MrObsessive

John..............Yeah, I forgot about that one. While to my eyes it's not bad, there are some changes I'd do to it if I had one. I also forgot that The Modelhaus made one. I may as well forget about that one as the price if one ever turns up on the 'Bay, would be outta sight! ? If I wanted to spend some time, I could scratchbuild that car using a '57 Chevy as a base. Way down the road I may got that route as I'd rather work in plastic if possible than resin.

When I was restoring the '74 Corvette, I got disgusted with how much glue was used to put in the glass, I got out my Dremel and ground it out! So much was used that the roof was damaged............. Of course, I had to fill in the depressions which I did with my Dynatron Putty-Cote. Now one would never know what damage there was unless I showed them. That can be the drawback to buying a builtup......too much glue can be used which sometimes can be more trouble than it's worth to fix.

All I'll say is this is another familiar car for me from my young childhood. You NEVER see these anymore! I'll add that this would make a VERY cool modeling subject!

Very interesting Dave! I do remember a post where I used those words (maybe a WIP post) and I can remember those words in it as it was a long one. I kept getting the error, but I think I ended up getting rid of a couple emojis to get it to take.

I've got a real ratty one of these that I'll get the ambition to restore someday. Not long ago, I found an uptop for it as I think the early '60's Fords and Mercuries were some of the best looking cars as convertibles with their tops up. I'd like mine to look like this one below.

Oops............I guess I'm threadbare! Thought I had one topic picked out to make a comment and it turned out to be quite another! ?

Another Great Save! Just commented on a well saved Camaro and now this beauty!

Excellent rescue!! Very good bodywork you did......I wouldn't have known it unless you pointed it out. I love rescue jobs and I'm sure that Camaro is thanking you for rescuing it! It's also the next best thing to owning that really rare model, but it costs nowhere near what a pristine example would bring.

Nice Invicta! The uptop is a nice touch as personally I hate building convertibles without 'em. Keep an eye on the 'Bay......I got a VERY clean restorable '61 Bubbletop off of there for less than $50. It didn't have its original wheels which I was able to find later on, but even those I paid less than 10 bucks for 'em. Deals can be found, it's just being in the right place at the right time.

Very nice! One of my FAVORITE cartoons I watched in the '60's as a kid! Funny how they did this model. In the original Japanese "manga" (which I have), the car is shown in some stories as having a mid engine. In the cartoon series though, a number of times I saw the car as a front engined one. I built one of these from scratch a loooong time ago using a Ferrari 250 GTO as a 'base'. One wouldn't recognize it as such by looking at it as the car to me looked like a customized '57 Ferrari Testarossa. ?

This is an interesting thread! I bought myself a VERY nice Christmas present this past one which was a pristine AMT '63 Pontiac Lemans convertible kit in its original box. It was a pretty penny, but like others have said, the chassis leaves much to be desired. IMO this is a unique rear end setup especially for a car like this back in those days, so I appreciate the leads as to where to find something proper to represent it. Yeah, it would require some hacking and cutting of the chassis, but that doesn't bother me as I'm foremost a builder.......not so much a collector even though I have my share of "rare" stuff. I REALLY appreciate the pics of the bare rear suspension setup. Those will come in mighty handy! ?

A GOOD '57 Lincoln two door hardtop. Hendrix resin once offered one (don't think it's made anymore), but that's a very classy car that you just don't see represented anywhere.

Out of curiosity I'm watching this one. Thank goodness I have one of these.........a very restorable one with no box however. I've also got a '65 promo which has a cracked A pillar. A very easy fix if/when the time comes I want to restore that one. I expect this one to crack the $200+ mark. Seeing these in this shape with the original box can be very few and far between. Another reason I like clean builtups that haven't been glued to death. Still, it depends on who's watching and how badly someone wants a particular model. I've seen even builtups go for CRAZY money! A certain Johan '66 Chrysler 300 comes to mind which I happen to have, but not till after I got into a bidding war. Won't be doing that again anytime soon!

I was having a problem with ads REALLY slowing down my PC. I just turned it off to see if things are better. I don't mind the ads, but when it gets to a point where an ad is not letting the page fully load, I have to use a blocker as it's frustrating waiting for a script or other such thing to load up.

I'll echo what Steve said. Flocking has its place, but IMO it's better suited for larger scales for the reasons you mentioned. It can come out clunky/splotchy looking but David's tip is a good one. Still, the fuzziness of flocking still seems a bit out of scale to my eyes for 1/24-25th scale. Here are a couple pics of models I did with the red embossing powder. You can get this in all sorts of colors and it has just the right texture that can be seen in carpets like 1:1's for example. Here's the brand of embossing powder I use. You can check your local arts and crafts shop, or they're all over the place on eBay. Hope this helps! ?

Jean-Philippe, that is one gorgeous, GORGEOUS Caddy!! I had to do a double take and look twice as I've not seen this one before. Gotta love those "skeg" fins! Whoever did the master did a terrific job as that looks like Johan DID make that one. I've built a Modelhaus '61 Caddy two door and one can't have too many Cadillac models. You got it! There's a number of four doors I'd LOVE to see on the hobby shelves over their two door brethren.

