W-409

This is an interesting project. I've played with the idea of building the same car a few times, but it has never happened. Yet, at least. I think I might also have a resin body somewhere. You're off to a really good start! The real car is not '66 though, it's a '67. I wonder if there is a source for 1967 grill if you want to make it truly accurate.

After almost 11 years, this thing is finally back on the bench. Today I was working with my other Funny Car, Gas Ronda's '69 Mustang, and I got to the point where I had to wait for glue and putty to dry before I'm able to continue with anything else. So, I decided to grab another Ford Funny Car from the pile of stalled projects. Since the last update, I had sanded all of the mold seams and other imperfections from the frame. Some spots required putty and sanding also. That was done and today I could start assembling the chassis, as I thought it's easier to do it before painting. The instructions were not that great, but because of genious use of half-round locating pins on the frame crossmembers, it was actually easy to figure out the correct way to mount them. Then I started to prep engine parts for paint. The front cover had a hole straight to where the magneto is installed. I wasn't sure how well it can be seen after the cylinder heads are on place, but I decided to fix it with sheet styrene anyway. After the pictures, I also smoothed out the ejector pin mark with putty. Then I had to test fit the tin work to the body to prevent issues during final assembly. The fitment was great, and I was able to glue some of the tin work pieces together to ease painting and assembling. Now I'm also able to fill the joints with a little bit of putty. I guarantee, the next update will come sooner than in 11 years!

This year the Traditional Rod & Kustom In Scale forum has a "1969 Build Off", where the goal is to build something from 1969, but of course keeping the car period correct, because on TRaK forum, the cut-off year is 1969. So, I picked up a Polar Lights kit of Gas Ronda's '69 Mustang. I'm a little late to the party as I haven't had much time to build during the summer, but I'll try to finish it before the end of the year. Let's see if I can make it... I started working with the body. The kit comes with front end for either 1969 or 1970 Mustangs, because the real car used both, but I'm obviously using the 1969 nose. The fitment of the nose and the separate "tail light panel" wasn't that good. After some careful sanding and test fitting I was able to make them fit a little better, but some putty is required to smooth out the gaps. The first round of putty and sanding is done, but there is more to come. Underside of the body has also bunch of stuff that needs to be cleaned up before painting. The frame is assembled from several pieces. I thought it's easiest if I assemble the frame first and then paint it as one unit. But first, I had to prep the frame parts ready for assembly and paint. Removing of the mold lines was really tedious work and took several hours, but I made it. I also had to smooth out some ejector pin marks and sink marks with putty, so now I'll need to wait for it to dry before sanding and assembling the whole thing together...

They do, so we also need a good rust protection to keep the cars in driveable condition. As far as the HEI ignition, I prefer points ignition all day long on my cars. Much more reliable. Have driven several hundred thousand miles with points ignitions on several cars, never had any issues. Can't say the same about the HEI ignition...

An easy choice, I'd definitely go with the Nova. For me, the problem with the Lincoln would be pretty much what Steve said above, it's a lot easier and probably cheaper to find spare parts for the Nova. In addition to that, the Lincoln is way more complicated car with lots of electrical systems etc that could give you trouble, and they could be tricky to repair. I've driven with several old cars in the winter, and actually for the past 3,5 years my daily driver has been a 1964 Rambler American. I live in Finland so we have a pretty rough winter, but because the car is in good condition I've had zero issues with it. For the Nova, for winter you will need a good heater, which these cars usually do have if all of the components are working, good weatherstripping is a big advantage as well and proper winter tires. I haven't had the need for a limited slip. I mean, of course it helps, but I would think it more as an optional thing. With good tires and some common sense between the steering wheel and the seat, you'll be fine even without it. But, whichever you choose, I hope you'll enjoy it, also in the winter!

