Chuck Most

Love it! I slept on this kit when it first came out but your build has me checking the online vendors for one.

I haven't noticed the difference in thickness but I have noticed on the last three or four sheets I've bought that the adhesive has sucked. Maybe if the stuff would actually stick to the surface I'd be able to see how well it conforms to fine detail but, you know... Lately I've been leaning more toward Molotow pens. Yeah, many have pointed out "you don't know how it will look in 25 years" but in 25 years the kit chrome will be discolored, any decals will have turned brown and the tires will have melted the wheels, so I'm not terribly concerned how the Molotow will look then.

Honestly, it wouldn't be any less weird than releasing the Transtar 4070A with Rat Fink graphics. Still can't quite wrap my head around the logic of that choice. I can think of three or four dozen other subjects in the Round 2 catalog that would be more fitting for the Rat Fink graphics than a 70's road tractor. ? But hey, whatever. I hope they sell a ton of 'em.

Over Christmas, I revisited the greatest Christmas movie I've ever seen, having first watched it back in the late 90s. It's a 1989 horror movie called Elves, and it stars Grizzly Adams (Dan Haggerty) as a drunk ex-detective/current mall Santa investigating the death of the previous mall Santa, who was stabbed to death by the main baddie of the movie. I won't get into much of the details, but if you like crappy low budget horror movies this is great. The plot involves an elf, Nazi genetic experimentation, a coven of teenage anti-Chrismas witches, a scientist with an accent and wardrobe straight out of a Saturday morning kids show, some really questionable screenwriting, and a terrible elf puppet. And Dan Haggerty's acting. Remember when I said Dan Haggerty plays a drunk ex-detective? I don't think that the character was written as a drunk... I think that Dan Haggerty was actually drunk on screen. His dead, apathetic line delivery has to be seen to be believed. He gives a performance that screams "well, gotta pay my mortgage somehow". Again, if you love schlock, it is well worth your time.

Nothing more than a little Tamiya clear orange to both sides of the lower section, some bare metal foil to the back of the part of the top corner, and a black Sharpie around the border. I didn't make them brownish yellow like the lenses on my '94 though. ?

Love the truck, but that Rusty's Rust Proofing guy sure sucks at his job. His expert techniques did quite a number on a GMC Sonoma I built some time ago, too. ?

Isn't this a wonderful little kit, though? People keep going on and on about Tamiya quality but honestly, when RoG brings their A game things can get pretty good too. This one looks great.

I'm well and truly humbled, but I see an Al Rich style truck. And I mean that as a complement. Be proud of that. It's certainly a great deal more interesting than the Chevy Astro UFO hunter I've been piddling with. The trade must have happened a long time ago because I don't recall trading one of these. Must have been one I robbed of the straight six because I seem to remember having a few extra straight sixes kicking around ages ago. ?

My latest Moebius Effie is a done deal, even though I started it ages ago. A frame rebuild, grille change, and second bed had to happen but I finally got it done. Base kit is the '65 long Styleside. It was lowered with a spring-over "flip" and notched frame rails in the rear. Up front, the stock crossmember was reworked to accept a Mustang II style front suspension constructed of NASCAR Thunderbird parts. With the shortish BF Goodrich radials this is about as low as you can get one of these without major "clearancing" of the fenders. The engine is the Laethem supercharged Lincoln 430 MEL from the AMT '25 Model T... pick a version, they all have it. The kit transmission was cut away and the engine was joined to the 4 speed manual from the Moebius kit. The engine also uses the Moebius FE oil pan. The grille was opened to accept the custom insert from an AMT '49 Mercury. Originally it had the "bullet" insert from an old Revell parts pack but I decided I liked it better for another project. The front bumper came from an AMT '53 F100. It had a molding defect that made one end look a little tweaked, so I left it that way. Everybody loves short beds, and I don't get why. In addition to being slightly less useful, they always look stubby to me. Even in extended or crew cab form. There really need to be more low long beds. Here you can see the helmet flopped over the tall shifter, which came from one of the AMT '25 T kits. Again, any version. At the business end there isn't much to see other than a scratch built roll pan. I toyed with filling in the stock tail lights and adding a '66 Thunderbird tail light but opted against it in the end. In addition to the wiring and the previously mentioned oil pan and transmission, the Lincoln also has a drive belt for the alternator taken from the Moebius kit engine, as the supercharged Lincoln only offers a blower drive belt when built that way. The dual chamber cylinder with booster is included in the '65 kit- it's a leftover piece from the Bumpside kits. The Optima battery is a 3D printed part from Pro Street Hobbies. The Kart and rack are from the '60 Chevy pickup kit, while the tool box and gas can are from a '60 Ranchero. You can also see the factory Tahitian Turquoise paint on full display in the bed (along with the firewall and interior). The kart is painted in Testors Lime Ice, same as the truck. It isn't visible in the photo but there's a fuel filler door in the bed floor which feeds into a midship tank from a '92 F150. Since I've been asked at least a dozen times, I now pose a question- would a how-to on lowering these kits be of use to anyone? I've done it a few different ways and if there's significant interest I just may have to cobble up a thread in the Workbench section and show how the sausage is made in that particular regard.

