W-409

Some great ideas already posted in here! I've been away from Cannonball for a couple of years, but now I have plans to finish something again. My personal favorites so far are these two: Both of these are pretty cool, and the cool thing about the idea with mid-engine cars is that no-one said they had to be factory production models with mid engines...

Thanks Matt! Despite being a little different than what I normally like to build, and being small 1/43 scale, this is a fun kit to build. So far I haven't had any major fit issues, either. The body is now painted and clear coated. Color is Tamiya TS-102 Cobalt Green out of spray can, and on top is a coat of Tamiya clear. Now I'll let it dry for a week so that I can be sure it's properly dry before I'll start polishing it. Also I got the chassis and interior done. It's really hard to take any decent photos out of the dash, but it's mostly semi-gloss black with gloss black details.

This was a big bummer when the news came out. I've been a huge fan of Roadkill since the first episode aired in YouTube 13 years ago. I have to say I've seen every episode multiple times, and we've sometimes sat down with a couple of friends for the evening, just to watch Roadkill episodes together. I'm still a subscriber and will continue to be unless someone comes up like a DVD pack or something of all of the episodes. Roadkill and Roadkill Garage were basically only car shows I watch, because I hate the scripted TV shows with drama. Now I guess I'll have to follow Freiburger and Finnegan on YouTube, hopefully they'll also get together sometimes to work on something together. Time will tell.

Got the door panels done. They were fairly simple, but the small scale of this thing made painting a bit trickier. Chrome trim was done with Molotow, otherwise paints are just regular Revell / Humbrol Enamels painted by brush. Body required some work before primer. Panel lines were really shallow in many places so I re-scribed them, but unfortunately the scriber slipped a couple of times so I had to smooth those out with putty. I think the plastic feels softer than what I'm used to, maybe that's why. Front end of the hood had also a big sink mark that had to be filled with putty. After that, the body was ready for primer. I only wanted to spray a light coat of primer so that I would not hide all the details under paint. Well, BMF will be tricky in any case but that's not a problem for now.

Very nicely done! '65 Impala is a very beautiful car and you definitely did it a justice. Excellent work overall and a perfect color choice too.

It's definitely something you don't see built too often, so I'd say go for it. But, Rogue was not available as Convertible in 1966. In '67 they made Rogue Convertibles, but in 1966 if you wanted a Convertible, it had to be a "standard" American. Anyway, at least the side trim on '66 American 440 Convertible is similar to the Rogue so the conversion should be fairly easy.

Several nicely done builds in this year's Cannonball! This is a great Community Build. Good luck to everyone that's still trying to finish their builds before the deadline. Interesting to see what the theme will be for next year. I'll also try to put something together for next year, this year I was not Cannonballin' because I have personally zero interest in building anything related to a restomod.

Nice work so far! Great to see one of these being built. I have also several of the SC/Rambler model kits, just haven't had the time to build them. Are you going to graft the model kit roof to the promo body as well?

WOW! I never saw the WIP thread for some reason, but I'm really glad I came across this right now, see, I have a great interest for these cars, together with my dad we have a Race Team where we run a '74 Malibu Classic in Stock Eliminator. I also used to have a '74 Malibu Classic Wagon as a daily driver. So with that said, a conversion like this has been in the planning several times and now that I have a Missing Link Resin '73 Chevelle and one 3D-printed '73 Chevelle, both of which are factory stock, I think the 3D-printed one will end up going through the modification of being a '74 like yours. Anyway, incredible work with this build. The body modifications are really well done and I admire the scratchbuilt parts on it. Especially the grill is a tricky one, and yours is actually pretty close to the 1:1. Fantastic work overall! Where did you source those hubcaps? I need a similar set or two...

Really nice to see these cars being built in scale! You did an excellent job with this one, the promotional models never looked nowhere near this good. I really like the added vinyl roof. Beautiful work.

This will be an interesting build, I really like the look of one of these Cords and have plans to build one myself...Some day... So I will be watching closely how this goes together, the start looks already very promising.

