W-409

Thanks guys! I appreciate the kind words! The class markings on the windows were painted with a tiny paint brush and Tamiya's acrylic white paint. That paint works very well for detail painting like that. Here's a picture of the paint bottle, found in Google... https://hobbyking.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/1/2/128870.jpg Hope this helps. And here are some pictures of the finished product. There are mistakes and other flaws as always, but overall it looks pretty good on the shelf. As always, all kinds of comments, good or bad, are highly appreciated. I also want to say Thanks to everyone who has been watching the progress or posting comments. Thanks!

Thanks John, glad to hear you like it! This is the last set of WIP-pictures. The body panel that is between the grille and front bumper should be painted body color. It was molded together with the grille though, so the options were either to try and mask the whole chrome part away and try spray painting the area with the body paint, or then find a blue that is pretty close and paint by brush. I went with the brush painting idea, because if I tried to mask the whole grille off in order to spray paint, the masking would probably have leaked from somewhere... Luckily Humbrol had a metallic blue that was pretty close, so I used that and painted it by brush. The mesh screens on place of the inner headlights are the clear kit parts that I just painted silver and black washed with "The Detailer". I also polished the hood. The mesh parts behind the scoop were painted flat black. Those hood pins are the kit parts, because I had ran out of photo etch parts for them. The tail light panel required some detail painting as well. The area between the two chrome moldings had to be painted with silver, just the way it is in the 1:1 version too. The Fairlane 500 badge, chrome moldings and tail light bezels were black washed with "The Detailer" too. Then it was time to do the final assembly. In the engine bay the only problem was with the air hoses that lead air to the carburetors. But with a little of sanding I was able to get the hoses past radiator hoses and valve covers. In the exterior, I stripped the chrome from the front bumper as the real cars had aluminum front bumpers and they often weren't polished to a perfect shine. The original Thunderbolts had only one windshield wiper, but that was taken off from many cars back then, so I didn't want to install that on my version. These things rarely had outside rear view mirrors either, so I didn't install one either. Here's one picture of the finished product, I'll try to take better shots tomorrow, but in case I don't have the time to do that, then it'll be next week.

Today I saw a clean two door Chevy Caprice Classic. The four door models, or especially Wagons are not very rare around here, except for the ones that are in very good condition. But these two door models are very rare around here. I can't even remember the last time I saw one of these 2D models in traffic or in a Cruising Night, it was several years ago.

Thanks JC! I appreciate the kind words! Some more progress with the Thunderbolt. First I painted the inside of the body with semigloss black and headliner was painted with the interior color. Then I went ahead and glued the windows on place. All windows had some fit issues, but after some fine tuning I got them installed anyway. Here is the body after gluing radiator wall, front springs and interior in place. After a couple of small adjustments to the chassis, it was ready to be installed on place too. The chassis fit pretty well on place. Now on to the smaller details...

Today I saw this very clean Volvo Duett parked in side of the road. I found a parking place nearby as well, so I was able to go and take a picture of it. It was like new. I also saw a Volvo Amazon STW from the early '60s and a very clean '76 Dodge Coronet STW. But I didn't have a camera on hand...

Thanks Todd! Today I was able to get more bench time than I originally thought, so the BMF work is done. As usual, there would be plenty of room for improvement, but it's not my worst effort either. Once I can get the underiside of the body painted flat black and windows on place, I guess it'll look pretty good.

Yep some of those built models go for big bucks! I just wonder how the sellers ship them so that they're not totally broken when they arrive at their destination. Sometimes I've thought of building something with the plans to sell it later on, but the market here in Finland isn't very impressive so the only choice would be trying to sell it in eBay.

Thanks John and Dave! I highly appreciate the kind words from Masters like you. I was able to get the hood painted so that the shade of blue is exactly the same as it is on the body. Tomorrow I will be shooting a coat of clear on it, to be able to polish it later on. Now back to finish the BMF work on this thing...

