had the standard Chevrolet delivery body with the two-piece split windshield and no quarter panel trim. Either way, nobody can seem to produce a period photograph of one of these animals to prove or disprove that either way. And yes, I am planning on trying out an Olds SD once this kit hits the shelves.

Count on that. A '53 F-600 model project has been brewing in the back of my mind for quite some time. I'm working getting a 1:1 '45 Ford 1-1/2 ton truck, if I get really ambitious I might even try doing that in 1:25.

Another thing I'm wondering... could it be possible that the heaver-duty trucks also had a slightly taller fender than an F-100? I ask this because it seems that the heavier trucks sat just a little bit higher off the frame. I don't have a half-ton '53-56 Effie to compare against the F-600s. I'm not sure- I seem to remember reading that some shady swap-meet vendors would try to pass off the heavier-duty truck fenders as F-100 units, and they would physically fit the F-100s.

I carved the horns out of a thick chunk of sprue from an old Ertl semi tractor kit. Then for the base, I slipped a piece of square Plastruct over them, and filed the tops so they'd look more rounded. After that I just bent and nudged the ends so they'd resemble horns.

Just re-read Stephen King's 'From A Buick 8'- which upon revisiting does 'feel' a bit more like 'The Green Mile' than 'Christine 2'. Also recently finished 'The Lost Ships of Robert Ballard' by Robert Ballard and Rick Archbold- which tells the stories of the ships and shipwrecks Dr. Ballard has explored. Of course it is loaded with vintage images of the ships, as well as photographs of the wreck sites, and more than a few paintings by Ken Marschall. Next on the docket- 'The Physics of Star Trek' by Lawrence Krauss (a book I can't believe it's taken me this long to get around to reading), 'Sasquatch- Legend Meets Science' byt Jeff Meldrum, and depending on how busy things get this winter, I might blow the dust off a few volumes of my old Time-Life 'Mysteries of the Unknown' series.

And just for fun,the big picture...

Looks like that effect to me, as well. Very cool! For some reason it's just crying out for some color-tinted 'Lexan' windows to go along with the rusty gasser theme...

Gentlemen, behold! Cattleac...

Here's the '54 F-600, and as you could see space is pretty tight... And here's a visual for the idea I had. Like I said- cut away the existing lip marked in pencil and add a new one to the enlarged opening and it should look pretty close... but I think I'm gonna try it out and then go back and compare it to the 1:1 and see how it looks before I reccomend my method!

Nice! Love the car, and the fact I've got the song stuck in my head now.

Had this site bookmarked, lost it when I switched computers, forgot all about it until now. Thanks for that link!

Keep in mind that vertical measurement might not be 100% exact- I got it as close as I could with just a tape measure, measuring from the bottom rear of the fender up to the top of the fender opening. I think it would be close enough to look right.

Well, got over to where the trucks are- there was quite a lot more stuff jammed around them in the barn than there was last time! I did manage to squeeze in between them and get a measurement of the bottom of the wheel opening, 39", and height of 22". Armed with this, I dug out an AMT '53 Trophy Series cab, and tried those measurements out on the fender. Turns out, if you cut away the raised 'lip' already around the wheel opening, that will enlarge the opening enough to match up pretty well with the F-600's measurements. Then you'd just need to add a new raised lip around the newly-enlarged opening. I'll try and get some pictures up later on- because now I'm thinking of giving it a go on a spare '53 to see how close it really looks.

That's something I don't see. Maybe not the military modelers demanding accuracy, but fully accurate military kits. Flip through a copy of FSM or check out a military modeling forum, and you'll see that quite a few military vehicle kits aren't as accurate as we car guys seem to think they are. Almost every review I've read lately on military models points out at least one or two flaws in the kit with regards to accuracy. Often it is a concession to the scale- something molded out-of-scale for added strength for instance, but there are also a few forehead-slapping 'what were they thinking' issues and omissions mentioned,as well. Most of the military modelers I've spoken to seem to be in about the same boat is me, get it close- I can fix what's wrong and/or choose to live with any problems the kit might have. But, they also seem to be a bit more vocal about when a kit has a problem with it, more so than most of the car modelers I know. Then again, for the prices they're paying for their kits I guess I can't really blame them for being more likely to pipe up about it when the do find a problem!

1968? I'll never gripe about a project taking too long EVER again! Both are showing more than a little promise. There might be an Allison-powered example from my workbench one of these days.

Isn't out of the question at this point...

Best part about K&S is that they also include the metric measurements for the diameter. 1/8" would be fairly close to 3" in 1:25 scale, but you could just use the metric measurements and find one listed as 3mm or 4mm in diameter, since 1mm is extremely close to 1 inch in 1:25 scale.

I can't vouch for these particular wheels, but I do have a set of Casey's American Racing Salt Flats,and everything you said about these wheels with regards to casting quality applies to the Salt Flats as well. Right up there with the likes of Replicas and Miniatures as far as quality goes.

Best way to bend it is with a tubing bender, either the type you'd use on brake lines or one of the spring types. But it can be bent by hand without kinking if you insert a solid round rod into it first. I like to use pieces cut from the kit sprue, but sometimes I'll use K&S solid aluminum rod if the pipe is rather small in diameter and thus easy to bend by hand. You want the rod to fit into the inside of the tube as tightly as possible. Downside to this if you need the bend near the top of the pipe (where the open end will be visible) it doesn't work as well, as the rod will be visible inside the tube. In that case, using a bender would be the only option. If you just need an elbow, say, something that comes out from under the cab and turns the pipe up 90 degrees to vertical behind the cab, you can just cut the bottom of the tubing flat and bend a plastic or metal rod, then slip the tubing onto that.

Nice! Was that based on the AMT Louisville?

The REAL Chrome Stack Mafia?

Not really a tutorial, but for stacks I have used on semis and trucks I like to use K&S aluminum tubing. It's available in quite a few different diameters, cuts easily, and can be polished with just about any aluminum or wheel polish (I like to use Meguiars Hot Rims aluminum and wheel polish with a microfiber cloth), or scuffed for paint. They're also rather cheap- a buck and a half or two for a 12" piece, depending on what diameter you want. They look much better than any kit-based stack, because they have thin walls and of course they are hollow. Most well-stocked hobby shops could carry K&S tubing, and I've also seen it available online. Like I said, there are quite a few diameters available, so you should have no problem finding something the size you want. Some people like to cut it with a purpose-made cutting tool, like you'd use on 1:1 brake lines, but I've had good luck cutting it by rolling it under a sharp #11 blade, or using a fine-tooth hand saw.