Jim Gibbons

Wow, this is an amazing project. I, too, like the original Broncos. With Ford now offering complete body parts for the original, maybe the renewed interest in it could result in a model someday.

Good start on it. I think you should build it as close to your mom's as possible as far as the engine, wheels, etc. Yeah, I think you should do the trailer up, too...I wouldn't want to be separated from my best friend after 50 years!

Beautiful! The paint looks like you could dive right into it.

That is a beautiful build. Have to tackle mine one of these days.

Looking good! These are hard enough kits to build without having to correct someone else's assembly. I've built a few of the Pocher kits (back when they were relatively affordable) and the wheels seemed to take forever to finish. I was so glad the Bugatti T50 had disk wheels! I'll be following this.

Beautiful; one of my favorite Ferrari designs.

That looks FANTASTIC! I built this kit for a friend, and spent more time on decals than I did the entire painting and assembly. Wish I could have talked him into a street version.

Speaking for myself, it depends on what kind of paint I use. Since I don't have an airbrush, I use spray cans. I've been mostly using Tamiya synthetic lacquers, and am very happy with the results. On some finishes, especially metallic enamels, I'll apply clear coats. The last few years, I haven't applied clear to most of my models (I build mostly factory stock), as I like to get more of a prototypical shine after polishing. However, when I do a custom or rod once in a while, the clear gives it a better look. I use a polishing kit after the paint has fully cured. Once I'm satisfied with the finish, I'll complete most of the final assembly, only leaving off small trim parts and most of the chrome. I'll them add Bare Metal Foil to the body trim, and once that's done, I'll put a coat of model wax (The Treatment, Tamiya Modeling Wax, etc.) on it. The reason I leave the chrome off is that the waxes often have petroleum distillates in them, and will take the chrome finish off. After waxing, if there are any areas I got wax on that are glue areas for chrome parts, I'll carefully dampen a QTip or minibrush with rubbing alcohol and wipe clean. I then add the remaining trim parts, and done! If I'm building a racing car, there's little chrome trim that needs to be done except on vintage racers. I polish the body, then add decals. I used to clear over decals, but have gotten away from doing that, as I think it looks more realistic that way. I'll wax over the decals, though, to protect them. Hope this helps!

Wow, what a score! I feel like Charlie Brown in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,"....."All I got is a rock."

What a cool idea! Just wanted to add that it has to be SILK tape, as there are a number of different types of medical tape available. Don't ask me how I know!

Some really cool builds! The graphics on a couple of them remind me of some of Rick Hanmore's work back then. Cool stuff...I like the Mercury roof grafted on to the '58 Chevy.

I'm also very late to the party, but maybe a "Nostalgia Under Glass" category for really old builds might be interesting. Just my 2cents worth!

That is some amazing scratchbuilding work! I'll be following this, as I love old racing Jaguars. I built this Group44 XK12 some years ago (Provence Moulage 1/43) and have the Grp44 XJS that I started prep work on. I wonder if your project was ever done in 1/43 resin.

This is looking really good. It's too bad the front suspension will be hidden, as your detailing is great. There have been many times I've built Tamiya models, and wondered why I spent so much time on parts that will never be seen. That's okay, YOU know it's there! (And so do those following this thread!)

That is sweet! Man, if that's your first time doing that to your paint, I can't wait to see the paint jobs to come!

Cool to see both models; as said above, the Porsche came out pretty well for a half day build! The GT40 looks great; wish I had gotten that model when it was out. In the mid '80s, I sold VW before I landed an engineering job, and we got a 928 in on trade. The manager asked me to to take it out and give my opinion on it, as he was a bit nervous to put it on the used car lot in view of potential used car warranty repairs. I was more than happy to oblige! It was an amazing car, and the ergonomics were perfect. However, when we put it on the lift, the underside looked as if it had taken an offroad excursion in a rocky field. We wholesaled it. A few years later at the lighting manufacturer I worked for, the CEO bought his wife a Guards Red 928S for her birthday. She had it less than a year as she was getting too many speeding tickets!

Cool! I built that kit back in the '70s in red (one of the models I spent the $ on a can of spray paint for) with a black interior. Unfortunately, it's not one of the kits that survived the decades. One of my favorite aspects of the kit was that it didn't have a lot of chrome trim to paint.

Both the 58 Olds and 55 Ford NEED to be finished! I wish I still had my '58 Olds.

This is amazing work, and I'm enjoying every step. The one thing that keeps hitting me in the back of the head is the name, Rommell. I know it's spelled slightly differently, and likely pronounced differently, but all I can think of is the WW2 German general, Erwin Rommel, known as the "Desert Fox." I say that we have have a new successor; the "Custom Fox!" Aftashox, the Custom Fox. No excuses...my brain wanders too much!

