Chuck Most

Lately I've been going through my stalled Hornet projects, seeing which ones I can finally get wrapped up. I started this one way back when the convertible kit came out, and it sat at about 95% finished for a few years. Over the course of Wednesday afternoon and evening, I went ahead and chipped away at the remaining 5%. I'm going by memory for a lot of this. There's a bit of mis-match in the paints because, honestly, I forgot what I used originally, so the top boot and padded firewall don't quite match the rest of the interior, and the purple on the bumpers seems a bit lighter than the shade on the body, though I'm not sure if that's due to it being laid over chrome as opposed to primer. The windshield frame was chopped and the body was sectioned, I went with side trim that abruptly sweeps downward to throw off just how much the body has been sectioned. Bumpers and side pipes came from a Revell '49 Mercury, and I think the grille bar is from the Revell '53 Chevy sedan delivery, grafted into the stock Hudson grille frame. The bucket seats were made by cutting down two Hudson front bench seats and those sit behind a '54 dash. The engine is from a Revell '50 Olds- I used one from the custom version which has a Hydramatic transmission. I also used the Olds steering column.

Love it! If I have one complaint it's that it could use some pastel colored squiggly graphics on the doors.

I did pick up that issue, but I'd have rather seen the spread on the 'Cuda first. The GTO wagon was cool but the Camaro did nothing for me. Still baffles me why the "Cuda was on the cover with the other two.

Love it! This car was on the cover of Hot Rod not too long ago, with a 409 bubbletop camaro and a GTO wagon. For some reason they had full features on the other two, but not the four-door 'Cuda,.

I love the 1:25-ish mirrors and grille emblem. The 1:20 Lindberg kits were okay for the most part, just sort of an odd scale for most people. I just wonder why they're being reissued as AMT kits. If they don't want to use the Lindberg name, slap MPC on 'em... George Toeteff (spelling?) started dabbling with the 1:20 scale kits back when he was in charge of MPC, and tried it again with Lindberg in the '90's.

I was expecting a pink paint job, but I really love that shade of green

This is my 20th completed Hornet. But if I'd finished it sooner it may have been the tenth. I bought the Hollywood (hardtop) body from Motor City Resin Casters a week or two after Jeff started casting it. I messed up trimming the vacuum-formed rear window, so the car went back into the box for what, five or six years? Like I said, I ordered the body almost immediately after Jeff put it out and it's just now finished. I re-did the foil on the rocker panels- I originally used that terrible "ultra bright" BMF. This time I used the old reliable "New and Improved" stuff. (Is it really 'new' if it's been out for at least a decade now?) The paint looks awful- I have no idea what shade or brand of yellow it is, but I'm not terribly thrilled with it. I at least like the shade, but it's bumpy in spots. Sort of looks like a backyard respray, so I left it. We'll call this an amateurish restoration. Also my foil work back then wasn't as good as it is now. I will say this kit's greenhouse is MUCH easier to detail with foil than the club coupe. This also has one of the 20 or 30 finned heads I made before I got sick of that and sent one off to Kris Morgan so I (and anyone else) could just buy copies. I'm thinking of getting another Hollywood body and chopping it a bit... wait about six years and maybe you'll see it here.

I'm glad this post got bumped, because it's still one sweet Chrysler.

Lovely! I still need to order a couple of these.

Looks to be from one of the Revell '32 Ford Street rod kits. The '90's era 1:25 kit, not the old Monogram based one.

What if Lincoln had wanted to reach out to a younger, upwardly mobile family man in the mid '60's? This is my take on a what-if factory concept or coach-built Connie wagon. It's the most recent reissue of the kit which comes with two different wood grain motifs, clear or smoked glass parts, and the optional phantom wagon parts the kit has always had. I stuck with the stock front and rear treatments and the factory wheel covers, and coated the whole mess in Ford Toreador Red. One thing that always bothered me about the wagon roof was that the roof and back glass was all one piece- it seemed there'd be no access into the cargo bay from the rear. So I added an upper liftgate frame and some cut lines to suggest a cargo door back there. The model could stand some touch ups here and there, and I'll have to polish out the clear coat once it cures, but overall I'm actually surprised it came out looking this nice. The Toreador Red was a "proximity choice" (the can was visible while I was working on the body, so I just grabbed it and used it) and I wasn't sure if the wood paneling would look gaudy, but so far I'm liking it. As an aside... if any resin caster out there does (or is planning) a sedan body for this kit, I'm good for a couple.

