2002p51

You young wipper snapper you! I was 17 in 1964. Except for the age-dulled chrome, your Dodge still looks pretty good. I hand lettered that '63 Ford too when I first built it. At that time the only reference I had was the limited race reports in a few magazines like Motor Trend and Hot Rod. It was all in black and white so I had no idea what color the car was. So I painted it white, of course, but did all the lettering and graphics in black! That was the reason the car got repainted and Fred Cady decals applied some time in the early '80s.

Well, my oldest model is this one: I built this from an AMT annual that I bought new in '63. I repainted and re-decaled it about 25 years ago, but all of the original work on it was done in 1963.

He didn't just cover NASCAR, he did it all. Indy, Formula 1, midgets, sprints, there was hardly any form of racing that Chris didn't cover. His paper, National Speed Sport News, was THE bible of the motorsports world and anybody who was anybody both in or out of the sport read it every week.

Well, thanks but I have to confess, since my "photo studio" has been converted over to it's "guest room" mode in anticipation of an upcoming grandkids visit, I shot these on the kitchen table with my wife's little point n' shoot.

The kit had both a clear and a solid roof insert. I used the solid one on this model.

Thanks guys. I forgot to add information about the paint. My reference also included the correct paint color; 1953 Cadillac Pastoral Blue. I looked it up on one of the aftermarket hobby paint companies and realized that, with postage, it would cost $15.00 to paint this car in the exact correct color. Not happening. So the paint on this model is Testors Model Master Classic White, with some Ford & GM Engine Blue mixed in a little at a time until I got a color that looked about right. It's very close and certainly good enough for a shelf model.

Then I maintain what I said. It was after '67 that the gas classes started their downfall when NHRA began to allow full tube frame cars with late model bodies. For somebody like me, (and many others) the true gas classes did not include Corvettes.

Just waiting for the Slixx decals to arrive in the mail. This is, of course, the AMT "Ohio" George Montgomery 33 Willys coupe. I'm really surprised that, considering how long this kit has been around, this is the first time I ever built one. I'm also surprised at how poor the fit was on some of the parts. The front stance was too high so I cut the shackles off the front springs. The magneto was too tall and wouldn't let the hood close all the way so I had to cut that down a little. And the roll bar was too tall and prevented the body from sitting all the way down on the chassis. Fortunately those were all easy fixes. I used the rear tires and wheels from a Revell Mazmanian Willys. I also made a slight departure from my usual "less is more" attitude and spent a lot of time on the interior. I had some excellent reference photos and so I did a lot of paint detailing in the interior, i.e. gauges, belts, pedals, etc. With the chopped top and kit plastic "glass" in place you can't see any of it. Complete waste of time and effort. Anyway, this is an old kit that's been laying around in my stash for years, and years, and the decal sheet doesn't look too good and that's why I ordered some from Slixx. Comments, critique, criticism, and discussion, as usual, is highly encouraged.

Wow! I just read through all 9 pages of this thread and I'm physically exhausted! I wish individual posts had a "like" button as Facebook does because there are a few on here that I, well, like because the poster gets it. I hope you all know who you are. I agree with several on here and feel that "modern nostalgia cars" (Now there's an oxymoron for you!) whether they be "gassers" or "top fuel" cars, bear little to no resemblance to what they are called. I'd rather see the real thing in a museum or on the show field that one of these modern fakes going down the race track. But that's just me. One other thing that has only been touched upon slightly is that Corvettes and Austin Healys, etc. are not gassers. The full name of the class back then was "Gas Coupes and Sedans". Corvettes were considered "sports cars" and were not eligible for the gas classes. If you look closely at some of the photos posted here you can see the class designation /MSP which stood for "Modified Sports". I know, I know, they have that "gasser vibe" and that's fine, but for those of you who like to build for accuracy, for the gas classes, Corvettes are out!

The last kit I sold on eBay I charged $9.50 for shipping. The post office charged me $11.25! The next time I decide to sell something the shipping charge will be $12.00!

I've built one or two NASCAR kits over the years. This is a photo of the display shelves in my model room when we lived in SoCal. The bottom 6 shelves are 100% NASCAR models. This is "unbuilt kit storage" right after we moved to TN. 3/4 of that lower half are all NASCAR kits. I don't have a decent photo of my current shelving but I have 144 built NASCAR models, the majority of which are the well known Revell/Monogram variety. (And I probably have 100 or more unbuilt kits out in the garage) I say this not to brag but to bring up the point of the original poster which is the wide variety of NASCAR models that are available. (At least until recently) What is also interesting is the declining value of those kits. There was a time when a few them, like Monogram's early UNO Buick and Piedmont Chevrolet, were worth quite a bit of money. As much as $80.00. Today I see most of the NASCAR kits on eBay asking anywhere from $4.00 to $10.00 and going unsold at those prices! If I didn't have so many already, this is would be a really good time to stock up!

I'm sitting here in my home office working on my first cup of coffee, no one else is up yet and the house is quiet. Your first photo made me say "wow" out loud! Amazing and beautiful paint and detail work!

That's pretty cool, I like that!

You and I aren't the only ones on this board who live in the tri-cities, Tony.

Well, I have to agree with you, I don't know what happened there. I've gotten stuck in the middle of lots of projects and put them away, never again to see the light of day, but I can't explain what the deal was with this one.

I'm thinking about it, Dr. I've got a '64 Mercury that I'm thinking about, that needs a set of Supremes and a hot color!

Well, funny you should say that because a hopped up flathead was my first thought for this car. I'm just completely out of the "right" parts to do one so the 289 became my second choice.

My local Hobby Lobby charges $3.79 for those 1/2 ounce bottles of Model Master paint!

The other day, while I was routing around in my stash looking for an engine for the '48 Ford Rag Top I came across this: The Monogram Hertz Mustang GT350H. It was sitting there in the box, 90% finished. I forgot I even had it! Everything was painted, even the stripes, (The Monogram decals were brown not gold so I painted the stripes) the chassis was done, wheels painted and detailed, engine done. I have no idea why I put it away so close to being finished, but all it took was a little foil work around the windows and final assembly. Any of you guys ever do that?

Very nice, I loves me some Falcons.

Here, you'll like this one a lot better!

Must be the lighting. I can't see it on the model. Studio lighting and good lenses will do that. It wouldn't be the first time I've had to go back and "fix" something after seeing how it photographed. And for the record, I can't see it in the interior photo.

Oh okay, I'll give you that one. But technically it's not a mold line, it's a joint between two parts. I was thinking he was talking about mold lines on the body, of which there are none! And again, do you know how often anybody looks under the hood on any of my models? Never, not ever, never. I was really tempted to not even put an engine in there. I had this entire model done, all but final assembly, before I even started on the engine. I'll tell you what else isn't in there either, there's no battery, no master cylinder, no steering column, no fuel lines, no throttle linkage. That photo is most likely the last time the hood will ever be off this model!

Can't take credit for that. The tires looked like that right out of the box.

So, I take it you didn't think much of my model, huh? I'll give you the second two criticisms. I've never done a paint job that didn't have a little bit of dust in it somewhere. I have two cats in the house and I paint in the garage. Dust in the paint is a given around here and I don't lose any sleep over it. And yes, the paint did get a little thin in the panel lines. My bad, mixed the paint a touch too thin. That actually looks worse on the photos than it does in person. But mold lines? Nope, I can't take that one.