MrObsessive

I'll see if I can dig up the Johan body out of my stash later on. I'm in the middle of cooking dinner AND doing laundry! Later this afternoon, I'll see if I can put up a side by side comparison. Mine's not 100% done yet, but the main areas particularly the rear quarters are 'bout done. Hopefully I can get this all put up before long------severe weather is to hit the area here and I'd like to get it posted before we get a power outage or something.

LOL! One thing I want to add, the rear bumper might have to made ever so slightly taller. That's one of those things that I didn't check as of yet. On the other hand, on the 1:1 the rear bumper doesn't sit quite flush to the body, so one could probably get away with things as is.

Thanks Steve! Oh ok........I get mixed up on what came out first. I know the GTX convertible came out maybe sometime in the mid '90's. I can remember where I was living at the time when I royally messed that one up!

First, I want to start off by saying my intent is not to ruffle any feathers (no pun intended), but just something that's been bugging me for MANY years, and is something I actually started some time ago----------at least two years ago. It was mentioned on another thread about the quality of AMT's Roadrunner and GTX kits, and some comments were made regarding the kit's body shape. I mentioned that I did start and about finished what I thought the car needed to be more accurate, and thought I'd share it here. I can remember doing this when I was at a sticking point on the '59 Impala's glass issue, and this was going to be my next WIP in its place. I decided that I didn't want begin yet another long WIP so the '67 Mustang is what took place of this one. This won't be a WIP per se, but just something that if someone's interested down the road, they can look to this as what they may need to do fix things. Oh!.............before anyone asks I DO NOT intend to have this one cast! There's quite some extensive bodywork that'll be involved once i decide to build this fully, and I do believe someone out there casts the original Johan body. I was just interested in doing what's been rolling around in my mind for years, and decided to have a crack at it. Now on to what I hacked up here................ While AMT's '90's release of first the '69 GTX (I think) and then later the convertible, and then somewhat recently the '68 Roadrunner were not bad kits, there's one thing that's bugged me almost since this kit came out. I couldn't put my finger on it immediately, but then at some point I realized that the rear half of the car was just not right. This was evident to me about 20 years ago when I tried to correct the back end on the '69 GTX convertible. My modifying skills weren't what they are today back then, and of course I botched it up and put it away. I think eventually it got tossed, and I put the thought of correcting one of these out of my mind. Right before the Mustang build, I thought I'd take another crack at fixing what I see is a HUGE error on AMT's part and that is on the rear quarters of the car. As you can see it slopes down a bit too much and should be a bit more upright and "boxier" per the 1:1. It's almost as if AMT tried to model the car after the body shape from the '70 Dodge Coronet kit which I believe came out around the same time. Those two cars DO NOT share any body panels save for the roofline-------the front and rear fenders are quite different, with the Dodge having a bit more "swoop" to its rear fenders. Here you can see the "pinched" look on the rear quarters of the recent '68 Roadrunner re-release. Interesting enough, this was re-intro'd with nostalgic box art, and the box art car's shape to my eyes is EXACTLY right! Too bad AMT didn't see fit to correct this one in this reissue. For comparison, here's an original Johan '69 Roadrunner rear quarter. Johan was very well known back in their time for getting body shapes nearly dead on accurate! No CAD systems, no computer anything back when this was tooled. Just folks who had a good eye for capturing the correct shapes, and it's one of the reasons anything Johan can go for crazy money on eBay for instance. A rear to rear shot of the Johan and the AMT........... OK, it was time to decide what I was going to do. What came to my mind is that the whole rear end needed a "lift" just a bit. I didn't measure or calculate how much lift, just penciled in where the cuts would be made and how much lift would be enough. I wanted to miss the side marker lights as this would save me some work later on if/when I get around to completely building this. I could replace those with some tiny MV lenses, but for now I want to demonstrate where the slicing and dicing will need to be done. I used my Trumpeter's scribing tool to get the cuts started------along the C pillar first, then along the tulip panel. There! Now we have the sides completely sliced through.......... I figured about a scale inch or so would be needed to lift things up. On the 1:1, there's still a slight slope to the back end, just not as severe as represented on the AMT kit body. After a bit, I filled everything in with as much plastic as possible. I didn't want a repeat of what happened to my '55 Ford Victoria build. I used putty to fill in the empty spaces on the roof and while that did work for a spell, after it was painted I could see the bodywork where it was done, and to me it looked bad. Boxed up it sits to this day............. Now lets do something about those incorrect wheel wells. On the body they're too rounded and just don't look correct to me according to memory, and certainly with the many pics I have of this car. I got out some flat stock and made a tracing around the wheel well. Using the original Johan body as a pattern, I made an adjustment to the shape. Looking much better! It's a little low, but in later pics you'll see where I did enlarge them just a scooch. Now the rear quarter crease line swoops up a bit too much as well as the 1/4 panel itself and should be nearly parallel to the ground. Not completely horizontal, but just slightly angled up. I used a Sharpie to give myself an idea of how this would look. A piece of .020 plastic sheet was cut to match the pattern I made with the Sharpie, and glued on. After it was dry, I got out some 220 grit sandpaper followed by some 400 grit to smooth things out. And this is how she looks at the moment! Much closer in profile to the 1:1, and certainly more pleasing to look at to me. One thing I forgot to mention is that I did flatten the beltline below the C pillar somewhat as it still had "humped" appearance to me. The passenger side rear quarters aren't finished to my liking as I'm going to tweak a couple areas very slightly. Another area that will need attention is the C pillar shape, namely in the chrome trim area. As it looks to me right now, the pillar appears a bit thin, and this is due to practically non-existent chrome trim that should be there. Down the road, I'll replace that too and give the rear window a bit better contour. After everything's said and done, I'll fill in those gaps with .005-.010 sheet plastic and smooth things out. OK, side shots of the original AMT body and the corrected one on top. Of course this conversion is not for everyone, and I understand that not everyone cares about the corrections that need to be done. This is just another one of those things to my view stick out like a sore thumb, and it sure is a LOT cheaper than to find an original untouched Johan kit. I'm fortunate that I have not only the old builtup, but also an untouched never built original. Of course those kits are lacking the nice chassis and engine details that the AMT kits have. But the Johan bodies are hard to beat shape wise, so get set to pay a pretty penny if you want an original. Thanks for lookin' fellas----------comments welcome!