That's actually the Revell acrylic spray can stuff- gloss black followed by gloss clear. Actually pretty good stuff for spray cans. Not quite Tamiya level but so close it's a tad unsettling.

This is not the newly reissued Crusin' Van. I built this originally back in 2009, using the 2WD Flareside reissue from 1995. It stayed as built until earlier this year when it got a refresh. Here's how I justified the rebuild. Story is, the truck was originally built by a guy in New Mexico. He was big into flathead V8s, but also into mini trucks, and when he one day struck a deal on a relatively clean Courier with an aftermarket Flareside bed, he had to jump on it. The body and chassis were great, but the 2.3 four was shot, but since our guy had a bunch of Flatheads laying around, the following course of events was predictable. While he was at it he lowered it, swapped in some bucket seats, hosed the thing off in black primer, and slapped on some yellow steel wheels, painted to match the already-yellow 1950 Ford flathead he had laying around. The rear bumper had a very noticable bend, so it was yanked and replaced with a hand made filler panel, itself fitted with '49 Ford tail lights. Our guy... we'll call him Larry... drove the whitewalls off the thing for twelve years, during which time it had begun to show it's age. During his unplanned Covid-19 vacation, he finally had time to get around to that friggin' '50 Ford F1 he'd had languishing in the shop the whole time. Upon finally getting the '50 into a condition somewhat resembling running, he decided it was time to part with the old Courier, so onto ebay it went. When the dust settled, it ended up with a guy in Michigan. We'll call him Kurt, because that's what the truck says. Kurt had always wanted to do a flathead swap in a Courier. He could never explain why... but there it was. Kurt was enamored with the swap, and the overall rundown look of the truck as it was when he got it. But there were a few issues. For one thing, Larry had put nearly 70k on the truck during his years of ownership, and while the flathead had been fresh when he'd stabbed it in, it was showing it's age now. Fortunately, Kurt had a '49 Mercury engine he'd had laying around. It was treated to a rebuild, and outfitted with a twin carb intake and Offy finned heads. The '50 Ford engine now sits in the garage to be rebuilt just in case Kurt blows up the Merc mill. (He'll certainly try.) Other than that major mechanical upgrade, he kept things simple- he did a little bit of 'de chroming', as Larry's discount-auto-store clip on chrome accents for the drip rails and windshield molding were getting a little haggard. He also upgraded the sound system and popped on some '46 Ford hubcaps. Here it is in it's original 2009 configuration, and how it looked up until early this year. I had a thread posted here when I originally built it but I can't find a trace of it 12 years later. Basically the kit is largely stock, with the exception of the engine, seats, steering wheel, shifter, roll pan, wheels, and tires. I did install the front frame crossmember backwards originally, I don't recall if I did this to better fit the Flathead or if I just screwed up. Likely the latter. After 12 years I remember the engine was from an AMT '50 Ford Convertible, with an AMT parts pack air cleaner, and the wheels and tires came from a Galaxie Limited '46 chevy. These were chosen because they had nice six lug hub detail... even though years later I opted to cover up said hub detail. I don't recall the shade of yellow I used back then (if I had to guess it was something from the old Rustoleum American Accents line), but I found a "close enough" match with Tamiya for the refresh. Here's the 2021 incarnation... The hot New Mexico days did a number on the 2009 paint job. The fake phone number is so obvious it amuses me, so I didn't bother trying to photoshop a more legit looking number onto the new door signs, which are internet stock images printed onto Micromark white carrier. Originally the bed wouldn't sit level and the truck looked like it was broken in the middle. I managed to get it to look a little better this time around. I also redid the front side markers with actual transparent orange paint this time, instead of just painting them yellow as I'd done originally. More stickers are about the only change from this angle. And the plate- every model I've finished in 2021 has had the NCC 1701 Michigan plate, as a way to commemorate the 55th anniversary of Star Trek. I didn't have the old yellow Offenhauser decal from the AMT '49 Merc, so instead I robbed one from the Revell Kurtis Midget. The one with the Offy four banger, obviously. In addition to the fresh Flathead, the engine bay was also treated to a new Optima gel-cell battery, which was purchased from Pro Street Hobbies on ebay. I may yet add a few underhood doodads such as heater hoses and the conspicuously absent brake cylinder. Maybe in 12 more years... Now that I think of it maybe I need to getting around to building that Larry guy's '50 F1.