Because I enjoy building and detailing engines and engine bays, I definitely want to have one. It's not that I don't buy a model kit if it doesn't have an engine, because sometimes I also build curbsides if the subject matter is otherwise interesting. But if a kit has an engine, I'm more likely to buy AND build it. I like to kitbash / modify / scratchbuild parts, too, so I've done projects where I have installed an engine and engine bay in a curbside kit, but it is a ton of extra work and because I don't have as much bench time as I'd like, it will take a long time to finish. Luckily most of the kits today are pretty good out of the box, but then again, I really enjoy building older model kits that you don't see built that often, and taking the challenge to improve them to today's level.

I've had a passion for old cars as long as I can remember. When I was six years old, I saw a Monogram '70 Chevelle that my dad had built. A nice, clean factory stock build in red with black SS stripes. At that moment, I knew I wanted to start building models as well, and now over 20 years later here we are... I guess there are two main points that keep me going with this amazing hobby: -I'm able to build cars that I could never own in 1:1 scale (either because of the rarity / price of the car, or because of just the fact that I have several 1:1 cars already and have no space, time or money for more). -I can build an accurate replica of some 1:1 car for my display shelf. Another good thing, when I started as a kid, I learned a lot about cars from scale modeling. I learned how all the parts look, what they are supposed to do, learned to recognize, for example, engines (I was young when I could tell a difference between for example, a Small Block Chevy or Ford) and learned a lot about the cars in general. Nowadays I'd wish I had more time to actually build models, but I'm pretty busy so I don't get that much bench time, especially in the summer. I have tons of projects and cool ideas I want to build. You will see them here when I get to actually building them.

Congrats to the two of you who found the answer. I spent quite a lot of time in Google but found absolutely nothing. I've never even heard about that truck but in all of its' weirdness it's actually pretty cool! That thing would be interesting to see in person.

Thanks! I hope everything goes well (basically, I hope the car will work the whole trip, if it does I should have no problem). I've driven almost 100 000 kilometers with it during the last three and half years and haven't had any major issues. But every time you're far from home, anything can happen.

Thanks for the suggestions! These will help when planning the route that I will be driving, because when you're in foreign country, you always have to find a local Hobby Shop to stop by. Michael, I will be visiting a friend who lives a bit south from München.

I'm going to take my '64 Rambler for a little road trip in August. My goal is a little south from München, so I'll be driving through Germany. The exact route is not decided yet, but I will be visiting some interesting places on my way back home so I'm taking recommendations from all over the country. I know we have some members from Germany on this forum so I'd like to know what are the best Hobby Shops to visit on the way? I'm looking for mostly 1/24 or 1/25 model kits of older cars (American or European). So, let me know what are the best hobby shops to visit in Germany and I'll figure the route so that I can visit at least in some of them.

I have absolutely no idea what I'm looking at, but I like it! Now I'll just need to try figure out what is it.

Thanks for the kind words! The worst thing with these smaller scale kits in my opinion, is that it's really hard to find any optional parts other than what you'll find in the box, which will lead to scratchbuilding and then it usually takes forever to get finished. But this was a fun project. I might consider another 1/32 scale kit at some point.

This is not an easy car to find in 1/24 or 1/25 scale. I have had the plan to build a Cadillac of this era as a Traditional Custom for years, using the Revell Foose Cadillac as a starting point, but obviously everything that Foose did to that Caddy, has to be re-done to get rid of any modernized junk on a beautiful old car. Basically the only thing I'm missing is the tail fins and tail lights. Pretty much any Cadillac from '48 to '55 would be a suitable donor for these parts, but haven't found any. Even a "junk" resin body would work, if only the tail lights were salvageable. I know Modelhaus did some Cadillac quarter panels in resin which would be exactly what I needed, but they are really hard to find. If anyone has these parts, or a resin body, or a diecast or whatever that has the tail lights and rear quarters, I'm interested.

I'm a little late (was out on vacation and just been super busy overall), but wanted to say thank you for the kind comments! They are appreciated. I also would like to see one of these in 1/25 scale. It's a little newer car that I'm usually interested in, but I like these GM G-Bodies. So with that said, even though this was a smaller scale and a Snap Tite kit, I had to try building it.