I had a cat that would also sit there and take the water! What he would do is simply turn around and let his back get soaking wet. If you were to get him square in the face though, he would take off like a rocket! I found out later on from the lady that had him before is that she used to bathe him somewhat regularly. I guess he was used to "being wet" so the water bottle didn't faze him. He was also the only cat I ever had that would run to the door like a dog if someone was knocking. Most cats take off to run and hide------he would come to the door and reach up to the door knob as if he was going to let them in. Funny thing is, he was afraid of sprays. If I sprayed something in the room whether it's Lysol, or PAM if I'm cooking something in the kitchen, he would take off running. Go figure!

FIrst, I gotta say welcome back! In a BIG way! In '65, GM could do no wrong as there wasn't an ugly car in the whole bunch! Your model is absolutely gorgeous, and as far as the wheels------not my choice, but they seem to work very well with this type of car. For someone that's been out of it for 40 years, one would never know it! Your paint is super clean, and you did a great job with the BMF. Not always an easy thing to master for someone that's new at it. Hope to see more from you! I have no "getting back into it builds". I may take a break here and there, but it's funny that I started building models right around the time you had stopped! This would have been in '78 when I was a senior in high school, and I've been building pretty much since then.

Yup! That happened just this morning when I was replying to the Arii's '58 Cadillac post with quotes. Power went out in the neighborhood for a second for whatever reason and I lost everything. Or so I thought......when I rebooted the computer and came back to the board, everything I typed was still there including the quotes. It's a neat feature and it saved me from typing the whole thing all over again, something I hate doing.

UNBELIEVABLE! Someone not in the know would swear that was Photoshopped with the people all grayed out! THAT is very impressive! BTW, I do have a 3D printed model body I got off eBay a while back. It's a '55 D-Type Jag that came as a package deal with the ROG '57 Jaguar XK-SS. Except for the somewhat rough texture the dimensions are EXACTLY right! As you mentioned, some of our much wanted wish lists as far as models could be answered........no more "hoping" for this and that.

