62rebel

Yep; "glue bomb" brings to mind something I might have built (??) as a child.... very disparaging remark IMHO when it's used to refer to actually fairly well done jobs from the "old days".... "built ups" is a more accurate term for those requiring simple disassembly, cleaning and painting, sometimes minor repairs or searches for missing parts. I reserve "glue bomb" for those that literally ARE such... every part from the kit (and then some) glued on with what seems to be an entire tube of glue per kit. Back to the original question; they're kits. Never intended to sit indefinitely, in the box, as some kind of vestal virgin... BUILD, REBUILD, and BUILD AGAIN if need be. Some of my friends who were builders took a few photographs of their completed (and fairly well done) kits and, over time, cannibalized them or rebuilt them time and time again. They had the pictures of the freshly completed, clean, unbroken and unmolested kits, they figured; the kits themselves were fair game since none of us were that well off to be able to afford new kits very often..... trading back and forth was common as well; most of my best work was undoing radically raised suspensions and "restoration" to somewhat more credible configurations of wild imaginations run rampant!

Most of my builds never get final gluing because they might have to endure another round of changes like that! A better set of wheels and tires often pops up after I've "finished" a kit

well... it's definitely an improvement so far! Doesn't look as bad as all that after all. it COULD have been hacked about any number of ways.

excellent representation! Motivates me to dig up my '65 Rambler American promo and kick it up a notch

It really depends on the situation. I've got a Lindberg/AMT 61 Chevy that looked strange unpainted and took on a more "solid metal" appearance with the inside painted black. The objective being to stop light passing through the plastic at all.

I'll brush liquid cement over the area and sand it again after the surface dries. same principle as tenax or hot primer. sometimes I'll need to skim coat a little filler over the area as well, then brush THAT with liquid cement and sand after it dries. many many ways to defur felines.

I have noticed that bodies painted white (or, sometimes, LEFT in the white) often seem translucent when photographed. I usually paint the inside of a white body in black, or prime it a dark color. Yellow cars seem to have the same issue. They "glow" in flash. Then again, some kits get the inside painted black regardless of the exterior color due to too much underside being visible.

Tire compounds react badly to some glues, and cyanoacrylate fogs chrome (and everything around it sometimes) too much; if I HAVE to glue them I use carpenter's glue, it's thick as molasses and dries quickly enough. I have two kits that have two piece tires, both from the dark days of the mid-to-late 70's and I left them in the kit out of nostalgia. Any others get relegated to the "weird old junk" box.

I've built two of those "Sportsman" styling study cars, one is a coupe like the factory did and the other is a convertible, since the regular Sportsman was a ragtop. The ONLY picture I had to work from was one in Collectible Automobile and IT was split down the middle.... out come the dividers and the calculator! Believe me, the trim is very narrow and is a bear to duplicate. I tried carefully slicing the existing side trim away and saving it to put on top of the middle strip: THAT was even worse but turned out okay; I only did it once, on the convertible. I have never used these Crestline decals on anything since the actual Crestline was a sedan, not a coupe. I saw one circa 1995 in a local junkyard (not even what I'd respectfully call a recycler's yard, just a JUNK yard) and got to look it over... I wish I'd had the presence of mind to buy the steering wheel off it....

those horrible directional rims are good for one thing: trim away the center section and use them for backs on chrome wheels that don't come with chrome backs. I lost count of how many times I've trimmed directional rims and similar style wheels that way. shame the chrome tree wasn't restored to it's "FULL" glory.... I have used that custom interior in other kits, it's not altogether "BAD", just out of sync with the '57. Good to see the bassett hound still makes it into the kit....

Looks like the chrome tree is still reduced to the last edition. Oh, well, can't have everything. I probably will still buy a couple. I built the new Revell version and it just isn't the same.

Did they toss the lame eighties/nineties "recaro" seats and restore the original diamond pleated quad buckets? How about the parts that USED to be chromed and were moved into a plain sprue? I'd like to build one like the first one I did around 1975 or so... full of chrome... and, by the way, were they able to restore the ability to actually USE those Vee taiilight lenses? Hoping.......

Farewell and Godspeed, Harry.

Fabulous work

this is actually a pretty nice kit, as you've shown us. out of the box, it's a good shelf-sitter, detailed like you're doing, it's a showpiece.

anything's possible, however unlikely in the near future simply due to the cost... that said, however, is echoed in what was being said about the printers only a couple of years ago. Resolution will be the key, just as it is in the printers. It will take some serious resolution to be able to scale UP an existing kit.

I've spent a lot of time going through the "Dave's Show Rods" website checking out the crop of kits from the heyday of show rods; it's a pretty good history of the era. He also has a subsection of "interpretations" built by fans, many of which are definite improvements over the original (and a few which are... well, NOT.) I was surprised to see just how many kits were available in the "show car" classification, and by the number of which are "hidden" inside otherwise "normal" kits.... many of the custom parts in AMT Trophy series kits are based on parts used in popular customs on the show circuit of the day. Dig deep, read OLD instruction sheets and "little pages" rod magazines... the raw material is out there.

whoa... Palmer didn't mess kits up as bad as that. I'm willing to give it room for age warpage... but those bodysides are abominable... looks like you actually HAVE to section it three or four scale inches to get it into proportion

That's pretty convincing

Decided to shoot some silver onto the interior of the body and backside of the chassis plate; interesting effect. Since I bought this kit pretty cheap (Ollie's deal) I'm going to go ahead and build it with the dual blowers, etc; all the showy stuff, just to have one done in that style and in this outrageous color. The plain white one will eventually get built box stock. Odd note; for a model that uses metal axles, R2 only supplies ONE, expecting the builder to use plastic stub axles or the gasser suspension. No matter; got plenty of spare axle rods.

Look in other kits that have separate door handles, they're easy enough to modify to resemble the 50 units. As a matter of fact, the MPC 57 Corvette has two sets, one plated and one plain. They would probably look close enough.

Don't overlook the difference between the two year's door handles. 49's are pull type and 50's are push button. For a few years, AMT provided a set of "Crestline" side panel decals in this kit, although that car was never a business or club coupe, always a two door sedan, and always had a vinyl top. They never included the unique Crestline steering wheel, either. Talk about setting the sights a little high... I love this pair of kits, and right now have two of each in the wings.

Excellent!

Be aware that the process of sanding is best approached early on with a "less is more" attitude. It is very easy to remove too much detail or introduce unwanted contours and difficult to remove sanding marks. Primer can often be suitably smoothed by rubbing down with paper towels. The main trick to painting is to let the paint cure properly. Many good jobs are spoiled by rushing them.

Awesome build. Love these kits.