Yep, the drive itself is probably the only thing that is different than what we're used to see on these mechanical tachometers. I've also never seen one of those things anywhere, but like you said, it probably worked fine with the right gearing. Next I thought it's time to install the engine between the frame rails. There's still bunch of engine work to do, but I think all the rest can be done while the engine is mounted. Rear engine plate had some ejector pin marks that needed to be filled with putty. After sanding and primer, the plate was painted with "Chrome Silver" from a spray can. Bellhousing was airbrushed with Alclad Pale Burnt Metal. The color is exactly what I was looking for. Then I added a slight black wash around the mounting bolts. Before the engine installation, I glued blower belt and pulleys and a fuel pump to the engine. Then on first test fit, I noticed that the engine doesn't sit straight on the frame, passenger's side valve cover was a lot lower than driver's side one. After a while figuring out what's wrong, I thought the best way to fix it would probably be adding a little material to passenger's side engine mount. A couple of pieces of sheet styrene cut to shape, carefully sanded smooth and painted with silver, did the job. Now engine sits properly on the frame. Bellhousing and driveshaft cover were also installed.

Thanks Bob, it's interesting to see how this turns out as that was kind of the challenge I wanted to take when I bought this: "Can I make a simplified 1/43 kit look presentable?". Wheels and tires were glued on place next. Their fitment was really good. Then I painted interior floor with flat black and started building the interior. Right now I'm painting door panels and dashboard, but seats are already installed...

I usually use the actual tires that I'm using as a template. That way I can get just the correct size opening for that tire. For cutting, I usually use this type of saw. I have no idea what would be the name of it in English though. Finishing can be done with a half-round file or sandpaper.

Like mentioned above, Bel Air was not available as a Hardtop, which is the body style that all of the Impala kits represent. The small trim changes etc and tail light removal is quite simple and easy to do on an Impala body, but converting the roofline from a Hardtop to Sedan is a lot of work, so that's where the resin body becomes a good idea. I'm sure there are probably several resin manufacturers that offer a Bel Air bodies in either two or four door version. I'm pretty sure at least Model Car World should have those things available and from what I've understood their quality is usually pretty good. One thing to consider with the resin body, is to find out what kit they used as a master for the casting, meaning, which model kit the resin body fits together with. In the case of a '64 Chevy, I'm thinking the resin body will probably fit either the Revell kit or an AMT kit, but probably not both. In addition to the body, some interior parts will also need to be modified for a lower trim level if you're looking for a factory stock approach, and possible some other small modifications need to be done as well. I've built the Revell Impala years ago, it's a really nice kit! I don't remember having any major fit issues or other problems with that kit.

Well, it's been a while, but this thing is still around. While parts for my Pinto Funny Car were drying, I thought I'd continue this so I could get it finished some time. Actually, I'd like to have it done before the end of the year, but we'll see about that... Chassis was clear coated with Tamiya sprays. Then it was time to try detail painting it a little. Well, the chassis is really poor as far as molded in detail goes, so there's not that much to detail with paint. But, I tried my best and this is what I came up with. It will be good enough for this project.

After looking at some reference pictures, it looks like the Mickey Thompson Pinto has a tachometer drive taken from the crankshaft with a belt. Never seen one before, but I decided to fabricate a similar setup for my model. It's not really seen that well on the finished build, but it's there anyway. The actual tachometer drive piece is built from two pieces of plastic rod. Really tricky to fabricate such a small parts, but in the end I was able to make it. Belt pulley is from my parts box, but I had to drill a bigger hole on it so that it goes properly on place. Mount is a photo etch part by Detail Master and the fitting on bottom where tachometer cable will be connected, is hex-shaped plastic rod. Belt is paper that I painted flat black. It's not flawless, but it's pretty much hidden once the engine goes between the frame rails so I think it'll do its' job. On another side of the engine I got the oil filter done. It's just orange from a spray can, a decal from Ted's Modeling Marketplace sheet and clearcoat on top. Still some detail work to do before I can install the engine...

This is an excellent news, the '60 Chevy Wagon is a kit that I will need multiples copies for sure. No matter if it's a curbside, the engine bay can be modified from some existing kit. Luckily I have 1:1 scale '60 Impala in the garage so I have plenty of reference material. I've had a '60 Nomad resin body for years, I've been waiting for my building skills to improve so that I could build it into a really nice model. But now with a new version of that car coming, I think it's time to build the resin version. Barracuda is another must have for me, so much potential for several different types of builds on that kit. And it will make kitbashing possible, to create for example, a stock '66 Barracuda.

