DaveM

I am starting to sand and glue too. I won't be able to get much painting done this weekend, but I might be able to duck out and shoot a coat of primer to get things started. So far, so good. The kit seems pretty nice. Too bad the nailhead missed the mark. Seems like every kit these days has some throw away parts. I'll have to try my cylinder head chopping idea someday, but for now, I'll just swap out to a better motor. The chassis looks nice, and the fit is pretty smooth so far. It's still a pretty big step up for Revell from the last couple of years. It's quite buildable, and it will look pretty good to the rat rod crowd. With a new motor and a body swap, it will look pretty decent to the regular street rod folks. Hopefully Revell gets it all together on the next release and knocks it out of the park. This is more of a stand up double than a home run, but it's still a pretty decent kit. It should build up well out of the box, and the only real miss is the motor. The body matches some of the rat rods that are out there, and that is the market for this kit. I will get it posted on the Workbench forum within the next day or two. (As soon as I can get the camera fired up) I'll see all of you over on the workbench! Back to building.

Looking at the pics, the spacing between the outer ports is pretty close to the others, but the middle part of the head seems to be extended a bit. The whole head is a mm or two longer, causing the too large gap between the two pairs of ports. That might be tougher to fix. I was hoping that we could just tweak the headers a bit to correct the gap and cover the slight tweak with the flanges, kind of like a catcher "Framing" a ball so that the umpire calls it a strike. Luckily, I didn't put much emphasis on the nailhead when I bought the kit. I might take a very fine razor saw and make a pair of cuts in the heads. Then I can glue the pieces back together, just like a chop. I think just removing the kerfs would be enough to tighten the spacing back up. Since many of these engines will be getting jammed into things Revell never intended for them, most of my headers will be scratchbuilt anyways. Hopefully a couple of very fine cuts won't end up messing with the head to block fit too much. Right now, I am trying to locate a single carb manifold that will fit this motor, so I can use a Cadillac air cleaner on it. That will fit the build I have in my head to a "T". Is it just me, or do the patina decals have blue in the print? If so, then they will only work on one color of paint? It might just be my monitor. They seem to have a blue section in the middle of the rusty bits. I think I would have more fun doing my own weathering. I am going to take a shot with the kit body on one of my builds, just to do a "Mostly out of the box" build. I was most eager to try the '32 rails and the highboy setup, but I figure that one will benefit the most from a properly proportioned body. The bigger wheel cutouts would most likely be done in real life on a "Z"ed frame, lowboy setup. I am thinking of just using the nailhead on the "A" frame with some Modelhaus steel wheels with the chrome spider, and a '53 Caddy air cleaner. (If I can dig out an appropriate manifold) I would keep things clean and simple with minimal chrome and gingerbread. I was originally thinking of gloss black paint, but I might go with a very dark blue or a maroon instead. I am even thinking of doing a painted grille shell, or swapping in a chopped '32 shell to carry the paint color further along the car. (Warning to anybody who has never followed one of my builds before, These plans will change a few times as the model comes together. I am constantly trying different parts as I go, tweaking the combination until I get it the way I want it.) I hope to get started on the build this weekend. I cant get much building in, as I have a full time caretaking situation, but I plan to get started on the plastic bits. I probably won't be able to paint anything until I get some respite. I really want to have some fun with this build.

Just got my hands on one. The parts all look pretty nicely done. The exhausts don't look too far off, although the header design seems to exaggerate the look. . I don't have a real block to measure, so I will leave that up to you guys. The motor and parts sure look nice. I can see some wicked nailheads appearing in several builds. It shouldn't be too hard to scratch out a transverse leaf for the back. The kit looks like a gold mine for rod parts. I will probably build the '32 frame on mine, as I have always liked that combination. This is going to be a "Sweep the bench" project, as all of my other partial builds have been set aside for a week or two. I have my '29 kit, a huge box of Modelhaus wheels and tires, a couple of other hot rod kits for swiping of various parts, an AMT '29 for comparison and possible body surgery and a bunch of partial and mocked up engines that will be tried out. I can't wait to see how this one goes together. I will be working at it for the next few days. If they still have one left tomorrow, I might pick up a second one. The only thing I need to make my life complete is a stack of decent bodies to use on these things. I might dump a Revell '31 Sedan body on one of these, just to see how it would work. Hopefully resin casters will come to the rescue with some fixed bodies for these. As for now, I think I can cut up an AMT body and mate it to this one and make the corrections. I usually build a kit fairly straight from the box for the first time, but i think this kit needs to be bashed up to be its best. Can anybody say 409! I'll have to see what engine looks the best and run with it! If you really raid the parts box, you could get a good portion of a second build. Combine the unused frame with a scratched transverse leaf spring and a parts box rear end. Get an aftermarket dropped or drilled front axle and scratch out a few parts from wire or thin rods. Toss that aftermarket body on it. Grab a parts pack motor, or parts box motor... Add in a spare grille shell (or use one of MCG's chopped '32 setups) We all have tons of wheels and tires lying around. It's not the easiest or cheapest way to build two models from one kit, but it might be the coolest.

