W-409

Never heard of that manufacturer before, but glad I did now. Checked it out and looks like this was another expensive day...

Thanks Pierre! I kind of would like to have the body removable to be able to get a good view on the chassis. But, at the same time, I'm not really a fan of models that look like a yard sale at a model car show with all body parts removed. I mean, there's basically nothing wrong with that, but you can't figure out the overall view that way, and to me, the overall look is pretty important. So with that said, the body will not be removable when this is done. So basically all of the fabrication on chassis and axles is just for our entertainment and WIP pictures, as it can't be seen on a finished model. I will have an opening hood though, so the engine can be displayed.

Now with my Optional Super Stock '61 Impala finished (see here, if interested: https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/200176-don-nicholsons-61-chevrolet-impala-oss/), it's time to get back working on this thing. Last weekend I got a Quick Change rear axle for this build. As I couldn't find one in my parts boxes, a friend of mine decided to cast a couple of them in resin, so that's what I'll be using. I also found a leaf spring that could work for the rear suspension. The only problem with that leaf spring was that it was too wide for this application. So I narrowed it a little from both ends. Then I mocked it up to the rear axle, drilled holes for mounting tabs to both, leaf spring and rear axle, so now thanks to the mounting tabs, I'm able to do mock ups easily without any glue. I decided to go with the kit tires, because of a couple of reasons. First, I like the idea of using as many parts as possible of this simple and quite rarely seen kit. Second, they are pretty much the correct size for this thing, and third, while they're not the most detailed out there, with the belly pan installed, they're not seen basically at all when this model is finished. To make the tires fit the rear axle, I had to drill their mounting holes a little bigger. And here I'm doing a mock up with rear axle, leaf spring and tires to see where I need to fabricate a rear crossmember to the frame so that I have something where the leaf spring will actually mount. That crossmember will also determine that rear axle will be mounted into a correct height to achieve proper ride height. Once that's figured out, I can fabricate somekind of control arms for the rear axle.

The interior is looking really good so far! Excellent work with the detailing and weathering to get rid of the plastic look. Very nice work!

Really nice work on a beautiful car! I might have missed it, but is it an actual model kit or resin? Or 3D print?

Thanks guys! I appreciate the kind comments! It was a long time in the making, but honestly most of the time it was just being boxed away for some reason. I'm happy to have it finished and it looks pretty good on the shelf. Last weekend we had our annual FHRA Model Car Contest which is a show I've been participating every year since 2008. The judges decided this thing was worth a Top Ten finish, which was unexpected, but nice.

Thanks Robert, I appreciate the kind words.

Great looking fabrication so far, keep it up! It's always a pleasure to see an uncommon kit being built into something different, so a big thumbs up because of that, too. As a Rambler guy, I really like the Rambler Gasser as well.

I'm kind of late to the party, but we visited the show with my Rambler, and had a great time! Some cool vehicles from way back were on display and the model cars were cool too. Too bad I didn't get much pictures of the model cars as the room was pretty crowded... Anyway, if you want to see some pictures of the show, here's my gallery: https://tapahtumakuvia.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Tapahtumat+2025/Stockholm+Hot+Rod+Show+29.3.2025/

Thanks for the kind words everyone! I appreciate it. They are from Detail Master's Battery Hardware Kit:

Very nice, clean work creating a beautiful and a period correct race car! I know some people are not that thrilled about this kit, but your build proves that it can be built into a very nice model. Excellent work!

Thanks Bill, much appreciated! The final assembly went smoothly and this thing is now finally Finished! Check it out here: Thanks to everyone who has been following along or posting comments, I really appreciate that. Now, on to the next one.

