W-409

Gene: Yep the filler primer is a good stuff for sure, it covers easily minor flaws that still are present and it is easily sandable, too. James: Uh oh I've always used a round wooden stick to mix up the putty and it has always worked perfectly. I think it makes no difference in what you mix it up with, but of course it needs to be mixed up properly so that the putty has a nice and even color on it. Filler Primer is a good stuff too. If you spray too much of it, yes, it will cover all of the details. Important with that is to spray a very light coat of it and then all of the details are still present. It makes the prep work so much easier when you don't have to put Bondo on dozens of places when the body is getting near paint.

I think that Amazon would be a really cool to have as a model kit. AirTrax has made a resin kit of one, but I've heard rumors that they are being sold out and the molds need to be redone to produce more of those copies. That Amazon has lots of building options, I'm thinking of a Chopped Custom, Street Machine with a V8 under the hood and my favorite would be building something like the Hemizon:

Thanks Gene! The prep work can be really frustrating at sometimes, but now I somehow had inspiration to work with the hood as fast as the filler dried. The underside is another story though.... It will be a pain to get right as the shapes make it difficult to sand. I found this picture from the Internet. It shows how the Bondo looks when the actual filler and the hardener paste are mixed up. For applying it on a surface I use a piece of thin styrene sheet or then a piece of thicker cardboard. It's the best way I've figured out anyway. It works like this, but of course just in a smaller scale.

What He Said! Especially I like how the turtle deck looks and probably because it's missing, I've never bought the earlier reissue of this kit. I was very close of buying it a couple of times, but then I found something more interesting. Maybe now it would be a good time to pick one of these up...Even without the turtle deck. Anyone knows if those Turtle Decks are offered in resin by someone?

The hood is starting to look smooth now from the top side. After the last set of pics I have put a couple of coats of Bondo on it and sanded it smooth each time. Now it should be ready for a coat of Spray Filler or Primer, I'm not sure which one I'll be using. The underside is still rough, though. It needs to be smoothed out before I can shoot anything on it.

I got these from a Local Model Car Show today. My plan was to keep my budget low and surprisingly I managed to do that! The '62 Impala Convertible is missing a chassis and the body is painted. Complete engine and interior are there, though and that kit has a great 409 with Cross Ram intake and Offenhauser's finned valve covers. It was cheap so I had to pick it up. SMP's '60 El Camino is missing all of the Custom parts and some smaller items, but it doesn't matter me. I will use a chassis from AMT 1959 El Camino and engine bay from another source to make it a Mild Custom. It was pretty cheap too so I had to get it. More pictures Here. Then I bought some smaller stuff, a bottle of Tamiya Blue, three pairs of 9" Slicks, inner wheels and some valve covers: Original ones for Chevy W-Block and Generation 2 Big Block, Offenhauser valve covers for W-Block and Weiand and Corvette valve covers for SBC. Those magazines I got for free.

Really good looking Dragster and a great description, too. Especially I like the front wheels, as the wire wheels in these kits are really poor quality and I think they would ruin an otherwise nice build. Those look perfect. Nice paint and assembly work and sharp detailing all over. For example the valve stems seem to be one item that many builders forget (Me too!). Really nicely executed build of an interesting subject.

This is interesting! There can never be too many X-Frame Chevrolets and this one is turning out spectacular. I've always liked this engine combination fitted in these X-Frame Chevys, even though my favorite engine would be... Well I think you all know that it would be a W-Block. Anyway great looking Impala you have there. The color combination looks very good and paint job is really smooth too. I like the tires and that engine detailing is super nice. I can't wait to see this one done.

First, I'm not sure if this is the right category for this thread, but as I see other 1:1 car related posts in here, I thought this might fit here too. If not, I'm sorry and please move it somewhere. Anyway I think this is really one of a kind Drag Race crash, I know that it has never happened before at least here in Europe. This happened at European Drag Race Championship Finals where a Top Fuel Bike racer Filippos Papafilippou crossed the center line and lost the control of his bike. The driver made it to the finishing line, the bike didn't... See youself, this is amazing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgh_nEbZi8s

Actually, I believe it was correct on the first pictures. That pulley tightens up the belt and it should be installed just like it is on the pics. Interesting project. I can't wait to see more as that body is looking really wild like that!

Here are two pictures of the rear suspension on the new COPO Camaro. If you're going to build an actual COPO Camaro, I wish you good luck. I have the same project in mind, I have the kit already but currently I'm searching all of the parts I need before I can start the project.

Incredible work! I've always thought that this '70½ Camaro looks much better than '67-'69 Camaros so I'm really glad to see one built this well. Fantastic work overall, but my favorite is that interior. It looks very realistic, especially the seats that don't look like plastic at all. I can't wait to see more of this.

Thanks everyone for the comments, they are appreciated! Bill: Yep these are great looking cars. I did a little mock up with the engine and as I'm going with a Small Block there is a bit more space to move the engine just a little forward. It won't probably be perfect, but at least it should be better than if built box stock. I have already built one as a Mild Custom with the 348 Cid engine and I can remember that there was no space to move the engine forward enough. Philip: I'm glad this brings memories! My 1:1 has some rust issues too. Currently the rear quarter panel from co-drivers' side is partly disappeared... Needs to order a replacement quarter panel for that... Carl: I used a Razor Saw to cut the transmissions. It works really well and makes straight cuts. I can't remember for sure, but it wasn't very expensive either, maybe something like $15 here in Finland. I think every modeler should have one of these on their toolbox, mine is made by Zona and it looks pretty much like this: Thanks for the interest guys, I'll have more updates soon.

