W-409

Thanks Russ, Stan and Ron! I highly appreciate your kind comments, they sure mean a lot to me. Here's a bit more. I got the chassis painted a couple of days ago. Anyway there were some cracks on the paint. I don't know why that happened, but luckily I was able to sand it smooth without sanding through the paint so I just repainted the chassis yesterday. Now it looks alright and I'm going to paint the frame with gloss black soon. I also started working with the engine. I removed old glues as much as I could and put some Bondo to smooth out some areas. It's still far away from being ready for Primer, but I'm hoping to do some more work with it today.

That's a good looking paint job! I like the color too, fits very well on Mustang. I agree, I'm not a fan of polishing either, it's one of the most annoying things in model building. Anyway the results sure are nice just like this one.

I bet the experience with a Junior Dragster will help you a lot when racing with the Vega. Of course the car is totally different, but when you get the hang of it I'm sure you'll be able to take good RT every time really soon. And that's the thing where I have problems.

The Frontrunners that you have... I didn't find them from your web page as you said that everything doesn't show there so I'll have to ask what size are they? The Frontrunners that can be found from Revell Pro Stock kits (The ones that have Good Year Frontrunner texts in them) are often too small for Stock Eliminator / Super Stock Drag Cars. Are your Frontrunners taller? The reason why I'm interested in this is that I've been working on a master for a tall Frontrunner tire. But it's a lot of work and if someone did the same thing already I could just buy complete sets of them instead of making the master and then buying them from a friend of mine.

That's very cool! It's nice to see Super Stock Drag Cars being built as well. You did a great job, especially the paint is stunning. What kit did you use as a basis?

Another little update. I was working with the roll bar and seat belts today. It took many hours with all of the problems I had (Those dang Photo Etch parts that fly from my tweezers every time!). Anyway I started with the roll bar, which was quite simple. I had to add a cross bar so that the seat belts can be mounted. It had to be made from two parts of course. The real problem was the seat belts. The PE parts that make it possible to build wrap around style belts were a real pain, but other than that everything went well. Here are a couple of pics:

Thanks Glenn! I think I'm shooting for the whatever option. I have a couple of Gassers in progress, too and I thought I don't want to build this as a Gasser. With all of those rules Gas Coupes & Sedans had, this would take forever to get done. Slots would be good for the front. I'll see if I can find a set.

How sharp is that chassis? I mean does it require a lot of sanding or something like that? I have TDR Turbochargers and they are fantastic! I'm pretty sure these frames are the same quality so no problems there...? That's not too expensive chassis, I might have to buy one of those... Interesting project for sure. I can't say if I'd go with Twin Turbos or Supercharger. Both are really interesting engine combinations in 1:1 world. Whichever you choose, it'll be cool!

Fantastic Mercury! Your builds are always spectacular, but this might be the best one that I have seen! Extra credit for getting the black paint job right, a color that many modelers hate (Including me) and I've tried doing only two gloss black cars... Both of them didn't turn out as I hoped. But this looks perfect and nice BMF work, too. Especially textes on the rear fenders look like Photo Etch parts.

Thanks Stan and Dale ! Yep, removing the exhaus and mufflers was a "Must". I did the same in '57 Nomad Street Freak years ago and I remember I could do it back then, but the end result wasn't as smooth as I hoped. Now I wanted to do it better. Here's a little update for you all. I started working on the roll bar. The one that came with the kit wasn't very good. I thought it was a bit too thick and it was too low as well. Of course it would have been easy to make it a bit taller, but because its' thickness I decided to see if Monogram's '56 Chevy had a better one. And it did, even though it was a bit too tall but it was really easy to lower a little. I also removed the fire extinguisher from the roll bar. Later on it will be installed on the center console. Here is the original roll bar from '55 Chevy and '56 Chevy's lowered roll bar. I also put some Bare Metal Foil on the door panels. It wasn't easy and the chrome trim didn't turn out as good as I hoped, but it's not my worst effort, either. I also painted the window cranks and door handles. I've never managed to BMF those so I decided to paint them instead. They'll look a lot cleaner like that. I also glued the seats on, and they pretty much cover the door panel problems. Seats are painted with same colors than the rest of the interior. I also found a perfect set of rear tires and wheels for this project. They are very old 10,5" Racemasters with Five Spokes. I bought them last year from a long term Finnish model builder who was selling his treasures. He said he didn't remember where were they from, but he said he has had them for a very long time. So we both agreed that they must be very old, and they look like it too. I think those fit perfectly on this.

I've always thought Ford Capri is a really nice car and I think it looks amazing as a Drag Car, too. With your skills I'm sure this will turn out fantastic, as it looks very good already. The chassis fits really nicely and roll cage looks good, too. I can't wait to see more.

I have to agree with everyone else. Superb work, Scott with the Fairmont. Truly incredible detail work all over. The wheels look really good, the screws that are supposed to keep the tires on place will be a fantastic detail. And I have never even thought that someone could do that in 1/25 scale. This kind of ideas are another good thing you can get from these excellent WIP threads. Keep the updates coming, I'll need to get more popcorn!

