MrObsessive

Missed the Renault Fuego! I can't remember the last time I've seen one of those! Yeah, that's right up there in the 'weird' car category. For whatever reason, French cars never did well sales wise here in the states. I guess the dubious build quality among other things hasn't helped their reputation over the years.

I noticed that there's a lot of wheel cover and bumper sets left over as I picked up those I need. No kits, no conversion sets, and the real popular stuff such as interior parts (Mopar B Body stuff for instance) have left the building.

Fernando is in Portugal. I once ran across his site for his things and it was definitely worded in Portuguese.

I couldn't resist.........I went back just now and picked up something else I'll need for a future WIP. Interesting enough what I ordered earlier, when I went back to see if it was listed, it was gone. So I must have got one of the last remaining sets if not the last. I had no trouble paying though----ordered what I wanted and it took me right to the checkout page with no issue. OK! I think I'm done now! Hmmm..........maybe not!

I'm in Central PA and a fellow I work with told me over the weekend it was snowing quite hard in Centralia which is North of me. Frankly, after the winters of '16 and '17, I wouldn't mind if it never snowed again for maybe 30 years! This was from '16................'17 was very similar....... So I REALLY don't want to have to deal with it again anytime soon thank you! We'll see though......we've had so much rain this year I'm not holding out much hope for a quiet winter.

Bob, thanks SO MUCH for the heads up! I literally just went there and order a much wanted item! Thanks!

Ok, I'm back home and wide awake for the moment so I thought I'd add a couple pics that I forgot to include earlier. Here are a couple engine shots and as I mentioned earlier, I didn't go crazy with details as I need to get through this slump and don't want to get bogged down with too many details at this point. I did scratchbuild pulleys for the belt as I don't like the "hanging free in the air" look of the alternator-----a feature all too common for kits of this era. So there's an upper and lower bracket to hold things up. Other than the throttle linkage I cobbled together, that's about the extent I went to "superdetailing". @Snake45 Here is a pic I have of a Corvette 454 that I used for somewhat of a reference. Yeah, the wires are a lot more visible here.............you might be thinking of the 350 engine of this era which had much more hidden wires due to how the exhaust manifold was shaped and spark plug location. I've seen mid year 'Vette's that particularly with a car with a radio, the ignition shielding all but hides the wires. So, I'll detail paint some areas that need attention, and that'll be it for the engine.

Snake, you just gave me an idea about what to do with a junker Revell '68 I have! I got this "68 Revell convertible body and it's either turn it into as a future project a Pontiac Banshee concept car (convertible) or turn it into a '73 like you mentioned. Great idea! About those plug wires..........I've got detailed engine shots of a '74 454 in a 'Vette and those braided wires are quite visible. In the 350 maybe not, but definitely in the 454. I'd post a pic, but I'm at work right now and won't be back home for another few hours. Now I've got yet another WIP on my wish list!

Ditto on Fernando's wheels! I have a couple sets of 'em and they're well worth the price! He sells them regularly on the 'Bay, and for roughly $65 or so, you get what I think are dang good wheels! Well worth the money! I have yet to get any of his kits so while there might be some cleanup needed to get it right, that's no big deal as I've done that before with resin.

Thanks for the interior pics Monty! The dash does have vent detail molded in, it's just a matter of painting that detail before it's permanently in the tub. As far as the radio speaker..........I'll have to see if I have a PE piece or whatnot for that. If not, I won't sweat it as this won't be a major contest goer in the least. Just building this up to get me out of another burn out phase which had set in. Your '80 was a sharp looking car! I can remember when those were new. Snake, one of the spokes was busted when I got the model so drilling that out was a no-no! I'll flow in some flat black paint before long, but I want that Molotow paint to fully dry which it should be by now.