Well, he may have been, but he's dead now. Don't think he's building much of anything these days. The car was featured in Hot Rod a few years back, and they have the article on their webpage- http://www.hotrod.com/articles/25-dodge-roadster/ I've always had a thing for that car, mostly because it looks like something from an NNL table that somehow came to life.

I love it already.

Nice to see this one back in action.

I wonder if this one will ever make a comeback? Yes, it's pure '70's chintz, but so have been many recent Round 2 reissues.

My father owns a '47 Crosley, so I might buy one, but would 9,999 other modelers also want to buy one? Probably not. I wouldn't even hold out much hope for a less-obscure early American compact like a Nash Rambler, or a stock (or at least stock-ish) Henry J... or what about a Bantam? I mean I'd love to be proven wrong but I'm not holding my breath either.

Rifle... shotgun... they both make a boom sound...

Love it! Mr. King seems to be one of those guys who likes cars, but isn't really an expert about them. I seem to remember one of his short stories (The Road Virus Heads North, maybe?) mentioning a car that was equipped with a carb and fuel injection, George Stark's Toronado had a manual trans, the main character in The Mist drives a four-door Scout, and I think the discrepancies between the actual '58 Plymouth Fury and the one depicted in Christine. But I get the impression that Mr. King is something of a casual car guy. Whenever a character's vehicle is mentioned in a novel or story, it always seems to fit the character pretty well- even if he has to bend the rules of reality a bit to make it perfect. I've heard that he's owned a few cool cars himself but is more into Harleys now.

Few more years.... there might be 1:1 Chargers running around looking just like this.

This started off with the Mel's Drive-In kit. Other than the addition of plain steel wheels (on the rear only) from the '52 stock car kit, AMT Goodyear Polyglas tires, and some plug wiring, it's box stock. I was going for a one-time Boulevard Belle, with it's wire wheels and non-factory blue accent color under the side spears, which has become a back road gladiator after about 20 years of rough and regular use judging from the '73 plate. At one point the car must have been in a front end collision and repaired with mismatched junkyard parts. On the other hand, it's still reasonably solid and that 308 Twin H is still humming along, though with leaded fuel about to be phased out it might finally be time to trade up to a newer model. I basically built this kit in about one 12-hour sitting, to kill a cold and windy day off work, but the amount of time isn't really the point- I'm really happy with the finished result. Usually there are at least five or ten things on a model I wish I'd done differently, but this one came out more or less exactly the way I wanted, which is nice for a change!

I know, and I can see why they still put the make on them, but model? I just don't see the function of that at this point. I don't think Danica's Fusion moves any actual Fusions off the lot, you know.

What difference would it make? They'd be the existing car with different decals slapped onto them. I don't even know why they bother with model names on cup cars anymore.

I currently own both! The car is a 2002 Subaru Impreza 2.5 TS wagon I bought a little over a year ago for 700 bucks. It's the best all-around commuter car I've ever owned, and nothing short of a packed 2-foot-deep snow drift will stop it. Yes, it looks like hell, and yes, it's falling apart, but it's still getting the job done. The truck is a 1994 F-250 XLT I've owned for almost eleven years. The main reason it is no longer my main vehicle is because after a while you get sick of gassing the thing up, and after my '98 Mercury Tracer gave out it was all I had for a couple of years until I got the Impreza. If that F250 ever gives out on me it's not getting scrapped- it's getting a full-on Viking funeral.

This is the nicest example of this kit I've seen in some time, maybe ever!

Like I said... when I know more, you'll know more.