Carl: I ask lots of questions, too. It's a great way to learn and we have lots of kind people here that will share their knownledge when asked. Good to hear I could help. Glenn: Here you go . Not a big update, but other things have taken some time from modeling. I'm hoping to do some more progress in the next couple of days, though. I did get the chassis sanded smooth after the spray filler. Then I put some more Squadron's White Putty on it and after that was smooth, I thought it's Primer time. Now when it's primed, it looks like I will shoot some flat black paint on it tomorrow. Ready For Primer: Primed:

I'll have to admit that I don't have much experience on Tamiya kits. I've built three of them and the amount of fit issues is really small. The parts snap together easily. But many of those kits don't have engines and they have simplified chassis and interior as well. I think that's what makes the difference so that I think Revell kits are better, as they usually have the parts to build a detailed model. The AMT kits Round Two is working on are nice. But many kits are old and part count is really small... I think overall Revell is better. Trumpeter kits are really nice, I forgot about that. I think they are just as good as Revells, I have one Falcon and one Ranchero kit and I'd like to buy the '63 Nova really soon. Oh well, enough Off Topic... Let's get back to building this cool car. I can't wait to see what you'll end up with!

Thanks Steven and Jon! Steven: I remember seeing Testors' paints somewhere here in Finland. I just can't remember who sold them, but I will have to try their clear lacquer for sure if I can find it somewhere. This might be a dumb question, but I want to make it sure so if I find Testors paints I don't pick the wrong bottle . So is this the correct stuff? Another thing I've been wondering is if Tamiya's TS-13 Clear works with Enamels. I'm going to test that soon. Jon: With old paints it's possible to get interesting results... I've tried that, too. I don't know what went wrong in my case, as the paint wasn't too old, but I hope light sanding and re-spray will work fine on this.

Too good to be Revell? My friend had the original issue of this kit and I remember it wasn't as good quality as Revell's new kits are. There were some fit issues during the final assembly (if I remember correctly) and some of the parts were not so detailed as parts in new Revell kits. In my opinion the only manufacturer that makes better kits than Revell is Moebius Models.

That's a truly incredible Model! Looks like every time I say it's Real it's Model and when I say it's Model it's Real. Maybe next time I'll pick the one I think it isn't .

Unfortunately, the only way is to wait for a while and the pics will show up again. I've had that same problem a couple of times and at the first time I opened a new account. I can't say for sure how long you'll have to wait, but it's less than a month anyway.

Yep! I bet the groceries are home before they warm up or melt. Very cool Nomad, I like the Primer paint job and the stance is just perfect. I think it looks like an old Drag Car that has been sitting for a while and now someone has started working with it again. Very neat build! Only improvement I might do would be BMF on the chrome trim. It would look maybe a bit more realistic. But other than that I say it can't be built much better!

I have an airbrush and I really like it. It's a Badger 250 that works really well and it's quite simple to use, too. The problem why I use spray paints is that I haven't found a paint that works with the airbrush. Revell and Humbrol Enamels work well otherwise, but my experiences with Revell clear are not very good. It flaked off with BMF and Humbrol's clear will turn yellow during the years. My plan is to try Tamiya Acrylics with the airbrush next, but I'll need to gather some information about them first. I know a couple of modelers here in Finland have used those paints succesfully with an airbrush, so I'll have to ask them about painting those and what clear is suitable. I'll have to practise using Alclad Chrome, too, so the airbrush will be in use really soon, I guess.

Well that's a great deal, Jason! Congrats! I think the car looks very good, and with a good chassis and engine it should be really consistent as well. Do I remember correct if I say that you drove a Junior Dragster before? If so, I bet you'll have no trouble getting used to driving that car and especially driving consistent times and RT's. Reactions are very hard for me, sometimes I get a pretty good light, but I might also take a big red light or then I'm way too late. James: Yep they are. I'll have to fix that... I got the seat smoothed out and painted it. I wasn't completely sure if the real seat was upholstered with these colors, but at least this is the original style. It's not perfect, but I think I can live with it.

Gassers are really tricky, as many people don't know the rules and everyone has seen lots of "Gassers" that are nowhere near the rules. I've built a couple of those too, but now when I finally found the rules that won't happen anymore. One thing that most people don't remember is that Gassers had to sit in a level stance. Nose up stance wasn't allowed. Altereds had often the nose up stance and Altered rules were a lot more free than Gasser rules, so if you think building a Gasser gets way too complicated, it's a good idea to turn it into an Altered. See these old NHRA Rulebooks at Terry Sumner's Fotki page. They have Gasser rules as well. http://public.fotki.com/tsumner/nhra-rulebooks/

My dad has used these decals once. They were ordered via Model Express (That is unfortunately out of business nowadays) so there's no experience in dealing with actual Decals By Lucas, but I know the decals are very good quality and easy to install.

Really nice start! I'll be watching this very closely. I like the idea of Pro Sportsman chassis under a Dart body, I might have to buy a Dart body and do something similar to this at some point, it looks so good. But I have to say that this is not a Pro Stock car, it's more like a Pro Sportsman/Comp Eliminator or something like that. Pro Stockers have very limited rules and as this looks like it wouldn't fit into that category.

Very nicely done Chevelle Wagon! I like the paint job and those decals fit perfectly and give it a nice Race Car look. It's not a Pro Stock car though. Pro Stockers had (and still have) very tight rules and for example blown engines like this are not allowed. And then you have G/SA text on the rear window, which means G/Stock Automatic and this is definitely not a Stocker, either. I mean that it's a really nice build and you did a truly fantastic job with it. As a real Stock Eliminator driver these classifications just caught my eyes and I wanted to let you know, so with your next Drag Car build choosing the right class would be a bit easier. It's a very nice build, as always! Keep these coming !