W-409

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.

Wow, had not seen these before but I'm very glad that I did now! I love old builds that have survived the years this well. Both of them are very nice, but if I'd have to pick a favorite, it would have to be the Gasser. It's very rare to see a Gasser of that era being built in scale. Nice work on both of them.

That looks excellent! Hopefully we see it finished one day. Made a little progress with this one. Here's the frame after cutting the Funny Car rear section off. I mocked up the frame inside the body, to determine where I want my rear axle to be. Then I fabricated a new rear section from plastic rod. I don't have the axle yet so I'm not able to build any mounts for that just yet, but now I'm able to test fit other parts so I can get a little further. Keep in mind that the rear section of the frame is not done yet, the frame will need more modifications to make everything fit properly... But now I was able to test fit the engine. With engine mocked up to the frame, and frame mocked up to the body, I was able to notice that the engine does fit between the hood and belly pan once I change the stock oil pan into a dry sump system. Then I added one crossmember in front of the engine and built simple engine mounts out of L-shaped plastic profile. Nothing fancy, but they're not seen very well from finished model anyway, so once I add bolt ends to them I guess they'll be ok.

That turned out beautiful! I like the subtle weathering on it, very nicely done.

Thanks Sean, Bruce and Bob! I appreciate the kind words. Body, hood and firewall are now clear coated. I used a two-part clear coat by Mipa, which is the same stuff I've used for 1:1 scale cars as well. Only exception is that for scale model use with an airbrush, I thin it approximately 75%. Hood and firewall are good to go, but for the body I think I will have to do a light wetsanding and shoot one more coat of clear before I can move on to polishing.

Thanks Robert! I appreciate the kind words. I've been working on the body, yesterday I got it masked so that I was able to paint the area between the side trim red. For that I used Revell's #34 Enamel, thinned and shot with an airbrush. Then today while the paint was dried, I removed my masking and installed decals on the body. They were surprisingly easy to work with. Tomorrow I'll need to do a little fine tuning with Micro Sol and next week I'll be shooting clear coat.

Thanks Paul and Pierre, much appreciated! Regarding the tires, I haven't decided on them yet, but honestly I'd like to use the kit tires just because they are part of this kit. They are about the correct size and they look good enough, because they're not seen from the finished model basically at all. But, I haven't decided yet so things might change. The front end is taking shape and looking already much better than on previous pictures. So these pics are taken after two rounds of putty and sanding. Still in rough stages, but the basic shapes are starting to be in the neighborhood of correct. I was also digging through my parts boxes and found a starting point for the frame. That frame is from some unknown Funny Car kit and while it needs lots of modifications to fit this thing, I think it's still easier starting point, compared to building the frame completely from scratch. Also I found one front axle which might work on this. I already cut the rear section of the Funny Car frame off as that's unnecessary. Now I can't get much further with the frame though as I don't have a rear axle yet. Once I locate one Quick Change axle from somewhere, I'll be able to build a new rear section for the frame. In the meanwhile, I think I'll work on rear end of the body and fabricate the belly pan.

This is an interesting project, especially because this Alfa Romeo body style is just simply beautiful. Looks like you're off to a good start.

Thanks! I've always liked this body style, in addition to the race car I had a '74 Malibu Station Wagon as a daily driver a few years ago. Had to sell it unfortunately as it was a bit too expensive to drive with our gas prices (plus that I drive a lot). Nowadays my daily driver is a bone stock '64 Rambler American and it's a lot cheaper to drive.

Well, you're correct on that! Too bad I don't have a proper photo album or anything about the Stocker in the internet. When I get the current rebuild done, then I'll have more pictures but for now here are some pictures of the car. We bought it in 2012, but it was originally built as a Stock Eliminator car in 1979... https://public.fotki.com/NostalgicDrag/race-team/lindstrm-stock-elim/#media Best ET so far is 11.96. It used to have a 350 SBC and TH-350, but at the moment the transmission has been replaced by four speed Jerico.

