W-409

Looks like this kit has some very interesting parts that are perfect for kitbashing! What I like is the roll bar, which has that crossbar so that seat belts can be installed there. The headers look good, too and seats are perfect for many different builds, too. Decal sheet looks nice as well, but those decals that try to represent burnt rubber on rear quarter panels don't look very realistic... I'll prefer real rubber. Anyway with all of the complaints this kit is getting, I'll surely buy a few. I will even build a couple of these.

Great looking Ford. You sure build these fast, but that can't be seen from the end result, as your models look very good. I agree that this is one of your bests. The paint looks good and BMF is sharp, too. I like the style as well.

That turned out really nice! I like the color a lot, something that could have been in original Bronco as well. Great job fitting the body on that chassis, it looks like it rolled out from the factory lane like that. Very nice job.

After reading your first post I was going to write that this will turn out fantastic! Body looked very good and I liked the color a lot. You're doing exactly the same upholstering on the seat as I'm doing, only differences are that my kit is a regular Coupe, not a Fastback and I'm doing the upholstering in a much harder way... But it's sad to see what happened for the body. I hope you can get back to this with another body really soon...It looks so good! I must remember to shut the light from my bench always when I leave so that same thing won't happen to me, too.

Okay I've never tried this trick on square headlights, but it works with round headlights. Just paint the lenses with gloss white (I've used Revell, Humbrol and Tamiya and they all worked) and wipe off just a little paint from the center so that the chrome can be seen through the white paint. It's very easy trick and works nicely. Here is an example: So as I said I haven't tried it on square headlights, but it might work? Some people have used white glue for the same thing so I guess that will work fine, too. I've never tried that, though.

Thanks Glenn! I was going to post an update yesterday, but now when the second Finnish Championship Series Drag Race event is starting on Saturday, we were building our car to get it race ready. Vallilan Takomo built a rear sway bar for us and yesterday with dad's workmate and a good friend we were (or actually he was) machining some parts for the sway bar. We were back home at Midnight so I thought I should update this thread in the morning instead, so here we go. I painted the frame with Humbrol Gloss Black. It turned out pretty good, but I still need to paint the fuel tank mounts silver. Anyway I mocked up the engine and noticed that the kit doesn't have a frame crossmember where the transmission would be mounted. First I was looking for one from my parts boxes, but I couldn't find one that fit, so I thought it's easier to scratchbuild one. It's still in very rough stages, more sanding and a bit of putty will be needed. I also need to add a couple of details, but before that I must paint the crossmember. I hope it'll look alright when it's "fine tuned" a bit. Edit: As the race is on the weekend I'm not able to work on this then. But on the next week I'll get some more work done with this. Currently I'm on the third place at Finnish Championship points, which is a huge surprise. I hope I could run a new ET record now with the sway bar.

This makes me speechless. I think I'm with Glenn here, I'll need to fix my floor too after seeing this!

Nice work on this one! These kits are not the easiest to put together cleanly, but you have done just that. Your paint job looks really nice and smooth, too. I haven't seen many of these, but this is definitely one of the bests! Ray: There actually is ! Just paint them with gloss white and then start removing the paint from the center so that the chrome can be seen through the white paint. It's actually very easy and it works, even if it sounds so simple. These headlights on my Super Bee were chromed:

I just wanted a share a couple of pictures with you guys. I've seen lots of cool stuff in this section and I think this is worth sharing. It is a '31 Ford Model A from Finland, with an original steel body that has been chopped 4,5" and channeled 4". The frame is also modified to make it lower. The engine is an Early Hemi with six chromed Stromberg carbs. Those pipes are Loud! Here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH0K2my3H4I There are more cars I can post, too if anyone is interested in seeing more of these from Finland.

You do great work with each build. This one is no exception. Very nice paint job and sharp detailing on the engine. I like the new wheels and tires, too, I think they look much better than those that came with the kit. Very nice work overall.

Thanks Fellas! I appreciate the kind comments and it feels very good to have this one back on the bench! This is a very tiny update, but I decided to post it anyway. While my scratchbuilt parts for the '55 Bel Air were drying I painted the water pump. I had sanded the putties smooth earlier and when I painted it there were no flaws that would need more putty or anything. So after I had painted most of the water pump with Tamiya's Red, I painted the end of it with Humbrol Flat Black just like real Proform parts are painted. Now back to the '55. Stay tuned as there should be an update coming later today in that thread if everything goes alright (I remember to post the update, take the pics, and of course...Get the part done! ).

Sometimes that solves the problem, that's right! On a street car it's not a problem, but I build mostly Drag Race cars and they very rarely have air cleaners. And that causes the problem. But again, very nice looking Charger!

I have a Cobra Jet Super Stock Mustang in the works and my base kit is Revell's 2010 Mustang GT. You'll need to get a blower from 2007 Shelby Mustang kit by Revell to be correct, maybe the whole engine from that kit would work as well? It's a bit of work to build that kind of a car, but it's a neat challenge. My Mustang is coming together very slowly, though.

I agree completely! Carburetor is absolutely the most unrealistic part of every kit and there are only a few that are realistic. I haven't built any of those three kits, but I remember seeing a carburetor from that AMT Duster and it looked really good. Another one I like is the Rochester from Revell Black Widow '57 Chevy and Jo-Han's '71 Pro Stock Barracuda has decent Dominators. I wish someone made detailed aftermarket carburetors, too. I'd definitely buy them!

