2002p51

Well, the finished product turned out to be pretty disappointing. but more on that in a minute. First a little background on the real car. The Grand Sport project was mostly a skunk works type of effort as GM was under a self imposed racing ban. But in 1964 the suits at Chevrolet had finally had enough and said; "No, seriously, this has to stop." and they pulled the plug. Three of the five cars built were sold to privateers. The subject of this model, chassis #005, was sold to Jim Hall. Since Hall was so busy with preparations of his own Chaparral the car was shipped to Roger Penske's shop in Pennsylvania to be prepared for the Sebring 12 hour race where Penske and Hall would share the driving. In spite of inferior handling the Penske/Hall Grand Sport was able to use its power advantage to take first in class and 18th overall against a field of potent Cobras and Ferrari prototypes. Before we go any farther, if you would like to see some of the work that went into this model you can click here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/139757-new-project/ In that thread I mentioned that the chassis had quite a bit of twist in it. I was able to get 99% of that out without doing any damage and thought it was good. During final assembly it was difficult to get the chassis to touch any of the bottom of the car well enough to get any glue to hold. I thought I had it once but, after giving the glue time to dry, I picked the model up and the chassis just dropped off. So I got a little more aggressive and finally got something to grab and hold. But this time, when I turned the model over and placed it on the bench, the twist was back! Not quite as much but the right front tire was back in the air again. You'll notice in the photos that the hood also doesn't fit very well and I think that's a product of this newly induced twist. Rats! Speaking of the hood, notice what looks like tape covering the louvers. This is evident in the photos that are in the Corvette Grand Sport book. It seems they covered the hood to prevent the Florida rain from getting into the engine compartment. Accurate Miniatures provided some very nice stickers to replicate this look although they are not mentioned anywhere in the instruction sheet. Unfortunately, possibly due to age, the edges didn't stick too well and I had to use a microbrush and apply a little Krystal Klear all around the edges to get them to stay down. I also scratched the paint a little with my thumbnail trying to get the edges to stay down. They're still not perfect but then, neither was the tape job on the real car. So, all in all, it is disappointing when all of the effort and work that's required to build this model all goes south during final assembly. Especially in spite of numerous test fittings. Things are so much harder to fix once everything is painted and finished. So there it is. At least I now have the sister car to the Mecom prepared chassis #004 that was driven in the '64 Sebring by A.J. Foyt. But this one will never see any sort of show table for sure.

I've been using it for years, never had a problem.

If you're a racer too then you know what a surface plate is. I have a piece of a glass medicine cabinet shelf that makes a perfect 1/25 scale surface plate.

I was thinking that it was a little dark in the right hand corner where I have misc. bottles of stuff, micro brushes, and Q-tips, etc. So this morning I browsed around in my local Home Depot and I found what are called "puck lights". This one is a battery powered LED light with two intensities at the push of a button. I mounted it under the model shelf directly above this end of the bench. It takes 3 AA batteries and only cost ten bucks. Much better.

That chassis is painted, assembled and engine installed. Slight problem however. It seems the chassis isn't straight and the right front tire is about a scale inch and a half off the ground! I'm not too crazy about the prospect of trying to twist a fully assembled and painted chassis back into compliance so the plan is to hope that once it's glued to the bottom of the interior/floorboard piece and mounted inside the car, that will pull it back into square. If not, well, this model isn't going anywhere but on my shelf anyway! We soldier on.

No, and looking at it, it doesn't seem worth the money to me. I don't build super detailed models any more and have no interest in contests.

I have two old "Cheez Cast" resin kits one for the 1963 prototype, the other for the roadster. I only have one more donor kit so I would have a decision to make. Of course, there are no decals for either of them so that would be a problem.

That's okay, this is an interesting digression. And Dave, if you have ever feel the need to share some of those "parts for a few" I'd be happy to PM you my address!

I had heard rumors of an AM NASCAR race car but never knew it was any more than that.

I always really liked this engine. I would love to out one in a hot rod!

I filled in the slots on the bottom of the frame with some .047" Evergreen rod. Although I'm not sure it was worth the effort because the chances of anybody ever looking at the bottom of this model are virtually nil. Finished assembling the chassis and it is now ready for paint. And so it's on to the engine!

I built this one many, many years ago when the kit was first on the market.

Oh ha ha. It's the small price we pay for living in the greatest, most beautiful place in the world.

As I get into this I'll be posting in the "On The Workbench" section.