That's the same thing I was thinking too Chris when I first saw that! ? Back then though, that '57 was considered "just another clunker car" and no one would have thought twice about taking care of it let alone restoring it. Today, those are SUPER RARE and are virtually rolling real estate in pristine shape! I have to wonder if any of those cars that were in that film survive today. It would be interesting if one was able to trace where they ended up and if they're still around.

LOL!! That WAS cheesy but good! Now you know your age is catching up with you when you can remember as a kid seeing these new on the streets, but having no idea what they were. What was in that Fairlane?? I can't believe that if it was running a 427 would it fall THAT far behind! ?

That's been my way of building for almost forever! I like to do the cars that were in my sight when I first knew what a car was...............lot of fins and chrome. Later, muscle cars would have been the thing as there were a few in our family. I'll do a new(er) car every now and then, and as time goes on I'll be getting into the mid '70's stuff........and era that's all but forgotten by the model manufacturers as the GM Colonnade cars come to mind.

Thanks for the nice words guys! If there's no bad weather like there was last year, I hope to be there Tom. Last year it was raining so bad and I'm not a fan of driving the Challenger in heavy rain......especially here in PA with trucks everywhere you turn on the highway.

Tom, that's what I had heard too among other things. It's no small feat to do what they did......and for all those years! The last time I saw Don and Carol (Toledo NNL in 2015), I could tell that it was wearing on them. Glad to see that they can finally take it easy, although I heard Don is still casting some things, but nowhere near spending the amount of time that he once did.

I like it! This is one kit that NEVER gets old. I sure wish though we could see new tooling of the 1957-'58 Golden Hawks. I have a loooong stalled project of a '58, but to see a brand new kit (Moebius??) would be a dream come true.

Here's the latest on the bodywork...........more work than I thought, but at this point I can feel confident there won't be anymore "mishaps" as far as the bodywork showing through a completed and cured paint job. The roof split was the largest (and hardest) to fill in. In hindsight, this should have been the route to go....use as much plastic to fill in the deep split/valley and not rely solely on the putty to not have a reaction with whatever paint/primers that are going to be used. Bodywork is at this point about 80% done. Both sides as can be seen by the pics are totally filled in and this time I tried to use as much plastic as possible, with just a very small amount of putty to fill in any divots and tiny voids. Phillip, the grille I'm using is a modified one from the Danbury Mint diecast. It had to be narrowed a bit as that one is 1/24, while this model is 1/25. The middle trim piece will need to be fastened back in place as it's broken loose on the bottom over the years. To make things fit a bit better on the sides, I'll rework the leading edges of the fenders to better conform to the outer edges of the grille. That's it for now. At the moment, I'm working on the doors as far as getting the outer door skin work done on those and then it's on to making new door jambs, hinges and hinge supports. More work than I anticipated, but I'm going to try something a bit different in making them open/close and fit better in the body. The hood has a bit of work needed too as where I filled in the scored lines with putty, the oven cleaner made that come loose as well. So far I got those filled back in with plastic and then it's on to smoothing things out. Thanks for tuning in! EDIT: I almost forgot......yes Phillip, I'll be using the same colors as before. Snowshoe White with Regency Purple two-toned. I still have a bunch of paint left over from PaintScratch.com of the purple and not long ago I had to order some Snowshoe White as I had no more of that.

Now you all know how I feel about certain things being correct. Namely body shapes. There's no such thing as being 100% correct on any model, but there are some things that are so grossly misshapen, I have to fix 'em! Having said that, the last couple builds were simple on my part as I wanted to get away from the drawn out Shelby Mustang WIP I had going. The '74 'Vette was a change of pace for me as it was the first time I believe I took what was a very forlorn looking model and turned it into something nice. No opening doors, no working suspension/engine details, just some body corrections which it needed and I had it done in less than six months which is a very short time for me. I liked doing that so much I took ANOTHER 'Vette I thought was lost and restored that one. You all seen the '68 and how I brought that one back to life. Now, I'm sort of back into the detail mode as I'm taking a long shelved project and semi redoing it to finish it up for good. The work on the '55 Fairlane has been tedious, but half of the work was already done years ago, namely the interior and chassis/engine bits. It's just a matter of fixing the body where the paint went bad and then getting it all repainted and ready for display. If I can get this done before the end of the year, that'll be a record for me since I can't remember the last time I got that many done in a year! As far as fun, I consider research and body corrections as part of the fun. I like doing body mods/corrections where needed. A kind of stickin' it to the model makers as I'm someone with no sophisticated machinery to do what I do, yet you'll have them spend tens of thousands of dollars on molds but it's still wrong. So as they say "To each his own". What's fun for one can be dread to another.

Interesting topic! I for one will need to make something in PE for a future resto/rebuild project. I'll be in dire need of 1957-'58 Studebaker Golden Hawk scripts/emblems and there's nothing else out there that can come close. And this being such an esoteric car to do, I don't ever expect to see such a thing on the market. I have a CAD program on my one PC so that part I can do, it's the making of the negatives and such that'll be the tricky part. I see that MicroMark sells a mini PE system, so I may spend some bucks on that to at least get my toe in the water to see how all this works.