MrObsessive

YIKES! That is UGLY!!

I had a Superbird years ago that was just as bad............I guess at some point Johan just didn't have the money to invest in the cleanup of their molds.

Yup! Sure is! This is one I did eventually finish years ago, and it's one of the WORST molded ones I've ever seen from Johan! At least the flash wasn't too difficult to get rid of. I practically re-engineered the rest of the kit though to get it the way that it should be.

This is flash! The above photo------that's more of a deep parting line than flash, but you can see flash beginning to form. And yes, as Harry said----you want to spend extra time in getting rid of all those ejector pin marks, parting lines and flash. Very important as it's basic Modeling 101. If you ever want to enter a contest (or even post pics of your work here on the board), neglect of the above WILL be noticed.

Another beautiful Impala! Yeah, foiling this takes extra effort and patience! I'd say you've done an excellent job on one of the toughest kits to BMF!

Wow Craig, that is GORGEOUS! IMO miles ahead of the old AMT kit!

That's the modified reissue Round 2 kit.

When I built my Monogram '57 'Vette years ago (and likewise my '59 Impala), I found it best to build the interior without the platform/tub that they give you. IMO this leads to "stacking" of the parts, and can cause the frame rails to hang down too low, and for those bumper supports to be too obtrusive. Also, you may need to trim down the inner fenders/engine bay to suit what you may do to the interior re-engineering. 1953-'62 'Vette interiors in 1:1 were quite shallow------not good for us six foot plus guys that wanted to drive one! Monogram trying to give the appearance of a nice/non shallow interior, I believe made it too tall, and thus may have did the same with the '58-'59 kits. Here's an example of the '57's interior when I was building it back in '01............. This worked for me.............you'll have to play around with the interior fit and possibly the wheelbase adjustment. A small price to pay as I also hate the 4x4 "sits up too high" look that plagues some of Revellogram's kits. The '58 built up pictured looks mighty nice though!

Hee-Hee! Fellas this was completed some time ago! Nice to see it being brought back up again! If you click here, it'll take you to the "Under Glass" section where she's all done.

Thanks Danno, I'm gonna need it! I've not tried something like this before, so some practice on maybe a junk part might be in order before I commit the kit windshield to this procedure. I tried sanding out the glass (both sides), but the waviness is still there. I think the thickness of the glass prevents it from sanding out distortion free. This is one big pet peeve of mine that I hope gets corrected (among most kit manufacturers) in the future, but that I believe is asking too much!

Like someone mentioned "there's no such thing as a perfect kit". That being said, I can point out at least a couple flaws with both the '58 and '59 releases-----and they have nothing to do with the lack of a hardtop, or its inclusion. Nevertheless, both of these kits are light years ahead of the hoary old tooling that Round 2 wants to keep giving us. As I mentioned before, I'll be buying the reissued '58 when it comes out--------I may or may not fix those "flaws" that I see when I get around to building it! Like the '59 Impala that I'm working on, I indeed fixed the roof on that one as I simply hated the way it was shaped compared to the '60. No muss, no fuss, just jumped in and swapped roofs. Some don't mind that the original kit roof looks the way it does, and that's OK. Everyone has their preferences as to what they want out of a kit------I focus on body lines and such. If something is waaaaaay out of kilter, I like the fact that someone points it out. I see that person as someone who has a good eye for detail, and likes for things to be right. It doesn't make the next person who may not care any less of a builder......he or she just chooses to build to their liking. That's my 2¢ worth........for the moment!

Hey Fellas, I haven't forgotten about this one! Right now working on it's been stopped dead in its tracks. Why?? I absolutely can't STAND the way too distorted glass that the kit gives you! Cars like this with their wraparound windshields and expansive backlites, cry out for clear/distortion free glass. I am going to try the tutorial given by Túlio (LoveFordGalaxie) a while back. Instead of a mini torch though, I have a high powered heat gun (up to 850°). Right now I'm waiting for an order of PET bottles to come in, and I'm going to back the original glass with some Paris of Plaster to keep the windshield from breaking. I'll do the same with the rear window as well. In the meantime, I did finally get the seats painted and I'm just getting around to getting the dash done. With work and all, and the possibility of going through an apprenticeship on the job, updates will be few and very far between. I will try to get pics up later of the seats and what I want to do with the dash and steering wheel. Until I get the glass situation sorted out, and I can mold the front and rear window to my liking, I won't be doing any painting or further assembly on the body. Thanks for all of your views and comments guys!