Snowing like crazy outside this morning and, fortunately, I don't have to go out in it. So, the first project for the newly made over workbench will be an Accurate Miniatures Corvette Grand Sport!

When we moved into our new house in 2006, I converted one of the bedrooms into an office/model work room. I built a long desk along one wall that included space for my model workbench and lap top and my wife's desk and her computer And included a peninsula in between for shared stuff like a printer and scanner, etc. The top surface was simply a plain sheet of MDF that I left unfinished. Well, as you might expect, over the years that work surface got rough with stains from spills and the front edge was getting pretty rough and worn. It also had a tendency to stay cluttered all the time. Like this: It was definitely time for a makeover. So I started to clear everything out of the way. I removed the MDF desktop, flipped it over and painted it with some semi-gloss white paint. Looking better already. Then I put everything back and things were looking much brighter and better. Some of you may remember the article I did in that "other magazine" about making that paint bottle rack. It served me well over the years but I found something much better. This: These are modular workbench components available through HobbyZone USA. Check them out here: https://www.hobbyzone.biz/modules.shtml I also treated my self to a new, much larger, cutting mat! And there's the finished new work space. Each of those drawer units, the tool rack, two paint racks, etc. are separate modules that all fit together in any configuration you want. They are made of MDF and are very high quality and easy to assemble. There are multiple videos on YouTube showing you how to build them. Just do a search for "HobbyZone modules" and you'll find plenty of information. These drawers hold all of my materials and supplies, the tool rack has all of my tools out and visible and within easy reach. Everything I need is readily accessible. This was a considerable investment but it will make my model building much easier and more efficient. What do y'all think?

That's part of the problem, JC. Once I do the "hard work" I sometimes lose interest in finishing the project. I learned what I wanted to learn or accomplished what I set out to and I'm no longer as motivated to get to the finish line.

I did this one a few years ago. Probably not accurate but better than what came in the box. I really should finish this!

I've started working on re-organizing and rearranging my work area. First thing I did was construct a new tool rack. A lot of things that are held in here now used to reside all together in a coffee cup and that was getting really annoying. It's made entirely of basswood stock sourced at the local Hobby Lobby. But this is the real problem: Currently all of my Evergreen shapes, rod, and strips hang from nails on the wall. I have packages stacked on top of one another and it's really annoying to find what I want. I've rejected the obvious idea of placing them in various tubes, while that's great for full length pieces, it doesn't address what to do with all of the shorter scraps. So, I throw it out to all of you. Don't just tell me what you do, show me with a photo. Explain how your system works (or doesn't work) Give me some great ideas!

For what it's worth, I built this Duster many years ago and used plain old Testors Orange in the little square bottle.

Almost close.

Ha ha!

And I agree with you; " And as far as being a stickler for detail I don't have a problem having to go that extra mile to make a build just a bit more accurate than how it comes straight out of the box." I don't either. The key word there is a bit. This kit requires a lot more than just a bit of work to make it accurate. i.e. You're going to throw out the tires, "stretch the chassis along with the body panels to make a more accurate wheelbase. I'm torn about messing with correcting the taper on the wedge body" That's more than just a bit of work. While you're at it you might as well use most of an engine from a Revell early funny car or dragster because the valve covers, blower, and injector look better than those old MPC originated ones. So what have you got left from the original $30.00 kit? I mean, knock yourself out if that's what you like to do. I just expect to get more for my hobby dollar than a kit that needs to be completely reworked to make it a passable replica of what's on the outside of the box.

I'm not "upset" just real disappointed. I paid nearly $30.00 for this kit and so far the chassis is wrong and has to "fixed", and the body is wrong and also must be "fixed".. To make this model accurate I need some other frame and many other chassis parts, and I need to make so many changes to the body that it would probably just be easier to start from scratch. So what did I pay 30 bucks for? I can only use about 10% of the parts from the box! I'm sorry, but I expect more than that from a $30.00 kit. I also bought the Moebious/Model King '61 Pontiac Catalina and I also paid nearly $30.00. This kit not only has a much higher part count but the detail and accuracy are far beyond what's in the Prudhomme kit. So if Moebious/Model King can turn out a kit like that, why can't AMT? I know the days of $1.25 kits are long gone and I understand all the economic forces that are in play here. But for that much money we, as customers of the model companies, should be demanding much more and not accept kits like the Prudhomme dragster.

Well, as a recovering rivet counter I'm willing to forgive a lot more inaccuracies than I used to. But on this one I have to say, close, but no cigar. I seriously doubt I'll finish building it.