Maindrian Pace

Thanks Al and Scott. -MJS

If you insist Roger! So you'd probably think that I would say, "Give us a '60 Comet 2dr wagon kit pleeeeease!!!" But, cool as it is, who would buy it... and I have most of the stuff to kitbash one, so bring on the Boxpanther; with it's Wagon Queen, demo derby, police/fire, and trailer diorama possibilities all in one box. Kit manufacturers like multipurpose tools. -MJS

Bob, It's the nicest mid '70s El Camino ever put in 1:25, without a doubt. Finding fault is a daunting task, but since you asked, the front overhang is a tad long. Fender and hood length are correct, I'd say pull 1.5-2mm out of the header panel, back the bumper up to the fender seam and you're right there. Other than that, nothing, and that includes the way-tricky rear B pillar slope. -MJS

Yes, the old "It's a Ford/GM/Chrysler etc design, not yours, so take it up with them" defense. But cheaters like this never win, and never get ahead; they get bad reputations that stick with them for life. -MJS

'79 LTD wagon. Because I loves me some classic two headlight box Panther. MJS

My brain just shorted out. The conversation in my head went something like this: "Nice pro mod or whatever engine, that must be what this guy is modeling his after." "That's a model engine. Unreal, must be 1/8th or better." "Wait, he only does 1/25th? must be an exception here." "That IS a 1/25th engine. I... I... I don't know what to say." -MJS

The owner of that car felt that the way cool blue chrome paint job was detracting from the mechanicals, so he repainted it red. Bo-ring. -MJS

Great looking '78, Roger. The yellow '79 is one of my reference trucks, owned by a local guy who is a major dent side fan. It's an original rust free AZ truck, that's the original paint, it's loaded, and has this - A '93 Mustang 5.0 with an Explorer cam for torque, '95 F-150 AOD and transfer case, and air lockers front and rear. It's his daily, and gets 18mpg on the freeway. Way cool truck. -MJS

You know I will. I got the other side roughed in. I tried a different method, cutting the bottoms off of the wheel well, and gluing them to the bed so I didn't have to add the little filler panels in to re-contour the lower character lines. That turned out to be a mistake, because I then had to add filler pieces at the front and rear of the wheel wells and shape them. On this truck, I'm going to use fender flares, so it will all be covered anyway, but for stock fender lips, use the first method - drop the whole wheel well intact, then trim the bottom flush with the bed sides. You get a perfect shape that way with less work. -MJS

That's kind of a happy accident. Looks like it could be a factory color. -MJS

Probably not this one. It's going to have the race track trim like the yellow one in the pics, and the lower ribbed trim has been shaved off, so it won't match any cab. But Repstock has converted a few long beds, perhaps he can be convinced to shorten one for casting. -MJS

Attached with the panel cut from forward of the wheel well: And filler panels added. Shorten the front of the bed by 25mm. After the front cap is glued in place. Now I just have to do the other side. -MJS

Back in our suburb of Boston in the '70s, (that really sets the mood, doesn't it?) my cousin and I used to take the left over parts from our kits and build "junk models" with them. Some were pretty wild, all were horrible, and all were fun to do. I've had this box of glue burned junk Ford truck stuff for who knows how long, and I decided to combine some of it into a truck that I've always wanted, a late '70s Ford short wide 4x4, two tone with the race track trim. With other stuff out of the way, I'll get to work on this from time to time. Most of this stuff is real junk, so I'm feeling pretty frisky with the razor saw. First order of business is that goofy Camper Special bed. Nobody, to this day, knows why AMT decided to do this bed instead of the conventional long or short bed, the best explanation I've heard is that Ford sent them the wrong blue prints by mistake and AMT never checked. May be baloney, but why else? If you look at '73-'79 Ford beds, you'll see that both the long and short beds have the same rear overhang, which is longer than the CS bed. Cut here: and move the wheel well forward by 5mm. But, the other mod that most miss is that not only was the CS wheel well moved back, it was also moved up. So when you move it forward, move it down by 2.5mm. Approximate placement:

Thanks Gentlemen, I have two other promos to do, but next up is a '77 Ford pickup kit that's been in the planning stages for some time. -MJS

