alan barton

I know what you mean, Tom! I have a project brewing in my head at the moment and it is going to require some ship bottling for very similar reasons! Cheers Alan

This week I am going to give the bodywork a rest (there is plenty more to do) and get some more work done on the interior. So far I have cut out the XL500 console and replaced it with a transmission hump out of an unknown 70s or 80s interior. I am also going to convert that rear seat into a front bench seat. I have been following Steve Guthmiller's builds for years and while I don't pretend for a moment that this will reach his incredibly high standards, I want to push my own standards and skills on this project. I then cut the two ends of one bucket seat and grafted that to the ends of the rear seat to make it the proper width for a sedan. I have removed the obligatory rear hood bow housings from the convertible interior tub And will shortly cut the side panels off to detail them with four door details. I am not overly concerned about a perfect replica of a 61 Galaxie at this point, as long as it is a believable 60s style four door interior. I will also have to get two appropriately startled police officers ready for the ride of their life! Cheers Alan

Once the primer had dried, I just had to do a mockup. The model started as a 63 Galaxie convertible, it has a 63 Galaxie hardtop frame and I have temprorarily borrowed the grille and front bumper from my survivor 61 convertible. It ahs a nose up stance at the moment but I think I just popped the rear axle in the wrong set of holes!

I took a few shots before I applied the Duplicolor so that you could see what has taken place so far. Hard to believe it started as that yellow blob at the top of the post. I was tryiing to get it to as close as perfect as possible before I primed it but to be honest I was finding it more an more difficult to find the flaws that I new would be there. Easily the hardest part has been the windshield frame and it is not right yet. On the other hand, the rear window opening was surprisingly straight forward. The roof structure, a techinique I learned from Ponch on the old Short Track Models forum, has held up really well throughout all the handling.

The neighbours cat insisted on inspecting my work before i started priming. I think she's saying "you missed a bit!"

This already ahs a great stance - should look amazing when it is detailed and finished. Cheers Alan

Looks like a million dollar shine right there! Cheers Alan

It's really hard to say anything other than cool - it is simply my first reaction to this car! Then you look closer and see how neatly you massaged everything to complete the illusion of reality - this looks like a replica of an actual vehicle rather than a flight of fantasy. The chopped screen is a nice touch. Truly excellent. Cheers Alan

Hey, Ray, you do what you can do with what you've got. Display it with the front end tilted up and no-one will be the wiser regarding the fit - that's what I did with my survivor coupe. We all know that the Revell Willys, both generations, are the better model but I aim to have one example of every pre war hot rod in my collection so the AMT's have to be in there. What I do like a lot is the colour - you did a superb job of applying it. Cheers Alan

Welcome aboard Eric. There is a strong community of hot rodders here, myself included, and a lot of us build and drive the real thing as well so you are in good company! If you are new to this board you will be blown away by some of the hot rod builds here. We look forward to seeing what you've got! Cheers Alan

Les, from what I've seen and looking at the model in my stash, the Vantastic has proportions and styling clues very close to a stock 35/36 Tudor, even though the fenders and front sheet metal suggest 37/38. Cheers Alan

That's it! I too was reluctant to cut up mine - I have a white street rod and a red fire truck, but eventually scored a pair of pre-loved versions, one of which has already felt the cut-off wheel in the angle grinder! To do your Dad's sedan, this diecast model combined with the plastic body off Testors 37 style hot rod van ( forgotten the name for now, Vantastic?) would have you hitting the 1/25th scale streets pretty soon Cheers Alan

Magic! Everything about it is different and yet it feels like an old friend. Still thinking of a colour combo for mine but hope to join the party soon. As for the flying eyeball, I wonder how many other hot rod modellers right now are going "Why didn't I think of that!!??!!??!! Cheers Alan

Cool bananas! Think I got a similar but different Flintstone body around here somewhere - certainly gives me some ideas. I like the way one of these could have been the evolution of the other one. Cheers Alan

Thanks Dave, for the update. Like Steve H above, I can see two sides to this. I don't see any of those associated with producing MCM becoming millionaires anytime soon. They are just guys like you and me trying to earn a living. Gregg has been dealt a particularly challenging deck of cards what with vehicle accidents, multiple surgeries, changes to billing arrangements with printers, caring for seriously ill relatives etc. Don't even mention COVID 19. I'm sure he is wondering what comes next, and hoping it is only good things. I certainly wouldn't want to be in his shoes at the moment. On the other hand, people have entered into a contract for services to be provided for varying amounts of money. The money has been paid but the magazine has not been delivered on time or anywhere near it. So they have every right to be concerned about this, about the potential loss of their subscription monies, and want to know a bit more about what is happening. Any current affairs show on your local TV will have plenty of similar examples of companies failing to deliver on their promises. Any improvement in communications ( because without Larry and Dave's posts, there hasn't been much and they haven't been able to give any sort of timeline) would, I believe, go a long way to allaying their fears. I am extremely appreciative that in all the turmoil, the forum continues to exist and obviously Gregg hasn't given up on that. And at least with MCM, the quality never deteriorated, just the actual delivery! Sadly I couldn't say the same for other magazines, where I was buying maybe two a year when I felt there was enough of interest to justify the expense - American magazines in Australia run around $20 a copy on average. I don't think MCM has ever had a dud - I read every one cover to cover multiple times. I remain hopeful - good luck everyone, and anytime you can give us an update with a few specifics, it would be greatly appreciated. Cheers Alan

