traditional

This modified Moebius plastic kit is somewhat unusual for me because, now-a-days, I prefer building using predominantly metal model bodies and details….more time consuming to modify than plastic, but generally resulting in a much more durable finished product. My other hobby of collecting high quality diecast models over the last 25 years has, unfortunately, made me unsatisfied building most curbside plastic kits because I now expect to be able to open hinged engine hoods, trunk-lids, doors, and even fuel -filler doors, etc. I’m surprised that, after six decades or more, plastic kit manufacturers, for the most part, still expect models to be displayed with the hood off to see the engine detail. I really love the styling of ’61 Pontiacs, but since there were no metal versions available in 1/25 scale, I decided to use one of Moebius’ attractive plastic kits as starting material and attempt to add all the usual detail to which I’ve become accustomed. The Mobius kit is really nicely molded although, like most high detail plastic kits, it has a few fixable minor issues…..poorly fitting windshield and back-light, thick bolt flange detail on the otherwise gorgeous Pontiac 8-lug wheels, as well as a slightly awkward front fender opening as well as bulky front bumper side and depth detail). I also found that the ‘wide-trak’ was a bit over emphasized compared to 1/1 reference. Test fitting should be done during assembly of any model car, but this Pontiac model has an interference fit to most tabs and slots making drilling or trimming especially necessary to allow painted parts to fit. I also found that I had to trim back the leading edge of the engine hood so it wouldn’t protrude when closed. Cutting open the doors and trunk lid is relatively easy on plastic kits compared to metal, but the down-side is that the body becomes quite flimsy as the molded-on structure is cut away. I found it necessary to epoxy on a stiff brass wire frame to beef up the inside of the a-pillars and rear posts, helping to keep the body relatively straight. Armed with lots of photo reference, I also cut down the bottom edge of the front bumper, and shortened its side detail at the same time as softening the radius on the front of the fender opening. The molded-on fuel door was easily cut out and a hinged filler-door was formed in soldered brass to keep it looking relatively thin while maintaining integrity. Using styrene sheet, I fabricated the inner trunk detail depicting a slightly wrinkled vinyl floor mat as well as forming the typical complex underside structure of the trunk lid. To the chassis, I added parking brake detail, rear axle brake-line, aluminum tubing tail-pipe, poseable steering, and fabricated wire coil springs to raise the ride height according to most reference of high performance 1/1 Venturas. I also found a way to hinge the engine hood while retaining Mobius’ simulated Pontiac hood hinges at the sides. Hinge structures for the opening hood, trunk and doors were formed using stiff piano wire mated to styrene and aluminum receptacles, and the main ‘Ventura’ side-trim was formed in thin stainless wire terminating in tiny holes drilled into the body. The main paint is automotive two-part basecoat/clearcoat with Humbrol , Tamiya, and Testors used to pick out many small details. I also added Model Car Garage photo-etch for some of the nameplates, etc.

I’ve just completed this little deep purple hot rod pickup using , with only a couple of minor exceptions, stuff languishing in my parts bin….things in desperate need of rescue. The only exceptions were the photoetch grille, gage cluster, teardrop tail-lights, and license plate frame from a Model Car Garage Deuce PE detail set. The Model A pickup body was mostly complete but many of its accessories were either broken or missing so it was a prime candidate for being modified into a traditional hot rod. Like most traditional hot rodders, I much prefer the look of the Deuce (‘32 Ford) grill shell over any of the various Model A Ford grille shells and, fortunately, I have copious incomplete Revell deuce kits bought as parts suppliers mostly for their chrome reverse wheels and Covico style steering wheels, so I was able to use the grille shell as well as the simulated rubber running board detail from one of those. Because of the different top contour of the Deuce shell compared to the Model A version, I fabricated a new engine hood top in sheet brass to accommodate the Deuce shell with the Model A cowl. The motor is modified from a ‘parts-bin ’57 Chevy 283 mated to an automatic transmission and the rear axle is one from a late 50s Chev pickup, complete with semi-elliptic leaf springs. I chose to shorten the Model A pickup box a scale 5 inches (a typical hot-rodder’s trick), the interior is typical custom roll-n-pleat (seat formed from Renshape with the addition of model railroad styrene building-siding to simulate the pleated upholstery), and a bed-mounted, handmade, polished aluminum fuel tank replaces the original (dangerous) Model A cowl gravity tank. The covered fender mounted spare wheel/tire is lathe-turned from Renshape, and the custom dual exhaust system is formed from polished aluminum tubing. The wheels are chrome reverse from Pegasus with ‘mystery’ tires from my parts bin. The project has taken approximately one month, starting in December 2018, and finishing in early January 2019. The main paint is custom mixed deep pearl purple automotive basecoat/clearcoat.

