W-409

I completely forgot that I had posted this one in here... Well, I have to say that you guys haven't missed anything as I haven't been working on this one. Partly because I'm in progress of searching for parts for this build and partly because the work I've done years ago is not up to today's standards and I will have to rebuild some of the stuff that I've done so far. But the plan is to build this one anyway. So whenever it gets back on the bench, I'll let you guys know ! And of course, thanks for the comments!

In my opinion it's important to build a Drag Car that fits in a certain category, if possible. Usually it's actually quite easy if you don't have to replicate a real car. I'd suggest you building the Plymouth as Competition Eliminator car. In that class you can run with different style cars as they go in different sub-categories, for example Pro Mod style cars and then Stock suspension cars can be found in that class. Pretty much everything would fit in Competition Eliminator. Of course there are many different categories but Comp would be easy because you can run with pretty much everything there.

That transmission looks so good that I'm still debating if it's 1/16 or 1/1 scale. Fantastic work with those details - that blanket is something that's seen quite rarely in these builds. It's nice to see one done this well, and those bolts along with that clutch pedal finish the tranny off. Excellent work overall...Keep it coming!

Mike: Heh - That's so true . Jonathan: Thanks! I thought that this could be a great Sleeper compared to the '57 Chevy I thought about at first. It would have been possible that the '57 didn't fool everyone... Tom: Thanks for the heads up! I was wondering about the same thing actually and was going to do a test fit soon. Now it is the next thing on my to do list. Thanks.

Double Post... A Moderator could delete this, please.

Thanks for looking fellas & Sorry that I forgot to post more pics. That LAPD Camaro would be a nice one to have on my stash as well. I have the box actually, but it includes the original issue of Jukebox Ford instead of that Camaro... Maybe some day. Next Pro Stock Bike. These two pics show a Finnish driver Jappe Malin driving his Pro Stock Bike. Unfortunately he had some issues with the bike and he got eliminated on the first elimination round. Then....Pro Stock: Junior Pastrana, Pontiac Grand Am VS Gary Herman, Chevrolet Beretta This is of course Bob Glidden behind the wheel of his Ford Probe Pro Stock. Darrel Alderman driving Dodge Daytona. He won the Championship. Bruce Allen, Chevy Beretta VS Tony Christian, Chevy Beretta. Christian made it to the Finals where he lost against Bob Glidden. Rickie Smith, Pontiac Firebird VS Mark Pawuk, Oldsmobile Cutlass: Scott Geoffrion, Oldsmobile Cutlass VS Warren Johnson, Oldsmobile Cutlass: Gordie Rivera, Chevy Beretta VS Joe Lepone Jr, Chevy Beretta:

This is a very cool Slot Car! It's nice to see that you've put a lot of work on detailing one of these, as usually these Slot Cars have no engine details / are curbsides. Nice work.

Alright finally I was able to start my entry. It's the Small Block Chevy Powered Trabant that I mentioned on page 1 a while ago. And of course, I'm shooting for an original looking car with a SBC with a big turbocharger under the hood. Lots of cutting is needed in interior and chassis and engine bay, but I'm trying to make it look pretty much factory made. Here's the starting point: First thing was to find an engine for this. I had one glue bomb engine from AMT '66 Nova Pro Street so I thought it would be a good basis for this one. Turbocharger is taken from a Truck kit, so it should be big enough? Well, obviously the Small Block Chevy is a bit bigger than Trabant's original two stroke engine so I had to do some cutting to the chassis and interior floor first to make some room for the engine & tranny. I cut a hole on the firewall and to the floor, but this wasn't quite enough so I had to bend the firewall to 90 degree angle to allow some more engine room. Then it was time to see how the engine and turbo fit under the hood. Next part that needed some cutting was the part that comes under dashboard. This had to be cut a little to make room for valve covers, distributor and throttle body setup. Next I'll need to add a bit of styrene to cover the hole I just made on that part... And the last picture shows which tires I'll be using. I wanted a bit wider tires than those originals, but still so small ones that they would not give it away that the car is a Sleeper. Those tires are from AMT '76 Chevy Monza kit.

Yep, it can be a problem sometimes, but not always. I built this '59 Simca Vedette a couple of years ago. 1/24 Scale body with 1/25 engine: Okay, this is not a Full Size car of course, but it's not the smallest one ever made either.

Another excellent model from your bench, Steve! I like seeing these rare kits being built and you're doing fantastic job with every one of them. There is not much to say that hasn't been said already - An excellent looking Chrysler. I would! They look so good on most cars, this included. I've always been a huge fan of them.

I like the Big Block Chevy that comes in many Monogram kits (Like the '39 Chevy you mentioned). I believe that is 1/24 scale, though, it doesn't really matter even if you put 1/25 scale engine in 1/24 model, the scale difference is so small that it doesn't matter. Real problem, in my opinion, is that in some kits engines are way too small size compared to the size of the car and in some kits the engines might be a bit too big. But in my opinion, the scale difference doesn't matter and I've always been mixing 1/24 and 1/25 parts on my builds.

