Maindrian Pace

Steve, I don't have the hardtop or convertible, but a friend of mine has both and I've compared them closely to the AMT promos and annuals, which I do have. Sure, there are problems here and there, like the goofy tires, engine, exhaust, too-narrow trunklid, taillights a bit too far inboard, headlight bezels, and the body being just a hint too square in places. However, I kitbash nearly everything, including factory stock, and swapping the bad stuff for better stuff and doing a little body work isn't an issue for me, as I spent lots of time building and correcting badly engineered models for the last 35 or so years. So I suppose that I've come to expect it. A badly out of scale body would be a bummer, but if it's decent, like the '64s, (and I think it will be) then I wouldn't care if the rest was curbside and battery operated with Tonka wheels - that's what the parts box and kits are for. -Mike

Due in September, going nuts waiting. 427 RancheroBolt? May as well, since I'll be scooping up more than one for sure. How often does a kit company come out with a non-mainstream car that you actually own? -MJS

That's great, because those caps are correct for '65 Falcons. The box art shows this trim too, instead of the two tone trim with the chevrons a la '64 Futura/Sprint. Another great thing, because now I can finally build my own car. Factory stock? -MJS

Dave, I'm a Ford guy. I've rarely built anything else in the past. This is my favorite car on the site. -Mike

I'll buy one of those too, and I'm not even a Hudson enthusiast. I just really appreciate how Mobius showed the test shots and listened to input from modelers, which is something I've never heard of before. Such actions should be rewarded, I think. -MJS

Roger, all '60-'61s came with the body color "pie crust" gas cap, the '62 and '63s came with the ribbed stainless cap to match the rear trim panel, or the "Mercury Man" cap on '63 deluxe, non S-22s. But that cap finds it's way on earlier Comets because it's cool, so open interpretation on that one. Backup lights were optional on all models, including the S-22. Instrument cluster is nearly all chrome, here is a pic of my wagon, same as '61 except the glove box emblem. I two toned my wheel, stock is black on base models, white on deluxe and S-22. All trim levels got the stainless strip across the top of the dash whether they got the dash pad or not. Cragars look great, the red open steelies were the customers' choice and I thought they were rather plain with no caps on the plain-jane car. But he wanted to show off the five lug conversion, I suppose to those who knew that all Falcons and Comets to mid '63 were 6cyl/4lug. I don't think that too many know that today, so Cragars are still suitably sleeperish. -Mike

I wonder if it will have the dog dish caps on the box art, because those are '60-'63 caps usually seen on six cyl cars. They only fit the 13" rims, weird choice for a street/strip car. Nevertheless, I'll buy one. -KK

Roger, I built it for a young hipster couple who had just bought it, and felt it was too slow and too hard to drive with the original bolt-action 6 banger. They had a non-synchro first gear, which was a pain. Originally, I was just going to put a C4 in it, but one thing led to another. It started out as a mint 1 owner 55K mile car, with perfect original paint and interior. Stock: The only interior pic I have shows the seat covered with a swanky leopard print cover that they put there to protect the upholstery. 1960-1962 Falcons and Comets all had body color engine bays with black core support, '63-up had all semi gloss black. Better engine bay pic: Master cylinder area: I found a nice pair of oval chrome tips for the duals which tied in nicely with the cat-eye taillights and matched the fuel and temp gauge surrounds in the dash cluster. The owners were pleased. I own a slammed hot rod '60 Comet 2dr wagon that's had most of the same things done to it. Your model is coming along great, if you need to know any detail, no matter how obscure, ask away! -Mike

Roger, your car is looking a lot like a real '61 Comet I built around 10 years ago. A 1:1 scale kitbash, it got a worked 289, full five lug suspension, dual exhaust, and disc brakes. Fun car, and used to really surprise the import crowd. -MJS

Steve! Long time! Now you know another one of my obscure hobbies. How's the '63 road race Ranchero doing these days? -Mike That's pretty good Harry, Not too many people know that outside of Austria. From German, it's most commonly "cord", which may be a coincidence; because an 812 Supercharged convertible is one of the closet models waiting for a build. -MJS