Hi Peter, Quality over quantity! You always do beautiful work and this Jag is fabulous. Gorgeous photography as well. Congratulations

Although most of my model building happens in the Fall/ Winter/Spring seasons, I even managed to find time during our Ottawa 2018 summer heat wave to build a couple of refrigerated straight trucks. I wish you all a great Xmas season and a Happy/Healthy New Year. Cheers! 1/25 '33 Ford Sedan Delivery hot rod 1/24 '55 Ford Custom 1/24 '57 Canadian Pontiac stock six-cylinder sedan delivery 1/32 Aoshima Hino Ranger 4E reefer 1/32 Aoshima Fuso FU Reefer 1/20 Honda garden tiller

Although these are quite tiny resin models, NEO has done an admirable job of proportion, detail, and finish. I love '50s era integrated sleepercabs so the 921B was an absolute 'must have'. Since NEO does not offer era appropriate highway trailers for their models, I wound up modifying some old '50s era Aurora kit trailers (I've collected many old glue-bombs of those trailers so that I'd never have to use one of their cool original kits). I added the air and electrical tractor-to-trailer connections as my only modifications to the two NEO tractors. The Diamond T 921B/ van represents a 30 foot reefer trailer that would be an interurban transport depicting a maximum length rig that could load and deliver in downtown settings. The 921 with highway tanker represents a 36 foot tanker that wouldn't be required to deliver in congested urban settings. The green trailer is an original Aurora tanker trailer that I built and painted (from another glue-bomb' around 30 years ago). It looked too short to represent a highway trailer, so I modified one to look more appropriate.

I received a note from Joe Zrodlowski in Brooklin N.Y. that Freeman Supply co. offered a sample kit of various modeling materials, including RenShape: https://www.freemansupply.com/products/machinable-media-sample-kit Fortunately for me, when I retired from my Industrial design job a few years ago, I was able to keep a bunch of RenShape offcuts from previous design projects, giving me a 'lifetime supply' of chunks of the stuff, suitable for my model car needs. I would suggest getting in touch with some design model shops in your area to see if you can purchase some of their offcuts. They may even be happy to give the small chunks away. The denser versions of RenShape are more suitable for model car use since its paintable without getting air bubbles.

Actually (luckily), the basic motor, representing the Chevy 235" six, comes in the West Coast Choppers low-rider toy. Some of the accessories are a bit crude but the block as well as the intake and exhaust manifolds aren't bad at all. The Pontiac 261" motor was based on the Chevy six with mainly internal differences so, with some green paint and a bit of detailing, it looks accurate in the Pontiac. The low-rider toy has the motor painted orange which in a stock Chevy should be a blue color (it was called a 'Blue Flame Six') and in the Pontiacs, the motor would be green from the factory. The motors were physically interchangeable (externally), so if you see a restoration with the wrong color motor, it usually means the car has had a rebuilt replacement at some point.

