MrObsessive

Yeah Revell's done so well with this model I can see them giving us more versions of it not far down the road. I sure hope this is a trend with them and we continue to see well executed models without proportion foibles that have plagued some of their cars in the past. Interesting enough, I still see a number of them on the 'Bay and the fellow that carries models at our club meetings still had some. He's sold a LOT of 'em though!

Oh yeah Snake........this is still tied to much to the '50's although 1962 was barely out of the '50's. If the car was more squared up below, that roofline might have fared better style wise. The '64 Barracuda pulled this off well but its rear window was more stretched out which helped.

Hmmm...........that's the very car I used to make my stillborn '64 convertible with the working top frame. I ended up using the top for a convertible up-top as the working one was a no go. I could have swore I heard that what Hasegawa used was a slot car body from MPC to make those curbsides. I have both of those also (a built original '66 sitting waiting to be redone), and they look for all the world identical to me save for the closed hood. Nothing else is the same though especially the interior as I had to find a dash off the 'Bay. The one in the kit I'm not sure what that supposed to represent. They sure did a good job of making that body since it looks VERY good! I sure wish the other makers did as good a job on a consistent basis.

That's a thought and may be a better idea than the top I have. Since it's supposed to be '1/24' (actually a repop of the 1/25 MPC body) it would be easier to shrink this down, than to try stretching it out. Because more than likely the tool makers had a much more critical eye than those of today. Not to mention since most were to be promos of some sort, they had better get it as accurate as possible if they wanted the blessing of the manufacturer to have them given to their customers/prospective new car buyers.

Actually, I'm not crazy about the vinyl roof on those. While it's not bad, the body colored hardtops to me look better, especially on a sports car. Mine will eventually be painted '68 Corvette Bronze BTW. A color I had mixed by my local paint shop. Since your post Snake, I noticed that the parts kit I got did include the wheels. I'll leave them alone and just paint the wheel section and leave the outer rings chrome.

Now this is a more palatable idea! What you mentioned earlier for me is doable, but for those that aren't as skilled it might be a VERY daunting task. Funny you mentioned about the GTO separate top..........not long ago I came across one of these on eBay. The reason I wanted it was the roofline is VERY close to what GM used for their B Body 1965-'66 four door hardtops. I have a Hasegawa '66 Bonneville I'd LOVE to turn into a four door and that roof looks as close to anything I've seen. With some tweaking I can turn that model into a never made four door. The hardest thing was finding a '66 dash, but I've got one of those too now. The seats I can scratchbuild the patterns needed for that.

Just a quick update on what's happening with the 'Vette. Interior's all done and now I can focus on getting the body ready for paint and such. The seats had been stripped and repainted, dashboard gauges added this time around and the dash top itself was repainted. In hindsight, I meant to make the seat backs a bit more one piece, but I'm not going to worry about it at this point as this will be another shelf model and not a contest goer. Just a model that I've been wanting to redo for quite some time. Steering wheel was redone with the spokes painted with a Molotow Chrome pen and I added PE keys and nameplate to the dash. Embossing power was used for the carpeting this time........something I had no idea about in 1988. Just a mock up with the wheels on to get a view of the stance. I'm of the mind to strip the wheels and paint them in Alclad dull aluminum and paint the caps with the Molotow chrome pen. The redline tires are Round 2's parts pack ones.........VERY nice as the redlines are very well done and are correctly distanced in relation to the wheel diameter. I bought a parts kit as the one of the tops was missing. Corvettes to me look really good with either top on it, so I sought out a cheap parts kit on the 'Bay to get it. Chassis detail redone with some better painting. No brake or fuel lines this time around......I'll save that for another project later. That's all for now. Hopefully in the next couple weeks I'll have this painted and polished up and then it's downhill to getting this all redone. Thanks for tuning in everyone!

I want to add that I had a run-in with an eBay seller that was trying to pass off a Revell Chevelle Z-16 model as an AMT. I could tell it was the Revell one the millisecond I saw the body as that flat drip rail was a dead giveaway. It bugged me to the point that I did write the seller to let him know that it was NOT an AMT Craftsman kit, but was a Revell one that he was selling. BTW, he did have a Craftsman one listed also and the description on that was right. He wrote back to tell me that they're all under the same company and I wrote in return to say no they are all NOT! Revell has their own mold making and AMT at the time when that Craftsman kit was done had their own mold making/tooling. What I got was an answer from him with two words.........CEASE CONTACT. OK...........he did sell it BTW but I'm keeping an eye on the feedback to see what was said. He didn't get much for it so more than likely the buyer knew what it was, but that sure bugs the heck out of me when someone tries to pass something along that's not what they say and then when you point it out, they get an attitude about it.

