mr moto

Beautiful job. That's a handsome beast from a different time.

That's a superb piece of work! It's hard to believe it's your first time opening doors. Those would be a challenge even for the very best - I think you belong up in that category. Great job!

I've never done this before - put up an annual recap, that is. Don't know why but all the cool kids are doin' it so why not. It looks like I got five done this year and here they are in no particular order. AMT '32 Ford Phaeton: 1934 Ford pickup: Aurora Maserati 3500 GTi: 1963 Plymouth Melrose Missile III: And last but not least, my '57 T-Bird tribute to Mexican wrestler "Blue Demon": I hope you enjoy my five and happy building to everyone in 2021!

The other boat kit offered by Round2 that comes from Lindberg tooling (and actually, Lindberg got it from Palmer) is the 1959 Century Coronado. It's not a very good kit but I picked one up not long ago and it seems it could made into something pretty good without too much extra work. The Coronado was a really flashy 50's style heavily chromed "dream boat" that was billed as the "Cadillac of boats". It's amazing they didn't sink from the weight of all that chrome. It was designed by mid-century modernist designer Richard Arbib. He was a really interesting guy. Probably worth your time to look him up. BTW, the kit comes with a poorly detailed V8 engine that looks something like a Chrysler hemi except that it only has six spark plugs! Most of the real boats actually were powered by Chrysler Firepower hemi marine conversions so there are lots of sources for a more correct replacement piece. Round2 has also released the AMT 3 in 1 boat kit that was first issued in 1959. Don't know if that's anything that you might be interested in but you could check it out and see. They're readily available.

Truly excellent build. It may even inspire me to build the one I've had hanging around for years. Never imagined it could turn out like that. Great job!

Wow! You sure took that ancient kit to the next level. Great work.

That's a great story, Tom, and a great looking build. A Johan 62 Lark was also the first model I built when I returned to the hobby and I painted it white but with a blue interior. I'm a lifelong Stude enthusiast and also built the first release of that kit back in 1962. It got painted red that time.

I'm very glad your 1963 vintage build has survived! That's true old style model customizing and I love it. Looks like a great candidate for a restoration.

Here's my contribution. It's a Vicky that was heavily cross-pollinated with an Ala Kart. I'm planning to build another Vicky soon with a more conventional street rod look. The great looking models in this thread has already been a source of inspiration for that future build so show us some more!

It's doll house carpet. See my earlier response up above for a little more info.l

Revell had the Jag roof that you're looking for in their old XKE roadster kit - at least In some releases. There's a very slim chance you might find the Cobra roof from Revell's mid 60's slot car body.

Try googling Scale Equipment Limited. Their line isn't quite as extensive as it once was but they have a lot of that kind of equipment and good quality and service.

Doh! How could I forget the Hudson?

AMT's ancient customizing speedboat kit has a Chris Craft marine conversion of a Hercules six. It's poorly detailed but might be worth saving. The only other flathead six I can think of is in the 1941 Plymouth kit.

Here's what I do. I don't know if this reflects how other people do it but it works for me. I've never seen a tutorial or known anyone else who does this. Here are a couple of "masters" used to make the molds. It's just Evergreen half round strips glued on to sheet styrene. You can choose the size strips and the overall size to suit: The molds are made of Alumilite silicone that can be bought at Hob Lob. It's the same that you would use for resin casting molds. The molds are very flexible. You should use a mold release compound on the master when you make the mold but you won't need to use any mold release when you pour the acrylic paint. I've had good results with both of these brands of paint and really bad results with one other brand: The DecoArt is inexpensive and Anita's is dirt cheap! I put plenty of paint in the mold stopping just short of actually overflowing - it shrinks a lot as it dries. It takes a long time to fully dry because it's so deep - usually about 2 days. I've never tried to use heat to dry it and I would be very careful with that because I've had it crack like an old river bed as it dries. That's the bad result I mentioned. You can have a problem with tiny air bubbles in the final product. To prevent that I pour it into the mold slowly and then slowly move a 1/4" wide very soft paintbrush through it to get bubbles to release from the mold surface. Then I wait a couple of days! Here's some of the end result from a recent project. Very flexible and easy to cut to shape. Then apply to a model using white glue, tacky glue or almost any other glue without strong solvents in it:

Thanks, Dave! I wasn't aware of Scale Survivors. Very cool site

Thanks, Spex! I'm glad you're enjoying it and I'll look forward to seeing your finished truck.

I'm pretty happy with www.scalehobbyist.com . Their prices and service are great. The recommendation to get foil directly from Bare Metal is also great advice.

Wow! That is beautiful. The engine looks real in the photos and the interior is totally stylish. Everything is perfect.

I actually built that kit back in the 60's when it was new. Yours is far, FAR better than mine was. Great job!

Thanks, Claude! The frame and engine block were painted with Duplicolor Metalcast over the companion silver base. I already had them from a previous project.

Thank you, everyone! I really appreciate your appreciation! This build was very purposely intended to have a period look and it's great that it was noticed and is still enjoyed. This is one of my "Tomkats" builds - you might have noticed the club plaque. The idea is to build some of the early Trophy Series kits in a style that was around at the time the kit was first issued. By early Trophy Series I mean the kits that were first released between 1959, when the series started, and about 1963 or 64. That includes most of the classic hot rods that you might have found in a car club back in the day and that's how the Tomkats were born. Here's a sort of bonus photo. It's an under construction shot that shows some of the stuff that gets hidden on the finished model. The tuck and roll seat is intended to resemble the work of Eddie Martinez (no relation). His name is probably not familiar to everybody but he did the upholstery on the Ala Kart, Outlaw, Beatnik Bandit and many, many more famous and not so famous hot rods.

Hi Everybody! Here's my latest Trophy Series adventure. This time it's a '34 Ford pickup from the recent Round 2 release. The original idea was to build it close to the custom on the box art. It didn't get TOO far away from that but it gradually evolved in kind of an Ala Kart direction. The top has been chopped a little (the box art truck definitely has a chopped top also) and the bed's been shortened a lot. Headlights are resin copies of the Roth Outlaw items and the taillights are cobbled up from rear view mirrors. The tailgate was scratch built to go with the restyle and the tuck and roll is made from poured acrylic craft paint. Speed equipment from the '50 Ford convert kit was adapted to fit the '34 flathead. The paint is Duplicolor white pearl (a Toyota color). The side mount spare comes from AMT's old '57 T-Bird full custom kit - it was one of the "Barris customizing tips" on the truck's retro style instruction sheet and I just happened to have the part so I did it! Hope you enjoy looking at it!

You did a fabulous job on that! It looks beautiful and the color choice is excellent for that car. I built the coupe equivalent a few years ago so I know all about the fit issues that you faced. Those kits can be quite a challenge.

That's the best treatment of that kit that I've ever seen. Great job!