MrObsessive

This was my Mom's first brand new car bought in late '67. I dunno, I kinda like the original as is------guess it's because I've seen it this way after all these years. I do agree that the much shorter AMX could have stood to have its front wheels moved forward a bit. The front end overhang on that one does make it appear to be more unbalanced styling wise.

To expand upon what Bill said (thanks Bill!), you can go here to check out how I make windshields using clear stencil sheet. If you start with pic #80 in the album, that's where I get into using plastic strip in holding the glass in place after you make your template. It's a bit time consuming, but IMO this yields better results than kit glass as the stencil sheet "reads" a lot like actual glass, and doesn't have the optical distortions that many kits have with their clear parts. You didn't mention which model this is for as this technique works best with flatter glass, but I have done this with models that have wraparound windshields.

This would make for an interesting thread. My birthday is October of '61 so I guess I could have these choices as seen here................. This would have been brand spanking new sitting on the dealers lots just as the '62's were being intro'd or soon to be. This is a '61 Chrysler Imperial. Or this............. '62 'Vette... Or maybe this......... Or.......... Hmmm interesting..............

Lookin' Good Jason!

Too bad if you ran those cars through standing water and the engine conks out, they didn't have gurgling sounds!

I don't have the kit as it's buried now, but I remember putting the Johan body up against AMT's '57 Chrysler 300 which would have also been 126" that year. There definitely was a difference in the wheelbase and if memory serves, it was all in the distance from the leading edge of the door, to the trailing edge of the front wheel well. Johan did scale their models down ever so slightly so they all fit in the same type box, but I'm standing by what I'm noticing about that door to front wheel well difference. No biggie to most, but to me it's what makes or breaks a particular car's "presence".

Got one of these off the 'Bay in the mail a couple days ago, and a second one I picked up from my go-to guy at our club meeting yesterday. VERY nice kit and hats off to Revell for placing the parts in a decent sized box! A couple nits though............looking at the stock wheels they are indeed waaaaay too small! They appear more like 1/32 scale than 1/25. Not a deal breaker though as I'm not going to use them. Instead, I'll be swapping the wheels and tires from the Moebius '69 Ford F-100 kit as they look more suitable to me. The tires in the kit are just too knobby looking to me and I'm not crazy about those, so I'll be trading 'em away to someone on the board. Just the same, GREAT kit and I'm sure more than a few of these will be turning up on the contest tables.

As I mentioned earlier, I remember making a post about this here.........I know that most don't want to go this route as it will require some cutting and slicing. BUT! I'm kinda passionate about this car as they're very rare in the 1:1 world, and the car is also as old as I am!

I have this very car on my radar screen as a detailed build down the road! I have all the bits and pieces to make the car------one of the things though that would need attention to my eyes would be the wheelbase. Chrysler 300's for '62 rode on the shorter Windsor chassis as this was the first attempt to move the letter series cars more into the mainstream, and not have the full exclusivity that the '61 and earlier models had. The '61 Johan kit is based on the shorter Windsor chassis (I measured one in another thread). While to the casual observer, the wheelbase difference might not be noticeable but I can see where the fenders, hood and chassis would need to be stretched to suit the car's 124" wheelbase that the '61's had. It's up to you Bill how nit-picky you want to get! This won't be my next build, but I'd say three or four projects down the road, I'd love to replicate the car I saw on "Jay Leno's Garage" (a black one), or replicate a red one that I have a ton of pics of on my hard disc. You can best believe Steve that I'll be sweating bullets when it comes time to cut up the one I have, but that short wheelbase on the Windsor bugs me for a '61 300. Even the resin All American Models one I've seen I don't think had the wheelbase corrected. I could be wrong but they still appear "short" to me.

I also think it's the ads. On my iPhone trying to view the site it's VERY slow, but it's the ads that are bogging it down as I have no adblocker app running. On my PC and laptop, it's no problem at all although I'm running an adblocker with Chrome on Windows 10.

This is the Opel I saw a lot of as a kid as a neighbor had one of these. I used to walk past it all the time on the way to school. At the time I wasn't sure what it was------it reminds me of a shrunken Nomad! This is a '60 (or '61). Might be kinda neat to have a model of this.

I'm 55 as of the 10th of this month.

I'm not a fan of Photobucket at all........and I have an account! The worst thing about them on my end are those ads. AdBlocker notwithstanding, the fact that the ads are trying to load, and the blocker software is trying to catch them can make things slow on my PC or laptop. It's gotten to the point when someone posts a link to an album, and I see the Photobucket URL, I click away immediately because of the havoc they wreak. Fotki is pretty much what I use as I find it to be much more user friendly as far as organizing albums and such, and I've not had a problem with them since they moved their servers.

