62rebel

i'm beginning to believe that our Hobbytown just doesn't want to keep car kits in stock. there's stacks of RC helicopters and planes by the checkout, one end cap of "new release" kits.... buying online is getting to be the only real choice i have if i want something specific other than paint.

so... where are all the Revell Deuce kits? out of production already? last spring i couldn't help tripping over AMT reissues of the flipnose '53, the '72 Chevelle, the Old Pro Nova...... now, RC2/AMT kits are scarce as hens teeth at the LHS..... been there every week since Thanksgiving, sometimes twice a week and there is literally nothing new on their shelves..... unless its Radio Controlled.

no, there are backing plates but the instructions call them out as intended for the rear axle; odd, considering that the rear axle is still on the chrome tree and the backing plates are not.... which, in a convoluted way, tells me that they may as well be used on the front. the omission of the finish panel for the back seat aggravates me... duplicating that rear deck pattern on a piece of styrene isn't going to be easy. i'm tossing in the performance parts from the '55 sedan that i didn't use on the gasser.... and the better set of wheels as well. the front seat confuses me, since in the sedan AMT seemed to put in at least SOME effort to make it look presentable. as a STOCK kit, it doesn't disappoint me that much. but, knowing what USED to come in the box, it ticks me off just a hair.

i used to own a '69 Coronet and have been trying to duplicate it for years.... well; the '70 front end looks nothing like it, and the rear is different as well, but i had a jones for a Dodge and bought this one... the body is clean, straight and looks correct to my eye; almost certainly pulled from an annual mold... the hood has what appear to be witness marks from where the engineers polished that mold, but i don't see any difficulty in polishing them out IF that's even needed. the interior bucket, dash, and front seats from the MPC mold are there, typical of '60's technology but not at all objectionable with some work. the best part of this issue is that RC2 chose to use the excellent '68 Roadrunner chassis/floorpan for the rest of the kit... with two engines; one a 440 sixpack and the other a 426 Hemi, with two different intakes, two sets of header/manifolds, and FOUR different shifters... RC2 gives definite directions for trimming the front chassis plate and the windshield to fit the MPC body; kudos for that as well. don't be put off buying this kit by the semi-cartoonish box art, also typical of the era; it's a great looking addition to any Mopar shelf.

no pics needed. it's the same '55 Nomad that's been there; well; except for the back of the rear seat. and ALL of the performance/custom parts. well; except for the drag front crossmember; it's still there. none of the "El Camino" conversion parts are there; the rest of the tube front axle is gone; not even a second set of wheels or tires. this might be the only '55 Nomad in circulation at the time, and as such, if you want a showroom stock one, you're in luck. the rest of the parts are actually pretty cleanly molded except for the chrome wheels; they have some flash issues that will pose trouble when cutting them off the sprue. no wonder that RC2 didn't bother printing the box contents on the bottom of the box.

i have a quick-n-dirty "street driven" weathering method: on the chassis plate, i give a quick coat of whatever color primer is appropriate, or satin black, depending, then a dust coat of flat light tan or brown, so it looks overall "dusty"; then a fog coat of the primer or satin black again, to break up the "solid" dust coat of tan. if it's a truck or other "open" chassis, turn it right side up and give it another light dust coat of a lighter tan color, to look like settled sandy dust. it doesn't take much of this step at all to look convincing. once these coats have dried, drybrush some rust, flat silver, steel, etc... on wear areas and edges. Cranky's tips are excellent as well as many others. there's no really "wrong" way, except to overdo it....

i generally paint the body early on, as i often have a specific car i'm trying to emulate, such as my Ron Dunn tribute '49 Ford.... which needed some extensive bodywork before i could do more than prime it. painting the body early on also helps give it time to gas out... i'm an impatient builder and need to be "doing something" with a build.... which is why i often have several going on at the same time! in contrast, i have the AMT '55 chevy that i've been slowly turning into a gasser; this time i needed to work on almost all of the kit in stages to get a flip front end and straight axle, with the rear seat deleted, the rear axle narrowed and the springs moved inboard. fabricating the firewall, correcting the interior, and smoothing the floorpan all needed to be done so as to leave the body free to paint at the end! so, it depends greatly on what the kit is like, what your preference is, and how any modifications have to be worked in, whether to paint first or not. i couldn't paint the body until i worked out the flip front, the firewall, and the radius on the rear wheelwells, all affected by every modification i was making to the chassis.

reviving a treasured name and putting it on the latest box-o-dung is just slightly better than putting a prom dress on a pig and calling it the queen.