The '65 Chevy II 100 2D Sedan should not be that tricky to kitbash. I need to find a few missing parts for it and then my plan is to build one of them. I already have the '65 Gasser kit and '64 Hardtop on the shelf, but I'm waiting for some smaller items, like dog dish hubcaps to arrive before I get started on it.

Thanks Mike, I appreciate the kind words! Here is a link to the finished pictures in Under Glass section. Thanks for everyone who has followed this thing come together. Now let's see what's next... https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/192816-79-chevrolet-malibu-4d-sedan/

This started out in 2017 as a Monogram 1/32 scale Snap Tite kit. As far as I know, it's the only available plastic model kit of a G-Body Malibu, even though some resin kits do exist in 1/24 or 1/25 scale. The kit is really simple with low parts count, so I took the challenge of trying to make it presentable. These cars were sold new here in Finland, so I wanted to build something that could have rolled out from the dealer showroom in here, back in 1979. The kit builds up as a police car, so I had to fill mounting holes for the police lights on the roof and mounting hole for a spotlight on driver's door. After that the body was painted with automotive spray paints, polished and chrome trim was done with BMF. Grille, headlights and tail lights were molded to the body, so those had to be detailed with BMF and paint. Headlight lenses were separate, but all other lights had no clear lenses so they had to be painted on. Also the grille was really tricky to BMF smoothly. I ended up doing the wide horizontal bars with BMF and the grille mesh between them is chromed with Molotow and black washed. The kit also has zero chrome parts, so bumpers and side view mirror were "chromed" with Revell's Chrome Spray. Old Finnish register plates and GM mud flaps were drawn on computer and printed on paper. Interior is very simple, too. The kit comes with bucket seats and a center console, but I wanted a bench seat on mine. So I modified the buckets into a bench seat. Other modifications include removing all police equipment, adding scratchbuilt seat belts, column shifter, turn signal lever and a rear view mirror that was scaled down from 1/25 scale part, because the kit didn't have any of those parts. Other than that the interior is just detailed by paint. Chassis has everything molded to the chassis floor, only separate pieces are wheels and tires. I changed the kit's wheels and tires to resin parts from AirTrax, because I wanted to have regular steel wheels and Dog Dish hubcaps rather than the kit-supplied wide steel wheels with raised letter tires. Hubcaps are machined aluminum. Otherwise the chassis is just detail-painted carefully. Overall the kit was a lot of fun to build and I didn't have any major fit issues. With some extra detailing these kits do build up into a decent looking scale model. If you want to see the build thread, it's here: https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/127180-78-chevrolet-malibu-4d-sedan/ though it's mislabeled as a '78 Malibu even though it really is a 1979. I just couldn't figure out a way to edit the thread title.

I sanded mold lines and other flaws smooth from the bumpers and then I "chromed" them with Revell's Chrome Spray. Lots of positive comments were heard about that product and now I understand why. Incredible chrome effect straight from the spray can, and it's much more durable than Alclad. Not cheap, but worth it in my opinion. After that I did a bunch of small things, for example dry-brushing the Chevrolet and Malibu emblems with silver, adding period correct Finnish register plates and GM mud flaps to the back (because mud flaps were mandatory in Finland back in 1979) etc. Now the Malibu is finally finished! I will try to shoot some pictures of it tomorrow and post it in Under Glass.

I just went through this whole thread and I have to say that you're doing an incredible job with the fabrication on this '55. It's definitely going to be one of the better models built from this kit. Not saying that the kit is bad, but it needs a bunch of work. I built one of these as a Gasser a few years ago and had to modify a lot, but you are taking a few steps further and I like it.

I listen only to Rock 'n' Roll / Rockabilly music, so mine are a bit different from the most here in this thread.... Maybe one of the best guitar riffs is Crazy Cavan & The Rhythm Rockers' Rollin' Through The Night. Lyndon Needs on guitar. The best solo.... Hmm, another tricky one. This one is definitely on top of my list, Gene Vincent And His Blue Caps - Race With The Devil. From 1956, Cliff Gallup on guitar.

