Harry P.

Pretty nice. Kit came with no wipers? I would add a black wash to the wheels to give them some detail and depth and take away some of that "plastic model" look.

I really like that! And I like the plain background, too. But the parking lot dio is also cool. Maybe stick with it? It has sort of become your trademark.

I had no use for them...

PS is hard to learn, only because there is so much in it! I've been using it on a daily basis for 20 years and to this day there are plenty of features I have never used even once... and probably plenty of features I don't even know are in there! I'm probably only using 20% of what's all in there. It's a crazy huge program.

Here's an example of one of my PS illustrations. It is not a retouched photo... I created the car starting with a blank document. The only "real" part is the sky, which is a photo I dropped in... but the car is 100% illustration... took about 6-8 hours. A few more PS illustrations. I got a million of 'em!

If you mean me... thank you! But these were all "down and diry".... more like PS sketches than anything. None of them took me more than about a half hour to do, and that included the actual time to think about the redesign. When I take my time with PS, there's nothing I can't do. That sounds pretty egotistical, but it's true. I'll post a few examples.

Just one more for tonight. Once again, committing blasphemy by messing with an icon, but that's why God invented Photoshop. And I do think I improved the original!

Looks good, especially the interior.

You can use the Dremel with a small round grinding head to thin out the plastic and create "rust holes" from the back side of the body. You don't really need an airbrush for the rust, you could just brush paint it on and sort of "feather" the edges with the brush almost dry. Sometimes the paint will flake off and leave hard edges, so making the rusted edges soft wouldn't even be necessary. Do a google search and look at what real rust on trucks looks like. http://www.customdakotas.com/forums/body-work-forum/15637-wheel-well-rust-advice.html

Here's one that I really cleaned up. Messing with a classic, I know... but that's what Photoshop is for! The original had too much chrome, too many angles going too many ways, not enough overall cohesiveness. And that goofy pitchfork trim is completely out of place... doesn't fit into the design at all. I know it's what we are all used to, but think about how out of place and completely unnecessary it really is.

I'll split the difference on this one. Front wheels look better moved forward to reduce the way-too-long front overhang, but rears look better to me as is.

Ok, here's one that always bothered me... the trim strip running right through the headlights on the SSR. It always seemed to me to be a totally contrived styling touch that was completely unnecessary. So I redid the front end to what I would have done if they had asked me for my opinion...

It's like I said in my initial post... sometimes I tried to rework obviously clunky or just plain bad styling, but in other cases it was more of a "I wonder how this would look if they had done it this way?" kind of thing. I agree that the GTO and the Caddy look good as is. But I always wondered what the GTO would have looked like if the headlights had been oriented the "normal" way... and on the Caddy, I was just playing around. No real complaint about its original styling. But I do think I improved on it.

Ok, but now you're talking about individual design details. I thought we were talking about the roofline... the curvature from base of windshield, over the roof, and to base of back glass. I agree that certain details need cleaning up (I would axe the vent window altogether, for example)... but I like the curvature of the roofline on this car.

It's funny how styling is so subjective. I think the roofline works well.

Jump right in!

Maybe a discretely placed "Hooker Headers" decal?

And speaking of fastbacks, here's one you rarely see...

As you can see, it's been a year since I was working on this project. In the meantime I have built quite a few other models start to finish, but I think it's time to pull this one out of mothballs and finish it. Because of my medical condition, I'm not sure how much time I can actually put into it... probably only drips and drabs here and there. But I do want to finish it. I pulled the partially-built model out of storage this afternoon... now I have to look it over and try too remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I shut it down, so I can pick up more or less where I left off. Updates may be few and far between, but they will be coming.

That's cool. Aside from the Grand Canyon-sized trunk shut line, I like it, too.

I did a million of 'em. Here's one more. Can you actually improve on a great design? I think so...