W-409

Well it has been a while since the latest update, but I've been doing tons of little details especially to the engine bay. Blower belt and pulleys are Pro Tech items, but I had to build a mounting bracket for that Blower Belt Tensioner. That Pro Tech Blower Belt Kit was really easy to use, I think I'll be ordering a couple of more sets sometime! Fuel lines are made from small diameter electric wire that I painted black (It was originally red), fuel junction block on firewall is made from styrene tubing and all fuel line fittings are scratchbuilt from plastic rod too. Carburetor linkage was done using Detail Master's Photo Etch parts and copper wire, but it still requires a throttle returning spring before I can call it done. The radiator wall that came in the kit was decent, but the radiator was molded only on one side of that radiator wall while the other side was smooth. That wasn't good, so a radiator wall from Monogram '56 Bel Air was modified to fit on the '55. After some narrowing and lowering it fits under the hood properly. Radiator overflow tank was found in my parts box and the hose between that radiator and overflow tank is made from mold sprue that I heated and "stretched" so that it looks like a piece of thin wire. Other small things I've done include adding a brake master cylinder from AMT '62 Catalina, brake lines, valve cover T-Bolts and some other wiring and plumbing here and there. I also added center caps to the wheels. They're made from piece of chrome mold sprue cut in correct length and glued on place. Wheels got also some black wash, but I'll probably add one more round of black washing on them before I can call them good.

That was some bad news! He will definitely be missed, but luckily the music never dies. Unfortunately like Chris said, only few of those '50s "big names" are still alive...

Wow, you can't have too many Traditional Hot Rods in here! This one is very nicely done too. Especially that paint job looks really good, black is very hard to get right but looks like you nailed it. Engine looks good too, but where is that top from?

Wow, you guys build some excellent Hot Rods! This is another very well done Coupe, excellent paint job (And a great color choice!) and a perfect stance too. Those bulges on hood sides were one of the first things I noticed, they're cool and they hint that there might not be that stock Flathead under the hood either... Nice build!

Wow! That's flawless! Very nice work on that Vicky, it looks so nice and clean and that color is excellent too. The overall look is just perfect in my eyes, I wouldn't change anything if it was mine... Fantastic work.

Nice to see a Traditional Salt Flats car done this well! I really like the overall look, the chop is just right and that nose fits perfectly on it too. Paint job/weathering is my favorite part though, especially those class markings on the doors look very realistic. Great job.

That looks very good! I have most of the parts required to build similar from my Revell '63. I've always liked '63 Impalas and this Z11 version is definitely the coolest. Nice to see it done this well in scale.

Wow! Some amazing models you got there! Fantastic work on all of them, but that Flathead powered Digger is probably my favorite. What did you use for the frame and body on that one?

That turned out very nice! It feels great when you have your own ride (Even if it's a former ride now) on the shelf, doesn't it? Excellent job with that body conversion and all of your other modifications are done very nicely as well. Great job with those details too, overall a very nice and unique build.

Wow that looks great! As an owner of 1:1 '62 Chevy II (Mine is a Two Door Sedan though) I really like to see these 1st Gen Chevy IIs or Novas built. Nice job with that body conversion and smooth paint job too. Overall I really like how it looks, but my only nitpick would be those turn signals on front... They don't turn to the sides like that as seen here: Otherwise an excellent looking build! Nice to see something different done from these kits!

Yes, on some kits that is a problem, but usually most of the kits have windows that fit pretty well, at least if BMF and everything is done cleanly. And I've built Moebius '53 Hudson and '55 Chrysler, both of them had windows glued from inside and their fitment was excellent. Now I just hope that I don't have to order new windows from somewhere several times because of a minor slip while doing BMF on those new Moebius kits...

Well, if the end result would be no different, it would make no difference to me. BUT, it's not good that the areas where you add glue will stay visible, and even worse is that in some kits (New Moebius kits for example) the window trim is molded to the windows...! That really sucks, when foiling that trim, one minor slip with a knife and your windows are ruined. If this little slip happens on a paint job, the minor scratch can't be seen that well after all. But on clear windows everyone can see it easily. Those new Moebius kits are otherwise top notch so I don't understand why they did windows that way. After all, I think the old method of gluing windows from inside was working perfectly fine.

Very nice build, we don't see too many Cobras built as Drag Cars so a big thumbs up for that! Very nice paint & decal work on that body, it's definitely not easy to apply big decals like that. Really nicely done overall! Only thing I'd change is that you need at least working headlights for it to run as a Gasser. But otherwise, really nice job!

It's always nice to see X-Frame Chevrolets being built, and especially when they're done this well. I like your olor choice and that paint job is really nice too. Nice to see a 409 with that Cross Ram intake and Offenhauser valve covers, and of course four on the floor! Excellent looking '62 Chevy. Thanks for posting.