Awesome to see this kit come back. I also have the Model King version. It's an old school tool, but it has a decent body, and with a little attention to detail, it builds into a nice looking car. I had one on the shelf for the longest time. It was a quick build, with most of the focus being on the paint and foil. It stayed on the front row of the middle shelf for years because it just looked cool. I ended up giving it to somebody who had owned a real one. It is a fun kit, and a bit of nostalgia. It would be a riot to see that box art and decal set, though. Honestly, it looks like a cat threw up after eating the NBC Peacock! But that's how we rolled in those wacky Seventies. (If you think the decals are garish, you should have seen the hairstyles!)

I am wondering how well the AMT '29 body will work with this kit. Adapting the AMT body would be easier than fixing the wheel openings for traditional builds. The interor would need to be cut free from the wheel opening inserts, and a bit of scratchbuilding would have to be done to fit the windshield and cowl together. The floor would take some work too. If the AMT body can be made to fit this kit fairly easily, it will open up a whole new set of possibilities. I am hoping that the engine mounts and holes will be easily worked around too. The neat thing abut "A" roadsters is that I've seen just about every V-8 from automotive history stuffed into one, and they all seem to be at home. We had a local one that had a 421 Pontiac tri power, and a sedan that had a 455 Buick. I have seen them with Caddys, Olds Rockets (The one from the '50 Custom version would look really nice in the '32 frame rails) I even saw one with an AMC 390 in it, and it really moved out! Engines that I think would look the part in one of these include AMT or Revell's '62 409, An early hemi (From AMT's '57 300c, or elsewhere) the supercharged motor from the Fireball Robets '57 Ford (Or the Del Rio) The 327 from the '66 Nova with some old time parts, or a cobbled together injection setup, The same motor from the Pro Street version would work in a more modern build. The Hemi from Revell's Willys kits would be great in a competition oriented version of the car. There are several flatties out there that would go nicely in this kit. The motor from the 1957 Black Widow would make a nice motor if you aren't so opposed to vintage Chevy motors in Fords. (They were the hot ticket in the early years, before they became the cheap and easy mass produced crate motor of the masses.) Most of the parts pack motors would be happy sitting in a nice Model A. I am curious about the exhaust port spacing too. It looks a bit off, but then I see some real cars where it looks off, too. Hopefully, it can be adjusted a bit by scratchbuilding some flanges and slightly bending the headers. (Pinned of course) Hopefully any boo boos on the block itself are small enough to hide behind a creatively proportioned exhaust header flange. I will wait and see the measurements before I make any final judgement. If you are going the vintage, or traditional route, there are a lot of neat parts here to work with. The nailhead can be swapped into almost any pre war rod and be cool. The wheels and tires look great, the headlights will make their way into many projects. I am looking forward to seeing what shows up in the "Under Glass" section in the next few weeks.

I have a dumb question... I don't have my '76 Gremlin kits handy, but isn't the '76 stripe the same as the '75 stripe with the horizontal part extended to the rear of the car? If I carefully trimmed the extra part off of the '76 decal, wouldn't I basically have a '75 hockey stick stripe? I ask this because the '76 came with two or three colors of stripes IIRC. Since I ave a '76 and two '75s, I could probably end up striping them all. The more disturbing question is, "Why do I have 3 Gremlin kits?"...

Looking back at the e-mails, my order was confirmed May 10, and it shipped July 21, so it was about 10 weeks give or take. (Totally worth the wait.) I will be putting in another order later this Fall to get everything I will ever need or want for the rest of my life. (Don't let Cathie see the magnitude of either of these, or I will have to buy her a large number of shoes!) I ordered some small parts (Taillights, Air cleaners and a few small things) tons of wheels and tires two conversion sets ('68 Olds and '68 Chevelle) and one kit. ('61 Starliner) It was all excellent. My next order will be larger, and will include a couple of car and truck kits. Their stuff is all top notch and very well cast. The plated parts are well done too.

That's it! We're taking this "Bomber" themed rod trend too far...