Yes for the '64 Malibu, but I'd like 2D Sedan the most. Some other kits that I'd like to see: '62 Chevrolet Chevy II 2D Sedan. '62-'65 Chevy II Wagon '74 Chevrolet Malibu Classic '49-'50 Lincoln Cosmopolitan (Preferably a Custom, but Stock would be OK as well as it could be turned into a beautiful Lead Sled). '39 Mercury Coupe (Same as above). '55 Chevy 2D Sedan (New tool). '55 Chevy Handyman '58, '59, '60, '61, '62, '63 and '64 Chevrolet Bel Air, Biscayne, Delray etc 2D Sedan. '63 Pontiac Tempest '48-'49 Cadillac Sedanette

Glad to see you were able to get some bench time with the Vega Chris! The engine looks excellent between the frame rails. All of the details are so nicely done that it would be very hard to tell if it's real or model if I didn't know. I can't wait to see more pics.

Finally the whole body is polished even though it took me a while to do that. Especially the sides were pretty difficult to polish properly because of the body shapes, but in the end it turned out pretty good. The next thing will be Bare Metal Foil for chrome trim, which never was one of my favorite steps in model building either...

Just as JC posted the reply above, I was typing here that luckily the scoop looks like someone could have fabricated that himself even though it came available for production cars later on.

Wow that is incredible! I have the same kit on my stash and this is definitely a good inspiration for that. As always with your builds, the paint and detail looks very good and I also like how those wheels fit together with the offroad tires.

Personally I've been hoarding (or trying to at least) wheels and tires. Especially old Pie Crust slicks and Frontrunners, Chrome Reverses and regular steel wheels. And then all kinds of vintage speed parts and decals, plus Chevy W-Block engines...

Wow, I didn't see this build until now. I'm glad I did though, it looks fantastic. All of the small details that you're adding are improving the look of this kit a lot. Keep up the good work, I'm sure this will be a masterpiece when it's done.

Wow, that's some great news! Always great to see one less Toyota bodies on the strip.

Here's one of my Snap Kits. An old builtup that I restored back in 2010. I could do a lot better job nowadays, but it looks decent on the shelf. It's Box Stock, painted with Revell Enamels and an airbrush, BMF for chrome trim.

Wow, looks like you already got the engine running! Incredible work as always, all details are done just right. Again, I'm impressed by the subtle weathering, your weathering is always done so well that it adds a lot realism, but doesn't make the parts look dirty. Very nice work.

Yesterday I saw this Rambler Wagon cruising on the highway. Seeing cars like this during the winter in here is definitely not common. The picture is an older one that I took last year on the same car... Today at a local gas station a very clean looking Chevy Stepside stopped by. This might not be that special in the USA, but here in the winter it is...

I was a big fan of Wolfie's builds. His builds always had the right attitude and they always brought a smile on my face. RIP Wolfie.

Very beautiful Super Bee! Now I really need to get me one of these kits. That color is perfect for this car, and you can't go wrong with a classic combination of Muscle Car with black steel wheels.Very nice and clean work as always from your bench!

Yep I know that luckily the body doesn't match any "real" car, and no matter what body it is, those Floppers are a lot of fun to see on the Strip. But, I have to say that as a person who has never had any other than American Cars here in Finland, I feel bad when I see Toyotas in Funny Car (or NASCAR). So that said, if there is a Toyota bodied FC going against Chevy or Dodge I definitely know which one I root for. But it's not a matter of life and death of course. No matter what, it's great news that they are already working on Jonnie's car, I wish good luck to him on the next races.

Yep that was a wild ride! Luckily there were no big injuries on this crash. It's always sad when both of the cars hit each other, but that's racing and on those speeds you don't have much time to react before you're already hitting something... It's a shame that it was Jonnie on the other lane. Being from Finland, it has been nice to see a Swedish racer win in NHRA Races. It's just a bummer that he drives a Toyota now so I can't root him that much at the moment (unless he is racing against another Toyota bodied FC).

That would work for sure! Or if you want to build it for some "real" class, it could very well run in Comp Eliminator with that engine and naturally aspirated. Anyway, no matter what you do with the class business, it's going to be an interesting project!

Nice work on making the chassis and interior fit into that body! I also like the roll cage, it's not easy to do properly, but yours is looking very good. But, I'm pretty sure they never ran these Escorts in Pro Stock so you might need to change your class.