"Where's the REST of your car, toots?"

just to be contrary... i say model. no, really; did the actual car look that "perfect" in person? most actual race cars look kind of "off" in person..... they're supposed to go fast and make corners, not sit still and look pretty!

it's a mother-beautiful bridge, Moriarty; and it's gonna be there. have some faith, baby! in other words.... how about some positive waves? how many OTHER kits have been released that are out of scale and or proportion; have simplistic molding and low parts counts? NOW i need one of the Taxi AND the Routemaster..... lessee; my birthday is in April....

the '50 convertible has a pan without a license plate reveal in it, if you can't score the correct piece quickly...

every time i've bought that kit, that pan was in it somewhere, it might have come free of the sprue and gotten misplaced. i can't say what Cadillac they INTEND the engine to represent, but i'd hazard a guess its a 390, or could be made to resemble one with some work.

wow.... i'm not getting into the fray one way or the other, but that is excellent work. a quick kick in the shins was definitely in order, if you ask me.

Chrysler distributors on B/RB's are angled.... not to pick nits, but you went to the trouble of replacing it and wiring it... looks great, btw.

i thought i'd ask this as a great many very detailed and unquestionably fragile models are produced by our members.... mine aren't finely detailed, sometimes i don't put mirrors or antennas or plates, etc etc on them.... but, when you guys are showing them to 6-8 year olds, are you panic stricken that something might get broken? i make it clear that they're not toys, they can't stand up to being played with, but i'm okay with them handling them, as long as i'm right there to help open hoods, etc..... reason behind this is, that modern kids are starved for tactile sensation in their play. sure, they can sit and rack up over 9,000 points (if you catch that, shame on you) on a video game, but all they're getting is early onset carpal tunnel.... and brain damage. if i can risk letting a 7year old examine some of my favorite builds, and explain to him what i've done to them and how i did it, then i'm getting yet another kid interested in something other than planting his butt in front of a video game and hopefully creating another modeler.... (BTW.... some of my builds are old promos and up to being played with any time!)

cool car, Nick. nicely done!

it wasn't hard to find the image you used once you knew the car..... Google is making this game too easy! the trouble with Brit/Euro cars is that they seldom follow model YEARS, but do follow SERIES.

warts and all! nice build! were you stuck with one-piece wheels, which is why there's wheel covers? most sanctioned events would have made the driver take them off as a safety hazard. cool looking model, whatever the reason.

C-cabs were the shiznit in the late '70's, just before vans took over. i didn't realize this one could be built as a "normal" rod as opposed to the "fire truck".... just might have to get into them finally.

to correctly portray a Crestliner you need to use two coupe kits or a coupe and a convertible, as the CL was built on the longer roofed two door sedan body (shorter tulip panel on trunk). the CL also has a unique steering wheel unlike the stock '49. several issues of the '49 had a decal included that mimicked a CL, and could be used to fabricate the sweep trim you need. doing a '50 would be fairly easy; doing a '51 requires more specialized trim. they're striking looking cars and no shoebox collection is complete without one... having said that... i need to start whittling...

hey! Dave is using an AMT '55 Chevy chassis to explain exactly what we're saying... i'm looking at that exact kit right now...

paint; careful painting. different colors and finishes for various parts. some areas can be undercut and provide a 3-plus D visual representation, on most kits with a platform chassis. long before there were decent donor kits, i did an AMT '64 Mercury chassis that way, cutting away "extra" plastic and painting areas i didn't want "seen" in dead flat black.

that was the version i built a while back.... wish i'd saved the extra parts then! ah, well; it's off to the parts depository!

nice work.... great subject!