This is a project I started originally in 2009 and finally finished it yesterday. For 1961 Nationals at Indy, NHRA announced a new class that was called Optional Super Stock. Optional Super Stock allowed normal Stock class entries to use recently introduced parts and equipment for 1962 model year, or one could run with body / engine combination that wasn't available straight from the factory showroom, if the vehicle was otherwise Stock legal. Also, a hood scoop was allowed. Don Nicholson modified his '61 Impala to run in the new OS/S class, so the 1961 409 engine with a single four barrel carburetor was rebuilt with a 1962 setup with dual Carter carburetors, cylinder heads and a camshaft. Nicholson won the class final against The Ramchargers, but was unfortunately disqualified because of prohibited valve springs... The Optional Super Stock class was short-lived, it was replaced in 1962 by the newly introduced Factory Experimental category, which became really popular. I wanted to build this model to match the car Nicholson drove at Indy in 1961. It is based on a Lindberg kit, which represents the version of the car that Nicholson drove at the early 1961 season, so I had to do some modifications. The kit is not the most detailed one, but it's actually not bad either, here I tried to fix some of its' biggest problems. Engine was replaced by one that I took out of an AMT '62 Bel Air built-up. It is a better detailed version of the 409 than what you get in the Lindberg box, but it also has the correct 1962 model year parts. Most notable modifications are headers that I scratchbuilt from plastic rod.They are built using a picture of the 1:1 car engine bay as a reference. Carburetors are 3D printed Carters by an unknown supplier, ignition coil and valve cover breathers were scratchbuilt and the incorrect placement of the generator was fixed by modifying the belt drive. Other than that it's mostly out of box, with just some added details like plug wires, throttle linkage, fuel lines, generator wiring etc. On chassis I replaced wheels and tires. Front tires are from, I believe, Revell '58 Impala, rear tires are from AMT Parts Pack and wheels are resin cast by a friend of mine. I had to modify the way the wheels mount on both, front and back, to make them sit properly, and also I lifted the front suspension a little to achieve the stance of the 1:1 car. Other than that the chassis is mostly box stock with added fuel lines, brake lines and scratchbuilt clutch and parking brake linkages. Interior is mostly box stock. I used flocking for carpet, everything is painted with Revell Enamels, for dashboard I used an airbrush, but everything else is brush painted. Added details are seat belts and tachometer cable. The body of this kit was pretty good. I had to make lower window trim for rear window from plastic rod, but otherwise no major modifications had to be done. Paint is Tamiya LP-39 Racing White shot with an airbrush, followed by Mipa clear coat and polishing. Chrome trim is BMF, side windows with hand painted class markings are made out of sheet acetate, some body emblems are taken from a MCG photo-etch set. Hood scoop is scratchbuilt from sheet styrene. It was a fun build and overall the kit went together better than I expected. Like always, I made mistakes on the way, but I can be pretty happy how it looks on the shelf anyway. All kinds of comments are welcome, so I can build the next one better. If you want to see the WIP-thread, it's here: https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/88260-don-nicholson-61-impala-oss/

I have one of these kits that's missing some parts. Now that I've bought some of the missing parts in eBay, decals from Slixx and also one glue bomb from a friend that will give me the rest of the parts needed to build Ohio George's Willys, it's natural that they will reissue the kit. So, glad to see it's reissued, but personally don't need it for now...

Really nice work with engine detailing! I think toning down the chrome on valve covers was a good move. At least I've lately been using very few actual chrome parts on my engine bays. Instead, flat clear on top of kit chrome plating or different "chrome paints" which don't really give the perfect chrome effect, give usually a more realistic looking result, just like we see here.

Thanks Bruce! Since the latest pictures, I've got a lot of things done with this thing. First I painted inside of the body with flat black, except the headliner that was painted red. Then I installed windows. Fitment of kit's windows was pretty good, but the kit didn't come with side windows. Usually, especially with a Hardtop, I like to keep the side windows down, but in this case as the class markings are on side windows, and the Optional Super Stock class is kind of rare to see anywhere because it was pretty short-lived class, I definitely wanted to make side windows for this as well. They were cut from sheet plastic, window frame is BMF and I hand-painted class markings with a small brush, to represent white shoe polish that they used on the 1:1 car. Also, inner fenders were painted gloss black. Here the body is ready to be installed on chassis. Firewall had some molded in wires that I painted black. After installing the firewall, I was able to modify steering shaft to fit with my new, corrected generator placement. I made one U-joint to the steering shaft, which is covered inside a black rubber boot, after this the steering shaft fits properly on place and the U-joint was easy to fabricate, as it is "hidden" under the rubber boot. Brake master cylinder was also installed and the last piece of brake line was fabricated. And here the body and chassis are glued together. A couple of things made this step a little tricky. First, the kit wants you to glue firewall to the body before installing body and chassis together. I couldn't do that, as I had to be able to connect cluth linkage together before installing the body. Also, modifying the steering shaft was a lot easier now that the body wasn't installed yet. So while installing the body, I had to temporarily remove the heater box from firewall and re-glue it back on place after body had been installed. Another issue was radiator wall / radiator / fan shroud. The kit wants you to glue that to the chassis before installing the body. The problem was, I glued front valance panel to the body before paint, so to be able to install the chassis, I had to trim the front ends of both frame rails away. Now there was no place where to mount the radiator wall on the frame. After some fiddling, I was able to install radiator wall on place after the body and chassis were together. It looks like it's close to being done, but there's still tons of little details to do.

