62rebel

follow along with me, everybody; "it's only plastic...." and looking like a fantastic vision even now.

i was thinking you could kill two issues at once by shortening the front fenders the amount needed to bring the hood front in line, and that would take some of the "schnozz" out of the front end. close up the rear part of the front fender wheelwell a smidge. there's a conflicting line in the windshield posts leading into the header bar; maybe you could sweep them back a little at the bottom to follow the curve of the roof more... shoot; i wish i had one of these to play with now.... this is an interesting project you have going!

sprue is an excellent source of styrene stock especially since it will match the kit material without question. smooth down one side until flat, glue it on, let it cure (give it time to really cure up solid) and shape it. the tighter the fit between the sprue pieces and the body, the less filler you'll have to use later on. don't rely on tube glue to fill gaps, it will shrink; liquid cement (solvent) is the best stuff for this.

that might be the issue, right there; i try to stick ALL the body parts together for painting so there's less chance of mismatched panels. painter's tape, anything temporary just to keep them in proper relation while painting.

i've used nitrile gloves to hold a body from the inside when painting, especially one that has lots of undercut to it, to make sure i get coverage... i found a rubbermaid lazy susan turntable at W-world a and made a more stable base for it, so i can turn the subject being painted without getting my fingers in overspray.

i imagine the continuity editor suffering a mental breakdown trying to make sure the kit build (if, indeed, it is a plot device) follows the instructions at least by stages, if not step by step, considering how scenes are filmed and refilmed.... there's a movie (i can't recall the name) that follows the main character restoring a car as a major plot device. i bet there was a full team of continuity editors at work.... was it Mr Destiny that starred Jim Belushi as a baseball player who had a chance to live his dream life, and his "real" life hobby was building model cars?

e-e-excllent.... Smithers; steal that model.

ever read a book called "Death Traps"? written by a US Army Ordnance Colonel about his experiences working a tank recovery and repair unit during the period between D-Day and V-E day.... excellent book with lots of descriptive narrative and some informative photos for reference. Not USMC Shermans but good reading nonetheless.

i dunno, Harry; that was a symptom of the decline in kit quality in the late '70's.... take out the text and take away the coolness of named accessory parts...... but i don't know why we'd need six languages for kits sold HERE.....

i'm so stunned by the improvement you've done on the kit contents... dudes; don't dismiss ANY kit with generic or low detail anymore; this is the tutorial on how you FIX that stuff.

i go through blades like they go through skin.....

i saw a few moments of one episode, maybe the same one, i don't know, but at least they showed a red tube of Testor's glue!

personally i despise the current trend in retro because, in my view, if the original design worked, why change it? and the exaggerated wedge styling of... well, EVERYTHING these days just reminds me that Triumph once had a wedge car.... then again, i'm a convinced dyed in the wool Luddite for the most part. computers notwithstanding....

i've been mulling this over, and i also think it could be done by shaping the fins out of laminated sheet styrene until you're happy with the shape, then cutting the corner out of the rear quarter and fixing them in place. this will reduce the amount of stress induced by continued handling of a body shell with large areas cut out of it. always work DOWN when adding body parts; it's tough to add back material if you file/sand away too much. make your filler piece larger than necessary and work it down to final shape/size once fixed in place. i might add to keep the use of superglue confined to the BACK of the piece/body; cured CA is much harder to shape than styrene and you'll find you're removing much more plastic than glue when shaping. refer to the scratchbuilt Tatra thread if you have trouble seeing how it's done.

the most expensive engine in that era..... for good reason!

it's coming along nicely and looks convincing enough.... but those flared wheelarches mean that those mudguards would have been fiberglas, not steel... no rust. crusty gelcoat, maybe, even crazed and cracked 'glass.... but it looks great as you've done it.

if it is the '87 then it hasn't been fixed. although, at that time maybe the mold hadn't deteriorated as bad as when they were saying they WOULD fix it. anyway, it's the header bar over the windshield, mostly, and sink marks elsewhere. the plastic was so thin along the windshield trim edge that it couldn't stand any sanding or cement. from your pics, i'd say you don't have that issue... BTW... i'd love for Revell to re-release the sponsor decal sheet they used to provide in this kit, with the stars as well.

i was thinking that, too, Harry... i wonder how many of this run will end up collecting dust sealed in the plastic?

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.... LOL! i'll buy another Hudson to do, Flock car or not. when that Chrysler hits the shelves.... at LEAST two. i hope Moebius has some serious R&D going on; two killer kits better not be all we see!

i added fins to put Chrysler taillights on one of my AMT '49 Merc's; it was a matter of cutting away the fender you don't need and filling the hole with styrene stock and filing/sanding it to shape. it can be done with patience and good reference material. i have tried to do the same thing by using filler, but that's too much area to fill with it without it shrinking and cracking. i've done the same thing to change the rear quarter shape and fin on the AMT '56 Ford. when you add the styrene to the hole, try to establish "witness marks" so when you're shaping the stuff you don't take away too much.

well; color me wrong yet again.... i tried to cement some of this stuff to some styrene and apparently it's some unidentifiable polymer that won't react to MEK or CA glue...... you'd have to mechanically connect this junk to whatever to make it work. anyways; in my search for round plastic i hit the coin tubes in the LHS.... they're made of styrene and cement easily using tube glue, MEK, or CA, and can be cut with normal scribing method or razor saw, and they sand easily. the only drawback to them is that they're only a couple of inches long each. if you need longer tubes i suppose Evergreen is the only source.

did Revell ever address the body issues on this kit as they promised? i've built a few of them and that windshield opening is a sore point. same issue existed on their '54 Chevy kit as well.

wouldn't it be great if there were laws in place to stop noise pollution... oh... there are. just zero enforcement. in states with mandatory vehicle inspections, they can force you to remove "unauthorized lighting and PA speakers".... but, then there'd be the civil liberty guys sounding off. you can't enforce good manners or good sense.

and, if i can add something missed in the replies to the original question: no, the Chrysler Hemi doesn't use individual coils for each spark plug as is done in many modern cars. those are rubber boots to seal the openings, and simply extend down to the plug through tubes. i suppose, though, that some manufacturer probably does make a system like that today, just not as a stock item. many engines share the hemispherical combustion chamber design, but only Chrysler owns the right to the name "Hemi" for it, or at least they did for a very long time.

that's a wonderful depiction and looks completely accurate... and you said the one reason i stopped being interested in dirt track and Nascar racing; that they stopped resembling in any way the actual car. that is exactly the style of car i would have seen at Natural Bridge in the mid-'80's..... well; too clean, perhaps!