I agree with Old Car Manual as a great source, but the brochures weren't always perfect. They were usually produced ahead of a model year run, so some color options that were available on the real car weren't in the brochure. Occasionally, a color or interior option would be drawn in a brochure that never made it to the real car. I just search Bing and Google for pictures of real cars. I also keep an eye our on Barret Jackson and Mecum auctions, Hemmings and search Ebay. When searching ebay, it also helps to search completed auctions, although some sellers pull their pictures pretty quickly. Remember that Chrysler had "recommended combinations", but would let you order any interior with any paint for a few years. There are occasional examples of Butterscotch GTXs with orange interiors and green 'Cudas with blue interiors. I think the practice stopped sometime after 1971, as I have seen some really mixed up '71s, but when my uncle bought his '74, he had to take a combination from the list. I often use Createx or Wicked colors for interiors. They are easy to mix, and can be rubbed with Q-tips and cotton balls to get the right sheen, or they can be coated with Tamiya semi gloss clear. You can also use a gloss paint, or gloss clear, and use a polishing kit to make it a semi gloss. A local modeler uses Micro-Mesh to about 4000 or 6000 for dull or slightly worn surfaces and up to 8000 for newer or smoother surfaces. I have tried his technique, but I left a visible "Grain" of scratches. He must be better at varying his direction and smoothing out his final surface. I am sure any of us would get it if we practiced, but I only tried it once. (So far. It's on my list of things to try again when I am working on the right project. ) I used to use flocking for all of my fuzzy surfaces, but I like embossing powder for velour seats and panels. I still use flocking for carpeting quite a bit, though. It makes the carpeting look coarser than the seats, which is true in real life. In truth, I am glad that the auto makers stopped using the velour seat material. I had a Plymouth Reliant that used to shed all over me when I had to wear black pants for work. I needed a cat hair roller in my work locker. Even a towel on the seat wouldn't stop it! I ended up getting rid of the car at less than two years old because of mechanical problems, but the seats would have been redone if I had kept the car. Also one of our minivans with the fuzzy seats would generate so much static electricity that you would get a big shock every time you got out of the car and tried to shut the door. that always made Cathie nervous at gas stations.

Headlight buckets are a bit large, making the outer segments of the grille a bit small. I didn't notice it at first either, but now that it has been pointed out to me, I see it every time I look at the model. I'll probably live with mine the way they are.

Don't you all get it? It's a "Traditional" rod... you know, the way they used to build them back pre '62... Boy you old people just don't get how things used to be! (Huge dose of sarcasm there, but it was funny hearing some kid who was born during the Clinton administration tell that to a Korean War Vet at a car show)

Tried it on metal miniatures for gaming. It works well for that, but I can imagine it wouldn't be as good as a spray primer on a model. It bonds well to cast metal and works well under Vallejo paints and can stand up to some oils. I am interested to hear what others have experienced with it.

Squadron makes a seam scraper that dies the trick pretty well. Otherwise, make yourself a thin sanding stick by gluing sandpaper to the edge of a plastic spoon handle, or other flat item of appropriate width. With either one, patience and a steady hand are helpful. Don't try to get the whole seam cleaned up in one or two passes. Work it down slowly, and you are less likely to slide off and destroy adjacent detail.

Really nice model! The color worked out well, and you paint jobs are always flawless. I wish my quick projects turned out half that well.

The First generation Charger is still one of my favorite body styles. I always wanted to do one as an '80s bracket racer, or a super stocker from the era. I hung out at a lot of drag strips back then and there were a couple of Chargers I really liked. I won't replicate any of them, but I will do the Charger I would have raced if I had been able to. (Although I will never complain about my Cougar.) I could do a quick and fun build of this car if I could just get the real world to leave me alone for a little while.

I'll be keeping an eye on this build! There's nothing more fun or informative than watching you dive into a build of a car you have a real passion for. The fact that I am really starting to dig all of these Hudsons is just a bonus!

At one time, I thought AMT was going to do a few mods to its older tools to up sales, like tooling up clear headlights to replace chrome ones. I have a few copies of almost every kit AMT/MPC has put out since I jumped back into the hobby in the late Eighties. I need to see a reason to buy a new one. Except for a few desired kits (1972 GMC truck, 1984 GMC, Mack R and Transtar II, along with the Paystars and Autocars) most of the kits AMT can reissue are already a dime a dozen. Some new (or rare old) parts and improvements would really set them apart and give people a reason to buy the reissues for full price. One of the most noticeable improvements (And fairly easy compared to re engineering chassis, motors etc...) they can make is to spruce up the headlights and taillights on the cars where they are currently chrome. That, along with some really obvious fixes ('65 Galaxie taillights, '69 Chevelle rear end) would make their repops much more desirable. I would probably be more inclined to pick up a kit with some fixes or new parts.

