Tom Geiger

I have the resin door handles that Chief Joseph make. They are really nice, I'd say better than kit parts. They do make Alclad in a spray can, and that's how I do mine. Since you are building a worn and weathered car, the shine on these doesn't need to be perfect, so probably any shiny chrome like spray would be fine. Ken Kitchen of Kitchen Table Resins makes the proper air cleaner for the Chevy six in this car. The six in the 1960 pickup was mentioned and is the right engine for this job. If it doesn't fit, sometimes flipping the oil pan around will solve the issue. Don't use the engines out of anything older than 1955 since the top end, namely the valve cover bolt pattern is wrong. The chrome side trim on the kit body you are working with is Impala and wrong for a Bel Air. The other problem is that the trim is indented into the body which isn't on the 1:1 car. The easiest way to fix this is to soak the chrome off the kit supplied trim, then glue them in place. Then sand it all down as if the trim was molded on the body. That's how I did this car below. , Also, watch the car on your movie, and see if the chrome strips were removed (holes) or pulled off, which would leave clips. I made the clips out of Evergreen strip. Not 100% right but the correct look. Also, the big issue with these cars was the clips always rusted before the car and rust would leak down onto the body below the chrome. The rust on the clips would transfer to the body so there is usually rust behind the chrome, which would be visible once it's gone. I used to own a 1960 Buick, which is essentially the same body as the Chevy. I used my car to reference the rust patterns and trim clips, etc onto my model. In this photo you can see the types of chrome clips, and how they rusted. For more reference on how many clips etc, keep checking sources like eBay Motors, but aside from looking for cars, look for body parts like doors, fenders and quarter panels. Those off a Bel Air would show you the holes, mounts etc that you need to see. Good luck. This is a cool project

THi This mud was done with Polly S weathering paint oddly called "Mud". The tires were done by literally driving them through a puddle of this paint. That left the sidewall detail totally random and got in all the tread. This was a box art model and I was asked to do some mud weathering but not to over do it. So the same mud was used on the chassis and sides. The splash patterns coming from the wheel wells was done similar to Sam's technique, only I used an old toothbrush. I literally flicked the paint (fairly close) by running my finger across the brush bristles. The key is to do this and walk away. It's so tempting to try to touch it up etc, which will only ruin it. I also wanted to point out something. Note the difference in mud color between Sam's Jeep and the 1:1 Nissan pickup. That's called regional dirt color. Think about where your model is supposed to be from... whether you get that East Coast light brown, dark rich soil or the red dirt of the west.

In fact one of the tests to make sure resin is clean enough for paint is to put some masking tape on it to see if it sticks.

Does your kid have a set of water colors? I use water color blue for coolant (first I paint the reservoir flat white, and mist another coat over the water color blue) and green for coolant.

Won't get any flack from me. Your second sentence says it all. If a subject isn't available in plastic, and it is right in front of you in diecast, build on! You've made it a model. And when you think about it, it's pretty much gone full circle. Auto modeling's roots are taking apart promotional models to build models!

Cool John! Hope you can make it, looking forward to seeing you!

Philadelphia area about 11 degrees with wind chill at -11. At least we ducked another predicted blizzard, got maybe 2", not enough to fire up the snow blower.

Here's my 1973 Barracuda, back in the day. I had this and my 1965 Barracuda at the same time so there were literally skid marks in the street, when guys suddenly saw the two of them sitting side by side in the driveway! Anyway, I am planning on using the Revell 1970 Barracuda to build a nice replica of my old car. The thing that kept me from doing it was that the MPC body had enormous door handles! As you can see, my car had the body side molding which ran from the top of the side lights, front to back. And per MPC, that ran right through the door handle. So it's good to hear someone is planning on a conversion kit for these years. Ah, procrastination is my friend once again. Now if someone could find me these wheel covers, my life would be complete!

There is another thread about attracting the next generation to the hobby. Revell is being very proactive with this series of kits. They are giving these away as promos at auto shows, as well as sponsoring Make and Takes across the country with these kits. Kudos to them and I'm happy to see that your actual field test was a success!