Off to a good start D.W.! One of my favorite Fords for '68! I have a built one in the stash waiting someday for a resto. I had a pristine kit years ago, but I knew I'd never do anything with it so I sold it on the 'Bay. It went for a pretty penny I gotta tell ya! Chances are we're not likely to see this one reissued again.

JC, has Harold given any idea how much the transkit might cost? I'm so tempted to grab one of these! That engine looks terrific nestled in its bay!

BEAUTIFUL! I love it! The only thing I mighta done differently is paint around the edge of the glass (and headlight covers) with a black sharpie. It takes away some of the scale thickness of the glass. I understand though about not tempting fate..........been there and done that many times!

I have a couple others that are very good and not on your list............. Polly Scale Steam Power Black, and Engine Black. IMO the Engine Black is the BEST "flat" black out there! It's not super dull flat like Tamiya's flat black, yet is not as shiny as their semi gloss black. It's perfect for interiors to represent vinyl on seats and dashboards. Unfortunately, Polly Scale paints are now defunct, and in fact I bought the last bottle I could find on eBay of their Steam Power Black. I'd hope someone would take them over or come out with a very reasonable facsimile, but I'm not holding my breath.

Now THAT is something else!!

I personally look forward to 3D printing making HUGE inroads in the arena of car modeling! Say what you will, but technology waits for no one, and sooner or later one has to adapt or just get left behind. I work with a woman who's a little older than I (60 or 61), and she prides herself in the fact that she has no need for a smartphone and uses her computer only for email. I had to tell her that while that may work for her in the short run------it's just a matter of time before she'll be missing out on a whole lot because she WON'T embrace technology. Like it or not, that's the way of the world, and time marches on. Getting back to younger folks and what they're in to..........I have nothing against tuners in the least, and I see them now as the "new muscle cars" of today. Some may sniff at that, but is it any different than what guys my age (mid 50's) did with '69 Chevelles, Chargers, 442's, Coronets, GTO's etc.............back in the mid/late '70's?? Sure the cars have changed, but as long as there are young folks interested in cars, there will be those that will want to spin a tire. Front, rear or all fours. As far as 3D printers go, it's one of the things I'd like to have next in my modeling arsenal. Sure there's a learning curve, but then there was a learning curve for me when it came time to learn airbrushing, opening doors, modifying body panels and so on. It's a real fact that many who we know in our circle who make parts for us won't be around in the years to come. This is not to sound macabre, but it's a fact of life that as they say "All good things must come to an end". It would be nice to make a part simply created out of my own mind, or by downloading a file, and have it come out in literally............well 3D.

That is one GORGEOUS profile shot! This is one car I want to slice and dice so badly to make it right! Other projects are in the way right now, but I have the hardtop one and the shape of the roof is so incorrect it's sickening to look at IMO. Looks more like a '58 Rambler than a '58 C-body Cadillac. You're correct about certain aspects of the body shape. I always thought the wheelwells in particular were a bit big and not quite in proportion to how the 1:1 is shaped. The windshield rake on the kit is another sticking point with me------but y'all know how particular I am about things like that! True, this is all we have and I don't see anyone stepping up to the plate and giving us a more up to date one anytime soon. Just another one of my '50's favorites to add to my correction list.................someday.

Bill, I have a black Johan '58 Cadillac Sixty Special (actually an X-EL promo) that is still in excellent shape. These turn up on the 'Bay from time to time as well as the original promos. Expect to shell out some BIG bucks for one of the X-EL ones as they're made of the regular plastic, and not the self-destructing/warping Cycolac or Acetate.

I have mine checked for "All New Content". Each time I hit the New Content button on the upper right hand side of the site on the screen, it takes me to whatever new has been posted since my last visit. If I'm on that page itself, I simply reload the page to see if anything new shows up. Hope this helps.............

JC that's lookin' great! Any chance that Harold is going to cast the engine with this too? For some reason, I like this a tad better than the small block V8 Cobras that followed. Something about the "purity" of its roots that appeals to me. Depending on how things go work wise, I may try to make it down on the 18th as I'd like to see this in 3D. I'm doing up to 12 hour days now and a few hours on Saturdays. If it's been a rough week, I want nothing more than to go absolutely nowhere for the weekend.

VERY nice job on this! GTO's are one of my favorite Ferraris and you did a quite excellent job on getting the PE bits and pieces on. I have the original Protar kit that this kit was............. it can be a bit fiddly with those doors, but with patience (which you certainly have!) can be made nice.