Hey what's wrong with the Small Block? Personally I think it's great that this kit has a Small Block Engine in it. It might be because when I think of this kit the first idea I get is a Super Stock Drag Car. And Novas weren't available with Big Blocks then. But anyway if I built it Out Of the Box I'd be happy with the SBC as well... Of course there's no right or wrong answer to this, but it's just another opinion. I agree with the rear springs, they're not the best. However, they do work well and I've seen no problems with mine. But Stock steering wheel is a great addition.

Another tip on the picture thing... I like to take outdoor pics if I have to use my cell phone. When there's a lot of natural light the pics will turn out a lot better than these, even with a really simple cell phone. But with a cell phone the pics must be taken a bit further away from the subject than with a regular camera. Here is one of my cell phone pics, taken with my old cell phone. Well anyway from what I can see the Corvette looks very good! You said there are some problems with the paint, but I think the paint looks really good. Engine is very nice as well. Maybe yet another set of a bit better pics, please? I'd like to see more, as I think this very nice build deserves better pictures.

That's really good looking Charger. Nice paint job and sharp BMF work. Especially those chrome trims on fender openings are really hard to get right, looks like you nailed it. The engine bay is a piece of art as well, fantastic detailing and all those wires sure seem to be in scale. Only thing I might do would be drilling the carburetor throats open. Your engine detailing is so nice otherwise that this little thing kinda catches my eye. But overall it's a very small problem and the model is very well built. I couldn't do this any better.

Thanks for the pics Scott! Your Frontrunners look really good, I might have to buy a set when I run out of those I have now. The one I've been trying to make might be a bit taller, but your tire would fit perfectly on a bit smaller car like Nova. Thanks again!

Looking very good! The detail your are putting into this one is amazing! It's great to see that you're able to work with this project for so long time without any long breaks. I know I couldn't do that. And hey: Happy Birthday!!!!

Thanks! I had heard about Simca Vedette, but when I bought that body I had no idea what car it was. When I got home from the show I started to search from Google and found that it's a Simca.

Well that's interesting information, Thanks Fred! I didn't find many pics of those old Pro Stockers. Restored car pics were easy to find, but they can be different from original Race Cars... That's a good information for sure... Thanks! BTW: This kit would be a perfect starting point to replicate this legendary Finnish Modified Stock (MS) Drag Car that was driven by Per Allan Skinnars. I believe he still has the car, last time I saw it on track was 2009. This picture is from the late '80 or early '90s. And the same car in 2000:

I used a Miss Deal Studebaker chassis for my '59 Simca Vedette. It was AirTrax body (that was damaged in the molding process). It didn't fit perfectly, but I had to narrow the floor a little, stretch the frame and move one of those frame's crossmembers a bit to get front axle fit on correct place. A new roll cage had to be built, too. Those modifications might sound like they were really complicated, but actually it was a quite easy process.

I've built this kit a couple of years ago. It was the original issue, though so I have no personal experience with the recent issue. Anyway I had no problems with mine. Everything went well together and kit's parts are well detailed in my opinion. One problem many people have noticed with the recent issue (Molded in Blue) is that front tires are way too back so that they don't line up properly with the wheel openings. I don't have my kit here in my hands, but I believe it's pretty simple to fix. Just move the front spindles where front wheels are attached and there you have it. I think that kit has no bigger problems... I highly recommend that one!

I agree what Martin said above. I'm happy with the Jo-Han kit overall, but yeah, especially the engine bay and front suspension is quite poor. Interior isn't too detailed either, but it can be built into a decent looking unit anyway. The biggest problem with Jo-Han's body are the taillights. They look like they are too deep inside the body and maybe they're a bit small, too? But the engine in that particular kit is excellent, despite the axle hole on the engine block. However it can be built into a very nice model, especially if someone who has more talent than I do builds that kit. Here is a link to my buildup of the Jo-Han kit: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=81219 Maybe a bit offtopic, but that being said I believe the Revell kit is an excellent one, as usual. Those little problems with the fender flares etc should be an easy fix. Okay okay, I don't have any personal experience with these new Revell Barracudas, but I've seen many of these built and a friend of mine has that Stock version and he says it should be easy to fix the little imperfections. I can't wait to get this kit to my hands... I'll have to wait so long that these arrive in Finland, though! I'd like to see some pics of the parts, too.

After more than a year sitting in the box the Torino is Back! Yesterday while the '55 Bel Air was drying I decided to do some work with this. It's not too far away from being done, but as it has been sitting for a while I will have to re-do some things because I'm not happy with how I did those things before. So yesterday I started by taking the scratchbuilt water pump away. It didn't look like real Electric Water Pump from Proform does, so I built another one. First thing was to go to the garage and take some measurements to see what size tubing I should use. The center part, which is round, is just mold sprue as it was just perfect size. Otherwise it's just square tubing. After I glued those three parts together and took the picture, I added some putty on the water pump. I will sand it smooth today and hopefully it's ready to be painted. This is how it should look. In the picture I'm taking some measurements to help with the scratchbuilding. My scratchbuilt part VS the old one I did. Another thing I'm going to do is rebuilding the carburetor linkage. Now I have a Photo Etch carburetor linkage set, so I'll be using that one. Also there were some other problems with the carburetor so it got some putty as well. I'm hoping to get that smoothed out today so I can paint it and start with the linkages. Here is the Rochester with some putty on it. Other things I will have to do is polishing the body, BMF and of course a lot of detail work before I can start the final assembly. But it's getting closer and closer slowly. However, my main focus will be on the '55 Bel Air for now, I'll work on this while the Chevy is drying. But I promise this is going to be finished in 2014!