Thank You! Bruce, you're right, and that's what makes the side trim pretty tricky to foil nicely. Especially with a body that has an extra coat of clear, like this one. Well, today I got the chrome trim done with BMF. Window trim was easy, but the side trim wasn't. While the end result is not perfect, I'm pretty happy how it turned out. Tomorrow I'll need to paint the body from underside and start thinking about installing windows for it.

Thanks Guys! I also clear coat all of my builds, doesn't matter if it's a solid paint or metallic, or if it does or doesn't have decals, I clear coat anyway. Because all paints and clear coats polish a little different, then I can polish all of my builds the same way, knowing that it'll work the way I want. The body is now finally polished (minus the hood, which will still need to be polished, but there's still plenty of time for that). It was a lot of work, mainly because my polishing cloths are starting to be pretty worn out. I got this one done, but for the next one I'll need to shop new ones. The clear polished out ok. Not flawless, but I think I can live with it. Next task will be BMF for chrome trim.

This will be a great project! We don't see enough Land Speed Racers built here and we all know this is going to be a beautiful model when finished. While I'm not really a fan of rusty / patina paint jobs, I think you nailed it on this one! Looks really good.

Yes. According to my experience with Tamiya clear, it's a good idea to spray several very, very light coats of clear to areas that have decals. Once the decals have been covered by clear completely, then you can spray a couple of a bit heavier coats to get a proper finish. But if you start very carefully with super thin coats of clear (of course with any clear, you have to start with light coats, but with Tamiya I think it's even more important to start slow), that way I've never had an issue. This is a great looking project and you're doing a good job with it. Keep it up!

I do, but the early pictures are unfortunately half-covered by a Photobucket tag. On later pictures I was using Fotki so they work fine. Here it is, and here's also a link to my Fotki album to actually see the pics. https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/90198-55-chevy-bel-air-ags-finished/ https://public.fotki.com/NostalgicDrag/55-chevy-bel-air-ags/

Water under the decal came to my mind as well, even though I let the decals dry for a couple of days before clear coating. I have always cleared over decals, it gives them kind of a "painted on-look" compared to them looking just like, well, decals. With the spray paints, I've never had an issue with it. The issue with me being here in Finland, is that buying supplies is a lot trickier and more expensive. That's one reason I wanted to use the Mipa clear coat that I have leftovers from my latest 1:1 scale painting project.

That's a bummer, sad to see a quality resin company closing its' doors. Not only they have excellent products, but the subjects are also very interesting. Just placed an order via Slixx. In today's world of 3D printing I'm sure the popularity of printed items can be seen in product sales of resin cast parts. Personally, while 3D printing sure has its advantages, I've have yet to see a 3D printed product that would be as good as a quality resin cast item. I mean, many 3D printed parts are very highly detailed, but the printing texture becomes an issue with fiddly parts as it's so tricky to remove. With that said, I prefer resin cast parts, but of course, 3D printing will probably get better over time.

This turned out really nice, but coming from your bench that's no surprise at all! I built the same kit as a mid '60s Gasser a few years ago and did plenty of upgrades to make it more realistic, but my build was not nearly as good as yours. With that said, my hat is off for the amount of work you put into this one, making a cool but not really that great kit into a masterpiece. This simply looks "right" in all areas, but if I had to pick a favorite, the engine bay is a work of art. Very nice job on this model, interesting to see what's next.

Thanks Bruce, Tom and Tim! I really appreciate it. The clear turned out really good everywhere else, but for some reason, on top of the decals the clear coat had a few small "fish-eyes" here and there. I'm still a bit on a learning curve with this clear coat that I'm using, or in fact, I've used it several times on 1:1 cars but I've had to figure out how to make it work with scale models as well. I've done a good amount of testing with it, and before painting / clear coating this body, I painted a spare hood with this exact paint and laid two decals on it. The decals were from this same kit. That test piece had no issues. So, to fix it, I have carefully sanded both sides of the body with a polishing cloth and a few minutes ago I sprayed a couple of light coats of clear to the sides of this body. So far, it looks like it's going to work. So if no catastrophic failures happen while the clear coat is drying, I should be able to start polishing this in a few days. In case someone is wondering, in the past I've mostly used spray paints found in a local hardware store. It's easy to get a good paint job with them on a body, but smaller parts are tricky. And, the color selection is very limited. Meaning, all of the cars painted red, for example, are the exact same shade of red so it looks a bit boring on the display shelf. That's why I'm trying to move on to using airbrush, because it gives me a lot more options as far as different paints go.