62rebel

i noticed those suburbanite mud-n-snow tires too.... i have four stashed waiting for that perfect build, since whoever is doing the AMT/MPC tires hasn't seen fit to repop them since the Cooter's Tow Truck. "snow tires" used to be an annual thing when i was a kid; Dad had 'em put on right after Halloween and they stayed until April.

in the spirit of the season and as a measure of cultural diversity, this one begs for a cagane.....

Attention, Terry Jessee.... check your rear view mirror; Nick is gaining on you.....

i do the same thing, Terry; get sidetracked by finding that "hey look at these" parts that would go perfectly on a ... whatever. which is why i keep finding three quarter done kits in my stash.

sweet... definitely the look that AMT was trying to perfect with their '32 series, opposed to trying to be 100pt stockers. i just might consider building some strip terrors again, seeing this one.

i've been using the Testor's windshield cement for this; but most of the time the chassis is a pretty snug fit as is. even when i've cemented the joint with Testor's red tube, i can still get it disassembled fairly easily if need be. i'm leery of using a hot glue gun around styrene, personally... and i have used Elmer's Carpenter's glue for installing glass and subassemblies together. i got away from epoxy because it, like CA, is unforgiving of misaligned parts.

nah, it'll never stick. bwuhahahahahaha

Car Modeler ran a cartoon once showing a guy being hauled off to the looney bin, as one of the paramedics explains to the other, "he tried to bare metal foil a '58 Impala!" great job, Nick, it's really going to be a nice one.

i've been trying to come up with a method of safely cutting a vinyl tire while keeping the cut line straight, but haven't been able to get any better than being real darn careful and using a brand new single edge razor or no11 blade. i did find that you can use 120grit on a flat surface to dress the cut side flat.... doing that also helps hide the seam, but i usually use a slow setting ca gel glue so i can get the tire tread lined up before it "locks". i widen AMT Firestone Supremes for '60's fullsize cars, and the skinny Firestone ribbed tires for trucks. my "trick", if it qualifies as such, is to keep a hold on the blade as close to the cutting edge as possible just in case i slip, so even IF i cut myself it's only a slight one. and go slllooowwwlllyyy.... it's not a race!

you should have a look at the forum on oldclassiccars.co.uk that specializes in "caravans".... they have a load of reference material there, albeit for British style and european caravans.

i know exactly what you mean.... everything is wildly exaggerated or caricaturized.... maybe to avoid royalties.....

did it occur to anyone else that this car doesn't look ODD anymore? the passenger door was made 4" longer to ease entry and exit; the driver door was left shorter because it would be opening into traffic and would be just that more likely to be hit. Pacer was one of the most well-thought out designs AMC put to metal as far as being stable, safe, and comfortable to drive and ride in. it just looked too strange at the time.

Hess did a Vogue motorhome in the late '70's or early '80's that looks pretty accurate but, like everything they do, in some odd "near scale".... which, btw, would be the perfect base vehicle for the Urban Assault Vehicle from Stripes!

those are great ideas as well! what i've decided is, that much like any other mechanical assembly, an engine can be broken down into planes and angles.... so, starting off with what must be one of the simplest basic engine blocks (the Offy Four) and adding details to it isn't all that difficult once you understand that scale fidelity is trumped by visual appearance. when i was building model railroad stuff in the '70's, the big thing was detailing with found items and re-purposing others. i'm going to do a straight six for my Falcon next....

the whole model shelf from the Drug Fair store circa summer 1974. that's not asking too much.

