W-409

Good info regarding the AMT Charger chassis fitment. Need to buy one of those kits as a donor when I find one cheap. My plan has been to build one of these Monacos into a car that could have been sold new here in Finland and install some old winter tires on it. Several of these were sold as new in here, so it would be possible to do that. But I never liked the simplified chassis, hopefully the Charger engine bay would fit as well since the inner fenders and firewall are not very good on this kit...

Yes, there are options and the engine can be mounted in any location. That's not a problem. But the engine is not very visible in the storage area either...Unless the Van has side windows. If I find a good Van to start with, I'll build something from it. I did one Monogram's '77 Chevy Van a few years ago and it was fun. But now I'd like to do something a bit different, so I'll have to see what I can find.

That Peking to Paris run sounds interesting! I had so much other stuff this year that I just simply didn't have the time to build my entry for this year's Cannonball. Hopefullu next year will be different. The rules on Peking to Paris race sound interesting. It's good that it wouldn't be possible to install modern driveline in an old body. I hate to see that happen to be honest. But other than that there would be lots of room for different race cars, so it would be fun. On the other hand the Vans-theme would be pretty cool too, but I'm not completely sold on it yet. Most of the Van kits don't have engine detail or opening hood. Of course that's not a problem, but even though a builder would modify an opening hood for a Van, often the engine is so far back that it's hardly visible. And in my opinion, one of the most interesting things in the Cannonball Run is seeing different engine combinations in different bodies. Of course not all Vans have this problem, but most of them do. Vans are cool, but maybe not the most ideal for this CBP, in my opinion at least. But whichever is chosen, I might jump in.

This one was easy. I've seen a couple of these in person, and the body styling looks so good that I couldn't forget what it was. Just had to confirm the correct year models in Google.

I had no clue either. What came to my mind was Borgward Isabella which looks a bit similar. But when I started searching in Google for that, just couldn't find anything but those Borgwards. Now as Bill said it, those hubcaps definitely are looking like VW Bug parts. That would have been a good clue if I had noticed it.

Great cover of Johnny Burnette's Lonesome Train by an excellent Finnish Rockabilly band "Greased Lightning". Seen them a few times and they never disappoint! And this video was filmed by me this summer at Västerås Summer Meet in Sweden. My favorite band, The Go Getters performing an excellent Rockabilly version of Ramones' Sheena Is A Punk Rocker.

Yes, Star Models/Steve Kohler is still in business. This summer we ordered a couple of resin kits with a friend of mine. I ordered the '50 Lincoln Custom and that particular body is very good quality. But not all of those bodies are as good from what I've understood.

Don't know anything about the company itself, but at least that Caprice front end is far from accurate...

...Or was it Mostly Old Parts And Rust...

This is going to be interesting, we don't see too many American Motors cars being built. Like the idea of opening doors, the start looks promising so this one should be a great looking Rambler when it's done. I'll be following...

These would pretty much all be must have kits for me. I really like Pickups, and would like to see some of these rare body styles being kitted. Especially that '46 Hudson and Studebaker Champ Pickups would be on top of my list. And if some model company could do this, it would be Moebius. I wish some day we'll have kits on some of these things. Hopefully.

I was following the build thread from start to finish and while I'm happy to see it being done, now I feel a bit strange as I can't go to the Army Vega thread to see if there are any new updates. Some people say that there is no such thing as a perfect model, but I have to say that this is at least very close to that. I can't point out a single thing that could be done better. This is definitely built with the idea that "Every part is a model by itself", and it pays off. In addition to that flawless detailing, your paint work is incredible, doesn't matter if we're talking about the beautiful smooth paint job on the body or frame, or how realistic the Alclad painted engine parts look. And that subtle weathering here and there really makes a big difference. The Vega looks like you could fire it up any moment and head to a local Drag Strip. Truly amazing piece of art. And last, thanks for sharing all of the WIP pictures with us, it was a great fun to follow a detailed build thread like that. Now I just can't wait to see your next build thread. I'm definitely going to follow that one as well.

