MrObsessive

As an AMC Muscle fan, I had to do a double take as I thought it was an actual car you posted! No Lie!! What an outstanding job on a model never seen anywhere! All the details are just right on the money! I'm actually kinda jealous as I've been looking for and accurate AMC motor to restore a couple of AMX's (a '69 and a '70). No one casts one unfortunately that I know of.

Man, that blue is killer!! Your chassis work's excellent too! I wouldn't worry too much about adding more overspray.......it looks great as is!

That's what I'll probably end up doing! That car begs for fender skirts and that aluminum ribbing seems to get in the way of what should be a clean flow of lines. I never knew about the interior issues with the kit...........I'll have to dig up some reference photos before I do anything. Ford sure was going through some heavy duty changes then! Just look how quickly they went from the '58, to the '59, and then the totally new '60! Much like what GM did, although I think Ford's changes were much more radical considering what they had.

Well I was tickled silly when this showed up at my front door the other day! I used to own a 1:1 '65 model of this car and thought there would NEVER be a model of it! At least one I could find as Palmer made one in '61 but I could never find one on eBay. Anyway, this is one of my "grails" and one I'd like to build in the next year or so, as I've got the next couple models planned out now. Here are some pics of what you get................... Nice and very accurate body of what looks to be either a 1961 or '62 model year version of the P1800. Some minor flash around the windows and engine bay can be cleaned up with an Exacto blade. The car barely changed from '61-'72 so the only changes were detail things such as wheelcovers, interiors, trim, etc. A wagon version (1800ES) was the only one offered after '72, as the line came to an end in '73. Interior pieces of the kit. There's flash that'll need cleaned up, but this'll be no problem. The seats look pretty well defined as well as the door panels. Chassis floor..............this is the way I like 'em! No interior tub to fiddle with, as the seats will be assembled on the flip side of the chassis floor. Here some cleanup will be needed too. Chassis underside has acceptable stamping and ribbing detail. The only drawback to the kit is there is no front or rear suspension. You'll want to pick up an Aoshima MGB, or it's equivalent to rob the suspension, or raid your parts box. Front and rear bumpers as well as grille surround. Wheels depict the '61-'62 version..........I may or may not use these as I've seen P1800's in some really spiffy Borrani's which go with its Italian looking lines! Engine as well as dash and steering wheel. When I get around to building mine, I'm going to add a few more detail items as I've got a ton of parts in the parts box which I can use. I should tell you that there's no glass with the kit...............That's no trouble for me as I can fashion glass out of plain clear stencil sheet------but that may be a problem for some. Also Tapani gives you headlights and tailights which look excellent-------I just forgot to take pics of them. Okay, and now for the bad news for us U.S. folks..............................the price is 90 Euros which as of today is $140.00 US. That'll be pricey to some............but this will be a one of a kind kit for me for what I intend so the price was worth it! Who knows, I may scrub the plans for my next kit, and build this one right away anyway!

Excellent bodywork on that one John! I've got a '59 Mercury that's got ruined quarters (The ribbing's got glue spots)-------I wish there were a plastic kit out there that I could replace 'em with. Only thing I could do I guess would be to buy a Modelhaus body, and use those quarters but that would be a waste--------it would be better to just go ahead and use the whole body instead!

That is a looker Ron!! You oughta send construction pics to Revell to show 'em how it should've been done! Where'd you get the double line whitewalls?? Those look pretty slick!

Not camera friendly??...................Bob that's beautiful!! Thanks for the nice words too! D-Type Jags are among my favorite racers of the '50's, along with the Ferrari Testarossa, and the Aston Martin DBR-1. I do believe that was among Fisher's first models they casted...........I wanted one years ago, but the price was outta my reach. I've built one since then though! You hit on something about resin I didn't know until I built Modelhaus's '61 Cadillac.............resin has a memory! I never realized that as I thought only plastic could have a memory. That's the reason my Lemans Miniature '69 GT-40 is yet stillborn..........everytime I would put the body back in the dehydrator to dry out, the body (particularly the doors) would go right back to what they were before! I've since learned how to defeat that------I just either let the body air dry, or turn the dehydrator down about 10-15° to negate that. Also washing the resin with hot water has the same effect, so I'll use lukewarm or cold water to wash a repaired resin part.

Gee.............. :lol: I suspect you'll hear about those guys getting shot by someone down the road.....................you can't go around randomly picking someone out just for the heck of it but for so long.......... Get well soon Vince!

Looks like it was a great meeting Cruz..............Too bad I couldn't make it! Lemme guess.........Harold or Gordon built this gem------it's a real beauty!! Also I love those '60 Corvairs! I've got one but not quite sure what to do with it.

Wow, that's terrible to hear! I haven't seen Vince for awhile as he used to come to our CPMCC meetings. Hope everything works out well and for a speedy recovery! Any details as to who it was, and if they were arrested?