A few more nights of sanding puttying sanding, puttying, you know the drill. I decided the fins were a bit too short and abrupt on the front door so last night I gingerly removed the bit in front of the door gap and made a new extension - went smoother than I expected but still needs a little more sanding and puttying. The leading edge of the hood needed the trim that eventually wraps right around the the corners of the fenders. I took a piece of half round Evergreen and used liquid cement to join it to the front of the hood, then wrapped the excess around the corners of the fenders fixing that with superglue because of all of the bog in that area. Once everything was dry I cut through the join between the fenders and hood - wiht a little bit of sanding it will work fine. To take a break from all the sanding and puttying, I spent the last bit of the evening massaging the frame. I made up some A arm extensions to make up for the shortcomings ( literally) of the AMT kit, bridged the gaps between the exhaust manifolds and tailpipes and finished it all off with a bit of drybrushing. The need for two holes toward the rear of the tailpipes will become obvious later in the build.

Gee, that chassis is impressive, Dann! I started my Invader at least 15 years ago and was going for a fairly box stock build with additional detailing where necessary but seeing this makes me rethink it altogether. Especially those horrible lumps of engines. I always thought there had to be two different designers at Eldon, one who did the bodies and basic frame and pretty much got it right, and one who did the engines and running gear and hadn't been allowed to sharpen his crayons yet! I have the Outhouse car and the Milk Truck finished in my cabinet and the difference between the two main sets of components is amazing. How did one guy get it so right when the other guy got it so wrong? Continuing to enjoy your very detailed build - thanks for bringing us along for the ride. Cheers Alan

Rob, just grab a paint brush handle, place it above your leads, aligned with the head, and push down on your plug leads. It will give you a nice uniform drape to the leads in seconds and it looks like there is enough excess to let them droop a little. Certainly enough to get rid of the spiders legs! Like your project - TRoG is cool! Cheers Alan

As if building a stock Revell Anglia isn't tricky enough, you chop the living daylights out of it, jam ten pounds of potatos in a five pound bag and get it together with surgical precision! This is credit to your skill, Steve, will become one of the most memorable Anglia builds ever! Cheers Alan

Just here to help, mate! Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think I will leave those crossmembers out altogether and get the body down out of clouds. Judging by your photos, the original tub clears the gearbox OK. Cheers Alan

My pleasure! Thinking about it, using those crossmembers would raise the body on the frame. It might be just as effective to simply superglue some short pins into the holes on the frame that are visible in your photos and drop the interior over them - bazzinga, positive location with low ride height! Cheers Alan

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the support. Tom, you are dead right, I can't explain the hold this thing has on me right now but it wants to be built! I have been working steadily on it over the last few nights and in the main progress has been positive. I put some gutters on but I will probably need to remove them and place them slightly higher up. The windshield frame looks very dorky on the top surface at the moment, not sure what I will do there. I had to redo the driver's side centre door cut as it was leaning backwards. Meanwhile the bodywork around the front edge of the fenders is coming along well. At this stage, worse case scenario being that I don't find any 61 Galaxie grille and bumpers between now and next July, I will fit the grille in the photos that I very gingerly removed from my survivor convertible that I built in 1973. The convertible needs to be on the diorama as well, being a pre-62 car, so we will park it with the nose facing away from the public. After the show I will refit the correct grille to the convertible and then fit the custom 63 Galaxie grille to the cop car until such time as a 61 turns up. I kept looking at the radiator support panel with Steve Guthmiller's voice in my ear about screw posts showing. This is a fragile and thin body and I can only see trouble brewing if I were to cut out and replace the panel. Instead, I filed the front surface of the circular post flat ( not flush) and then filed a downwards taper on the back surface of the post. Thinking when this is all painted black it will be very difficult to spot. And, I will still have positive location points with which to mount the chassis. Still lots of sanding an spot puttying to go but maybe primer by the weekend? Cheers Alan

Hi Jim, that is looking very cool and the stock front end works just fine! I got some photos last night of the crossmembers. They are simple enough but what is kinda cool is that they have mounting pins top and bottom, which I have tried to show in the photo. The bottom pins go into the locating holes in the top of the frame and the top pins go into the locating holes in the bottom of the interior tub. To help out Dennis, I have also posted pictures of the black plastic parts that would be white plastic in the version you suggested to him and also what the chrome sprue looked like on the original Double Kit release. I have found nearly everything now but am still hunting for the headlights. I have a very organised parts box system which is why it was easy to find stuff but once I earmark parts and put them in a box with a project, then I have to rely on my memory and that is not nearly as organised! I won't be starting my project right away as I want to get the American Grafitti police car finished first. Cheers Alan

No worries, Jim, I will post them tonight when I get home from work. So seeing as how there looks like there is going to be a tsunami of fenderless 27 Tubs happening very soon, do you want to run them all on your post almost like a community build or would you prefer we start our own separate posts? I'm easy either way. Cheers Alan

I have really enjoyed watching your progress so far Ralph, especially your fabrication skills. That injected Y block really ticks all the boxes. Was there a similarly styled black one as well? The little voices in my head are saying Doane Spencer of chopped 3W fame but I could be mistaken. Cheers Alan