Phildaupho

Very excellent Deuce in all respects. Extremely well built. It has its own presence but definitely is reminiscent of Gray's Roadster at least on the outside before the primer spots.

Hi Maxx - I will post some more photos this weekend. Stay tuned.

Cant go wrong following a Steve Stanford rendering. I am a big fan of 53 Studes and purple so will be following

Very well built models

Two very attractive Pontiacs

Very interesting and of course very well built.

Excellent trio and great photos

Although the kit came with rubber-like tires at this point I am going with parts box tires which are of the same dimensions and may even be the same tires on which the kit tires were based. The rear tires and wheels had to be narrowed by about ¼ inch each side so the tires would fit within the body between the outside surface and the diffuser. I plan to glue a tube onto of the diffuser through which the rear axle will pass and maintain the rear stance. To mount the front axle slots were cut in the foot box and a fair amount of material had to be removed from this assembly to give inner clearance for the wheels and tires. Once the exact stance is established, I will make up a holed mounting plate from sheet styrene to glue on the side of the foot box. Both the front and rear wheels wells required reshaping for the tire diameters. While I had the dust mask on I also recontoured the lower side of the body to give a nice flare to the bottom sill. I also re-scribed all the panel lines.

This the Model Factory Hiro 550 curbside kit I have had in my stash for a number of years.

One of my favourite racing cars and model. I have never seen the two Theodore Racing liveries before. They look great. Very good looking trio.

Fantastic model of a very interesting car

Looking forward to your 2024 production.

I have started cleaning up the body which is basically a very thick hunk of resin. The build process appears to be very straight forward and relatively simple. It is a true curbside in that not only does the engine compartment not open but other than the rear diffuser there no underbody detail meaning no suspension, steering gear or brakes. The wheels are mounted with pass through metal axles like some of the first model cars I built back in the early 1960's. The challenge will be that there are no mounts or holes for locating the axles. That being said my first steps of this build will be fixing up the wheelwells and mounting the wheels and tires.

Thanks. Definitely the primary aspect of this model is the livery and the shape of the body.

Yes I definitely prefer the look of the big back window Thanks guys. It looks like Rookie Resin has closed but from the looks of it a 305 V6 could be fabricated by shortening a 348 or 409 and modifying the valve covers ??

Thanks guys,

The Red Lobster Restaurants sponsored March 83G IMSA GTP has one of the coolest liveries of all time. When I discovered back in the late 1990’s that there was a resin kit available of that car I could not resist ordering it especially when it came from a Canadian company – Formula Canada. This is a curbside model so does not have the small block Chevrolet engine of the real car which made 83G’s very competitive until the Porsche 962’s arrived on the scene. There is some work I intend to do on the body like reshaping the wheelwells and recontouring the lower sides. The kit includes both resin and photo-etched parts. There are two sheets of decals featuring the fabulous Red Lobster livery. I plan to both reseal the decal sheets and scan them in case I have to make up an extra set. For reference I am going to refer to a great article in Vintage Motorsports. I have also looked at lots of images on line and a YouTube video on the car.

Your BMW is especially gorgeous. Nice group of models.

Thanks for your comments. Much appreciated

Definitely all award worthy models

Fantastic group of models. The Volvo is outstanding

That is going to an awesome TR4. The Ford V-8 is likely no heavy than the inline sixes that eventually found their way in to TRs. I remember a Hot Rod magazine article about installed a 289 Ford into an Austin Healey. The Ford V-8 was 60 pounds lighter than the Ford V-8 which required the front end to be lowered. Do it. An LS might be the best way to go these days. I have had a third gen for 11 years and still love it. Had the top down today. I have a 2008 PRHT. Someday it might receive an electric transplant !!?? They must sound great too!! Go for it. If doing it again I would have mounted the V-8 lower in the engine compartment Thanks everybody. It is nice to start a new year with a build that is well received.

That is one gorgeous Vicky. Congratulations on an excellent build.

This is the last project started by my good friend Harry before he passed 10 years ago. When Harry came across an article about a 1962 Crew Cab GMC pickup, he could not resist building a model of that vehicle. The story of this truck is very interesting. Back in the day railway companies made a request to GMC for trucks that could carry a crew of six to the worksite -hence the name crew cabs. GMC supplied all the mechanicals and most of the body panels but the conversions were done by independent companies. A guy in California decided to order one of these crew cabs for private use to take his whole family on holidays with a camper on back. He able to order some options like chrome trim and a big back window. When it was restored by a subsequent owner it was lowered with air bags. It appears Harry was wanting to build a replica of the car he had a photo of but I am guessing he was not aware of information now available online. For instance, Harry may not have noticed the big back window in the photo he had as the small back window survives on his model. Another anomaly is the inline 6-cylinder in Harry’s engine compartment. The real car had a 305 V-6 – an engine I had no prior knowledge of until researching this project. For more info on the 1/1 truck check out – This 1962 GMC Crew Cab Is The Only One Of Its Kind. But It’s Not A Custom. (motortrend.com) I am at odds whether this model should be completed or kept as a moment in time with the parts Harry had acquired and modified. I was able to temporarily assemble most of Harry’s parts with masking tape and Silly-Putty. If it was left totally up to me, I might be tempted to slam it to the ground, add dually rear wheels and tires and a twin turbo big block under the hood.

If you are not familiar with Monster Miatas, they started out being powered by 5-Liter FI Ford V-8’s. Lately LS Chevy engines have become a popular swap. For more back ground check out this link https://www.monstermiata.com/ I have been wanting to build a Monster Miata for quite some time and had the necessary kits in my stash to carry out the conversion. Seeing an actual Monster Miata at a local car show this past summer renewed my interest in building a model of one. Both kits used are Monogram, 1/24 scale and in the ever-popular brittle red styrene [not]. One of course, is a first-generation Miata and the other is a ’55 Ford Pickup Street machine which supplied the 5.0 engine. The wheels are Watanabes from an Aoshima Toyota kit I built last year. Watanabe wheels are the Japanese version of Minilite wheels on which the original Miata wheels were based. My objective was to build a model that was at least reminiscent of a Monster Miata rather than an accurate replica. The Miata kit is actually pretty nice especially with its well detailed under carriage however getting the 5.0 Ford to fit under the hood was a challenge involving a fair amount cutting and grinding. The 1/1 conversion might actually be easier using the recommended modified parts. I adapted the front cover and accessory pulleys and belts from the Mazda engine and had to move the radiator forward. Being V-8 powered, the car needs dual exhausts. These were adapted from the Corvette C-5 kit. As for the body I decided to keep it looking close to being stock at first glance but I did use the kit supplied optional slightly modified front and rear bumper facias. I considered installing a roll bar with supports but I wanted to be able to display the model with the custom tonneau cover as well as the up-top and stock tonneau. Instead, I made a couple of roll hoops from solder to fit under the custom tonneau.