Chuck Most

And of course there's Dean's Hobby Stop, if you feel like taking a litle side trip (about 60 miles from Ann Arbor, if I recall). Always well stocked with lots of cool OOP kits.

Looks like the kind of old farm trucks you still see around Michigan. Very cool.

The '40 Sedan Delivery should work too- those seem to be a bit easier to find (and a lil' bit cheaper) than the AMT coupe. They have essentially the same chassis- in fact they might actually be the same chassis. They're pretty close anyway. The '39/40 Tudor should work too, though I think the chassis is a bit different in that kit (still has molded exhaust if I remember, though).

I think I still have the model- I'll see about snapping a photo.

Liking what I'm seeing! Mike- you could actually get special manifolds for putting a Roots-style supercharger on a six, but how cool would a front-mounted piece be? I used a Paxton centrifugal blower on a Stovebolt I used in an Olds roadster I built years ago. I might start on an off-the shelf project, as I haven't been able to get the Flathead six for the coupe yet. Need something to keep me going in the interim.

Yeah, that'd definitely work.

I was thinking about it, but I just like the way the truck looks totally stock too much.

Nice! Didn't know Sun Star made one of these- I'll have to get one now.

This talk of matte finishes against gloss (paint vs. vinyl) raises another accuracy issue I keep seeing with NASCAR stock car models. I've seen more than enough Cup cars in my time, and none of them have what you'd call a mirror-gloss finish. Shiny? Yes, but not like what I see in some stock car models. Cleared decals or not, there's just something weird about a stock car model with a high-gloss finish. Again, the painted areas on a 1:1 stock car are somewhat glossy, but I'm talking about eleven coats of hand-buffed lacquer that would look more at home on a Ridler contender than a roundy-rounder. No real stock car is that glossy, but you see models of same done that way all the time.

Very nice!

Always love seeing this one, and believe me you I'll be ripping off more than a few ideas from it for a few projects of my own.

Before you ask... no, this car never existed in 1:1. There were some 'neo classic' Packards done by the Packard Bailiff coachworks, but none of them looked like this. This kit was designed by none other than Virgil Exner of Chrysler fame, and was done as a what-if proposal by Esquire magazine in the early 1960's, where Exner was commissioned to do renderings of several defunct makes and see how the vehicles might look if they were still being produced at that time. Renwal models picked up four of the concepts to produce as 1:25 scale models, the Packard being one of them. I managed to pick up a slightly damaged but complete example at a local antique shop of all places. A mere $35 later and I had a very rarely seen kit to build! My idea is basically to see how this car may have been customized had it been an actual production car. I started this about two years ago, and have recently been working on it some more. The kit tires are about eight feet tall, and the narrow whitewall bands were poorly printed, so I replaced them with a set of two-piece Revell wide whites. The kit comes with a somewhat crude example of a Packard Twin Six (V 12), but I wanted something that Packard could have used assuming they'd been in business in 1966. Being a small company, I figured they'd outsource their engines, but would still want something exotic. To that end, this one will be powered by a dual-quad Ford 427 Ford Cammer, cobbled up from spares I had on hand. The trim and driprail detail was rather weak, so I usd triangular styrene rod and brass wire to enhance these pieces. And that's all for now- I'm hoping this one willl turn out halfway decent.

Either that guy is really short, or he has no legs. All the same, I'd still cruise that thing.

I'm going to bring down the hood a bit, but it'll still be over the fender line. In addition to jutting out, it's also slightly higher in front than in back- I think it would look a lot better if it were shorter in front and tapered up toward the cowl. Fortunately there's plenty of thickness in the resin, so I have quite a bit of material to grind away to accomplish that!

I used this same body on an old JoHan Olds ('63 or '64) fullsize 'coaster' chassis, and employed a cut-down '66 Riv interior. I left the hood sealed on this one, and since the chassis had no provision for an engine that saved quite a bit of time. The Olds factory wheelbase was also quite a bit closer than the '51 Chevy. Oh, and in this pic you can also see the 'bulbous' nature of the front edge of the hood I was talking about earlier- I want to streamline the front profile of this one a bit.

Depends on what body you're using. For this one I had to stretch the chassis quite a bit to match the Buick wheelbase. I also had to trim off the molded-in floor just behind the rear frame crossmemer, and cut down the rear wheel openings to get it to fit up into the body.

The inner fender wells should go on the outside of the firewall ridges if I recall- but it has been quite a while since I've built the '51 Chevy kit. They didn't follow the shape of the '50 grille all that well, so I'm going to redo them. The hood is also a bit too bulbous in front, and I wanted to tone that down a bit.

I don't sell those, but I'm sure Norm would be more than happy to help you out- : replmincomd@aol.com

An early Hemi is a scientifically proven way to improve any vehicle, even a GM vehicle! Love that Deuce roadster, too. Even though it too could use a Hemi.

Love it.

Nah- gotta keep the Hudson grille... that's AMC-themed too, after all. Besides, where the bleepity blank am I gonna find an Airflow grille in 1:25? I didn't fill in the JoHan block- I happened to have an old Monogram Jeep 304 block laying around, so I just adapted the JoHan parts to that. Even though it's 1:24 and the Rambler stuff is 1:25, everything matched up pretty well. And yes, those rollers are from the Black Widow reissue.

I vote 'keep it as-is' as well. Also- if I'm not too late, I'd also say keep the Mario Andretti #11 Mercury you painted the wrong colors the way it is too. So what if the car didn't really exist- it looks good, and might net you a few priceless looks at shows.

Made up a finned cylinder head for the '52 custom I'm working on now, and wired the ignition.

What Harry said, but since you are aware of them being absent, no need to rub it in. The car looks very good with those wheels, and in that shade of green.

Piddling with this a little bit last night, after almost a year of inactivity. That's kind of how this whole project has worked thus far... a few days of feverish work, followed by months-long periods of Project Purgatory. I'm kind of wondering what to do about the skirts. I'd originally planned on doing totally smooth quarters, as shown, but now I'm having second thoughts. Should I go with this? Or maybe add some '50's style long skirts? Or maybe just some cut lines in the quarters to suggest skirts? The mind reels...