W-409

Thanks guys, it's good to be back on the bench. I haven't noticed any major flaws on the body, but to be honest I've always had a bad eye for that kind of things. Even though it might not be exactly correct, it builds up really nice and looks good when it's put together, so that's what matters to me the most. Speaking of the body... I sprayed the first coat of primer on it today. The body had lots of mold lines and mold flash to be cleaned, and it looks like I still need to fix a couple of spots before I can move on to the actual painting. Meanwhile, I hope I can do some progress with the interior.

I would not stress if the engine is 1/24 or 1/25, the actual size of the engine is what counts and I've noticed it has nothing to do with the scale difference between 1/24 and 1/25. I have always mixed those parts on my builds and there is no way anyone could tell if a certain part was different scale than the rest of the model.

Great work with the little Falcon. Always nice to see these old built-ups being brought back to life. The starting point was pretty rough but you did an excellent job fixing it. Nice work.

I think it should fit better than what you described straight from the box. When I built mine I don't remember having any fitment issues on that area that would have required any modifications. Like Mark said, make sure everything else is fitting properly when you do the test fit.

Sometimes I see cool cars in traffic here in Finland also. Here are some that I've been lucky enough to capture on camera in 2021. '70s Toyota Corolla. Very clean. Very clean Dodge Ramcharger: UAZ Van: This was the coolest one during the whole winter. '49 Buick Super. The owner is nowadays over 80 years old, he bought that Buick as his daily driver in 1960 and still drives it every day. Buick still has original 1949 straight eight under the hood. Saw it on one Saturday morning in local grocery store parking lot... Ford 17M: '70s Chevy Van: In the winter I also saw a '65 Rambler Marlin a couple of times but didn't get a picture. Plus, bunch of other cool cars.

More progress, front axle parts painted with several different colors. It was nice to see that ball joints and everything were molded really nicely to the A-Arms as many kits are lacking those details. Driveshaft painted... And here is the engine ready to be installed on place. I built a generator bracket from sheet styrene. Some small details like a carburetor linkage and generator wiring will be added later on when firewall and everything is installed. Then I glued the frame and chassis floor together. Exhaust pipes were not the easiest ones to install, but after some fiddling they fit fine. Front and rear suspension were installed too. Everything fit really nicely, except that I had to trim the rear shocks a little to fit properly. Not a big deal though. Wheels were painted gloss black. The white ring with silver Ford-lettering on the hubcaps was offered as decals, but while the letters on hubcaps were raised, there would be no way to get the decals applied cleanly. So I painted the white area and dry-brushed silver to the tiny Ford letters. Not perfect, but came out decent I guess.

Thanks! That's exactly what happened to me Tom. I went to look at the car and it was so clean that I had to have it. And it seems like it was a good decision, as it runs and drives excellent.

I updated my daily driver in January. I used to daily drive my '74 Malibu Classic Wagon, but with the current gas prices I had to find something that gets a bit better mileage. So I bought a '64 Rambler American. It's pretty much original in a really good condition, 196 Cid straight six and three on the tree. Really fun car to drive and much cheaper to drive as it gets a pretty good mileage, too. It is sold new here in Finland (in 1964) and has still original license plates and everything on it.

Time flies, they say... It has been six years since I have worked on this project. And actually I haven't been building pretty much anything scale model related for a year as I've been busy with 1:1 scale cars and other life... But last weekend I took this '57 Ford back on the bench. I'm not sure if it will get finished this time, but I'm going to try anyway. I prepped the chassis ready for paint and shot a coat of primer on it. That looked good so then I sprayed flat black from a spray can. Gas tank, spare tire cover and frame were brush painted with Revell Enamel colors. Rear axle was painted gloss black. Brake line was molded to the axle so I painted that silver. The case and springs are gun metal with some black washing done with The Detailer and bolt ends were painted silver. ' Engine is pretty close of being done. It is missing some small detailing and a few little parts... Hope to have the engine installed soon.

When I saw discussion about this theme, I immediately thought about that kit. I have it on my stash, but not sure what I want to do with it... Let's see, it might or might not happen... There are lots of great ideas to choose from this time.

I think that's what I'll be using. Modification is definitely going to be done, but it's a starting point at least.