I'm pretty sure I'm not alone when I say I hate doing perfect, glossy black paint jobs. That's why I have several Knight 2000s, a couple of 1966 Batmobiles, and the 1995 Bill Elliot Thunderbat stock car in various stages of non-finished. But I can do a reasonable so-so gloss black paint job, so that's what we have here. It could still stand a polish when the clear fully cures but here it is for now. Base kit is an original '92 AMT/Ertl F150 short bed, with a spare set of buckets and a center console from a Lightning parts kit It also has a parts box floor shifter for the transmission, now a six speed manual. It was lowered and treated to a NASCAR Thunderbird front suspension. The wheels and tires came from Welly and they do a reasonably good job of showing off the Pegasus drilled rotors. Under the hood is a 2014 Ford 5.0, fitted with a supercharger from Iceman Collections. The conical open element air filter also came from Iceman. The same NASCAR T-Bird that coughed up it's front suspension also donated it's electric fan. I had to do quite a bit of fiddling to get the engine to sit where I wanted it- for whatever reason these kit's have either too much engine setback or a firewall that protrudes too far forward. Perhaps a tad of both. I wanted to show off the supercharger. I also tried a blue-to-purple fade effect on the cam covers, to match the Nite graphics. Speaking of- those were the entire reason I had to do a black paint job on this one. They came from Ray's Decals (he shows up here from time to time as @echoxrayniner) and they were well worth the price and wait time... they had to come to the US from The Netherlands given the hellscape that is the combined horror of US customs and the USPS. They're nicely rendered and lay down beautifully. And the sheet comes with a few extra goodies such as F250 and F350 fender badges, Power Stroke markings, and stripes to do two Nites. In addition to the paint, the body also had it's rub strips removed and the forward fuel door filled in, and was relieved of it's molded fender badges (naturally replaced with the badges supplied on the decal sheet). They're molded on one big clear carrier so you'll need to cut each individual graphic, but the carrier absolutely vanished against the paint so it's no deal breaker if your hands arent' so steady. Now if you'll excuse me... I need to get around to another gloss black paint job, because with these Nite decals I also ordered his '79 GMC Caballero Diablo set...

Eddie would have been proud. I've never built this specifically because I don't want to re create that paint job.

Personally I think this car is crying out for a set of full wheel covers (mostly thanks to the padded top and the presence of a Slant Six) but the Mag 500s always look good on these.

Love it! This is a kit I'd love to see reissued. I built one ages ago (lifted with the Mickey Thompson tires from the Revell Rubicon), have another about 30% finished as a "truggy" conversion, and at one point I had one where I'd started modifying the grille and bumper to depict a '97/98 model. Great kit though I never understood the gimmicky working suspension.