Great to see you're able to get your old project car back! With the amount of memories tied to that car, it's important that it gets back home. And, it's great to see a 3rd gen GM A-Body getting some love, they are, after all, quite underrated compared to either '68-'72 or the newer G-Body bodystyles. Would be nice to see more pictures on the progress as you go. Speaking of 3rd gen A-Bodies, I really should get this thing back together and back to the racetrack this summer.

This turned out very nice like your builds always do. Excellent work with creating the master for a beautiful car that probably would never have been kitted otherwise, and also excellent job building it. I agree with what a couple of guys have said here, in my opinion a good resin kit is way better than anything that I've seen coming out of a 3D printer. But, I also realize that the quality of 3D printing will probably improve over time. But for now, I much rather spend a little more money on a good resin kit than buy a 3D printed product.

Haha, luckily not, the 65 year-old rubber bands have seen better days! Well, been doing some bodywork on this thing. It's still on rough stages, but I think it's heading into a better direction. First I added a little material to the bottom of the body, to make the body a little taller, but not as much as on my first mock up. Then I started working on the nose. After looking at photos several different early Streamliners, I decided I need to stretch the nose a little to make it a lot more aerodynamic for high speeds. This was done with sheet styrene and a piece of round plastic rod. It looks a bit out of place in the pictures, but once it's molded to the rest of the body, I think it should be pretty good. At least now it will gain a few mph of top speed and the air doesn't go under the vehicle that much.

Funny Cars usually need a lot of extra work and detailing to look good, because everything is visible once you lift up the body. You did an excellent job with this one.

Thanks Bruce! We don't see too many of these '61 Impalas built, so happy to see I'm not the only one building one of these. Today in addition to watching the NHRA Gatornationals via NHRA TV, I got this thing painted. The paint is Tamiya Lacquer, LP-39 Racing White that I thinned down and shot through an airbrush. I think it's a good color for this, while it's not too bright white. Now the body, hood and firewall can dry for a couple of days before I'll install decals.

This kind of Street & Strip cars are very popular in 1:1 world, but it's kind of surprising how few of them we actually see built in scale. With that said, I'm glad to see one here, especially when it's built as nicely as this one. Excellent work!

I also saw the video some time ago and never knew that Dan drove one of those. Glad to see a scale version of that car being built, and you're doing an excellent job so far with it. Can't wait to see more progress.

Thanks everyone for the interest! This is a project that I've wanted to do for many many years, as I've always found the early Land Speed cars, and especially Streamliners, very cool. During the recent years I've been in El Mirage twice and that has not necessarily helped the desire to build one... I definitely want to visit Bonneville some time, but being in Finland, it's not always so easy to make happen. Anyway, the biggest issue with this project has always been the body. Now that I finally found one of these at an affordable price, it's time to build one. Let's see, I'm not sure yet on the tires, but I might be using them! We'll see once I get the thing un-assembled and the remains of those old rubber-bands that go around the tires removed, I can see how they really look like. After all, I'd like to use the original tires, and they can't be seen much on the finished model anyway. This is what I was thinking myself when I got this thing. It would be fairly easy to turn the body "backwards" and have the driver behind the engine, but then I decided that I want to go with the driver in front and engine in back. This is an excellent idea that never came to my mind when I was planning this one. Thanks! I did some research on the subject and I think I will build a dry sump setup for the engine. It will be a big help with the clearance issue. I'm still a little in the planning stages as far as the body shapes go. With the idea of using a dry sump, I don't have to make the body as much taller as I originally mocked up. However, I think I'll be adding a little thickness to the body to make everything fit properly, but not as much as I originally thought. A small bulge will be added to the hood to help with clearance and I will have to re-design the front end a little, so that air doesn't go under the body and lift the car up in higher speeds.