This turned out incredible! Really like seeing these a bit more unusual subjects being built, and this definitely fits in that category. It's hard to say anything that hasn't been said already, so I'll just say that I really like the way this one turned out. Very nice work.

Thanks! I think this is by far the best color for a G-Body Malibu. This is one of those cars that I'd like to own in 1:1 scale, a friend has a G-Body Camino and it rides so good that I'd definitely be happy to have one of these myself, too. Got bunch of work done over the weekend. First I took the kit supplied radio that had molded in microphones or whatever they are called in English. Instead of the kit's police car, I'm trying to replicate a normal daily driver, so those had to go. Looks like I forgot to take a picture of the finished part, but here is the completed dashboard. For the steering column, I added a shifter and turn signal lever, because the kit didn't have any. They are made out of metal wire and the knobs are just a small amount of white glue, painted gloss black. I thought the car needed seat belts for the front seat. Because all aftermarket seat belt materials that I had, were for 1/24 or 1/25 and therefore were too wide for this 1/32 scale kit, I had to make the seat belts from paper that I just painted flat black. Belt buckles are also paper, painted silver. At the same time, I glued wheels and tires on place. The top side of the chassis was painted gloss black so that there is no possibility of white plastic showing up through the wheelwells or anything like that. Next I glued windows to the body. They were a little warped so either windshield or rear window fit nicely while the other one didn't. I solved the problem by cutting both windows separate from each other, and now the windows fit "as good as possible". The kit didn't come with a rear view mirror, so I searched my parts box and found one. Of course it was too big for this 1/32 scale kit, so I reduced the size of the mirror by sanding it smaller and re-chroming it with Molotow. Then I glued the dashboard on place and interior was finished. The painting on dashboard and steering wheel looks kinda rough on this picture, but remember, it's a small scale so the dash is bigger on the screen than what it is in real life... Then the interior was glued to the body. Fitment was great. And last I glued the chassis also to the body. Now this thing is really close of being done, but I still have some small things to do. I was going to chrome the bumpers and side mirror today, until the mirror flew away from my tweezers and I didn't find it. Tomorrow I'll need to search the whole room to find it and then I can continue...

Thanks David! I appreciate the kind words! I've been trying to detail the molded in grille and lights by paint. I started on the front, the grill was really tricky to black wash cleanly because of the small scale of this model kit, but after carefully applying Tamiya's black Panel Line Accent Color a few times I think it's as good as it's going to get. Headlights were glued on place, front parking lights were painted with Tamiya acrylic white which I didn't mix up properly, to create a transparent coat of white paint to simulate parking light lenses. Not perfect, but better than if I just painted them white. Turn signal lenses were painted with Humbrol's clear orange. On the back, tail light lenses were painted with Tamiya's clear red and back up light lenses with Tamiya's white acryl. The area between the lenses and tail light bezels was supposed to be black so I painted that with Molotow's Blackliner.

Been busy and had very little time to work on anything besides 1:1 scale cars. But finally got some progress done on this thing. All chrome trim on the body was done with BMF. Window trims and drip rail moldings were easy, but those molded-in tail lights and especially front grille and headlight bezels/headlights were really tricky to do cleanly. Tail lights were done out of a single piece of BMF each, after some careful work I was able to stretch the BMF so that it covers the whole tail lights and doesn't have many wrinkles on it. For the grill I BMF'ed the thicker horizontal grille bars but between those the grille has some finer mesh, and there was no way BMF could be stretched well enough for the mesh so that I could black wash those areas later. After some thinking I ended up chroming the mesh-areas with Molotow. The end result is not flawless, but I think I can live with it. Obviously, the mesh still needs to be black washed, but that's not before the Molotow has dried properly. Molotow was also used for the headlight bezels, or to be more clear, for the headlight assemblies theirselves, the bezels are BMF. Next I'll need to black wash the grille, paint tail lights and side markers and do some dry-brushing to the "Malibu" emblems on the body.