MrObsessive

Just got notified of this big boy coming from DeAgostini and ModelSpace. Just when I have ONE LAST PAYMENT to make on that 1/8 scale Shelby of theirs, they drop this bomb on me! If I get too many of these things, I'll need a bigger house! The Shelby has already taken up about 25 medium boxes of space with parts and such to be done stacked on one side of my build room. Hmmm.............this one has me drooling for sure and you VW guys are sure to love this one!

It's been mentioned, but that's one of the things I don't like about that kit------the lack of headlights when the hood is opened. That's one feature that's VERY conspicuous by its absence! Without those it looks 'incomplete' to me. If/when I'd ever build this, it's one detail that MUST be in my WIP!

I have HRM's Daytona and while it is spendy.............it's worth every penny! So much improved over the Gunze kit as you'll get a complete engine and other parts that were left out of the plastic kit. Gunze's Jag I have also, but the one to get is the E-Type that had the removable hardtop included (green car box art). That one is as scarce as hen's teeth! I can't even remember the last time I saw one turn up on eBay. If/when they do show up, either the BIN price is outta sight, or it'll get bid up into the stratosphere!

I think that the Grand Prix's, Venturas and Catalinas all shared the same wheelbase. The rear quarters could stand to be a tad shorter but yes........find a suitable 1965-66 GM B Body two door hardtop roof, swap it for the Grand Prix with some other changes and there you go.

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!

Joe, I built that long before I had digicams and whatnot (2003). I tried using the fabrics you mentioned, but the problem came in with it looking in scale and looking neat. You know how I hate things that are out of scale and flat out don't appear correct. A larger scale that would look OK.............I have several of those 1/12 Danbury Mint cars that have folding tops and in that size they look OK for me. As far as parts layout..........everything I did back then was eyesight engineering with pics from a GM assembly manual, just simplified for 1/25 scale.

Believe it or not, I still have this frame although it's no longer in the car. Never did find a suitable fabric for it and at this point I'm no longer interested as my building style has changed a bit over the years.

Hell, I can do that! A whole lot cheaper than $45! I have to say that looks pretty cool..............nice idea for a diorama for example. $45?? That's a bit steep when you can get entire nice resin bodies for less than that.

Yup............got this one too!

Heresy! A six in an AMX! Just kidding........very nice work and where did you source the chassis? Looks MUCH better than anything I've ever seen from Johan!

Hmmm..........that can be a tough one. You might want to try running some mineral spirits around the skirts to see if that will soften the glue up a bit. It won't hurt the plastic though. You can also try dunking the body in some water and then putting it in the freezer. The icing action may pop off those skirts, but it'll depend on how much glue they used. That stuff can be tough no matter the age! Hope this helps!

One thing I miss about the old days of eBay is seeing who the actual bidders are. I could see who I might be bidding against and that might have determined if I really wanted that item or not. Some of the eBay users I knew personally, and I may not want to bid against a friend for instance, especially if I know it was something they wanted really bad. Now eBay hides all ID's for good reason------lots of scammers popping up over the years and eBay wants to try to stay out of as much legal issues as possible.

Been on eBay since 2002, and I did that very thing just the other day. The kit was the old Airfix Aston Martin DB5 (built with original box) and it sat for DAYS with no takers. Right at the last day, it started to get bid on and I raised my maximum at least three times as I really wanted this. No one tried to snipe at the end however...............got it for $33.00!

Yup! Sure did! He had responded back and said I had the right answer. I had sent him a PM via his avatar.

Kinda easy.......I think I got this one!

It would be great to see this on my shelf someday............... It would require some bucks though as I have a '70, but not the '71 to make this. Too bad this never made production.........it was to be the '71 AMX, but AMC decided against it due to lackluster sales of the '70. I don't want to trash the '70 I have, maybe find junkers someday to do this.

It's safe to assume that if you're planning to build an accurate Johan '69 AMX, get ready for LOT of corrections including the engine. The only thing really correct about that kit is the body-----everything else is either flat out wrong, or not quite accurate for the car. This was originally on my to do list to build, but the Shelby won out. I have all the bits and pieces to do a correct car including the engine, air cleaner decals, and PE. I'd like to shorten up a Mustang chassis as I don't like the Johan chassis at all. Modified inner fenders would be in order too as the kit ones are woefully wrong.

I'm not sure the Johan '68-'69 AMX's are represented accurately at all as far as the interior. At least the last reissues of the '69 appeared to be more out of the '70, than the '69. Exterior wise the cars were identical save for slightly different wheels between the model years, and some other very subtle changes. Here are some door panel pics as I've got a ton of 'em since I once owned the 1:1........... 1968 1969 1970 Last time I looked at my kit (buried with others on my third floor), the door panels looked more like the '70 above than '69. Johan's original annuals might have had the correct interior initially, but through the years they used whatever they had on hand to make a particular kit as the tooling aged. Hope this helps you out!

