mr moto

That is excellent work and the most amazing thing is that there actually was a GAZ promo. I never suspected!

Another superb build! I wish Round2 would use the AMT Chrysler 300C tooling to create a De Soto.

Beautiful work as always! As far as the high stance, you are absolutely correct. That's how they looked. Many sports cars of that time were simply "jacked up" by the manufacturers as the easiest way to meet new federal bumper height regs. More sophisticated solutions were left for later re-designs. As I recall, MG's a really bad case of it.

The box art may be BAD but it looks like a Rembrandt compared to kit that was inside!

I call that many levels above "decent". That's beautiful work and I'm looking forward to seeing more in the future!

Beautiful build! You make it look a whole world better than the box art does. Of course, I was really hoping to see the soap box racer.

That's a great build and a great idea that had never occurred to me. Even though we started from totally different sources your statements about the problems of box art building exactly mirror my own experience. I was totally surprised by how many changes were needed to build the box art from what was in the box! Beautiful job!

That's a great looking build! However, as something of a wooden boat geek, I am required to add this bit of trivia: The Robt. E. Lee, the Robert E. Lee, and the R.E. Lee are three separate and different vessels. So it's not correct to say that you've built the Robert E. Lee!

Most early styling prototypes use different styling treatments on each side so that they can be easily compared while keeping the costs own. Sometimes they're even done as a two door on one side and as a four door on the other.

Actually, I agree with you, Sam. There are a number of little issues that I have with it but, hey, it displays pretty good!

That is a really fabulous build for 1959 and it still looks good today!

No illusion there! The car actually had a cutaway panel!

I totally agree! Nothing against wire wheels but those wires on that car just don't look right. Now that's a very sharp and much improved model.

Nice, nice!

The Hydro Hawk is a combination of the AMT 1959 vintage speedboat kit and a Jimmy Flintstone '51 Stude resin body. It helps that I know a little bit about boatbuilding and was able to plank up the transition from one to the other pretty much like you might do in 1:1.

Thanks, everybody, and I'll try to answer the questions without actually quoting them. First, I plan to hang on to the up top for possible future use. The taillights are the customizing parts from a '53 Studebaker kit just laid down horizontally. And as Spex84 said, the rear passengers would use the steps and grab handles to just climb right in. It's kind of a rumble seat arrangement.

Based on the recent Round 2 release '50 Ford convertible. It was conceived as a tow vehicle for the "Hydro Hawk" boat that I built a while back. Engine is the stock flathead with the 2 carb manifold from the kit.

I just picked up a Surf Woody at Hobby Lobby for $7.50. I had no interest at all in the actual car and bought it because it's such a treasure chest of parts like the tube chassis, Paxton superchargers, and some very cool double stripe white wall tires. Definitely pick one up if you see it on clearance.

The Berkeley kits are an interesting bit of history but they had carved balsa bodies and that wasn't unique. It was really the "state of the art" before molded plastic came along. On the AMT '58 Edsel box, note that while the other kits are identified as "Ford Fairlane", "Pontiac Bonneville", etc. the Edsel just says Edsel and the kit itself doesn't have a model name script on the front fender. 1958 was Edsel's first year in existence and I'll bet that the kits were tooled up before FoMoCo marketing settled on all the model names. It appears to be a Pacer, I think.

I just found a picture of the instruction sheet from the original issue on the net. It identifies the boat as a Charger 183. The box says that the model is 10 1/2 inches long. If all that is correct, the scale calculates out to just a little shy of 1:21. Box scale? Nothing that I can find on the original issue says anything about a scale.

READ THE LABEL. It seems that most paints have been reformulated lately (probably due to VOC regs) and the old rules just don't apply anymore. Most paints nowadays will say to recoat within the first hour or after so many days and that will vary by brand. I've seen some that say after 7 days. So if you can't finish the job in an hour wait for as long as the label says.

I took these pictures at La Carrera Panamericana in central Mexico in 2013.

Ditto on that! Excellent diorama, Ellen.

Duplicolor makes Hot Rod Primer. I use it all the time and it seems to be a perfect match for the old Pactra product (I still have a bottle).

Great looking work! You might inspire me to tackle the Revell 1/32 Continental Mark II that's been staring at me for a few years.