Ramfins59

Thanks Ray and Ed, all the kind words keep me motivated. I reprimed the body today and will hopefully get some paint on it by this weekend.

Hey guys. I'm considering ordering a kit from Hendrix and wanted to get some feedback here from anyone who has dealt with them. How is the quality of their stuff..?? I know that their "chrome parts" are NOT chromed, but can they be either sent out to be chromed, or Alcladed without much or any prop work..?? Recommendations, comments, good or bad are appreciated. Thanks.

Yes Al, I built the Arii kit of the convertible... Not a bad kit, just lacking a lot of detail in the engine compartment, which I made up for by adding A LOT. (I'm not trying to hijack YOUR thread here.)

Thank you very much everyone for all of your encouragement.

Thank you very much guys, I appreciate your kind comments.

No problems here. I use Chrome.

That's a great looking Caddy Al. Nice job on the paint.

Another great build Harry. You must have a pretty large storage/display area for all of your large scale builds.

Nice build Al. I've had one of these kits in my stash for years. One of these years I'll get around to building it.

That is a great looking build Dan, and that sure is a bright red.

This is the last 1956 Promo that I have, to be on the bench. After this I start work on some full kits. I figured I'd get all the "quick and easy" ones out of the way first (no engine or chassis details to deal with). When I Googled reference pictures I saw a car that I really liked the mildly aggressive look of, and that was my inspiration for this particular build. I picked up a '56 Olds promo many years ago at a show and am finally doing something with it. Over time I somehow lost the promo's chassis and wound up digging through my parts stash to find a chassis that fit the Olds Olds body but I wound up having to lengthen it by almost a half inch with some scrap plastic to get the wheelbase right. I found some Halibrand wheels which I mounted in some big 'n little tires and made axles from plastic tubing. The body was horribly painted in a raspberry color which I stripped in Scalecoat. Whoever painted the body had also sanded off the hood and trunk emblems and lettering. Here's how it looks mocked up... . I got a resin interior from The Modelhaus and finished that up today. The carpet is flocked in black and the seats and side panels are painted in shades of gray and black. I added a chrome trim strip to the side panels and also drilled holes where the barely there molded cranks and handles were and glued in resin cranks and handles from ReplMinCoMD which I painted chrome silver. The dash is painted black and detailed with BMF, chrome silver paint and a super fine point black artists pen. It is just mocked up for the pictures right now. I'll be painting this car 2-Tone with Black Gold's SilverWhite Pearl and Duplicolor Storm Gray Metallic, as soon as we get rid of the humid, rainy, crappy weather here. Thanks for looking in on this latest "Class of '56" build. All comments, good or bad, are welcomed..

Thank you Niko, Charlie and Roy, I appreciate your encouragement.

That's a neat looking custom Ron.

Ray, that's looking pretty good so far. Keep up the good work.

Sometimes when trimming the BMF the blade will cut through the paint and primer right down to the surface, be it resin or plastic, and that is usually because of too much pressure with the blade. When you try again, put several coats of clear over your final paint coat (I usually apply at least 4 coats of clear) and then try using less pressure on your XActo blade when trimming the BMF.

Thank you very much guys. Only one more promo left to work on, then it'll be on to full plastic kits for awhile.

Great looking truck Dan. Nice job.

Thank you all so very much for all of your wonderful, encouraging and kind comments everyone. I really appreciate it. I expected to take at least 2 days for all the final assembly on this car, but, god bless CA glue and Zip Kicker... I had it all together in only a few hours. As I mentioned earlier in the WIP thread, doing interiors is my favorite "chore" in building models. I stocked up on BMF back in April at the NNL East so I don't think what I bought would affect LHS supplies of it...LOL

That's a great looking model Eugene.

Bill, I think a lot of it has to do with the basic education that people get. As an "old fart" who had nuns (Sister Mary Discipline with the steel edged ruler on your knuckles) and Brothers and/or Priests (with the 10 lb. textbook falling on the top of your head), we learned the things we had to learn quickly to avoid the wrath of the teachers. With the changes in school grading curves and society's more permissive rules and regulations over the past 30 or 40 years, the quality of education has suffered greatly. Many people didn't either get the basic spelling, grammar and punctuation education back in their formative years, just like basic arithmetic (people who can't make the correct change at a cash register. We can beat this to death but it unfortunately won't change it.

Great looking car Frank. Nice job.

Final assembly went quicker than I expected. It's not perfect but neither am I. The color is Duplicolor Flame Red with Duplicolor clearcoat. The grille was blackwashed with the Detailer and off-white acrylic was used on the turn signals. Clear headlight lenses were glued over the chrome promo headlights and PE half-moon headlight shields from Detail Master were glued over them. Emblems and badging were sanded off. Instead of using the green glass that came with the promo, I used a front windshield from my parts box and made the rear glass from clear acetate from the top of a box of greeting cards. Whitewall tires, front chrome reversed wheels, mirrors, dummy spotlights and wipers are from the parts box. I made the antenna from a printer pin and a piece of stainless steel surgical tubing. The custom bullet taillights are parts box items and the backup lights are clear MV lenses. These pictures of the finished interior are from the WIP thread. I used the interior bucket from AMT's '55 Chevy. I removed the passenger side hump on the dashboard and filled in the gap with sheet plastic. The dash and steering wheel are painted body color. The dash is detailed with BMF, chrome silver paint and a piece of the chrome trim from the Galaxie '48 Chevy. The gauge and radio face are from BestModelCarParts, and the shifter and turn signal stalk are pieces of shirt pins. The carpet is flocked in charcoal gray and the pedals and driver side mat is painted semi-gloss black. I used seat upholstery decals from the Revell '58 Impala kit and flocked the rest of the seats and side panels in red. I added thin strips of styrene to the side panels and covered them with BMF. The molded on cranks and handles were removed, holes drilled where they were and resin cranks and handles from ReplMinCoMD were installed and painted chrome silver. I had to add some half round strips to the top outer edges of the interior bucket to widen it and also sanded new "sweetheart dips" into the tops to match the dips in the body. It's too bad this car isn't a convertible as this interior would look great in one. The Class of '56 is slowly growing, with a few more to come. Thanks to all for checking out this build. Now on to the next one.

We can't forget Bare Metal Foil... Not having to try to paint side and window trim and moldings with either a teeny, tiny brush or a toothpick, and never being able to keep the lines straight.

Today I did the BMF work on this puppy, plus I did some paint touch-ups. The foil looks great on this red car. I also cut a piece of clear acetate to fit the rear window opening. I'll glue that and the front glass in tomorrow after all the paint has dried. This car should be done in a couple of more days.

Thanks Jonathan. A '56 Dodge is on my "to do list" also, from the Modelhaus, like the one in your Avatar. Tom, LOL... nope, no batteries. I sure wasn't expecting that color red to be so eye-searing, but I love it. BTW, the polishing came out awesome. I can't wait to get the BMF on this thing.