The next step was painting the door panels. My reference pics showed that on the door panels the white areas are actually light grey. So I painted them with Humbrol #56. Later on after I had painted the red, I noticed that the grey areas are a bit too dark, but since they look decent like that I thought I'm going to leave them like that. It's not too wrong anyway. Then some BMF and detail painting with silver and black wash to the door lines and they are done.

If that was for me, Thanks! Uh I guess I have enough glue bombs on my own right now. Finishing all of them will take probably a couple of decades.

I thought I wouldn't start a new project before my '50 Oldsmobile Mild Custom is completed, but it seems that I can't keep my hands off from this one so I'll have to get started with it. The Olds will be done soon, though. So the plan is to build an Impala that my 1:1 scale Impala will hopefully be in a few years time. This means that I will install a 383 Cid Stroker Small Block Chevy from Revell '69 Nova kit as that is what will be under the hood on the real thing when I get the money to build the engine, tranny, driveshaft and rear axle. I'm planning that the real thing should look a little like an old Junior Stock Drag Car with front end a bit higher than the rear end, high profile blackwall tires with black steel wheels on the back and whitewalls and Chrome Reverses on the front. I took AMT 9" Slicks for this project as that's what I would use on the 1:1 car when driving at the Drag Strip, front tires come from AMT Firestone Parts Pack. The wheels are resin cast by a friend of mine. The front wheels will be painted with Alclad Chrome. As I said earlier, the engine is taken from Revell's Special Edition '69 Nova kit. I'm planning to use aluminum heads, Victor Junior style intake manifold (Where to find one in scale?), Mickey Thompson valve covers and of course headers. No kit seems to have correct headers for this car so I will have to scratchbuild them. Of course the engine needs to be detailed properly. The kit has some flaws in it, even if it is pretty good quality. Originally the engine sits way too far back and there is the spare wheel cover next to the fuel tank (It was there in '59 but not in '60) etc. But more on those modifications later as I go.... First Here are a few pics of how the real car looks right now: And here is the kit. When I bought it, the first thing was of course to get rid of those horrible wheels and tires(How could someone ever install them on a '60 Impala?! :lol: ) Luckily a friend of mine bought them. As you can see the rear wheels are actually meant to be installed on the front. I need to try removing the center knobs somehow. Buying a new set of wheels might be another choice, we'll see which one I'll do. The real car will probably have a TH350 automatic trans (Currently it has a PG) so I had to try finding one. Luckily my friend Matti (ChevyCoupe41) had a "junk engine" with a TH350 transmission molded in. So I cut the transmissions separate from the engine blocks and now I have the engine from the Nova with TH350 trans. Thanks For Lookin'!

Thanks Philip and Darryl! I appreciate it! Yep I know many people who don't like to build 1/24 scale models. I think it makes no difference, so for me this is not a big deal. I got the hole on the hood done. A couple of pieces of sheet styrene and some rough sanding and now it's covered in Bondo. I also drilled holes to the scoop and now the carbs get some fresh air, too.

Here are four pictures from FHRA Swap that was held in March 2014. The weather wasn't very good so there were not that many American Cars present. Anyway here are a few:

It can't get much better than this. Very realistic looking Altered all in all, but that detailing must be my favorite. It looks like the engine could be fired up at any moment. Combined with good looking paint job and very nice and clean assembly overall make this one an incredible model. Congrats.

WOW! Those Quadrajets are Beautiful! As a 1:1 Stock Eliminator Drag Racer I like to build lots of Stockers and Super Stockers where you can't hide carburetors under air cleaner... I will buy those soon for sure. So.... Thank You for making those carbs!

It's actually quite easy. I started by making the bottom plate from sheet styrene. I just drew the lines to the sheet styrene and cut it off. The sides were done next. I used the first side piece as a quide to the other one and that way they turned out similar to each other. Then I glued those parts together and I also glued a larger piece of styrene to the top. Once the glue was dry, I trimmed it into a proper size and then I did the back piece with the same method. I've done three of these scoops in the past and all of them have turned out good. So those are actually quite easy to scratchbuild... I'm sure you can do it. I still have to drill holes for the carburetor throats on the bottom part, though.

Rob's idea of the 1972 theme sounds excellent to me. No one could turn old Classics ugly with big wheels or modern engines... (Just kidding of course, but you know I don't like those...). I really liked the Pre '62 Cannonball, too.

Thanks Ben! If you mean this Firebird... ...It's been looking pretty much like that for a long time. It was one of the Fastest Street Cars in Finland in the late 1980s. It looks still pretty much the same. I don't know what engine it had back then, but now it's powered by a Big Block Chevy. Here is a picture of it at Kauhajoki Street Race in 1987. http://superbird.kuvat.fi/kuvat/1987/Kauhajoki+Street+Race/IMG_0011_NEW.jpg

Thanks Glenn and Ron! I appreciate your comments. Finally I'm back working with this one. I started modifying the hole on the hood. It's too big for the scoop so I started adding some sheet styrene to make the hole smaller. I'll try to add some more styrene on this one really soon to get the hood painted.

Well I took a break of couple of months from this build. Now I thought it would be a good time to get slowly back on this one. My main focus will be on the '50 Oldsmobile Mild Custom, '69 Charger Daytona for Cannonball Run CBP and the "Summer Project" '55 Chevy. But while those three are drying, I thought I'd work with this a little. Not much progress, but I wanted to let you know that this project isn't forgotten. I painted the backseat. I painted the red first and then the white. As with the front seat, this is painted on free hand without masking tape. Next step will be flocking the floor. Hopefully I can make it on the next couple of days...