Watch out for those wiper motor purists Steve! Those who were on the 'net back in the early '00's remember the kerfuffle raised on SA(E) when my '69 Daytona was pictured with the wrong wiper for a Hemi! It's a running gag to this day about what kind of wiper motor am I putting in my models lately. Absolutely gorgeous Dodge! The convertible I have in many pieces is on my someday list, and I saved your pics for inspiration! I do like the regular hubcaps with the white walls------definitely gives it that sleeper look, and I'm sure more than a few of those left the factory back then with that look.

They're very rare, but there was a Bubbletop Bel Air for '61. Four taillights instead of six (different side trim too IIRC). I snapped a number of pics of one at a show last year, but they've seemed to have gone AWOL on my hard disc.

I'm wondering if the Bronco could be had with a "stripe delete" option? IMO, it looks better without it. Also, and this is a small nit on the box art built-up--------shouldn't the door frames be chrome on the outside with body color insides? This'll be plenty tricky to paint since the side glass and frame are molded as one. They probably couldn't do it any other way as those frames are achingly thin.

I posted this on another thread............. Hard to tell until I have the kit in my hands...........but the tires are so tall, it just may appear to make the wheel covers look like they're on the small side.

OK! Hopefully my LHS will have this kit when I drop in on them tomorrow! One thing though..........I DO NOT like the tires! They're not bad, I just wouldn't care for them on my own build. I would like to build something more pedestrian like this one. I've posted this elsewhere, and I'm not sure what year it is, but I like the look of the tires on it. Now if I can just find a set that look like those with whitewalls........

Absolutely Beautiful Jim! Love the stance and colors!

Very nice Andy! Interesting about the wheels though as I have this model (I converted it to a D-Type), and I had to take a look. Then I remembered that my wheels and tires are resin as I got a set from Norm Veber (Replicas and Miniatures) years ago when he was making them. Thanks for the heads up Atin, as this is another of my someday builds I'd like to do building it as a regular XK-SS like Andy's.

That's a neat story Pat! I have a fondness for Studes also particularly the Hawks. An early childhood memory of mine is riding in a '57-'58 Hawk occasionally, which looked a lot like the one you have pictured. I can also remember being in an accident in my Uncle's '59 Lark when I was 7-8 years old (in the later '60's), so each time I see one of those, all I can think of is that accident! No one was hurt, but the Lark barely made it home as its front suspension was pretty banged up (my Uncle hit a parked car). I'd LOVE to see Moebius come out with a whole series of Hawks as they were basically the same car from '56 till the end in '64. Naturally there were some detail changes through the years, and the biggest change would be the roofline starting with the '62's and the cut down fins. Your '53 looks very clean! I need to restore the '58 Golden Hawk I converted years ago, but just haven't had the ambition to get to it yet.

Well, just to show how obsessive I can be about details------recently we had a car show that was only a mile away from my house. There was a VERY clean '65 Mustang sitting there, and the owner and I struck up a conversation. He was interested in the model's pics I have on my phone as he knows about the Green Hornet 1:1. When I told him that I wanted to do working windows he said "No Way!" I showed him the video on my phone of my '57 Corvette and '58 Chevy with working windows and he was tickled pink! I asked him if I could see the movement of the front window in his '65, as I had a feeling looking at a shop manual I have of the car, the trailing edge kinda tucks down in a curve to clear the door structure on its way in the channel. As you'll see on this video below, it does appear that way as the glass sort of "pops outward" when it moves back in the up position. No doubt so that it can meet the rear glass so there's no gap. He also did the rear window for me, and I'll be studying that video over and over when it comes time to scratchbuild the mechanism for those.

Thanks Peter! I like that I can spruce up the joint------just a little! David, that's an idea I might try-----the only fly in the ointment is I have to work within the limitations of the thickness of the door. Too much crowding, and things will start to bind. Truth be told, as of this morning I've taken everything apart because due to the geometry of the window, and the angle in which is has to move up and down-------what I made is not going to work well. It would work much better if the window were moving at only a very slight angle, or straight up and down, but that's not the case with this setup. What'll probably end up doing is making a setup similar to what I did for my GTO build (stillborn) years ago as shown here.................. This was a scooch complicated but believe it or not after nearly 15 years, this still works in the model. Unfortunately I used the wrong kind of acetate for the windows, and practically all of them have curled up like potato chips including the windshield. Glad I could be of help and thanks!

LOL!! That IS funny!