W-409

That turned out great! It shows that even though the kit is pretty simplified in many ways, it can be built into a very nice model with a few modifications here and there, and of course, a skilled builder, like here. Nicely done.

Thanks Carl and Scott!

Thanks for the kind words! They're appreciated. David, you're right that the molded in body parts are a downside in this kit, as well as the lack of chrome parts. But honestly I don't think it's that big deal. With some careful BMF work and a "chrome plating" for the bumpers I think they can look pretty good. I got the wheels and tires done. They are both AirTrax resin items, tires are painted flat black and clear coated with flat clear out of a spray can, wheels are Revell gloss black enamel. I wanted Dog Dish style hubcaps for this one, so I made them out of aluminum. Actually, I had done a few sets of those when I worked at a machining shop earlier.

Thanks! No hood scoop on this one, as I couldn't figure out a model that fits the look of the car. Maybe Mopar's Hemi scoop could have worked, but other than that I'm not so sure. Trevor, it has just a Ford 302 Small Block under the hood, backed up by a 6-speed manual transmission. It's hopped up some, but it's nothing that special really... But, it runs ok on the street. Hopefully this summer I can get nitrous installed on it so I could try to run a 12 second ET with it...

During the winter I did some updates to my Ford as the front fenders painted in wrong shade of green and the black hood were disturbing me the whole time. Fenders required pretty big rust repairs before paint, but now it looks a bit better. I also spent some time to make the fenders, bumper, headlight bezels etc fit properly on their places. I think it was worth it. Before: After:

Well, it's been a few years since I've worked on this project, but now that I got my '41 Plymouth done that had also been stalled for a long time (and several times) during the build process, I thought I'd finish something else that has been boxed away for a while. And this one came to my mind. In 2017 I clear coated the body so now that the clear coat was properly dry, it was time to polish it. I had sprayed a little lighter coat of clear than usual because I didn't want to lose all of the thin details on the body, so I had to be very careful not to polish through the clear. The 1/32 scale didn't help either, because all body panels are really small compared to the regular 1/24 or 1/25 that I'm used to. But, the end result came out pretty good.

This was an easy one. I doubt that I've seen one before, but when I saw the picture I immediately thought "Ok that has to be a Packard of somekind". And, after a couple of minutes in Google I found what it actually was.

I've seen some impressive results with polished plastic. But I have to agree with Bill, I think a properly done paint job looks better. So if it was me, I'd paint it.

Me too, and this one was the first one I could afford. Sure, I'll do a WIP thread when I get to it. Hopefully it happens later this year, but we'll see. I need to finish a couple of other projects first.

Trumpeter's '63 Nova SS Convertible came in the mail on Friday. That will be on the bench soon and the plan is to build it factory stock. Hubley's '60 Ford Country Sedan kit arrived today. Even though it looks tiny next to the giant box of the Nova, it's also 1/25 scale. Not complete, but a very good starting point for a build, and while it wasn't cheap, it was affordable. I'm debating if I should build it also factory stock, or then if I should build it as a Mild Custom. Let's see...

Wow! That's really good news! Although, opening this thread is getting expensive each time as basically every car kit that Atlantis has put out lately, is something I need to have.

Great work with the Nova, it turned out beautiful! It's hard to see from the pics, but did you have the issue where there is a gap between the firewall and the rest of the body? I just started building the Convertible version and looks like the firewall needs some modifying. The rear bumper fits a little too low, but of course that's Trumpeter's fault, not yours. Very nicely done build!

This will be interesting! First, I really like these late '50s Eldorado Broughams even in stock form. And second, I think the one that Mr. Watson painted back in the day looks even better. I've had actually plans of building this same kit into a Mild Custom as well, so I'm taking notes how your version goes together. The start looks already very promising so keep the pictures coming.

Or even better, if they converted it into a four door sedan Bel Air. Well, honestly I'm not holding my breath on that one. But, a re-release with stock parts would be cool.

This was easy ! Based on this VW, here in Finland they built a Finnish version called "Teijo" in 1975-'76. Though not very common, probably around 100 examples were made, they can still be seen at some car shows from time to time. So when I saw the picture I immediately recognized what it was, I just had to search Google for the correct year models.