Yup...........I noticed this many years ago not long after I got this kit that the drip rails were too flat. I'm not really seeing the overall 'flatness' of the roof crown however. Perhaps with the correction of the drip rails especially above the quarter windows, that'll fix that slight imperfection too. As far as the slant of the C pillars, you can add a bit of plastic to the leading edge of the pillar and fix the angle, but then there's the trailing edge to deal with and IMO fixing that is not for the faint of heart. I have to say that the 'too flat' drip rails is a malady that also afflicts Monogram's '64 GTO. The hardtop on that never looked right to me, but it does look better than what Polar Lights '64 which to my eyes is woefully wrong. I see what you mean here Chris.........some more definition is certainly needed here on the Revell body. The vertical crease just above the rear wheelwell seems to be very faint or non existent.

Man is that NICE Jim! That paint reminds me of Chevy's Sierra Gold which is one of my favorite colors for a '57 Chevy.

Wow! NEAT tip! Just an FYI..........while you're scribing the trim, if it were me building this I'd make the upper corners of the quarter glass just that. Hard sharp corners which this body lacks. That's one of my hangups about this model in that this is what distinguished this from the Challenger among other things which had rounded corners. YUP! Another tool for my arsenal!

Oooh! I remember when you had that here as a WIP.........still gorgeous! I guess the point I'm getting at with this fellow's tops comes down to price. $25 bucks for one of these is a bit steep and then to have to make corrections yet..........I dunno. On that note Tom mentioned above about the Revell '72 Cutlass top not fitting the AMT '69 Chevelle convertible. True enough as I test fitted that and as you mentioned............it can be made to fit, but you'd have to do pretty much like what you did with your Chrysler 300. The top is a little long, but it looks like the rear section would fit without much trouble. Just some reshaping of the front of it should do the trick.

I'm sure the fellow that 3D printed this took some considerable time to make the .stl file to do this. However....................to my eyes they're not quite shaped right according to pics I have of a '63 Chevy for instance with an up top. The rear sections could stand to be considerably 'longer'. This is just me and how I build, but when all else fails and I can't find an up top for a convertible I'm building, I'll fashion one out of the existing hardtop. More work yes, but I'll have an up top that should fit well enough since it was originally a hardtop.

Now THIS is the money shot! Mighty, mighty nice Matt! I've have two of these kits yet to build besides the D-Type I did. The original ROG red box art one and the green car box art reissue they did years ago. Sure wish they would bring this one back as these can be pricey. If one takes their time, a very nice model can come out of this as you've shown!

I think he's talking about the accelerator you use to harden it up. I did have that soften the plastic......not the CA glue alone. And yes, CA can eat right into paint too.

Well, whadaya know! I've just spotted a completed auction on the 'Bay here! It says made in Germany, so I'm sure this is the old ROG kit reboxed...........I stand by my caution though.

One caution about that kit as I built one years ago converting it into a D-Type------KEEP CHECKING the engine placement/height in relation to the cowl. If it's too high up, you'll have trouble shutting the hood. One solution is to shave the motor mounts down a bit before installing. I'd still check things along the way though as everything will need to stay below the cowl, otherwise you will have problems. BTW, I've not seen a Fujimi Jag XKSS either..........that would be something to see! Hope this helps!

Chris, there is some kind of solvent in Zap-A-Gap. I remember this from when I was doing my '59 Chevy WIP and there was something I needed the Zap-A-Gap for. I noticed the the plastic became 'soft' so I waited till it dried for a couple hours and then sanded things away. You'd think this wouldn't happen but it does. I'm at work so I can't see the bottle and what's in it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it has a small amount of MEK. EDIT: I just remembered what I was doing then. Whenever I'm doing opening doors, I like to put a bead of CA around the inside and outside perimeter of the door jamb where I glued the plastic for strength. It was when I wanted to speed things up a bit that I noticed the plastic became a bit soft after I put on the accelerator. So yeah..........if you want to do this, consider letting it dry just like you would regular glue, although it doesn't take as long.

If you want to do a four door hardtop '63 Chevy, the windshield frame on that '63 Starfire would work very well as probably the entire roof with some work on the C pillars. They shared that "flat style" windshield frame for '63-'64 as opposed to the rounder style that was also offered on convertibles and B-Body two door hardtops.

If you go here, it's Paul's eBay page. You can hit the link where you can save him as a seller and you can be told when he puts up something new.

Pete, thanks much for showing how you did this. I'm definitely saving this pic for future reference. I have all the bits and pieces now to make a '68 GTO from Monogram's '68 hardtop. It's just a matter of squeezing in the time and ambition to get around to it.

That's the first I've seen of that JC..........never knew AMT made one. A bit different bodywork than the IMC, but still recognizable as a Lola.

VERY good start Dominick! Great conversion on the rear half of the car. They are VERY different between the hardtops and convertibles. I have something similar in mind for a '68 GTO convertible project that's rolling around in my head. Changing the angle of the trunk and rear fenders will be the toughest thing as like this Cutlass, they are different.

Gary, I have this kit among others and it does say 1/25. That's news to me about AMT's Lola...........never seen that one.

VERY nice and clean! These cars could be real terrors on the street as I learned years ago!