A year ago, one of my previous projects was a ’57 Chevy sedan delivery using a cheap low-rider toy car as the starting material. The toy had lots of proportion issues but the station wagon structure was remarkably accurate. That model had turned out well and, during my research of the real vehicle’s details, I also came across lots of info on the rarer Pontiac version of the ’57 sedan deliveries. All of Pontiac’s sedan delivery production in ’57, as well as a few previous years, had been built on Pontiac’s Canadian assembly line in Oshawa , Ontario and, as with other Canadian Pontiacs at the time, were built on a Chevrolet platform….shorter wheelbase, Chevy based motors, chassis, and some upholstery trim. The sedan deliveries were commercial vehicles based on the Pontiac Pathfinder entry level station wagon series, but since Pontiacs were considered a slightly more premium vehicle line than the Chevies, even the basic sedan delivery used the regular bench seat instead of the Chevy’s utility bucket seats and also used a deluxe steering wheel from the Chevy line. The six cylinder motor for Canadian ’57 Pontiacs (the American versions came only with V8s) had 261 cu. inches with 148 advertised horsepower. This motor was based on Chevy’s 235cu. in. six, but not available on the Chevy passenger line. Like the Chevy sedan deliveries, most current Pontiac SD restorations now sport lots of deluxe trim and V8 power, but the original vehicles were intended as work horses and the vast majority of them left the factory with six cylinder motors. The production versions all left the assembly line with the basic Pathfinder trim, upholstery, and rubber floor mats. There were only 857 Pontiacs Sedan Deliveries manufactured in 1957 and, with those low numbers, the Pontiac sedan delivery model lasted only one more year before production ceased. I enjoy building 1/25 or 1/24 stock vehicles that aren’t otherwise available as toys or mainstream kits and I’d begun to accumulate the starting material I’d require for the Pontiac SD model months in advance. Another West Coast Choppers toy low-rider ’57 Chevy wagon was bought cheaply on Ebay , missing the engine hood trim (fortunately, I wouldn’t need any of the Chevy trim), and a Unique Replicas Chevy Nomad coin bank toy would supply the firewall, steering wheel, and basic chassis starting material. I already had a damaged Franklin Mint ‘57 Pontiac Bonneville parts car that would supply the much needed Pontiac grille, bumpers, and lights. Most of these various parts would require a good deal of modification to be suitable as the Canadian Pontiac but heck, if it was too easy, I probably wouldn’t have been interested in the project. One of my lucky breaks was finding that the ’69 Revell COPO Nova small hubcaps could be relatively easily modified to represent the basic ’57 Pathfinder hubcaps. I used Renshape (a resin based modeling material) to fabricate the wagon style fuel tank, low profile oil bath air filter, and the folding bench seat. Side trim was formed from stainless jewelry wire, and most of the interior was fabricated using styrene sheet. Other fabricated detail included an opening fuel filler door, and chassis parking brake detail. The body paint is automotive basecoat/clearcoat to approximate the available Pontiac Pathfinder Malabar Yellow.

Here's a pic of the 1/24 De Havilland Beaver float plane ....a promo from Canadian Mist liquor. It's simple but well proportioned

A few of mine from over the years

Although Jay Leno thought it looked like a Ford Y-Block, they later revised that to say it was likely based on a Chrysler Imperial motor and transmission. Some reports even describe the motor as like a small-block Chevy, but I don't believe it's any of those as the exhaust and spark-plug area looks more like the Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Pontiac, Packard, Hudson, Studebaker motors of the era, but unlike any of those, the engine compartment shows a forward mounted distributer. It certainly looks American in shape though. China had close ties to Russia at the time and the Russian ZILs were copying the Packards for a lot of their early lineage so perhaps they got the drivetrain from Russia. Interestingly, the display engine on the stand includes a rear mounted distributer.....perhaps a production running change.

If you'd still like to buy a 'Danbury Mint quality' diecast automobile in 1/24 scale, check out Century Dragon's recently released up-quality diecast Red Flag CA770 Chinese limosine, also known as a HongQi. This is an elegantly styled vehicle originally introduced in 1958. Some of you may remember around 20 years ago, Kader Industries offered a version of this vehicle but it was quite expensive (significantly more than FM or DM 1/24 cars then) and although it was well done for that time, this recent Century Dragon version is so much more advanced and detailed and also, surprisingly, much less expensive. The suggested price is listed at US$99, but many vendors have it at less than that. I paid $90 plus EMS speedy shipping The model comes mounted on a finished woodgrain base with a plaque specifying the limited number. The seats are finished in a suede like finish and the two extra jump seats fold down in the passenger area. The trunk mounted spare accurately depicts the rear of an unmounted wheel and there's also a simulated set of trunk mounted batteries. The black paint on the body is absolutely smooth and glossy with plated trim showing no sprues or burrs. Their website shows a plethera of other limosines and Chinese vehicles in a variety of scales including a few in 1/24 to go along with this. I took these pics on the same afternoon that the model arrived at my door

Years ago, I managed to modify one from a damaged Franklin Mint '33 Ford police car.