Great to see that this kit is available! Had to get one of them also, so I ordered one from eBay. There was one seller with a realistic shipping cost to Finland, some other sellers and some online companies like Model RoundUp had pretty high shipping charges... Can't wait to have this kit on my hands!

Thanks! Removing the exhaust pipes was a lot of work and while doing that I kept thinking that I should have started with the Revell's newer '55 Chevy kit. But it was fun to build this old kit, trying to make it a bit more accurate at the same time. Yep, the kit headers are pretty cool, but I didn't use them either. My headers were also scratchbuilt from plastic rod and sheet styrene.

That start looks really good! I'd be very interested in seeing a build thread on that project, I built mine with the same engine as you're planning to. Even though the kit is a bit simple, it can be built into a decent model. Here is my version, some improvements were made to the kit during the build...

When I saw the thread title and who had posted it, I knew it's going to be amazing. I've always liked these 1st gen Thunderbirds, so it's great to see one built this nicely. As always, the paint and BMF work look flawless. Very nicely done T-Bird.

It's always nice to see these AMC cars built as models. I have some of them on my stash as well, so this is a great inspiration. Very nice and clean build, the color choice is just right and your paint job is looking excellent too. I like it.

That turned out great! Haven't seen many of these built, so nice to see one that has been done as nicely as this one. I agree with the others, the interior looks really good, but nice work on the exterior as well.

Great to see that the Duster is coming back! These are great kits, but they're not so easy to find anymore. I've had one 1970 grille laying around for a few years, as a friend of mine cast a few of those in resin and I got one of them. So now I can finally put that into a good use.

Wow that turned out flawless! Always great to see these rare kits being built, and this is one of the best builds that I've seen from this kit. Especially the sharp BMF work stands out as the car has so much chrome on it. Very nice job. Makes me want to start mine, which is a resin version though.

Wow, that looks fantastic even though it's not completely done! I'm not surprised at all that it took home the Best Engine award, as I couldn't imagine how one could build a better looking mill than that one. Very nice work. Following this thread from the start, it makes me feel like I'd like to build something with a bit similar idea. Which means that I'd like to try my hand at building a model with the idea of "every part is a model itself". And I have a couple of Trumpeter '63 Novas on my stash, they would make a perfect starting point for that kind of build, probably factory stock. Who knows, maybe some day? Anyway, congrats on making it to the show, and I can't wait to see when all of the last details are finished on it. Great work.

This looks like an interesting project. I built a 7.50 second roll cage on the same kit by using the kit's original roll bar as a starting point. It wasn't that hard actually, it was pretty fun too. Your 1:1 car looks great so this will be interesting to follow. Where did you get those front tires from?

...And today I saw this '65 Rambler American which is used as a daily driver all year round. Of course the winters around here are pretty rough for these classics, so it's not in a perfect condition anymore. But, it's still a million times cooler than any of the new plastic cars. Sorry for the horrible cell phone pics...

Last Friday while coming back home after visiting a local Speed Shop, I saw a Duster: And on Saturday was one of the first really warm days around here. So I went for a little Cruising with my Pickup Truck and saw these... It looked like there was a lot of cars in traffic! On the same day I also saw some others where I wasn't able to take a picture, or I was, but I missed... They were at least a red '63 Oldsmobile, Triumph Herald, '68 or '69 Roadrunner/GTX/Satellite or something like that, light blue '65 Valiant Convertible, Opel Rekord C Coupe and 1st gen Opel Manta. Plus a Lotus Seven.

A bit of offtopic, but do you or does someone else have that kit and would they be willing to take a picture of two of the Iron Duke engine? I'd need one to be able to build a replica of my 1:1 scale daily driver, a Chevy S10 but I don't want to buy the Fiero kit without having any information if the engine is good or not. Because to be honest I don't have interest for the Fiero kit otherwise.