Incredible. What else can you say? I was ogling the rear end U bolts and separate nuts, when it occurred to me that this is the kind of detail that you see in those epic build threads, where the builder is going all-out on the tiniest amazing stuff, and then the thread goes dry and the car is never finished. This wild Mustang has that same energy literally everywhere, but it's a finished car. A rare thing. The photography is great too. This needs to be on a magazine cover, MCM. -MJS

That Tamiya masking tape is amazingly good stuff. And finally, Now maybe I can work on something that I own. -MJS

And then for the white: Tamiya fine primer, followed by Testors Wimbledon White, a good match for Colonial white: Meanwhile, the chrome was sent off to Chrome Tech USA: And the heavy lifting was done. Here's why the acetate was so popular back in the day; it was very shiny right out of the mold, and shines up like mad with very little effort.

In between big-effort builds, I like to wind down a bit with a nice, low pressure antique promo restoration. Often for friends, (good friends) these roll onto the bench periodically. One friend collects '50s Ford promos that he couldn't get when he was a kid, but can now. These include every color offered of the rare '57 Ford sedan promo. Black is the rarest color, they almost never show up for sale. He finally found one, but it had been customized and was rough. I should have taken a few pics of it assembled, but forgot. It had the glass and interior from a pink '58 Edsel promo, (these sedans didn't have interiors) painted wide whitewalls, painted side trim and gold insert, and at one point had mirrors, spot lights, antennas, and mud flaps glued to it. Must have been a real doll. He gave me a green sedan promo to demonstrate the proper color scheme. First order of business was to remove the glass from the green car and use it to vacuform a new unit for the black one. I dyed it light green with glass dye from Hobby Lobby. Trimmed to fit: That turned out to be the easy part. The problem with the old warp-crazy acetate promos is that the acetate plastic is very fragile and nothing that I tried could strip the paint without ruining the surface of the plastic. And I mean nothing. So all of the silver paint had to be painstakingly scraped and sanded off of the trim, including the heavy brush painted gold, which turned out to cover a heavily painted red color, and then the trim had to be sanded and polished with a polishing kit to bring the shine back, and all had to be done without obliterating any of the details. It took days. I called the owner up to grouch about that, which seemed to make it go smoother. All of the bodywork to the glued areas had to be done without stripping the original white paint, including sink marks to the trunk from the Edsel windows being glued in. All black plastic areas had to be sanded and polished, Then it had to be masked off twice, first for the gold insert:

Fantastic job Raoul, love the color combo and the trunk rack, and the convertible conversion is spot on from all angles. It's great when when builders achieve exquisite from common kits. -MJS

It's actually an '80, the '79 Cobra didn't have the pace car air dam. -MJS

I usually agree with you Roger, but mine looks great. -MJS

MCSO Press Release 07/24/14 On July 23, 2014 Multnomah County Sheriff's Office detectives and Special Investigations Unit detectives served a search warrant in Unincorporated East Multnomah County and recovered a green 1970 Plymouth Barracuda 2 door hardtop vehicle. The Plymouth had been reported stolen in 2001, and purged from the Law Enforcement Data System (LEDS) as a stolen vehicle years after. Barring a court order to the contrary, the Plymouth will be returned to its registered and titled owner. The Plymouth is not in drivable condition, with many essential parts and components missing. Efforts continue to recover the remainder of the vehicle. No arrest has been made by MCSO at this time, the case will be presented to the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office for review. The vehicle is not available for media to view at this time as the investigation continues.

Great craftsmanship, that's the first one I've seen built, and there is probably a reason for that. I like the realistic period race car paint finish, smooth but not too glossy. I can see the LeMans style start right now... -MJS

"For the past three years, the convertible sat locked, covered by a tarp, padlocked and parked in an outdoor lot behind Jelley’s southeast Calgary apartment." Not to be a jerk, but that was really, really stupid. In this day and age, easily snatchable classic cars are snatched. I'm surprised it took three years. -MJS

Very nice build, very convincing. Did Dad get the base 144 six, or the 170? The latter had much better power. -MJS