I just had to pair up a Hudson Hornet and a Judson supercharger, courtesy of the AMT '64 Cutlass Convertible. The main bulk of the '53 Club Coupe is box stock, with the following exceptions- the Judson supercharger (obviously) and drive belt, the finned cylinder head from Morgan Automotive Detail, a spin-on oil filter, a Replicas and Miniatures MSD ignition box, a floor shifter and steering wheel from the AMT '51 Bel Air hardtop, and some old MPC Polyglas GT tires with the five-spokes from an AMT '69 4-4-2. I wanted to indicate old collision damage, repaired with junkyard mismatch parts, on an originally red car. To that end, the main body was painted red, the fenders black, and the hood aqua. All of this was covered in grey primer, then light blue, which was then sanded away to expose the respective original color coats. The red is also clearly visible on the firewall. Also still getting the hang of my new camera- which is my phone (LG Stylo 6). Not thrilled with the pics but they'll work until I get the hang of the phone camera. I've had a few LG phones in the past and the camera is usually pretty good. Ironically this is the most expensive LG I've had and the camera is only kinda so-so. ??

Is it a prototype? Was it build for Oldsmobile's personal use? Or was it an independent conversion? Who cares, here it is. This is a mashup of the new reissue AMT '64 Cutlass convertible and a late '80's reissue of the AMT '65 El Camino. The cowl, roof, bed, and tailgate, along with about 1/8" of the rear quarters, was cut out of the El Camino body, and a comparable area of the Cutlass body was removed, then the two were spliced. A bit of reshaping to the rear quarters and copious amounts of putty did the rest. The interior is the Cutlass tub cut down and capped off at the back with the El Camino's interior tub rear bulkhead. The chassis is from the El Camino, it required a bit of trimming to fit the now-narrower rear quarters at the very rear of the car. I also lowered because the stock axle position would have had the thing sit like a 4x4. The Olds engine pretty much dropped in, but I had to move the axle notch forward. I didn't wire the engine or go too far with detail because the conversion was enough of a project for me. Wheels were pirated from an AMT '69 4-4-2, with tires from an AMT '77 Pacer wagon. Eventually I might put the camper on the back, the version of the El Camino I used only had the topper shell.

Probably because my inbox was at 98% ?

I've got a few that meet the criteria...

My guess is it was a compromise for the upcoming "engine included" version, though even then, they could have gotten away with the good old oil pan notch to clear a wire axle in that case, since the kit is full blown retrorific and all. On the one I built I ended up snapping off a pin. I glued the block into place and drilled out a hole where the pin used to be and used a piece of brass rod to pin the wheel into place.

Maybe I'm weird, but I also never have enough parts for a complete '53 F-100, even though it seems like I always have ten of the kits at any given time. If it didn't have a red interior and were a year newer it would look an awful lot like the pickup on display at the local Ford dealer.

This started out as an idea for a simple junker farm truck with a V8 swap. I even got so far as building the chassis with the push bumper, and plugging in a 283 and 4 speed from a later model Chevrolet truck, along with jettisoning the torque tube for a driveshaft. That chassis still sits there in the box. A while after I started that, I build up the chassis from an S10 Extreme, with the intent of making up a small "bread van" body for it. to that end the chassis was build mostly box stock but fitted with some Hoppin' Hydros wheels and tires. A while later, and said chassis ended up with an LT1 and six speed manual. One day, the '50 cab just kinda ended up on the S10 chassis and I went with it. I might add an air suspension setup to the bed, for now let's say it's under the bed floor and this depicts the truck at "display height". The interior features the S10's floor shifter (despite having the shifter and the box saying it has a 2.2 and a five speed, the S10 Extreme kit contains the same 4.3/auto combo as every other AMT S-truck), along with bomber seats from a Revell Ford Model A. The bed saw the most modifications. It was shortened to go with the S10 wheelbase, and also mounted a bit higher on the body. That solves two things I always thought looked awkward about the Advance series trucks- the beds looked too long and too low. The fenders were also moved higher up the bedsides. The bed floor itself is just plastic painted grey, and the kit decals were applied. This is the 76 issue of the kit, which comes with wood grain decals for the side stakes. But you will need to apply them over a suitable base coat because Round 2 has this weird fixation with semi-transparent decal graphics. Aside from that I more or less went with a subtle "barn find" kind of look, retaining the stock handles, trim, etc. The rear bumper was something I made up for the truck's original "farm truck" theme, I just shunted it over to this project because I liked the look. I even took advantage of the way AMT did the cab corners to make it look like replacements had been fitted into place. And that mostly completed stock-ish chassis? Who knows? Maybe one of these days it'll actually get built.