I agree...Where are the obvious flaws those guys are talking about ?

Very nice looking Ford. Nice to see these Four Doors being built as models (But in real life I prefer 2D models). Nice work on this one, it looks very authentic to me and your detail work looks good too. Especially I like the black wash on that grille. Somehow it looks so nice and clean.

They're all very cool kits (Surprising that I say this, huh ?) but my favorite is that Bad Actor. I've always liked the box art so much and the fact that it has clear windows is great. I can't wait to build one of those kits with a proper engine & interior & chassis detail. Some day, some day...

That would be very cool one to build (In 1/25 or 1/1)! But unfortunately I could not paint those flames... But honestly, it looks very good, as well as the ones painted by Larry Watson that I posted earlier in this thread. I'll probably buy one of these and build one of those Larry Watson cars.

Very nice work as always, John! I agree with Bill - excellent pictures too. It's nice to see one of these Trucks built as well, especially when it's done this cleanly. Fantastic job with those decals.

Super nice work, as always. This must be the best build that I've seen from this kit. As always, your paint job is incredible and as someone said, panel lines look very good. Nice touch adding a bit better headlights to this one as well. Very nice and clean work. Is there any American Car Culture nowdays in Russia? Here in Finland there definitely is, but I haven't heard much about American Cars in your country.

Looks like I've missed a couple of comments in here. Well, a late Thank You for the kind words & thanks to Steve for bumping this thread up. I figured out how to make my collectors while making similar headers on my '55 Chevy and now I will use the same method on this build. More on that technique can be found in this thread: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=90198&p=1222108 Unfortunately I have made no more progress with this Chevy Nova. A Couple of other projects, 1:1 Drag Racing and building a full scale '60 Impala have basically stopped my progress with this (And other builds as well) for now. But I will keep you guys posted when I get something done with this one.

Last Friday night I was watching Mike Bell And The Belltones that is an excellent Finnish Rockabilly band. Here are a couple of excellent covers they played: First Baby, I'm In The Mood For You. I heard this is originally Bob Dylan's song and I had to search it from YouTube. Man, that original version was horrible, but this cover is excellent for sure! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBa0Kn6bzfE And here they're covering Carl Perkins' Record Hop. I like the original version, but this is even better:

Maybe this is because many people see nothing wrong with that Plymouth body? I built one of them when I was a bit younger and yep, I was watching reference pictures and I saw a real '58 Belvedere often on local Cruising Nights. To me the kit looked perfect and only a year or two ago when I found out what the issue is by reading this forum, I noticed it. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. But now when I know what the issue is, it kind of bothers me every time I look at that body. It's not a big problem, but it could be better (And yep, I'm planning to build another one of those somewhere in the future and I'll probably end up not fixing that problem because it would delay the progress by a decade or something ).

Sad news indeed, but I believe that they deserve the retirement as they make the best resin parts in the States. I'm not that much worried about those resin kits, but mostly I'm afraid of what happens to those replacement parts for old kits... They can't be found from other places! Looks like I will have to save my dimes to place an order. I need some of those replacement parts and a '59 Chevy Pickup cab.

Yep it must be one of the worst kits ever made. Also the 3rd bolt on left hand side of engine oil pan is .003" too far back. Seriously, these threads are really funny. I'm so glad that Revell made a good quality kit of this Ford. I see completely zero problems on it except the taillight issue that John posted. But then again without knowing I would have never seen that problem, and I probably will forget that problem in ten minutes and then I see no problems with that kit again so I'm very happy to see this being released.

Thanks fellas! Peter: You're too funny ! Actually I got my priorities right and "forgot" this one . I've done a little work with it, though, but not enough for an update I'm afraid. Kevin: Yep, me too! Definitely the best looking X-Frame Chevy and of course it feels the best when I'm behind the wheel. Tim: It's glad to hear that there are folks that enjoy following this build. I hope I can post a couple of updates soon... Rusty: Yep, I posted that 1:1 build on 348-409 Forum http://www.348-409.com/forum/threads/60-chevrolet-impala-ht.29529/ . I've been doing pretty much rust repairs lately, but now I'm working with Bondo to smooth out where needed. Thanks again!

American Cars is my biggest interest and I build very rarely something else (European or Japanese cars) and I basically never build anything else than cars. It's tricky to say who makes the best kits, but I would say that it's Moebius Models. Their subjects are the most interesting and kits are very high quality with lots of parts and very little fit issues. Revell kits are the second best in my opinion. Their subjects are interesting as well and kits are high quality overall too. The third is either AMT or Jo-Han... Both of them are not as high quality as Revell and Moebius, but especially the old kits are very interesting. Many people seem to say that Tamiya, Aoshima etc Japanese kits are the best. I've built a couple of them and I wasn't too crazy over them. Usually the fitment was good and they were good kits otherwise, but many times engines and chassis details are very simple or they don't have an engine at all. That's a big turn off for me as engine is my favorite part in model building. Plus that the subjects are not very interesting to me.

Umm I'm 18 years old and I've never heard of this before. (But I might be strange 18 year-old guy as I don't use social media at all.)