Thanks guys! The kind words are much appreciated. Tom, this is actually a lot better kit than what I predicted before opening the box. I really like the X-Frame Chevrolets and '61 is one of the best years, so I'm pretty sure this is not going to be my last one either. Well, been busy so not a whole lot of progress, except that I got the body and hood ready for primer. Nicholson ran the car without side mirrors, so I had to fill their mounting spots on the body and do a couple of more finishing touches here and there. Primer is Alclad's Grey Primer & Microfiller which is excellent stuff. Now I'll let it dry for a couple of days and then it's time to shoot some white paint on it.

This could be a long project, but let's kick it off while waiting for parts to dry on my '61 Impala in Drag Racing Models section. I've always wanted to build a Bonneville Streamliner from the early '50s. The problem has been the starting point, or the lack of one. Now finally I was able to score an affordable Hawk's Bonneville Racer on eBay. I'm not sure if I should call this a model kit or a toy, the very few parts that are included in the box, need to be assembled, but after that you could drive around with your rubber-band powered Streamliner! Anyway, this thing is supposed to be 1/32nd scale, but as far as I know, it's trying to represent a Streamliner that would have a big aircraft engine for power. And, that kind of Streamliners were huge. If you compare the size of this thing to a 1/25th scale Hot Rod for example, it looks natural, so it's about the correct size if you're replicating a Streamliner powered by a regular automotive engine. In this project, I will use the body, wheels and tires from this kit, everything else has to be either kitbashed, modified or scratchbuilt. So a lot of work is ahead, but also we need to keep in mind that most of the frame, axles etc will be hidden once this is finished and the belly pan is glued on place. I will have a removable hood on this thing so I will do my best on engine detail. Speaking of the engine, it will be a 239 Cid Ford Flathead with a front mounted Blower. This puts it in B/Streamliner class. The kit: The engine is a 3D printed product by Iceman Collections. It's actually really nice, but has the usual 3D-printed texture so that needs to be taken care of. First thing was to test fit if the engine will even fit between the rear axle and driver. There's definitely no extra space, but I think it'll fit, and I'll be able to fit a stubby transmission in there as well. The body is really low, though. The engine would not fit under the hood. And by looking at pictures of these things, I thought I need to modify the body a bit taller to make the frame and engine fit properly between the belly pan and body. This is just a cardboard template taped to the body to see if the shape would be nowhere near acceptable. I'm not very good at photoshopping pictures, but this is the cardboard template "painted by computer" with body color. I think the shape is reasonable, so I might need to cut the required pieces from styrene and glue them on.

Thanks Tom! Much appreciated. Today I did a final mock up to see that the body fits properly on place so that I can start prepping it for paint. And luckily, everything seems to fit as they should. The body is actually not that bad, I didn't notice any sink marks that would need to be filled with putty, though there are quite many mold lines, and some in pretty tricky places. After a couple of hours of cleanup and sanding, I got the mold lines smoothed out. At the same time, I drilled two holes for the hood, so that air will flow through the scoop to the engine. I also removed some exterior emblems from the body, because they will be replaced with photo etch parts after paint. A couple of spots needed a small amount of putty, so no primer yet. At the moment I'm in a point where I'd need the body painted and ready to assemble to continue the rest of the model. So now because I will have to wait for parts to dry before continuing, I might work on something else as a side-project.

This turned out beautiful! Your attention to detail and all of the scratchbuilt parts make this one stand out. Also, the different metal finishes especially on the engine, and your subtle weathering are looking fantastic. Very nice build of a beautiful car. Interesting to see what you'll be building next.

Handbrake cables are done. In the rear, brake cables are made out of metal wire and spark plug wire material, all fittings are made out of hex-shaped plastic rod. On front, cables are made out of same metal wire and linkage is made out of beer can aluminum. It's slightly simplified version of the 1:1, but I think it'll do the job. Now the chassis is pretty much done, with the exception of rear shocks and some touch-ups here and there. I will need to start getting the body ready for paint.