Scale-Master

Great job Steve! I hadn't noticed the spears were not the same color on each side. You really captured the personality of that car.

Thanks José! The dash on the AMT kit is closer to being accurate than the one in the ’76 MPC kit, so I will use it. The first step was to drill out the holes for the gauges and thin out the bezels around the gauges.

Last Ride

Yeah, and I still need to get the biggest iron out. It's good to stay busy...

Is that Kaiser or is it a Frasier (not as up on those cars as more modern and mainstream stuff) from Johnny Dark?

I never had the head gasket and major overheating problems so many others did, but it still ran hot and occasionally puked in the summer when I took it inland. I always kept a few two liter jugs of water in the well. Ken Hart (khart) generously gave me some Minilite wheels from a Revell Corvette to work with. I cast a resin copy and machined it from a 15 inch five lug into a 13 inch four lug Western Superlite master. I gave the wheel a sand cast texture and added machined lugs/washers and the center cap.

The Porsche is from Le Mans.

This will be a replica of a friends car circa 1969-1970. He bought it new in 68 after the 69s hit the showroom floor, but he wanted to put a set of Halibrand 8.5 x 15 wheels and tires on it that would not fit under a 69 without jacking it up. So he opted for a Le Mans Blue 68 with a 327 and a 4 speed that was on the lot. As he tells the story, it was driven directly from the dealer to his buddies shop where it immediately got a wheel & tire swap. I started with the new Revell 67 Camaro. I made a copy of a 68 grille from an AMT kit that was loaned to me. I still have some work to fit the outer edges of the grille to the body better.

Those tail lights look really nice, and I concur with Bruce about the decals. To be factory correct the centers of the inboard lights should be white, they are the back up lights.

Another model of one of my real cars, in this case my first car. I started with the body from an older AMT funny car kit.

I'm glad you answered this one. I was intrigued. Nicely played.

Again, I appreciate the heads up on this Jim. I'll check out the glass fit while I play with the interior. I just threw one together slammer style recently and the glass fit fine, without an interior... For the driver’s seat I cast a copy of a somewhat similar style seat from a Tamiya kit (maybe from a Skyline?) to make into the Flo-Fit I have. I reshaped the bolsters and made the center cushions out of sheet styrene. I had to shave the cushion areas of the cast seat down before adding them. The reshaped headrest was mounted on a couple steel pins.

Thanks Art. The foam is steak packaging. It comes in a few colors and for some reason the black and gray are not as common at the stores we shop at.

The floor panels have been installed. A little more dirt has been added to show it is not a trailer queen…

I took some advice from a friend and made the finger screws look more like the cheap plastic type to better fit the style of the car.

I missed that Carl already got the Cujo Pinto until after I posted.

Thank you for the tips on the fit Jim. Right now I can get the "guts" into the body without a fight, but I don't have the engine and trans in the mix yet either. I was planning to install the front subframe/suspension/engine/trans to the unibody after the interior had been installed.

The front seats in the ’70 kit are not the same style as in a ‘73. I used a seat from an old built up MPC ’76 Camaro in my collection as a base to convert into the passenger seat in my car. I will make resin copies so I can restore the interior of the donor car. I’ll add the velour texture after casting. The back seat is also different, but I used the ’70 piece and modified it into a ’73 pattern. Ready for the velour, after I make the rear speakers for the package shelf…

Thanks! My real car has been done for over ten years, I'm not going to do anything but drive and maintain it now. I have the early short rear spoiler on mine.

Foil could work, but it was (as mentioned) not a super bright chrome. But in scale foil would look good. I'd suggest foiling them before painting, then wiping the paint off the foil, it has a raised edge that should make it relatively easy. I machined the outers on these (from the same kit you have) but I didn't copy the Camaro style beauty ring.

Air cleaner. The base and finger screws are aluminum and the element is foam. Bottom: Top: Installed:

After I cemented the rear panel in I scribed the weld seams in. I also scribed the rear edge of the trunk lid but did that section deeper as it appears on the real car.

Good start. But if you really want to capture the personality of the car, the wheels should be a gray color (see photo of white car in first post) with a chrome beauty ring. Factory paint was Ditzler code DDL32961, I use Tamiya TS-42 Light Gunmetal to replicate it on my models.

There are issues all over the model that don't match the real cars, and I don't intend to fix them all. Sometimes when you fix one spot, it makes another more obviously off.

The Nova and El Camino are from The Mexican. The'57 Chevy is from Losin' It.