Yup! Sure does! Besides stopping the bleed through, it will seal the plastic as far as not letting the hot solvents in the paint get through the plastic and cause the crazing. As I mentioned earlier, today's plastic is not as tough as it was 15-20 years ago. It's been reformulated (read: cheaper to manufacture) and at the same time unless you want to stick to the very basic enamel paints for body colors, that'll be as far as it goes into painting the bodies with actual 1:1 paints. I remember years ago this was a VERY big issue on the Hobby Heaven board (now Spotlight) where guys were SCREAMING about the crazing issues with the then new kit of the C6 Corvette and the 2005 Mustang. It was addressed to Revell and Revell later responded that they could not duplicate the problem that many were having. I can just about guarantee they were not using automotive paints, but the regular hobby enamels and while that might be OK for some, if you want the realistic colors that the cars on the road have, you have to use the hotter paints. What they weren't telling us is that the plastic had indeed changed as I was building kits that were molded in the '90's and I didn't have this issue. Just regular airbrushed Plastikote primer and automotive paint mixed by my local paint shop. Here's another good example of a model I did that was painted in the way I just described................ This Daytona was built back in 2000, and the kit I think came out around 1997-98. It was painted in the way I described----no sealer, no barrier coat, just primer and airbrushed automotive Hemi Orange. You'll see there is no crazing and interestingly enough, this is one of the few metallic paint jobs I was able to rub out and polish with no mottling of the metallic flakes. I had no idea this was a metallic paint till I got it as it's very, very subtle. I wouldn't do this today with this kit if it were molded presently. I just don't like to take chances with paint jobs and I want to be able to get it right the first time as I HATE stripping paint and starting over! This is where it's also VERY important especially today to test your paint out. Hidden areas of the body (under the hood for instance) or plastic spoons is good, but those plastic spoons I think are still a tougher plastic than what the kits are today. HTH!

Well, I airbrushed just about everything. Gave up on spray cans for bodies back in 1985 as like you, I tried three or four times to paint the model and for whatever reason the paint kept curdling. I got my first cheap airbrush (a Badger 150?) and have been using airbrushes ever since. In the case of my Cougar II, I used a barrier coat of Future Floor Wax (actually an acrylic liquid) as I stopped trusting kit plastic since about 2004-05. I then airbrushed on a several coats of Plastikote T-35 Gray primer, then the color coat was Duplicolor 'Claret Red Metallic' (don't remember which car manufacturer), which was very close to the Cougar's metallic red. Believe it or not, the whole works was clearcoated with Tamiya's X-22 water based acrylic (airbrushed), then rubbed out with Detail Master's polishing cloths and polished up with Meguiar's Car Cleaner Wax and a chamois cloth. A bit time consuming, but I'm a BIG believer in not doing body painting till everything else is built up first. I learned a long time ago that painting the body first can lead to big troubles as you have no idea how things will fit in the end. I want to make sure I have a method of getting things in without ruining a paint job with scratches, or breaking something on the body due to lack of test fitting. Hope this helps!

I'm restoring an MPC '74 (haven't started a thread yet) and I had to do some corrections in the sail panel area particularly. AMT's never quite looked right in the cowl area, particularly the convertible's windshield always seemed to 'low' for me. At least that's just me noticing that.......others may feel differently! It's curious why those chose to shape the rear window that way.....

I know how you feel! This was the model back in the mid '80's ("Those Famous Fords" reissue) that turned me off to spray cans forever! And yes, this can be a particularly fiddly kit as I did finally build one years ago. Neat kit with lots of detail though, and it's very interesting to see this turn into a drag car!

That is super nice and cleanly done! That's the Revell kit though........MPC and AMT never quite got that roofline right, and Revell's is 'bout spot on.

Yes, I use an airbrush to put this on. It comes in a spray can, but I don't like it as it comes out waaay too heavy and to me it's just not user friendly. The trick is to put on a very light coat of primer, put on the sealer, then more coats of primer and your color coats. As far as thinner, you can use 91% alcohol but right out of the can, I haven't needed to do that. I use an old Badger Crescendo to put on the BIN. I like using this as not only a barrier for that temperamental red and yellow plastic, but since I can do a lot of body work at times, it's nice to also be able to seal the putty and such as that can react to different paints. Never had a problem with it and here's a car that I did which I used the BIN, but I was very wary of the plastic as there were MANY complaints about even mild paints causing the plastic to craze. I've tried the painting it silver trick in the past, but I later had a problem with the paint chipping in spots as the silver paint didn't seem to allow the overlaying paint to have much 'bite'. If it works for some though, I have no issue with it........I've just had trouble with it. Also, you once again have to be careful what you're spraying the silver on. Since about the mid '00's or so, the plastics in kits has changed a LOT. It's now softer than ever and doesn't seem to react well with the hotter paints that you'll need to use if you're trying to match exact 1:1 colors for your model. I don't like to tempt fate as painting the body is usually the last thing I do when I have a WIP. I want to make sure everything fits with no drama and to have all that work ruined by crazed plastic due to paint does not make for a good day!

How'd I miss this one?? EXCELLENT body work........ I LOVE seeing WIP's like this!