Here's the windshield as it sits right now. I may try another shot at it as I want the glass to lay in its channel on its own, without having to fight the epoxy to hold it in place. Moving on to the engine, I semi took apart the engine that was in the car and stripped it all down. Repainted the block Chevy Engine Orange which would be right for a '74 454 block. Not a lot of heavy detailing here as I'm trying to keep this as drama free as possible! The chassis was in need of some serious help. The suspension parts were so heavily glued that there was no saving them. I was fortunate that I found someone on eBay that was selling a very similar 'Vette kit (a '73) for parts only and the kit happened to have all of what I need to get this done. Got a nice box to boot also for all of $10. The chassis when set in the car looked 'short' to me. Seems as though the rear of the frame should extend all the way to the rear without so much space. I'm remedying that with cutting away the rear section and extending things just a bit. Attaching it all back together with some plastic stock of like size. And then smoothing things out once the glue has dried. The front suspension was tricky as this had actual metal springs for the front coils, but getting them to cooperate and stay put was tricky at best. You can see the clothes pin I used to keep things still while things set into place. Just mocked up for now to get an idea of how things should sit once it's all said and done. Here's the engine in the chassis now. I chuckled at the thread I saw for plug wires, but then a light bulb went off in my head thinking that may not be such a bad idea! I needed to replicate the shielded wires that the 1:1 has for cars with a radio. I got out my nylon grey thread and then very carefully painted the thread silver to represent braided ignition wires. Crazy, but looks OK to me! Carburetor I got courtesy of Chief Joseph from Fireball Models. Here's the chassis all done up now. Since I lengthened the chassis a tad, I likewise had to do the same with the exhaust. Since that parts kit had the exhaust pipes in it, I used those instead of the boogered up ones in the builtup. I took a section off the old exhausts and glued it on the new ones to make them a bit longer. It was all airbrushed with Alclad's Magnesium paint. Time to move on to the interior. Nowhere could I find TAN embossing powder as I want the exterior to eventually be a dark metallic green, and the carpeting to be a nice shade of tan/brown. eBay again to the rescue as there's a seller I found that does sell it. Dashboard redone so far with guages from BestModelCarParts on eBay. Steering wheel spokes were painted with the Molotow Chrome pens and set in the dehydrator overnight. Just a few touch ups to do here and there........... The interior now so far............in a bit I'll set the dash and seats in permanently and then the door panels. I have to remember to put a brake pedal in before all that as this is an automatic car. Nothing fancy here, just repainting and such to make it more presentable. After the interior..............FINALLY time to paint the body! That's it for now. Over the next week or two, I'll get things ready for paint and hopefully over the Thanksgiving holiday I'll be able to do just that. Just some final details to do on the chassis and interior and then it'll be good to go. Thanks for checkin' in!

The front bumper cover was also a hot mess. VERY deep sink marks which I don't think are due to glue, but more how the part was molded. I cut away the lower fascia from the bumper cover as this simply didn't look right when attached to the body. I glued the lower fascia to the main body, and to me looks much better! It also gives the front bumper cover a more positive locating point. The windshield would be my next hangup. I simply did not like how the kit windshield was fitting inside the body. You all know how I can't stand ill fitting glass, so I decided that I'm going to try and make a windshield out of clear stencil sheet. Here you can see a pattern I made using a 3x5 card. Same for the rear....... I forgot to mention------take note of the scribed in 'split' in the rear bumper cover. This was a one year deal with the '74 and something that MPC forgot to do. For the '75's Chevy figured out how to make this all one piece eliminating that split. I thought I would try a technique which I haven't done before, but is certainly needed here in the case of the 'Vette. I want the glass to attach from the outside since the 1:1 has near flush fit glass. After MANY tries doing this however frustration began to set in........ Here's the pattern for the glass to fit from the outside. The trouble I've run into however is the glass does not have the same radii top or bottom. The made is terrifically frustrating to get the stencil sheet to cooperate as it likes to lay in one direction. Soooo...............I decided to try my hand once again at vacuforming the glass. I haven't done this in nearly three years since the '59 Chevy, so I figured I needed to brush up on putting this to use once more. Here's the buck I made using .020 sheet plastic, making a sort of Teepee shape and filling the inside with Plaster of Paris. Here's the result of the vacuforming and so far so good. This was not without trying five or six times till I got it right. I recommend if you ever want to get into making your own glass via vacuforming, make sure you have PLENTY of .020 Vivak (PETG) sheet on hand! But wait there's more! Stay tuned....................