Those magnets are a great idea to keep the doors aligned properly. I think I need to try that on something in the future. Overall I really like how the Ford is coming along. Especially the color choices on body and interior are spot on. This will be a very cool model when finished.

I'll need one of those Pontiacs! I built Arnie Beswick's '62 Catalina when that kit came out, what is it, probably like 10 years ago (does time really fly that fast??). It was such a fun build that I really need to do another one. And, there are never too many early '60s Super Stock cars. I'm not sure about the mid engine in the Boss Nova kit. I have one on my stash that is waiting to be built, it'll be converted back to more stock appearance some day. Why? Well, I bought it way before Round 2 re-released the stock Wagon and the originals were way more expensive so the Boss Nova was the way to go. Yes, nowadays it would make no sense to convert that thing back to stock-ish, but that's what I bought it for. So, with that said, I'll probably end up not buying the new Boss Nova kit, even though it would have lots of useable parts for kitbashing.

Well, despite not being the easiest build I think it turned out really nice! The color is spot on and nice work applying the the large decals. Very nicely done model! I'm building the same kit right now and seeing this definitely inspires me to do more progress with mine.

Thank you so much everyone for the kind words! They are appreciated! I actually thought about adding the towing tabs on the front some point during the build, but forgot to do that in the final assembly. Well, next time then. With all of the new cool Pickup kits available and coming soon, we have plenty of choices for cool shop trucks. The Ford is definitely on my must have list. I left some mistakes here and there like usual, so I can at least try to improve on the next one. I think they are called "Ferrules" or something like that. Me being here in Finland it probably doesn't help you guys much if I tell you that I bought them at a shop called Puuilo, but they look somewhat like this: They come in different sizes to just pick the size you want. Put them the plastic insulation heading down to your modeling table and carefully tap the other end to get the insulation off. Repeat this eight times and you have a set of injector stacks as seen on this model. The good thing about these is that you can buy a bag of, like, 100 pcs for a few bucks. The blackwash on the engine made a huge difference for sure! I didn't want to make it look like it's leaking oil from every possible gasket, but I wanted it to look a little "used" anyway. I think I succeeded in it. Thanks again everyone!

This is a very cool project, having just built the same kit myself it's nice to see one built with this much thought and attention to certain things that many modelers would just simply ignore. Maybe I missed it, but did you figure out somekind of a fix for the windshield fitment? I only found out on mine after the body was painted and chrome trim done with BMF that especially the fitment of the windshield was pretty bad, but there was nothing I could do about it at that point.

Thanks guys for the kind words! David, I'm not really a Mopar guy but I do have one 1:1 scale Ford so I guess they're a little closer to my heart even though I'm more like GM and AMC guy. Well, this thing is finally finished and posted in Under Glass! Thanks for everyone who has followed and/or posted comments on this thread. See here: https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/190358-41-plymouth-special-deluxe-gg/