Hee Hee! I've got a very clean (unpainted and arrow straight) builtup of a '65 Chrysler 300 I got a few years ago off the 'bay for $50.00!! Believe it or not it was on a "Buy It Now" and was actually on for a couple of days with no takers. I immediately snatched it up! It's on one of my to do lists to be fully built someday.................but that was one of my Holy Grails as they're VERY hard to find and VERY pricey! Actually, IMO the '66 is tougher yet to get (I've got one of those too), as getting a straight one is tougher still to find because of those goofy flat boxes. Some of my other Holy Grails I now have................. Johan 1970 Hemi 'Cuda (unpainted but engine started) MPC 1968 Dodge Coronet Convertible Two MPC 1971 Trans AM's (One completely mint, the other a built-up) Pocher 1/8 scale Mercedes 540 K 1963 Volvo P1800 resin kit I just got the other day from Tapani Rauramo (look for a review soon!) AMT 1968 Torino Pace Car completely mint (what I paid for that broke the bank! ) AMT 1968 Ford Galaxie Fastback Johan 1970 AMX clean builtup There are some others I'm leaving out, but just off the top of my head, those came to mind that I have stashed away.

Gooseneck hinges are going to vary by shape and radius depending on the model, shape of the door, door jamb space, etc. I've made mine with .030 brass rod and needlenose pliers and simply bent them according to how I see fit. I can't give you an exact radius and measurement of a particular car as that wouldn't be practical for many reasons. As I mentioned, all that I do is trial and error with making a hinge on one side of a model taking maybe several hours to get right. If you go here and starting with pic #77 or so, I have a series of pics in my '55 Ford album that shows how I made the hinges for it. Each pic has a description for it-------at least as best as I can explain! Hood hinges on most models I've done are not my forté..............Since I put a lot of detail into my engine bays, I simply leave the hood a lift off as the hood shadows would hide a lot of details. I tried working hinges on my GTO...........with a working hood release and all, but they were made of brass and started to wear out, so I have since removed them. Down the road, I'd like to make the hinges where they can function like the 1:1, but can also lift off taking wear and tear off the hinges and springs. If you go to my GTO Page you can see a couple pics of the hinges I did, along with a pic of the hood latch. These were taken by guys in my club as I had no digicam until I was much further along in building it. In fact I had no digicam until 2004 so a number of the detailed builds I did before then have no in progress pics.

Okay! Sorry it took me so long to answer..............I actually saw the question late last evening, but that's a tough time for me to do any lengthy posts as I work third shift-------and I have to eat dinner, get myself ready, and be out the door by 10:00 PM. Now, the first thing I recommend about opening anything is good reference. I'll comb the 'net to find pics of a particular car I'm interested in to get pics of the doors open, pics of the door jambs, and in what manner do the doors open. Most cars of the '50's thru about the mid '60's, the doors swing outside of the fender------so they used a gooseneck hinge-------pretty much like what Clay showed in his post above. The car you're describing the door would turn toward the inside of the fender, so that would use a different type hinge that can swivel on a pin or something. When cutting out the doors on my models, (unless I go the chicken route and they're already cut open-- ) I'll use the backedge of an exacto blade. Other guys have they're own methods to cut open doors------some use thread, others have used a hot knife (YIKES!!) and others have drilled holes around the perimeter of the door and then popped it out. The thread method never quite worked for me as trying to hold the model between my thighs..............Well lets just say the body ended up in the parts box! After you cut out the doors you'll want to add plastic where the door was cut...........nothing to me looks more unsightly than HUGE gaps where the doors were cut away only to be able to practically see right through the model as the gaps are GINORMOUS! Here's a pic to illustrate............ This is from the '55 Ford which is having it's paint dry (second time!) thoroughly as I speak. Even though the model's doors were already opened by AMT, the gaps were still a bit larger than I'd like so I just glued on a piece of .020 thick sheet plastic, used Ambroid Pro Weld, and let dry thoroughly. After it was dry, I cut away the excess, then sanded and shaped the plastic to the contour of the door. After you get the doors done, now you'll want to build door jambs. This is where good reference material will come in. While you may not want to replicate every shape and contour of the stamping, you want it to look reasonable enough to minimize the plain boring look. This is what your door will rest on, so you'll want to test fit, test fit...........and test fit some more! You'll need to build jambs on the doors themselves as that's what your interior panels will rest on, as well as support for your hinge retainers. Here's a coupla pics of the now stillborn GTO door jambs while I was in the middle of building it............ After you're satisfied with the door jambs, then you can start on hinging the doors. Now the way I hinge my doors may not be to everyone's liking............but this way to me is effective without being too overly complicated yet sturdy. The example I'm using here is the GTO since the leading edge of it's doors turn inside of the fender. The first thing I'll do is build a support post from the A pillar down to the rocker on the door jamb. Next, since you've built the structure on the doors............now you're going to make a hinge retainer. I like to use .030-.040 size plastic rod, and using a #74 drill bit drill a hole in both ends of the rod. This is a recently built Turbine Car which also had opening doors, but the hinges were dubious at best so I chucked them and scratchbuilt my own. Once again trial and error are my way of doing things so a lot of test fitting to eliminate binding and to ensure straightness will be of importance. Speaking of straightness, when you build your hinge supports, it's very important that the supports are as straight as possible in a head on view, and also in a side view. If they're leaning, the doors will open and close, but they'll have either a sidewalk dragging appearance, or they'll swing up in the air like butterflies! Note in the Turbine Car pic that the I drilled holes through the hinge supports to accept .020 size brass pins. Brass of this type can be found at a good Hobby/Train shop.......just check out the different sizes they have. You're going to have to play around where to drill the holes as this'll depend on the model, type/size of plastic, etc. Once I'm satisfied with the movement of the doors and how they sit in the body, I'll epoxy the pins in the supports, let dry thoroughly and cut the excess away. The supports on the inside will then be covered with the kick panels. Now, moving on to the trunk............same techniques apply as above, except you're going to use a gooseneck type hinge as shown above. I don't know if you'll have the patience, but a trunk with the metal bracing/stiffener attached underneath really adds to the visual impact of an open trunk. Once again, reference pics are a MUST! I hope this helps a bit......sorry for the lengthy post but this is one of the most labor intensive steps in getting hinging down pat. If you haven't attempted this before, I strongly recommend practicing on a junk body as you don't want to make your prize project a guinea pig! If you've got any more questions, ask away or you can PM me. HTH!