Born south of Montreal (Quebec), then off to college in Halifax (Nova Scotia), then to Toronto (Ontario), and finally, in 1974, to the Ottawa (Ontario) area.

This kit was manufacturered over 20 years ago and I believe it was probably one of Trumpeter's first attempts at a car kit....the 1/24 scale Chinese Red Flag CA770 limosine, also known as a Hong QI. The kit was fairly rough and not particularly accurate proportionally but it was a fun challenge. The box art is one of the worst illustrations I've seen on a kit and it almost kept me from chancing it. I do kind of like the finished product though andI'm glad I took up the Challenge. Paint is automotive basecoat/clearcoat

i bought through HOBBY SEARCH JAPAN It's listed at 3781 Yen which is evidently around US$34. I don't know what the shipping cost is to Europe or the US, but it says 'small packet' https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=112&cat=&state=&sold=0&sortid=0&searchkey=honda+f90+tiller

I had no idea where this should go, forum-wize, so here it is. Its a tiny model (1/20 scale) but exceptionally well molded and only seems available from Japan at this time. It's not expected to be painted but looks a bit plasticy as such. I painted everything so it'd look more realistic and also painted the model of the Japanese girl using the tiller (I dont usually add figures to my models). I used Alclad over gloss black for the simulated plated parts, and automotive basecoat/clearcoat for the rest. It was all a fairly quick and enjoyable build.

My twin brother and I began recollecting old kits in the '70s and we gradually amassed hundreds of original Revell, Monogram, AMT, Johan as well as non-mainstream car and truck kits, from the early '50s up until the mid '60s. We never stuck with any particular scale, just any vehicle kits that struck our fancy. Unfortunately, most of them became too rare to build, so they'll just remain in their boxes. There are plenty of repopped or modern kits to build now-a-days and besides, we're more into scratchbuilding and using metals in our model building these days.

The'IDEAL' Lincoln Premiere is 1/25 or so, and the 'IDEAL' Continental is about 1/20.

A few of my older, quite rare unbuilt kits....The rarest would be the Aerocar kit. Two rare ones that I have built are the IDEAL '56 Lincoln convertible and the Continental MkII

Hi Bob, it's nice to hear from you. I know you've scratchbuilt some cool buses over the years that I've seen at the Group 25 shows. I've only built two of Aoshima's buses....a city bus and a tourist AeroQueen. For some reason the Aoshima kits are the only kits that I enjoy building 'box-stock except for paint. Attached are a couple of pics of my completed Aoshima buses. I'm also including one of the Arii 1/32 School-bus style buses that I built as a resort shuttle bus years ago. I hope to see you in September at the Toronto show.

I always like models that have seldom been done before and I pre-ordered this one a month or so ago. It just arrived in the mail and I'm pleased with the quality. It came with a reference magazine that I unfortunately cannot read since it's all in Russian.

We've been having a bit of a heat-wave here in eastern Canada and to escape the extreme heatand humidity, I've spent the last three weeks working in my basement shop on an Aoshima Fuso 'Super Great' FU reefer in 1/32 scale. The original kit is quite amazing in that the level of detail is beyond any previous Aoshima kits that I've built and include working door hinges and closing latches, etc. The box art describes a vehicle with quite a bit of chrome body detail which I personally found a bit 'over the top', but internet searches also showed many of the real vehicles with painted surfaces and black trim. I chose to go the painted route with even the simulated stainless tanks and accessories toned down from the absolute bright chrome look. Other than the toned down, painted look, the build is mostly 'box-stock.