W-409

Thanks James! That's a great information, since I don't know much about these Y-Blocks, it's good to learn these things. As far as the project goes, it's not forgotten. I finally got the valve covers from paint removing. I'll shoot some Primer on them today and I'll paint them black as soon as possible. I'm working on a couple of Mild Customs at the same time, so the progress isn't too fast, but at least it's better than no progress at all I guess...

Looking Good! An interesting project for sure, Stockers and Super Stockers are seen way too rarely in this scale. You are doing great job with this, the conversion you made looks excellent and I like the paint and decal work, too. Yup, I agree. Though my favorites are Early '60s Full Size cars like Chevy Impala, but I really like these, too. It's great to see how close to Stock these things actually were (And are still today), but then again they are clearly race cars. I'm also building The Ramchargers' '61 Phoenix that ran in S/S and I have one '58 Chevy Sedan Delivery that will be another Junior Stocker while waiting for the next Drag Race Season to start...

Just a minor update on my Charger Daytona. I filled the gap that was between the nose piece and body. I used 1 millimeter thick sheet styrene for it. After that I started putty work, but there is nothing to photograph so far. I guess it'll take a while to get all shapes correctly on the front end... Before: After:

I think the carburetors look excellent! Really nice work with that engine. Wheel and tire choice is very good, too. I've always liked those wheels. Heh, once I found a cheap Jo-Han Pro Street Rambler kit (Sealed) and I bought it immediately. I had to bring it home so that no one can see it, because if I had tried to explain that 'Yeah Yeah it was really cheap', probably no-one would have believed that, since it's sealed Jo-Han kit...

Thanks John. When I have a W-Block on my bench, I have to try to do it a justice. And I'm really happy with that one, too. Wow, looks like your local Hobby Show just ran out of Aftermarket Goodies! :lol:

There's no need to strip the paint from the carbs. You could drill the throats (?) open and add nozzles (?) there (I'm not sure if their English words are those) and then paint them with a mixture of Clear orange paint and dirty thinner. I did that on my '62 Impala engine and I think the color is quite good. Here is a picture of the Dominators on my '71 Barracuda: The golden parts are just Revell Gold paint brushed over the chrome. I like what you're doing here. The Cuda is looking great. I hope this helps.

I've been following this from the beginning and your building skills impress me every time. Rat Rods are not my style, but this is cool! I like the low stance and all little details that you've made. Red Steel Wheels with Whitewalls are perfect combo.

Here are pics of that AirTrax Mirada (Not Mine though). http://public.fotki.com/Letukkamies/air-trax-resin-kits/air-trax-resin-1983/ And Juha Airio has built one Factory Stock: The Fairmont is looking excellent! All that little detail work that you've done is really nice. This will be an excellent build once it's done. Great work.

Thanks Richard! It means a lot! Well I was doing bodywork today and I got all mold lines smoothed out. Then I sanded the rest of the body and I came up with a couple of sink marks on front fenders and hood. I will do some filling with putty tomorrow. My plan is to get this one primered really soon when everything looks smooth.

Welcome Todd! Great to see another Drag Racing fans in here. Your Camaro looks very good to me, how about some more info, please? A Big Block car according to the 396 Letters on front fenders? I'm 17 and I drive '74 Chevelle in K/Stock Automatic. It has 350 SBC and TH350 trans... Drag Racing sure is a lot of fun. http://kuvia.1g.fi/kuvat/Tapahtumat+2013/FHRA/NitroNationals/Saturday/MOP_9753.jpg

Strange, my kit had no problems when putting those parts together. I hope you can figure it out and get it done, that kit builds up into a very nice model.

Thanks Fellas, lots of great information here! Jim: You're not late at all, I have to repaint that engine anyway after modifying that oil pan, so color change shouldn't be a big thing. I think I'll go with flat black from spray can, that works very well at least. Heh, that battery thing can still be seen in today's Stockers and Super Stockers, that's another detail I need to concentrate on when I'm at that point. Thanks for the great info, I'll do my best to replicate these things in 1/25 scale. Håkan: That white fuel tank would be a neat little detail on this build. I guess if no-one proves that the fuel tank wasn't white, I'll paint it with Tamiya's Gloss White paint....Thanks! Garry: Yep 7" Cheater Slicks were the only legal tires in these classes, and I remember reading from a Junior Stock Book that the tires grew to 7½ inches after a few runs. That is one problem, you're right, but I test fitted a pair of those tires inside the Nova body and somehow I think it doesn't look as good as it does with these. I think I'll go with the kit rear tires, but I'm not completely sure yet...