I've become a bit burnt out on building the Shelby, so for a diversion I ran across this rather forlorn MPC '74 'Vette I came across on the 'Bay. For $20 this wasn't a bad deal, but it's fought me along the way on certain details. Here's where I am so far with pics and descriptions............. Not a bad looking car at all for $20, but looks were a bit deceiving as I would find out. Not terribly put together and not a total glue bomb, but this would need to be totally taken apart and pretty much done over. Thread for spark plug wires! I chuckled when I saw that as this pretty much gives away when this model may have been built. I'm figuring at least when the 1:1 was new or just a bit later. OK, this is something I dread when I get a built up! Someone used a bit too much tube glue (the worst thing for windows) and over the years, the glue is still eating its way through the plastic, resulting in the sink marks you see here. The glass was of the 'runner' type and sure enough that's where this was mostly glued. I was able to pop the glass out, but not without leaving some of the runner stuck to the roof. I used my Dremel Moto Tool to grind out the rest. After the glass ordeal, I sprayed the body with Easy Off Oven Cleaner (yellow can) to get rid of the paint. I put the body and hood into a sealed container and let it sit for a day. After some scrubbing with a tooth brush, most of the paint came right off, but as usual there were some stubborn spots. As you can see the body is now pretty much cleaned up as far as the outside. Something that's always bugged me about MPC's 1968-77 Corvette coupes is how they shaped the sail panels. The leading edge of the sail panel should extend just a bit beyond the trailing edge of the doors, not meet the door line as you see here. I got out some .020 plastic sheet and corrected this area. When it was fully dried from the liquid cement, I sanded things down and tried to blend this into the sail panels as best I could. With the paint totally removed you can see those sink marks all the better-------they stick out like a sore thumb! Now to attack those sink marks......... I sprayed the roof with a light coat of Plastikote T-35 grey primer, let it dry and got out my trusty Dynatron Putty-Cote. Spread it over those sink marks and let it thoroughly dry. Sanded everything away and already this looks MUCH better! BTW, Dynatron is my putty of choice as there's some plastic in the mixture. If you ever need to glue trim or something over the putty, it'll stick right to it with no problem. Stay tuned................

The '62 Chevy may work with some slight tweaking with spare tire and gas tank placement redoing. The '62 Pontiac is totally different being that it's a perimeter frame, sharing that with Oldsmobile of the same period.

I'd like to see that one first before I jump on it. I got one from Time Machine Resin and while it's not bad, the roof crown isn't quite right. From a side profile on the 1:1, there is a definite curvature and the one I have the roof crown is too flat. Fixable, but I don't want another one that I'd have to fix as well.

Paul from what I saw at the NNL and from the couple kits I have (Volvo P1800, Ferrari 250 Lusso Transkit), the castings are very good. Not necessarily Modelhaus quality, but none of the issues you mentioned. This Volvo in particular has some flash to clean up around the windows among other places and parts, but the cleanup for me would be easy enough. BTW, I bought this one about 10 years ago, so I don't know what happened in your case. The Lusso transkit I bought was from this past NNL East and once again, the quality is quite good. Now given what I just mentioned I know the Volvo came from Tapani, the Ferrari I'm not sure as I bought that through Ed Cervo (Island Collectibles) but it was in an Air-Trax box.