OK..........lets try this again............ Snakes known as Garter Snakes (Thamnophissirtalis) can be dangerous. Yes, grass snakes, not rattlesnakes. Here's why: A couple in Sutton, Ontario, had a lot of potted plants. During a recent cold spell, the wife was bringing a lot of them indoors to protect them from a possible freeze. It turned out that a little green garter snake was hidden in one of the plants. When it had warmed up, it slithered out and the wife saw it go under the sofa. She let out a very loud scream. The husband (who was taking a shower) ran out into the living room naked to see what the problem was. She told him there was a snake under the sofa. He got down on the floor on his hands and knees to look for it. About that time the family dog came and cold-nosed him on the behind. He thought the snake had bitten him, so he screamed and fell over on the floor. His wife thought he had had a heart attack, so she covered him up, told him to lie still and called an ambulance. The attendants rushed in, would not listen to his protests, loaded him on the stretcher, and started carrying him out. Suddenly,the snake came out from under the sofa and the Emergency Medical Technician saw it and dropped his end of the stretcher. That's when the man broke his leg, and he is still in the hospital. The wife still had the problem of the snake in the house, so she called on the man next door, her neighbour, who volunteered to capture the snake. He armed himself with a rolled-up newspaper and began poking under the couch. Soon he decided it was gone and told the woman. She sat down on the sofa in relief. But while relaxing, her hand dangled in between the cushions, where she felt the snake wriggling around. She screamed and fainted, and the snake rushed back under the sofa. The neighbour, seeing her lying there passed out, tried to use CPR to revive her. The neighbour's wife, who had just returned from shopping at the grocery store, saw her husband's mouth on the woman's mouth and slammed her husband in the back of the head with a bag of canned goods, knocking him out and cutting his scalp to a point where it bled badly and needed stitches. The noise woke the woman from her dead faint and she saw her neighbour lying on the floor with blood coming from his head, his wife bending over him, so she assumed that the snake had bitten him. She went to the kitchen and got a small bottle of whiskey, and began pouring it slowly down the man's throat to try to help revive him. By now, the police had arrived. They saw the groggy man, smelled the whiskey, and assumed that a drunken fight had occurred. “Breathe here.......” they said. They were about to arrest them all, when the women tried to explain how it all happened over a little green snake. They listened. Then the police called an ambulance, which took away the neighbour and his sobbing wife. Now, the little snake again crawled out from under the sofa and one of the policemen drew his gun and fired at it. He missed the snake and hit the leg of the end table. The table fell over, the lamp on it shattered and, as the bulb broke, it started a fire in the drapes. The other policeman tried to beat out the flames, and fell through the window into the yard on top of the family dog who, startled, jumped out and raced into the street, where an oncoming car swerved to avoid it and smashed into the parked police car. Meanwhile, neighbours saw the burning drapes and called in the fire department. The firemen had started raising the fire ladder, which tipped slightly as it rose and tagged onto the overhead wires pulling them down, which put out the power, and disconnected the telephones in a ten-square city block area (but they did get the house fire out). Time passed! Both men were discharged from the hospital, the house was repaired, the dog came home, the police acquired a new car and all was right with their world again. A while later they were watching TV and the weatherman announced a cold snap for that night. The wife asked her husband if he thought they should bring in their plants for the night. And that's when he shot her...

I had this forwarded to me by a friend. Read all the way to the end-----I got a hard laugh out of it, but then I've been known to have twisted sense of humor! Hang on........... THIS IS WHY WE NEED THE PREVIEW BUTTON BACK!! I COPIED AND PASTED AND IT AIN'T HERE!

Thanks Ron! I'm not going to worry about that gasket either. If anything, I may paint the leading edge of the hood black to represent it, or just leave it alone. No pics yet as I'm getting ready for work, but I did get the quarter windows cut out. Looks better already! Considering the age of the tooling, I can't fault Revell for how they did the windows------------I just can't stand distorted glass. The front and rear glass isn't too bad...........the side windows and how they were molded just flat out didn't look right. I suspect whoever did the box art for Tamiya, left a lot out of the car to get it to sit the way it does. I had to take out the upper springs in the front struts to get the wheels to tuck in further. My main goal is to get the car to sit properly and not sit up too high. That's just not the character of the car.