Just as it appears in Tim's roadster, only with modern bright kit chrome. The sprue attachments are also easily dealt with, which is always startling for a 1960's kit.

In 1924, farmer Loren Heider opened up a repair shop, specializing in all types of motor vehicles, but primarily farm tractors. At least initially. This would lead to his opening of a Case equipment dealer later on. But before that, the repair business proved successful enough that Loren was able to purchase his first new car, a 1929 Oldsmobile F-29 sedan. So impressed was Loren by his stately sedan, that in 1932, he became the Oldsmobile dealer in the sleepy hamlet of Pompeii, Michigan. His two sons joined the dealership as the years wore on, and later on, his younger son would purchase his own Olds dealership, in nearby Sumner. While Loren Heider & Sons (renamed simply Heider Oldsmobile after 1965) stayed Oldsmobile-only due to apathy from GM HQ, Heider of Sumner picked up Chevrolet in 1964, and Pontiac in 1968. The original Pompeii dealership amazingly stayed around all the way up to Oldsmobile's end in 2004, and beyond. Today it is Heider Automotive, a used car/repair/body shop servicing all makes and models. The Sumner dealer was one of the casualties of GM's 2009 dealer jettison. While there was a '63 Chevrolet truck used by the Pompeii dealer, this is not that truck. Perusing craigslist one day, Dan Heider saw an ad for a '63 Chevy pickup. What grabbed his attention was the engine- a 455 Olds V8. The '69 Cutlass buckets and console drew him in further, and by the end of the week, it was parked in front of Heider Automotive. The truck as it stands is a bit of an anachronism. The door graphics are based on the 1969 Sign of Leadership design, even though the logos bear the Pompeii dealership's pre 1965 name. The rear bumper was rescued from a junkyard by Dan years before, it had come from his uncle's Chevy-Olds-Pontiac operation in Sumner. But, the truck is red (a hasty respray over the factory grey), just like the Chevrolet trucks the Heider family businesses used. Aside from the graphics and rear bumper, Dan also jettisoned the stock brakes for front discs and a boosted dual chamber cylinder, and fitted the truck with some Olds Rally wheels and Redline Firestones. By the way, none of that is true! It's just the backstory that helped to guide the project, and/or filled in the logical gaps when I decided to go a certain route. As for the actual model- it is the AMT '60 Apache 10. It was converted to a 63 by using the grille from an original AMT/SMP annual kit and a Revell '66 hood. Now... don't look too close because it still has the '60 torsion bar front suspension. '63 was the first year for coil springs up front on GM pickups. But since most people would never notice I just left the chassis as provided in the kit. This was also my first project to make extensive use of the new Revell acrylics. So far so good on those. The engine, transmission, seats, and center console came from an AMT '69 Olds 442, the redlines (even though now they're more like brown lines) are old Satco parts, and the wheels are even older Scale Equipment Limited resin two-piece units. I'm almost never 100% happy with models I finish, but this one? This one's a rare exception. It's far from perfect but for a vehicle like this, that's kind of the whole point.

And you, Mr. Boyd- it is partially your fault I bought the kit in the first place, because of the article you did for Scale Auto years ago featuring an Oldsmobile roadster hot rod with the Judson superchargers from this very same kit. I figured having the Judsons would be nice, and having the remainder of a '64 Cutlass would be a benefit. My Cutlass won't be as showroom fresh as yours though. But back to the trim, I will say the other stuff is easily dealt with. The scripts took well to the old "foil bare plastic, prime, and paint, then chip/scrape/sand the layers away to reveal the chrome" trick.