JB, I just have to say... I dig that car! Is that the old Monogram Midget kit nose?

So how is the cigarette lighter in the Del Rio? (There... do I have the jist of the thread figured out?) I didn't know the radio was a different mold. I have a couple of the Del Rios, but I missed out on the police cars. I figure I can just take the police parts from the Del Rio, and stick them on a regular '57 Ford to make up the difference. The only thing lacking would be the decals... I would probably look for some unique ones anyways. Cathie's Son in Law thinks he can do a pretty close version of a two door detective's car with a Revell '57 Chevy 150 Black widow kit and a bunch of downgrading. He's thinking of a 6 cylinder with the plain 5 lug wheels and the police parts from his Del Rio, along with some custom printed decals. He has found a few pictures of cars that could be duplicated. I like the way he is thinking!

We used the old Fred Cady decals for ever, and they had to be cut. It's like any modeling skill. It's a bit unnerving the first time, but if you take you time, be patient, and practice on an unimportant section first, you will be fine. I have used both fine scissors and X-acto knives for this, but I prefer the scissors, as I don't seem to damage the edges of my decals as much. many modelers prefer the X-acto, or scalpel blades. I sometimes use the swivel knives used for fine stencil cutting. My best results with knives are when I don't cut through the backing. I use a very good light, and go slowly, making a clean cut through the film. If you make a rough spot on the edge of the decal. it can show a bit, but they still look better than many of the recent kit decals.

I like that idea. I would like to see AMT do a convertible version. The 1967 was also a pace car IIRC, so that would give them another sales pitch. As long as they didn't wreck their Hardtop version to make it, it would be a nice deal. It would also be a good way for them to ease back into new tools.

Any time the volume and pressure are changed, the temperature will change too. The heat is not going out through the sides of the can. The temperature is dropping in response to the drop in pressure and the change in volume of the gas in the can. It's the same principle that air conditioners and refrigerators work on. It's the same law, but in reverse, that explains why compressed air heats up. No real way around it except to pump air into the can as fast as the gases are released. (Which brings us right back to an airbrush and compressor)

The best tips I can give from memory on the pro streeter , and the stock version are these. Build the platform interior, and make sure everything is flush when you assemble it. Any high spots, gaps, wobbles or paint ridges, and it won't fit properly between the body and chassis. Scrape the paint off of the bottom edge of the side pieces and the part that they mount into. You don't have room for paint buildup in the finished model. Glue plastic to plastic only. The fenderwells, firewall, radiator and it's supports all need to be flush and flat. Again, no layers of paint on the mating surfaces, and no gaps. Sand it to fit flat, or you won't get it all shoved under the body. The chassis can be a really tight fit vertically on these cars. (And also on the 1966 Fairlanes and 1967 Comet kits.) If you don't have the Glass, firewalls, fenderwells, radiator panels, interior, engine and other parts straight and flush, the chassis will not fit all the way into the body. The first Nova I built had the chassis sticking out just under the rocker panels. The other side to this is if you do shove the chassis far enough into the model, the side panels of the interior can stick up above the door sills! Again, the cure is to make sure the interior is assembled straight and flush. The details are very nice on these kits, but this was AMTs first kit of this type. It was groundbreaking when it came out, and it changed the way kits were manufactured. Some of the kits that came out later were slightly more user friendly. AMT made later kits with slightly better fit and more "wiggle room" to align things. Go slowly, and make sure the interior and all of the panels under the hood are true, flush and tight. Then final assembly will go fairly smoothly. It's not the easiest kit to build, but it will go together very nicely with a bit of patience and planning. The look of the finished kit is worth all of the hassle.

I wonder about the stability and consistency of the original paint. I saw several Plum Crazy cars at Mopar shows back in the eighties, and many of them had original paint. No two matched. An old salt who actually sold Plymouths all through the sixties claimed that Plum Crazy (In Violet in Plymouth vernacular) could vary from car to car within a delivery. He thought the paint wasn't mixed very well at the factory, giving some cars more or less flake than others. He even sent two 'Cudas back because they didn't match across the whole car, with noticeable light and dark panels and patches. Moulin Rouge and Limelight had different problems, as they tended to fade a bit, and were very hard to match for repairs. He was glad to see the crazy colors go away, although he drove a Sassy Grass Green Duster for many years.

I store my unopened bottles in the freezer until I am ready to use them. Let them warm up to room temp. before opening them, or they will attract condensation. (Really bad for CA) I buy a bunch of the smaller bottles instead of a few of the larger bottles. It costs a bit more, but it saves in the long run, because the bigger bottles never get used up before the glue turns into rocks!