Finally got this thing finished. I originally started building this in 2008, but after several times being stalled and boxed away I didn't finish it until today. The plan was to build somewhat a low-buck race car for NHRA's Gas Coupes & Sedans class, using the 1963 rulebook as a reference. I chose to build this into G/G class, which was reserved for cars equipped with straight six or straight eight engines, or Pre 1960 Ford Flathead engines. The engines had to run stock cylinder heads and they had to be naturally aspirated. So my starting point was an old Matchbox reboxing of AMT's '41 Plymouth. For the engine, I decided to go with a 221 Cid Ford Flathead from Revell's 1940 Ford kit. I scratchbuilt an intake manifold to use a Hilborn Fuel Injection setup. The injector stacks are somekind of electrical parts and fuel pump came from AMT Double Dragster kit. All fuel lines, throttle linkage etc were also added with several fuel line fittings made out of hex-shaped plastic rod. Headers were also scratchbuilt from round plastic rod, sheet styrene for flanges and pieces of mold sprue as collectors. Engine mounts, accessory belt and some small detail parts were also scratchbuilt and the engine was finished with a little black wash. Front suspension was completely modified to a straight axle setup with all parts from various sources (parts box). Springs were modified to get a desired ride height and steering system was partly scratchbuilt, partly modified from parts from my parts box. Shocks are also from parts box and shock mounts were scratchbuilt. Rear suspension is pretty much stock, I only had to widen the track width a little. Tires are from my parts box and wheels are resin cast steelies by a friend of mine. From the chassis I removed the stock gas tank and added a brake master cylinder and brake lines. Inner fenders were trimmed a little to make the fenderwell headers fit and radiator was taken also from Revell's '40 Ford. Interior is pretty much stock. Only additions are driver's seat belts, helmet, floor shifter and a tachometer + tach cable. Otherwise the interior is stock, just detailed with paint and a little BMF for the dashboard. The only real body modifications were to enlarge the rear wheel openings to fit bigger slicks on the back and building a hood scoop from sheet styrene. Front end needed some prepping before paint as the nose comes as a separate part. After the seams were smoothed out, I had to add the seals between front fenders and the rest of the body to the front because they were pretty much gone. I made them out of stretched mold sprue. I wanted to have a primer finish so the body was painted with grey primer and after a couple of decals I shot it with flat clear. Class designations on the door are handpainted with a brush to replicate white shoe polish. Chrome trim is BMF. So, here are the finished pictures. All kinds of comments are welcome so I can make the next one better. Thanks for looking everyone.

Thanks David! The interior is a little simple at some areas, but I think it came out pretty good. Especially as it's not seen that well in finished model anyway. I mocked up the grilles that came with the kit and found out that both of them had an issue with the mold, a piece of the grill was missing from both of them. I have one '41 Plymouth glue bomb on my stash so I checked that one, but it had the same problem. I carefully added a bit putty in there, sanded to correct shape and covered that with BMF. A bit tricky, but I think it came out decent. Then I painted the areas between the grille tubes with flat black. Body trim was also done with BMF. That was not easy either because many of the chrome trim were not that well visible after a couple of primer coats. But in the end I made it and while it's not my best BMF work I think I've also done worse... So I guess I'll live with it. Underside of the body was painted flat black and headliner area with flat brown like the interior. Then I glued windows on place. The fitment of the windshield is pretty bad, but there's nothing to do about it at this point unfortunately. Here the body and chassis are ready to go together... ...And body mounted on place. Now I'm pretty close to finishing so I guess this is the last update before I'm done.

Thanx David and Mike, much appreciated! I think the chassis is pretty much done so once I get the body finished I can glue them together and then work on the last details. For the engine bay I installed a Mooneyes gas tank in front of the radiator and built a fuel line from the tank to the fuel pump. The tank was glued together from two halves so it required a bit of filling and sanding before it could be painted, but it turned out ok. Fuel line fittings were done, as usual, from hex-shaped plastic rod and for the fuel cap I used the original '41 Plymouth unit. Interior was also finished. I added lap-style seat belts for the driver and a helmet that was painted with red metal flake. Shifter and tachometer are also my own additions, everything else came from the Plymouth kit. Dashboard was just detailed with paint and a little BMF.

Thanks Keith and David! I appreciate the kind words! After the first primer coat I needed to correct a few things here and there. Not too bad though, so a little putty and some sanding... Then I sprayed a second coat of primer on the body. When that dried everything looked good, so no more sanding was required. And as this is representing a budget racer, I wanted to leave this thing in grey primer. I also wanted to add a couple of decals between the doors and rear fenders. While the finish is a matt grey, I had to trim decals very carefully around the edges to avoid them silvering. I didn't want to go crazy with decals so I just added Isky Cams, Hilborn Injection and Mooneyes decals on the body. After that I sprayed a coat of flat clear to protect the paint and decals. Then I had to build a cooling system for the engine. Radiator is also from Revell's '40 Ford as is the engine. I wanted to use the radiator hoses from that kit as well, so I had to be really careful to get the radiator on the correct place so that all four water hoses fit. Finally I was able to figure out the right position so everything was glued on place. Then I had to paint the class designations to the body. I randomly chose a racing number and the class is G/G. I didn't want these to be perfect, because someone just painted them with white shoe polish at the Drag Strip. So I brush painted them on, and I think I managed to get the look I was after.