Dale's Winnie from the Walking Dead! or... "Don't fall in love with it, Clark; it's leaving with us next month!"

only seldom does the fact that i'm frustrated with the MODEL itself lead to a meltdown..... not to say i haven't thrashed a few over the past thirty odd years. i'm a diagnosed passive-aggressive and that in itself means i have a smoldering fuse for a temper.... but i've learned that i can recognize the signs that i need to chillaxe and breathe deep and let it GO. or... have a heart attack. that's my choice of options, the doctor says.

i just might do an AMT '29 roadster with it.... or track down one of the double T kits.... which will have a better period frame and running gear to use. i was checking over my ancient Monogram Kurtis roadster and the poor pitiful engine IT has ought to be replaced....

as i've been rummaging through my near-builts and parts boxes, i came across the engine and transaxle from what i think was an AMT Gurney Eagle or something similar.... anyways; it was a turbo Offy four cylinder DOHC.... and i didn't want to cut it apart, so i thunk a bit about what it broke down into; a series of rectangular shapes topped by two horizontal cylinders to make cam covers. i transferred dimensions from the builtup engine to sheet styrene and fudged my way through using only eight kit sourced parts; one injector bank from an AMT '53 Ford F-100 optional hemi with four stacks, and the custom grille from the new AMT '62 Catalina sliced in two to form the cooling fins on the block sides... the trans came from the parts box with a bellhousing made from a modified air filter. it'll take one more kit part, an exhaust header for installation in a car... but until i figure out WHAT car to put it in, that will have to wait. it's by no means perfect; i have no bolt head detail or wires and plugs or cooling piping... but, then again, it only took a couple of hours to make. i'll try to add a pic of the little monster when i get some more batteries for the camera.

sorry to hear that, stu... took a moment to realize that you're in London and getting US kits there is a hassle. i've been sorting through my past builds of '49's and find that few meet my expectations, so they'll meet with the rebuilder soon.....

i stick to 1/24-1/25 mainly because i jut can't leave the kit alone.... i usually end up substituting parts to get what i want the end product to look like, and while those two scales can often look acceptable with swapped parts, i have nothing to use for 1/35 parts. add to that the remarkable difference between 1/35 and 1/32 and swapping between them is difficult. having said all that, if i could buy a kit in 1/35 that does not exist in "car" scale, i would use it as a template for scratchbuilding one. BTW... i have a hard enough time working in "car" scale.... that 1/35 stuff is getting harder to see!

have i built one..... how about probably three dozen in various forms? it's a great kit IMHO and if you plan your work out and have good reference material you can do nearly anything with one. i have one, packed away, that i hinged the trunk, doors, and hood on; corrected the interior panels and added the trunk/interior division panel on. to do this i had to build it as a unit body, so finishing it has to be done as in a 1:1 car, through the doors! i have a few tips/warnings about the way the kit is engineered; the rear springs are very thin and if you do a lot of heavy bodywork, you need to add reinforcement between the axle housing and the chassis. luckily, you can do this AND add a period detail simultaneously. cut two 1/4" dia pieces of sprue to fit in that space and sand them into a smooth cylinder; glue them in, paint them black, and voila, two Air-Ride helper springs! if you're building stock, raid your parts box for better flathead parts, preferably a three blade fan, maybe even the engine block from an AMT '49 Merc. again, if building stock, there are no positive locating points for the trunk handle or the fuel filler cap. the best way to mount the trunk handle is to scribe a VERY light line straight across between the center of the tail lights. it's not perfection, but it's close. the chassis on this kit is very close in accuracy despite the age of the mold, but the front suspension is pretty basic if you've ever seen the real car up close. since the original kit was designed for metal axles, the front "springs" are presented as simple posts on the lower control arm plate, and could be sawn off and replaced with parts box items. the kit also has possibly the best fitting set of dual exhausts ever molded; careful cleanup with sandpaper and file make them look fantastic. if nothing else grabs your imagination, watch Thunder Road and get a look at how the real thing looked in action.

don't see why not.... carve them out of clear styrene; paint the surface and put a light fiber into the end... Q.E.D...... was this the same basic kit that Revell used for the "Elegant Beetle" custom Rolls nose version?

in that scale there's no reason for not installing working lights. it BEGS for details and deserves them.

odd that in my recent spate of budget-induced kit rebuilding, i found my old Revell XKE and it's held up fairly well for nearly twenty years.... well; it lost a wheel, darn it, so i scrounged through my stash for a set of Rudge knockoffs and made up a set of racing shoes for it. yeah; it's a dated tool; i think from 1962, so it is definitely showing it's age. patience and a good reference book and it can provide a missing link for your sports car shelf.