That may have been some kind of special dealer promotional. I'd say if you find one like it, you'd be sitting on a gold mine! I sorta remember something like that, but it was of a different car. More along the lines of later '60's AMC stuff. I don't think they were standard promos........a bit smaller as I knew what the standard size (1/25) was at the time--------even though I was not into building them.........yet! My memory's a little fuzzy, but I can remember a babysitter I had at the time (circa 1968-69) had a small case of cars. She knew that I was car crazy and would be interested and in the case were a few Javelin's and AMX's. Her Grandfather had given them to her. Where he got them I don't know, and it's interesting that he got them for her even though he didn't drive. He was a man in his mid to late 70's at the time, and as far as I knew, I don't think he ever drove or owned a car. The things we come across when we're kids!

That's how I'm looking at it. Still, I couldn't help but notice a lot of us are grayer at the shows and such than we were 10-15 years ago. There are young folks going to the shows, but not in the numbers that those of us in the 50+ age bracket are going. Inevitably, the hobby will change------what that change will be I don't know. I'm of the belief that 10 years from now 3D printing will be the mainstream, and we'll be able to make whatever we want. Young folks might get more into that as it does involve some computer smarts, and they're not as timid about taking that kind of thing on. But as you said...........I've got soooooo many kits and projects in mind that I'm certain I won't get around to all of them before I'm no longer walking the earth. The hobby could disappear next year, and I'd still have enough supplies and whatnot to last quite a long time. And yes, there is more subject matter coming out that I wouldn't have dreamed possible even 10 years ago! There's more I'm sure in the pipeline--------I may buy it for no more than the simple reason that I may like that particular car.

Well, I was hoping that this particular WIP would be drama free, but that was too much to hope for. I FINALLY got the interior done, but not without some issues as far as how it'll fit into the body. It's one of the reasons why I'll keep shouting from the mountaintops-----especially to new builders.............. NEVER PAINT YOUR BODY UNTIL YOU KNOW EVERYTHING WILL FIT INSIDE FIRST!! This was reinforced as you'll see in a second but on to some pics....... One change I made from the the color scheme mentioned in the instructions is that Tamiya says that the carpeting should be XF-63 German Grey. Well, with the seats and whatnot paint in their Sky Grey, that's just too much grey for me, and I decided to use black embossing powder instead. If one is paying $90,000+ for a car like this back in the early '90's, they oughta be able to get their carpeting in whatever color they wish, no? Here's where some of the drama was starting to come in to play with test fitting the interior into the body.........I have to say that this will be a VERY TIGHT FIT. Revell of Germany made some quite tight tolerances in how everything is literally jam packed inside the body. One of my complaints is that they want you to glue the chassis onto the floor pan, and then put the whole works in the body. NO! This leads to the interior being askew, and the door panels sitting waaaay to high above the doors themselves, I'm going to make my own positive "stops" for the interior (sorta what John Goschke is doing with his '58 Chevy), and this'll fix the interior from sitting too high above where it should. Here are a few pics to illiustrate........... You can see in the above pic that the inner fender of the chassis is very slightly aft of the wheelwell in the body. When I initially test fitted this, it was more tucked in. This might be due to where the dash is butting against the firewall header and has no more room to go forward. I decided to test fit one of the wheels to make sure that they're not going to stick out too far after dealing with all of this....... Looks good----so far.........the seats seem to sit "tall" but I'm not going to fret over that. I don't like the looks of those quarter windows AT ALL! I'm going to be rogue here and cut those away. They're distorted and spoil the lines of what to me is one of BMW's nicest rooflines------especially in true hardtop form. The rest of the glass I'll have to live with. It's also a bit more distorted than I'd like, but since I'm trying to make this build as pain free as possible, I won't hassle with molding new glass and whatnot. My deadline to get all of this done is within the next couple months. I want to get started on the next one ya know! Underneath, things look OK but I may add some plastic strip on the rockers to tighten things up before I paint. I hate large see-through gaps on models! OK, now it's on to test fitting the rest of the body panels, get a feel for how to attach those with more positive locations, and then it's on to paint! Hopefully all of this can be painted and polished in the next couple weeks. Thanks for tuning in!