I haven't seen this posted here as a thread, so I thought I'd show this as it was talked about on another forum. I have a pic of Tapani Rauramo's (Air-Trax) price listing of his latest kits. I have a couple of 'em and his castings IMO are EXCELLENT! Very little cleanup is needed and there's kits/transkits here that you won't find anywhere else. I could REALLY kick myself for not buying that absolutely gorgeous '69(?) Aston Martin kit that he had when I saw him and Juha Airio at the NNL East a couple years ago. He still has it listed, so I may bite the bullet and give myself an early Christmas present. You'll see his email address in the pic if you're interested in anything and do be patient as sometimes it can take a bit till he gets back to you. Enjoy!

One of my favorite '60's cartoon cars and yours looks great! In the original 'Manga' (which I have) the car is shown from time to time having a mid engine. Funny that on the cartoon series, it was always shown as being a front engine car. That's the cartoon world for ya!

That is such a neat car and nice snap kit! Looks nice and clean! A bonus would have been if AMT would have included the clear bubble top that the car once had. I take it the car as it sits now no longer has it.

My Dad worked at Bethlehem Steel here in Steelton from 1967 to 1998. He was never in the factory..........his job was mostly administrative in various offices during that time. I can remember Dad complaining in later years about how things were changing and as he saw it not for the better. To give you a perspective on what he made when he first started, Dad wanted to buy a new car not long after he began working there. The '57 Plymouth Belvedere he had was getting a bit tired and Dad was a HUGE fan of Mercedes-Benz. Dad wanted badly a new '67 250(?) SL. He never bought the car though as he said the car cost as much as he made in an entire year. $7000! That's what he was making back then which wasn't bad money at all, but when your average Chevy and Plymouth was costing perhaps $3000, spending more than double that for a car was just too much for most people! And this was long before they had those super long drawn out payment cycles of six years plus which is crazy. My how times have changed! The local plant here isn't Bethlehem Steel any longer, but Arcelor-Mittal. They're doing business well enough, but nothing like the boom days of the '60's.

Glad to see that one make it back! Now watch those crazy high prices on eBay come tumbling down! Save for the engine, I can see a lot of the mechanical bits from AMT's '57 Chrysler 300 being used for it for those that want more detail. No offense to whomever made this box art, but I never really cared for this. I happen to have one though. This is MUCH better!

OK Chuck.......I couldn't resist! I did go to the Eaglemoss site and now I've got that thing permanently seared into my want list! To make things worse, the monthly subscription fee is VERY reasonable if I read things right, much more so than the '67 Shelby. I gotta think about that one.........I've got two dozen boxes of parts for the Shelby that I haven't started yet to build and then there's this one! And yes, to tease others about this, you'll have to see for yourselves what we're talking about. I'll say that this car has NEVER been done in this scale and would be quite the conversation piece once it's built up and sitting in your house. I don't know why, but the fact that this IS so unlikely a subject in this scale, I'd grab it too! Gotta have WW tires on it though. I think that would really dress things up! Don't be surprised if indeed it shows up to be had. OK..........enough drooling over that wild car on Eaglemoss and back to work on my Corvette resto! I hope that by the time I retire I'll have the wherewith all to still be able to build these. However with the amount of models I have, I'd have to live three or four lifetimes to finish 'em all!

Looks good from my end of things!

That might be in scale, but then there's the issue of attaching it to the folding frame and then looking neat and not 'ungainly'. Years ago, there was a 1/25 scale Chrysler Sebring Convertible promo that had a folding top. I don't remember who made it and while the top did fold into the rear well, the raised portion of it to my eyes was waaaay outta scale and would have been more suited for something much larger. At least 1/12 or bigger.

That 300SL Gullwing.............I'd break the bank for that! Wasn't that supposed to be out a couple years ago? I know they like to focus on European subjects, but I'd sure like to see a couple more American ones. '63 Corvette Stingray '55-'57 T-Bird How 'bout a '68 Shelby GT500KR Convertible?? If their '67 Shelby is any indicator, that would sell like hotcakes!