Since the community build is over, and the thread is now open to all Foxes, (I hope I read that right) here's another old build of mine, an '89 LX that I built in 1990. The two major kits were both Monograms, the '89 GT convertible and the '79 Turbo Cobra. The body is GT in the middle, '79 below the side trim and from above the taillights to the front fenders, including the window sills. Everything else that wasn't in those kits was scratch built or parts box except the wheels, which are Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland, bought right when they were released. The embossed MUSTANG lettering in the front and rear bumpers was cut from the GT side skirts, the 1/4 windows were cut from an '85 Corvette windshield, the LX emblem on the trunk was cut from a piece of chrome flash, Ford ovals were cut from magazine ads, rear spoiler was reshaped from the '79 piece, taillights were built from styrene sheet and painted with various reds and clear to try to make them look reasonable, interior tub is GT with the hatch area from the '79... and so forth. It was a fun build at a time when almost nothing aftermarket was made for Foxes. I've got a few others that I can post when I can photograph them. I'm a major Fox head, I own three real ones. -MJS

Futurabat, your screen name tells me that this car is pertinent to your interests. (Just a feeling I get.) I did the tires in Testors spray can flat black, and for the whitewalls, I used white Tempera paint from an art store that I originally bought to do raised white letters on vinyl tires. I thinned it with water and airbrushed it on with a round stencil. They came out very well, which pleased me to no end because such experimentation didn't usually go so well for me. The hood emblem is foil, I bought a whole sheet of Bare Metal gold just for that emblem, never used it again, then the adhesive went bad, so I tossed the rest. -MJS

Thanks Junkman, but my friends just call me Toby. -MJS

Did he have a B body Monaco race car? I remember in season 1 it was a 4dr '75 C-tub Monaco, Bluesmobile body style. -MJS

Do you have a J shaped drain trap under the sink? If so remove it and with luck, the part will be in it. Just don't run the water until you can do it. -MJS

I know what color the car was now, because now you can do a Google image search and come up with nearly a half-million results. But in 1990, no such thing existed, there was a faded Kodachrome that showed it in the pale greenish color, and all anyone knew about it was that it was "most likely" in that color family. It didn't help that the Revell box art showed it in green, or that the model was molded in pale green. Most of the Futuras I've seen built are green, so it was a popular misconception. But now that the ice pearl white truth is out for all to see at any time on their smart phones, the question is, has anyone finished the kit in that color yet? -MJS

It's so weird seeing a model of a Celica made in the USA. Revell was pretty fearless in subject matter in those days. I remember the kit well, but don't remember anyone building it. Neat looking car, and a fun project. -MJS

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome. Model building sure has changed over the last 15 or so years, and it will be fun (or interesting) to see if I can bring myself up to date. I started about a half dozen kits back then, and the plan is to complete them and then start on a couple of new projects. This site was a recent discovery for me, and it's just amazing. I'll post a few more old builds in the Under Glass forum, and then hopefully before too long, some new builds. -MJS

Hi everyone, new guy here but building since the mid '70s. I didn't want to step on anyone's thread, so here is a car that I brought back from a glue bomb about 20 years ago. Back then, a Futura was a very rare and expensive kit to find, and unbuilt originals were crazy money. This one showed up at a kit swap, complete down to the antenna, painted Batmobile black and looking quite tired with most of the chrome worn off. I did some trading, and got to work. All of the chrome was sent off to Chrome Tech, and the body was stripped with Easy-Off. I had a few pictures of the car in an old book, with one sort of faded color shot with two women in it. I didn't have a computer, and the internet wouldn't have been much help in researching it anyway. So I took a best guess at the color, and combined Plasti-Kote GM light metallic green lacquer with silver lacquer to get what looked like the right shade. Both were decanted from the spray cans, mixed, and airbrushed on over Plasti-Kote T235 primer, and it was rubbed out with a Millennium 2000 sanding cloth kit. I took a wild guess at the interior color combo, added BMF to the canopy, and it was done. Of course, a few years later, the kit was reissued, and it wasn't the first time that I rebuilt something rare to have it become available again. Always mixed feelings, but overall positive for the hobby. I took about 15 years off to build 1:1 cars, but I'm getting back into it to build some cars and trucks that I always wanted to do. -MJS