The Cadillac, you'll have to get info from the more informed. The original issue (in other words, big money) of the '58 TBird had the custom parts such as the bubbletop, but you won't find that in the later issues from the mid '70s on; they can only be built stock.

The second photo in your last post is a Buick Riviera. It's a little hard to tell, but it looks like there are headlights on the grille that would make it a '63 or '64 annual, I think from AMT. The closest you'd find is the fairly recent reissue of the '65 Riviera which doesn't have the exposed headlights. It also looks like they added sheet plastic to make it look like a station wagon (estate) style. The Monogram '58 TBird should be fairly easy to find as it has been reissued many, many times. It could also be built as either a hardtop or convertible, so that made the variations possible. The size of the wheels/ tires makes me think it is the Monogram; that kit is 1/24, and looks large in comparison to the Oldsmobiles, plus the kit had white plastic whitewall inserts that the TV show models have. The only version to avoid of the Monogram TBird is the TV show "Elvira" version, as I recall, they tooled a "spiderweb" grille along with other changes to make the horror movie hostess version. Other, more knowledgeable modelers might know if they butchered the original tool for that.

Really cool! It's great to see your old builds, and they look great! After finding a bunch of my old kits, too, it's great to see how we've all progressed in our abilities. The best part of hindsight is seeing the products that came out that made model building more realistic such as turn signal clear colors, Bare Metal Foil, pre-wired distributors, etc. I remember back in the '70s that I bought a small Testor's jar of Candy Apple Red metallic paint, and testing it on white cardboard to see how it would look. (Remembering that spray cans were a little out of my allowance budget back then.) The results were not good, so the jar went into my "paint locker" which was an old steel case from a rifle cleaning kit my father gave me. Some time later, I saw that the metallic particles had settled to the bottom, leaving the transluscent red paint on top. Bingo! Taillight red! That was one of my first discoveries of using paint in a way it wasn't designed. I then bought a jar of the equivalent green, and used it for painting tinted windshield bands (not as successfully). Fun stuff. Looking forward to more of your old builds. Maybe a "Nostalgia Build" topic should be added to the forum. What do you think, folks?

Looking at the third photo in your first post, the two police cars on the right are Oldsmobiles (not sure what exactly what year... pretty sure they're '63s) and could be Johan. The Ford Thunderbird police car on the left is likely the Monogram '58 Thunderbird. One of the side view shots of the red TBird convertible with the blue interior shows a slight misalignment of the door, which would be right as the Monogram model had operating doors. It looks like they added side windows of their own design. I'm having fun following this as I grew up watching Supercar, Thunderbirds, and Captain Scarlet. Thanks for the memories!

Nice job! For grilles, etc., I use Citadel black wash. Citadel paints were designed for fantasy figures, but come in a lot of neat colors. The advantage is that they are totally water based acrylics. The black wash is essentially India Ink, which will work as well. The reason I use it is that most model acrylics or enamels are solvent based (isopropyl alcohol, etc.) and can remove the clear finish applied to the chrome parts. That can cause the chrome finish to dull over time. Sometimes I have to apply the wash a couple of times before all the recesses are covered, but one main advantage is that if you don't like the results, you can wash it off in water before it dries completely. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the comments! The Li'l Coffin, Merc, and '55 Chev were built in the '72-73 era, the '57 was a little later (75-76) as I found out that it was released as a Low Rider issue around that time. The Mercury was July of '73 for sure. The reason I remember it was nearly taking the tip of my finger off with the Exacto knife. I was building on our front porch and dripped blood all through the house into the bathroom, lol! My mother was not too pleased with either the mess or bandaging me up, and since my finger was wrapped up, it was a few weeks until I could build again. That Christmas, my folks got me a nice full Exacto set with the standard and large plastic handled blade holders, along with the razor saw blade for the large one. I still have (and use) it! I think I'm going to fix what needs fixing on them, and leave them as they are. After I took the photos, I reassembled the '55, and all it needs is the front bumper. I may still have it; there's a couple of boxes it may be in. If not, I've had a couple of offers from folks on the board to send me one. (Thanks, guys...will let you know.) The only one I'll have to change a bit is the '57 by putting some different wheels on it. What amazes me is that Li'l Coffin survived nearly intact, considering how fragile it is. The only parts that have to be reglued is the right front king pin retainer on the axle, and the left side exhaust. In other boxes, I found a bunch of old Renwall 1/48 cars, a slew of Bandai 1/48 military vehicles, and a box of 1/72 aircraft. The planes didn't fair too well, most have broken landing gear, and nearly all the biplane upper wings are off. I'll post some pics of the 1/48 stuff soon.