Well I'm flattered!! Thanks Izzy! I'd love to meet him in person someday Ismael.............his work is outstanding! I'd like to know what brand/shade of red he's using for the body. That's about perfect for the shade of red Ferrari was using in the '50's.

Ditto on that Mike! I remember those '74's when new..........and thought they almost ruined what was a perfect body style with those "Battering Ram" bumpers!

:lol: :lol:

Yeah Bob, I airbrushed the Future................The key is lower pressure on your compressor and quicker passes. Also I'm using a Badger Crescendo 175T and I have all three tips. The finest tip works best for spraying Future. If it does run, you can always hand brush away the runs on the edges, since it doesn't leave brush strokes if done soon enough. I've also been using it on the newer Revell releases as they've developed a reputation for crazing due to the soft (read:cheaper) plastics they've been using the last few years. Particularly true if you want to use actual automotive paint to replicate 1:1 colors. If you can get the Future to look like this................. You shouldn't have a problem. This hood is from the '06 Revell Mustang and the car was painted with 1:1 automotive paint (Dupont '05 Sonic Blue) and I had no crazing. Yeah, I know I did an '06 'Stang in a '05 color but don't tell anyone!

Abe, here's the seats I did for the Dodge Magnum-------I used Detail Master detail wire, and superglued it (carefully), painted the seats and rubbed away the paint to expose the red wire. Holes had to be drilled to "park" the ends............technically the 1:1 has red stitching but my shrink ray won't go that small!

Hmmm..............I've had just the opposite-----I tried BIN but found it to be WAY too heavy for my tastes, whereas I've used Future and it's worked for me everytime. The key to Future is you have to build it up to where it's a glossy, shiny finish just like you see on your floor. Yet Future always cures to the point where it doesn't bury details. One example of Future being a success for me is this..................... Some folks have a hard time believing that this was once a red plastic kit.............

Bob, that looked like it was loads of fun!! I absolutely LOOOVE that D-Type Jag! That's one I'd like to find-----a long nose version............I built a short nose years ago.

For polishing my models I use Meguiar's Car Cleaner Wax and a chamois cloth, after rubbing out with Micro Mesh. Since chamois is a form of very soft leather, it won't leave any scratches. Been doing this for years, and as they say, "Old habits are hard to break!".

Your welcome Luis!! I have quite of bit of info on '53's....................If you run into any hangups, you know you can always PM me or E me.

Abe, if you have an electronics supply store in your area, you can buy that stuff by the roll! I'd recommend Radio Shack, but in this area they've all but dried up and blown away. Check around for some other suppliers as they may sell retail to outsiders. HTH!

Cruz you're killin' me!! I'm tryin' to finish up the paint job on the '55 Ford for the second time and you've got a new one started already! You can't go wrong with any Ferrari and that's a real nice kit.......it's turnin' out great so far!

I'm not a big fan of thread for piping because of the fraying that can occur when trying to handle it. Although painting it might negate that somewhat. I've used Plastruct rod which comes in sizes as small as .010.............It's made of a denser styrene than Evergreen and when using liquid glue to attach it, doesn't break apart like Evergreen can. When building the '57 'Vette years ago, I used Plastruct to redo the seats since the originals were lacking that detail. Here's a pic of the piping on the seats..................... That type of Plastruct can be found at a good hobby shop or better yet, a train shop as that's where I've gotten mine.