Best I ever did was when my older daughter was a Girl Scout. Each family had to provide a craft meeting for the troop. My wife didn't know what to do, so I suggested we build snap kits. It actually went very well. We caravaned a couple of mini vans full of girls to the Jersey Shore Model Car Club meeting and the members worked with the girls to get the cars together. Everyone finished and took their cars home. My daughter's friends talked about it for years, so it was a success. But I did that as a parent of a troop member, so it wasn't the scouts trusting an outside entity.

There's a 2005 Caddy DeVille with 27,000 miles on it at a local GM dealer... I'm trying not to buy it.

The Rusty Corvette was a model that was long on my Bucket List. I finally built it for the MidAtlantic NNL's Corvette theme a few years ago. Built in about 2 weeks, I've had a lot of fun with it. I love to put it on a show table and watch from a distance. It gets some interesting looks! And every so often I run into someone who thinks I didn't know Corvettes were fiberglass... and for them, the license plate says it all....

It was built as a joke to make people look twice! Gotcha!

I agree that any of the Rusteoleum red primer rust jobs just look like paint. I use chalks for most of my work. You can buy an earthtone set for around $5. You sand the chalk sticks to get dust, but most folks just dust it onto models for a minimal effect, and it will wear off with handling. I actually paint and texture mine using a two brush method with Testors Dullcote.

Those front wheel drive Eldorados were very popular in the demolition derbys, because no matter how bad you crunched up the rear, you didn't have to worry about breaking a drive shaft or the rear wheels hanging up.

Both Revell and AMT were working on a 1953 Studebaker. When Revell found out, they abandoned the project.

I understand your concern! This is how far a buddy o mine got on his string of Ferraris!

was it fiberglass or metal?

I haven't seen Alaskan Bush People yet. I wasn't into the commercials for the series. I do watching people live lives very different from my own. I watch Yukon Men and think life in places like Tanana, Alaska is interesting. I cannot fathom going out to check my trap lines in -40 degree weather, and camping out there! The other show that's interesting is Alaska: The Last Frontier with the Kilcher family. Funny thing is that when I just went to look them up to get the series name, it seems that Atz is worth $5 million, while Otto is worth $4 million. Probably the value of all that land. Still it's mildly amusing to watch them skin a bear. The big one I can't figure out. Alaska State Troopers... why the heck are these guys driving Crown Vics on snow and ice? I'd think the standard vehicle would be a 4 wheel drive.

The voices in my head taunt me until I build the model! Modeling stimuli is all around us. I get ideas from vehicles I see in person, magazine and internet photos and even from models done by others, although I try not to build things that have been done to death. I'll see a photo of a tired old truck and think, "Can I do that?" and I'm off to try that. And I've been building a cars / trucks I remember in my past. You know how when you pick up a model, you always think about one car you once knew. Well, I've been committing those to plastic lately. I built my sister in law's lime green Chevette and a friend's circa 1978 Dodge A100 van recently.

It had to be at least 10 years ago, I spotted a Fiat motor home on the highway on my way home from work one evening. I later saw it parked in a supermarket parking lot so I got to talk with them. It was a family from Italy spending 6 months in the USA. Takes a lot of guts to ship your Fiat motor home to a foreign country and depend on it for six months, without a spare part in the entire country!

Okay, I'm in. 1980 Volare from my collection of glue mangled junkers to be combined with a 300C Hemi. I've already gawked the two chassis, and surprised that the Chrysler 300 is a much larger car than the Volare. Don't expect progress anytime soon. I've got a lot going on that should take me through May!

Mike, where would one find U-POL Clear? Is it found in craft stores like Michael's or Hobby Lobby.... or home center like Lowes or Home Depot.... or auto parts stores? That'll save some gas and roaming! Thanks!

I build for myself these days, and that's not an excuse to slouch off on quality or execution. It means that I don't stop until all aspects of the build are right in my mind. I'll start out with a vision in my head of what I hope to achieve. I get excited as this vision starts to take shape in 3D in front of me on my work bench. I may have initially planned on doing some aspect of the kit as simple, but I always reserve the right to change my mind as the build progresses. Each step, and eventually the entire model is only done when it has my personal seal of approval. Those models where I have over stepped my ability, or lost the vision or interest during the journey, get boxed up and put in my unfinished project collection that sits on the shelves up over my work bench. I put them there so they are in plain sight and won't get forgotten. Sometimes these give me new inspiration years later and get finished.