I totally agree! I do plan on buying another one when they come out--------I have one I haven't touched yet, but this kit is so nice, a second '58 kit wouldn't hurt! Edit: I want to add that a lack of a hardtop won't be a deterrent for me. I have a number of junk MPC/AMT hardtops that I could make fit the Revell body, so that's no biggie IMO.

From the appearance of the windshield and hardtop shape, it's the 1/24 Revellogram kit. I did convert one of these into a '55 years ago, but other than the conversion, I had no trouble with parts fitting. I guess the tooling is wearing out as this kit dates back to 1982 IIRC.

Not so much from Moebius, but perhaps from Revell. The lowrider guys would be all over this one just as they were for the '63-'64 Chevys.

Yikes!!! :o That lightning would have been enough to have me running for cover!

John, that is some nice clean work! That was a stoke of luck that you came across a trashed body with a good roof..........Knowing me, I might have went through all of the trouble using the AMT '58 Chevy. I wonder if the roof off of the Revell kit might have worked, being that and the AMT are two different kits?

Now if they could also reissue the '59 as well! My kit is missing strangely enough the one side cove. I guess I could buy the '58 as a parts kit to replace it, but it would be nice to see the '59 come back.

I say it's just a matter of time before we'll see that '71 Riviera.

I'm just glad that at least ONE manufacturer is responding to us fringe lunatics out here! Ask yourself-------20 years ago can you imagine ANY model company making an all new tool of a '53 Hudson?? Or how about a '56 Chrysler 300B?? Now with a '61 Pontiac Catalina (a much wanted model), '65 Plymouth, and the Ford Trucks on their way, we're living IMO in the best of modeling times. Throw in the fact that they're about to kit ANOTHER Hudson, and I'd say it doesn't get much better than this. Revell while putting out some nice kits, and Round 2 with them giving us reissues we haven't seen in years, have their work cut out for them simply because of competition. It's just a matter of time before one of these guys will latch onto 3D printing, and the possibilities could be endless as far as subject matter.

In my immediate area there wasn't much damage, but about 60 miles east of me in the Reading area, that's where a lot of the hail damage happened. One report had stated that in a particular shopping mall, a lot of the cars were so badly damaged that they couldn't be driven away! I don't remember the last time we've had such a fierce hailstorm. At least in recent years this was very bad, and it's still making the news here.

Wow time flies! We just had NASTY storms move through Central PA here yesterday! To see some of the damage it did, just click here.

Beautiful E-Type! And I absolutely love your XK-SS Matt! One detail that I notice on your E-Type is that you got rid of the seams that run across the cowl between the trailing edge of the hood, and the leading edge of the door. Likewise the seam is gone from the dogleg portion behind the doors as well. That's a detail that most builders never correct. On the 1:1, there is no seam there. Now this makes it tougher to build, but the end appearance is so much better IMO.

Thanks Dan and Jeremy! Later on down the road, I may try to tackle the ROG XKE that Jeremy has. A fussy kit it may be, but it can be worked with. It's not like a Palmer or some other dubious brand that represent models which are unreasonable facsimiles of what they're supposed to be! I need to finish up that '59 Chevy Impala first............it's been a real butt kicker lately as I'm hung up on a small but important detail (good glass).

I had PM'd Jeremy about the XK-SS and sent him a link, but here it is for those who've never seen it. This is actually a D-Type converted from the XK-SS kit...........pretty much what the leftover D-Types were turned into after their racing days were over. This was the old ROG kit that I had used, and like the reissued XKE's there were some fit problems such as the hood fit. Everything needs to fall under the cowl, otherwise the hood will not shut. As I said earlier, these kits need a lot of time and patience, but can yield some very nice results.