You're correct on that. No need to search through parts boxes for stock-ish front suspension that could be modified to work on one of these.

And now as I have found two copies of the older issue of this kit (with the red S10 on box top), they reissued it. Well, that's just my luck. I had one of these in 1:1 scale for five years and just sold it away last week. Mine had an Iron Duke and 5 speed, so I'll need to source one of those engines from somewhere and start building...

Mooneyes Dragster is going to be on top of my list of "Must Have kits", I've wanted to have one for years but never found one around here. Also the '57 Cadillac Eldorado is interesting, I'll probably grab one of those as well.

Haven't done any modeling this year due to lack of time, now decided to check in here and definitely didn't see this reissue coming! I'm super thrilled to see the '63 Nova Wagon being reissued. If they are doing a more detailed version with opening hood and engine in the future, I'll just buy maybe one of these and save money for a case of those more detailed Wagons. I have one original issue of this kit on my shelf. It's waiting to be built. I was originally going to update it with a full detail engine bay and chassis from Trumpeter's Nova, but now that the reissue is coming I'll probably turn that one into a full detail... And build the original kit the way it could have been done in the '60s, meaning, basically box stock, but with some small improvements here and there...

This virus sucks big time... All annual big Car Shows in here have been cancelled (some of them were moved to later this summer). Luckily there's still plenty of Cruise Nights... I'm not going to lose my sleep over this. Of course I'll try to be safe, but I'm going to live just like I've been doing in the past, attend all Cruise Nights in the nearby area and go hanging out with friends like we always do. If I get the infection, then I will have to stay home and try to get better...

Very nicely done Pontiac Sedan Delivery! I always enjoy seeing your models, they are always so nicely done and the build subjects are really interesting, too. Excellent job turning that '57 Chevy into a '55 Pontiac, if there was no project pictures or description, I'd probably have thought it was built from a resin kit. Very nicely done model...As always from your bench.

Really nice! These '56 and '57 Corvettes are always really cool. I've wanted to build one for a long time, and seeing this only makes me want to build one even more. Very nice work and a great color choice, too. Nicely done!

Wow! That is a really good looking '57 Chevy! Definitely one of the best builds that I've seen from that kit. Now it makes me want to get one of those kits as well... I like the overall look, excellent color, the wheel & tire combo and most importantly the 409 mill in the engine bay. Really nice work.

Thanks! I appreciate the kind words.

Wow, I didn't event know there was a kit of a '64 Imperial. Friend has a few of these in 1:1 scale, they are pretty cool looking cars. Your build turned out great! Cleanly built model overall, especially the chrome trim looks flawless and those Imperial emblems are done really nicely, too. Only thing I don't like is the wheels and tires, in my opinion they just don't fit at all on any classic car. But of course, it's just a personal preference. Very nicely done Imperial overall.

Very nice job on that Elky! I have the same kit and it's definitely not the best quality overall... But looks like you managed to make it look very good. Excellent color choice and a nice paint job. Really nice and clean build. Hopefully mine turns out half as good when I get back to it some day.

Like David said, you'll need a glossy surface for installing the decals to prevent the decals from "silvering". But as said in the earlier comments, there are many ways to do this. I always spray a couple of clear coats on top of my decals to protect them so that they don't start coming off, and the clear coated decals will look more like they were painted on after you have polished the clear coat. Clear over BMF works as well. I try to avoid it, because it takes some of the BMF shine off, but despite that it doesn't turn the BMF completely dull either. I've had to clear coat on top of BMF on some Stock Car models, where I had to apply decals on top of the BMF chrome trim like they were on real cars too...

When taking the WIP pictures I often just put a sheet of white A4 paper under the parts that I want to photograph. That helps a lot when there is basically nothing on the background, as the camera has to focus to the part itself. And light is also important. I have a bench next to two large windows so in the daytime I get good pictures in that natural light. But when it's dark outside, it's important to make sure there is enough light to take good pictures. I have a cheap digital camera and I shoot with automatic settings (despite I've taken the flash off). I usually take a bunch of pictures of the same part, and select the best one when I open the pics on my computer.

Thanks Kevin! Old School stuff is definitely the best !