Thanks Guys! I appreciate the kind comments and they sure keep me going.

Well since it's January 1st in here (Now 9:45PM) I started building my '69 Charger Daytona. Well, I can say that AMT's kit definitely has a lot to improve, so I'm not running out of things to do. Parts don't fit very well together and there is a lot of stuff to clean up and ejector marks to fill. It's not the worst possible kit, though, and I believe that it can be built into a nice looking model...Let's see... Here's the kit: I started by gluing the nose on place. I can't say that the fitment is good, since there are a couple of gaps that I need to fill. The fender extension parts don't look very good, either, but I hope that with some styrene and putty I can get them good. I'll remove the seam between the nose and body, since I want it to be like one piece. Next step with this is styrene to fill the gaps and lots of putty... On the underside there is a massive gap that I want to fill with styrene. Then I removed exhaust pipes from the rear axle. My build will use a NASCAR Style exhaust with exits on both sides before rear tires. The rear axle needs some sanding and other work before I can paint it. Engine block halves were glued together, too. Tamiya's Liquid Glue worked well on here. Spoiler parts had huge ejector pin marks... I've seen large ejector marks before, but these were extremely deep. I already put the first round of putty to cover them, but I'm quite sure that they'll need more putty as well (The picture is before any putty). This is where I am at right now. I'll continue tomorrow with some bodywork.

Thanks Guys! Yep I know how the Dashboard is painted in original '50 Oldsmobiles. And since this is a Custom, I wanted to keep it as a single color dash instead of painting it like original ones...

Thanks Ron and a Happy New Year to you, too. Actually it just turned 2014 21 minutes ago here in Finland. So I can say that This Year I will try to get at least 10 done.

Great Looking Builds! You always do a great job, and even if these look excellent in pictures, they are even better in person. It's hard to pick my favorite, but I guess it's either that '62 Chevy with Hilborns or '69 Camaro. Very nice work on all of them, and looking forward to see your 2014 builds.

Great looking builds and unique subjects! That Volvo is looking great, nice to see AirTrax kits being built. That Valiant must be my favorite, do you have any more pictures of it? All of them are really nice, great job.

Thanks Guys. Just a little update on this one, I started working with the Oil Pan. It is still in rough stages, but it's getting there. I just put three pieces of sheet styrene on the bottom of that oil pan. Maybe not the best way to do this, but it is definitely the easiest. Next step is to add a little putty and sand it smooth, then I can paint and glue it on place and start working with the headers.

Thanks Dave, and a Happy New Year!

Looks like you had a good year, lots of really nice builds. It's impossible to pick my favorite, I was thinking that '51 Chevy first, but all of them are so nice that I can't say which one I like the best. But anyways a great year and I can't wait to see your builds for 2014 since I always enjoy of your builds. Good work.

Thanks Everyone for the kind words! Bernard made a good point there, I didn't think about that, though it's really obvious that when adding more detail and doing more modifications or scratchbuilding it takes more time. One thing that I must do better next year, is to finish some Hot Rods and Customs... Looks like I finished none of them in 2013, but I will try to get the Oldsmobiles and Fury done on 2014. Then I have two '32 Fords, one '34 Pickup and one '31 Ford too so maybe one of them will get finished as well.

Great looking Hemi Dart! It's always nice to see Super Stock Drag Cars, especially these older ones. You did a great job with this one, smooth and shiny paint job and great work with the decals. I haven't seen many of these being built with the kit decals so this is a refreshing exception. Only problem, which is really small one, is that if I remember correctly, Hemi Darts did run in SS/B and you have those SS/BN decals from the kit on it. But that's really small thing that doesn't matter too much....Great job with the Dart, this sure is a great kit.

That's a big bunch of very nice builds! Your attention to detail is outstanding, and that can be seen especially on the Barn Find '55 Chrysler, but all of them are really nice. It's always nice to see when someone pulls out a big number of really nice builds. This is a perfect example of that, great job and I hope we can see more WIP Threads in the future, too (I guess the Chrysler was the first one?).

This will be an interesting build. I have always been thinking that Chevy kit would make a nice Funny Car or something like that. Maybe I'll try something similar some day...