It has happened to me once as well with the Tamiya paints. I don't know why it happened, but here's how I fixed it: After the paint is dry, sand the are carefully with 1200 grit sandpaper and make sure you're not going through the paint. Then spray several VERY light coats of color on the area, letting each coat of paint dry for a minute or two before the next coat. Important thing is that the paint coats at this point need to be very light. Once that was done, I clear coated mine normally and had no issues. Obviously I can't quarantee it will work every time, but at least on my case it did.

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate the kind words. Then it was time to continue working with the engine so that I can install it between the frame rails in the near future. Blower was installed and I gave that a light black wash too in order to try to make it look a bit more realistic. The magneto that comes with this kit, has molded in spark plug boots on the cap. But it would have been impossible to drill holes for plug wires on them, so I cut the spark plug boots away. New spark plug boots are by Pro Tech and plug wire is by Scale Productions (I think). They're not flawless, but I guess they never are.

Thanks Bill, it looks like it's going to be functional. I will contact the seller about shipping to Finland to get the parts I need.

Looking good! Not exactly related on the Satellite grill, but how is the print quality with 3DScaleParts? They seem to have one grill that I've been looking for years, but if there's a heavy "3D printing texture" between the grill bars, then it's not going to work. On eBay it looks like they're not shipping to Finland, but I'll need to ask him on that.

This will be interesting to follow, I like Tri-Five Chevrolets and I've also enjoyed following the development of this actual car over the years via Motor Trend. How accurate replica you want to build? Because the real car is a 2D Sedan and the kit is a Hardtop. Sedan has a taller roof and actually whole the roofline is completely different than on a Hardtop. So, with that said, I personally might consider picking up another kit as a starting point. At least AMT has reissued a '55 2D Sedan kit not that long ago, it should be easily available. The other thing why I might consider building it from another kit, is the amount of work this kit requires if you want to make it at least somewhat accurate. I built a '55 Chevy Gasser from the same kit a few years ago and I think I probably used a handful of parts straight from the box, everything else was either scratchbuilt, kitbashed or modified in some other way. By the time I realized the actual amount of work with this kit, it was too late to turn back so I pushed it to finish... But it would have been way easier if I started with some other kit. Don't get me wrong, this kit builds up pretty nice even out of the box, but if you really want to make it accurate, it's a long way. I don't want to be "that guy", I just wanted to give a heads-up in case you are not that familiar with the kit. Either way you do, this will be an interesting project. Finally, if you want to build it using this kit, here is a link to my Fotki album where you can see all of the project pictures on my '55 Gasser that I built from the same kit. They might help. https://public.fotki.com/NostalgicDrag/55-chevy-bel-air-ags/

After prepping some parts for paint, I was able to paint inner wheels for front and rear, together with some blower parts for the engine. They're airbrushed with Alclad Magnesium on top of Alclad's Grey Primer & Microfiller. Then it was time to put this thing on four wheels. On front everything was easy, just glue the inner wheels on place, install the wheels and tires and they were instantly sitting correctly on the axle. Rear was quite tricky however, rear brake fitment to rear wheel and to the axle was not that great. But after some fiddling I was able to get the rear tires sit properly so I glued them on place as well. Now that it's on four wheels, it's a lot easier to handle and the chrome plating will less likely be rubbed off from the front axle parts when handling the chassis.

Thank You Andy, I appreciate the kind words! I was also wondering about the rear axle at first, but a quick search in Google told me what it actually is. This is the thing I love about these old kits, they often have some obscure speed parts in them that most people of today have never seen. Next up was the front axle. Axle, radius rods and tie rod all had quite heavy mold seams on them so the first step was to strip chrome plating off. Then I sanded all of the mold lines and other imperfections smooth and also had to fill a couple of ejector pin marks with putty on the front axle. After that the parts were painted with primer and "chrome plated" with Revell's Chrome Spray. It makes an incredible chrome effect, but it doesn't like very much handling. I let the parts dry for a couple of days and then assembled them carefully. Front springs were black washed with Tamiya's Panel Line Accent Color. Next I will need to finish the wheels and tires to get this on four wheels...