That turned out very nice! I like that paint job very much, black is very hard color to get right, but you nailed it. The paint is not too shiny but it's not too flat either. Overall a very nice build, great detailing finishes it off. Nice job.

Well I've made some more progress on this thing and it's getting closer of being done. First I installed windows to the body. They don't fit perfectly to the body shapes, but there's not much I can do about it... It's not too bad though so I can live with it. I also painted engine bay gloss black except for the firewall that stays body color. Then I added some light black washing to the engine to make it look a bit more realistic. I also painted bolts from timing chain cover and oil pan and added belt and pulleys for water pump. Pulleys are from my parts box and the belt is paper that I painted flat black. Then it was time to put the body on chassis. I didn't glue the engine on place quite yet, as otherwise I can't slide the body on place. Then in these pics body is already glued to the chassis and so is the engine. It required some minor work to get the body and chassis glued together but overall they fit fine. Next up will be a lot of work in the engine bay and then I can install all body trim and final details. But it will take a few days to get the engine details done...

Great job as always! Nice to see something unusual and this definitely fits in that category. I like the color and your paint job turned out very nice as well. Plus that I like how you tint those windows! That Cadillac Pickup resin kit sounds interesting! Too bad they're in FB only, so looks like I'll have to skip that one...

Thanks for the reply, I'll definitely try that!

Great job on that Nova. I like your color choice and paint job itself looks very smooth too. With a stance like that it looks mean, and your extra details make it stand out. Overall a very good looking build! Just one little tip for future builds... Please post the updates in one thread instead of creating a new thread for every update. It makes following the build a lot easier, and I'd definitely like to follow high quality builds like this. Great work!

Thanks Dominik! Your Mercedes looks really cool! I like how that trunk lid and hood look, I'd like to leave them like that since I pretty much don't know how to do that weathering stuff so I'm probably not going to get an effect like this in the future ever again. Anyway, I'm not too crazy about the rear fenders/ quarter panels and doors and how they look. I'm thinking if I put the body back on the paint stripper for a while so that only those rear fenders are in touch with that liquid it might look better in the end, because the body was most of the time upside down when I had it in the stripper. So, if I can create a better looking "patina" on those areas I will probably leave it like that. Even though I usually prefer shiny builds and sometimes it feels like I've seen a bit too many weathered models. But my chrome parts are not perfect either so they would fit well to the look... We'll see what happens.

Wow! Cutting the excess decal material away sounds like a lot of work! Now this decal thing got me interested. I think printing them might not be the problem, but I don't consider myself as very good computer user, drawing the decals is a problem. So on that Adobe Photodeluxe program, can you somehow open a photo in that program and then it can be put on the sheet and printed out, or do I have to completely draw the logos on computer? For example, if I wanted to print our race team logo as a decal, could I take a good picture of that logo, open that picture in the program and print it out... Or do I have to somehow "draw" that team logo on my computer to be able to print it out? I have several builds that need custom decals so I'd definitely need to be able to make them myself. Paying for someone else to do it usually gets too expensive...

Thanks guys for the opinions! I was just thinking kind of the same thing, let's see if I can keep the paint like it is... The top will be no problem, but don't know about the side trim, BMF might be a bit too shiny compared to the rest of that body. But don't know if silver paint will look good either? It's not going to be slammed down though, and definitely no modern wheels (Old School Is Cool!). I'll be fitting a vintage tire & wheel combo on this.

Now when the body of my Turbine Car had been sitting for over a month in the paint stripping, It's pretty obvious that the copper paint is not coming off from the body. Now the paint looks like the car had been sitting for a long time abandoned somewhere. The body looks kind of cool like that, but as I don't have much experience in weathering models I guess I'll just sand the paint off and shoot a glossy coat of paint on this... Let's see.

Well I was able to do some progress on this last night. First I glued steering column to the dash and steering wheel was glued on too. It's painted and clear coated with Tamiya sprays and after that the spokes were painted with Revell 91 silver. I also added a tachometer and a cable from my parts box. The tach was painted silver, I painted some black to the cauge face and wiped paint off from those raised letters/numbers. Then I glued everything together and the interior is now finished. Pedals are from the kit and they as well as the dashboard assembly fit fine. Shifter is made from a sewing needle (if that is what it is in English...) and that rubber part is taken from my parts box.

Yeah I see no difference between these two scales either. I build both, 1/24 and 1/25, display them together and mix the parts too, the difference is so small that no one can really see it. Bigger problem in my opinion is that some kits have a lot undersized or oversized parts no matter which scale the kit is. For example AMT's "Twister Vega" kit has a tiny engine compared to the rest of the kit parts.