Ramfins59

That is one cool looking model David. Great job.

James, I did the yellow '58 Buick Roadmaster convertible that's in the pictures. You can see more pictures of it in my Under Glass thread for it few months ago. I'll try soon on the "sunshine" pic. Ray, I added the third brake light on the Sedan Delivery. If I remember correctly, I used a small scoop shaped piece of plastic for the housing, filed down a small piece of red sprue for the lens, and attached a PE taillight bezel. Thank you all for your kind and encouraging comments.

Thanks very much again everyone. Glad you also liked the old Pro Street build. Bruce, I guess all the cars were called "4 eyes" back then... LOL. Bob, I can lend you my glasses if you need them to see the towel..!! LOL. Chris, I don't know about the "skilled" thing. I just use a lot of patience and good reference pictures to try to get the details right. Being neat and clean with the glue helps a lot too.

OK Todd and Ray, here are a couple of pictures of the '58 Chevy Sedan Delivery. I used the front of the AMT '58 Impala chassis mated to the rear of the Pro Street Super Bee chassis. The engine is from an AMT engine parts pack, with a lot of extra details added in the engine room. The body is an old All American resin body with the custom front and rear pans from the Impala kit. The grille is a photo-etched piece from now defunct Accu-Pro. The color is Candy Apple Red but I don't remember what paint I used. This was my one and only attempt at trying to build a Pro Street car. I had fun doing it.

Thanks very much Jim, Don, Ray, Bruce and Bill. Bill, you seem to have a way to fix every model... LOL.

Beautiful car Al. You've got one heck of a huge collection of built cars huh?

Very nice looking wagon Al. How many do you have so far..??

Thanks very much Al.

Thanks very much Anne, Luis and Bruce. Anne thanks so much for that Beatles tune... it's one of my favorites from them. Actually, pretty much everything they did are my favorites...LOL.

Several Forum members have requested that I show pictures of all of the 1958 models that I have built in a group. Forgive me if this bores some of you, but I just wanted to try to do what I was asked to do. So far, I have built the following; '58 Buick Roadmaster Convertible (Stock). " Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz (Stock). " Chevrolet Impala (Mild Custom). " Chevrolet Pro Street Sedan Delivery. " Ford Edsel Pacer (Mild Custom). " Ford Fairlane Convertible (Mild Custom). " Plymouth Belvedere (Stock). Please excuse the lousy background, but I still haven't gotten around to getting a piece of white poster board (we used to call it Oaktag years ago) and all I could come up with was an old, stained, white towel. I had trouble getting all of the models in the picture without it being too out of focus, using my HP, 5 MP, Digital camera. Here's my "Class of '58" so far. More will be added as I buy and complete them, along with all the other great cars from the 1950's. Thanks a lot for looking at my "small graduating class".

Thanks Tom. You're right about "what am I thinking about for my next 50's project". I don't know if the next one will be a '58 or not. I'll tell you right now that I'm NOT into VW's. I've got he whole decade of the 50's to choose from. Tom you are the third person who has either asked for or mentioned seeing a group picture of all the '58's that I've built recently (Buick, Cadillac, Chevy, Edsel, Ford and Plymouth). I also built a Pro Street '58 Chevy Sedan Delivery about 17 years ago (I can't believe it was that long ago..!!). I will definitely work on getting that group picture done,... although that means that I'll have to unpack all the models that I already have packed up for NNL East.... yeah... I'm looking forward to the Show, as always Tom. "Class of '58" photo...... I like that. Coming soon. .

Thank you so very much everyone for all your wonderful and encouraging comments. Nick (High Octane) - This was the IMEX/Arii kit in 1/24 scale. There was not really a whole lot of detail in the engine compartment and I added a LOT in there, going by reference pictures that I googled. Steve (Ridge Rider) - I think you may be right about another late 50's car being on the horizon...... I just have to decide which one. Dan - Thanks for the birthday wishes... 66 today..!! And also thanks again for the trade on the kit. Anne - While it may look like each individual letter for ELDORADO is foiled individually on the trunk...... they're not..!! I may be good at foiling, but that good I'm not. I cut the foil along the tops and bottoms of the lettering (using my magnifier of course). I was able to burnish the foil down really well with both a QTip and a toothpick. The gold foil doesn't want to stick very well so I sprayed some clearcoat over it after finally getting it trimmed and staying in place. It took me 4 hours to do ALL of the foiling on this car... the chrome AND the gold. Michael J - Yeah, you'll be seeing this and a bunch of other models that I've finished since last year when I see you in a couple of weeks.

Yep... she's finally done. I spent a total of about 4 hours applying and trimming all the BMF on this classy looking beast. I used some Gold BMF for the hood, trunk and fin emblems. It didn't want to stick on very well, so I sprayed some clearcoat over them to seal them on, then polished out the clear. I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. Not really a terrible kit if given some love and attention... and a lot of extra details. Here she is...... Thanks for looking in on this. Any and all comments are welcomed, as always. I think I might take a day off from modeling tomorrow. Then I'll decide what to work on next.

Here's one that I built way back around the late 90's. It was my first really successful attempt at a custom with some actual bodywork.

I wholeheartedly agree that constructive feedback, or criticism, IS a good thing. We all "usually" learn from our mistakes and sometimes we don't see the mistake ourselves. When someone else can point it out to us, without belittling us, it helps us to not make the same mistake again. I've had friends and fellow club members point things out to me over the years.... Once I put a carburetor on backwards. Another time I made an aluminum driveshaft but didn't line up the U-Joints properly, and my buddy Tom told me that my U-Joints were "out of phase". I had no clue what he was talking about until he explained it. I of course fixed the mistakes on the models, and I've never made those mistakes again. My wife is especially talented at pointing out the one little flaw on a model that I will miss. I might grumble about her mentioning "that one little flaw" (believe me there are loads of little flaws in my models) but I'll always do my best to try to fix it.

Thanks Bill, and thanks for that info Art. Carl & Mike, yes this Forum is SO great for picking up little tips and techniques in our hobby. I'm glad that I was able to put one of mine out there.

Happy belated birthday George.

Great build Virgil. Love that silver.

That looks great Blair.

That's an iconic hood ornament Harry. Love it.

Great job Bernard. Much more aggressive stance.

Thanks John. I'll be getting back to the '58 Caddy today. The clearcoat on the repainted body is ready to be polished and then it'll be BMF time for it. This wagon body is now in the pint stripper.

Beautiful car Tulio. I love it.

Thank you all for your comments.... they are ALWAYS welcome. Jeff, I do have one of the new Revell Ford kits, but I haven't done any comparison with it yet. Actually, I was afraid that if I started doing that, I would probably rob some parts from it to detail the wagon..!! Tom, I'd be happy to cut up your car for you, although I think that postage to send it to Manny might be cheaper for ya..!! No, I haven't met Manny in person yet, I've only spoken to him by PM and over the phone. I look forward to seeing him, and you, in a few weeks. Yes, I've been taking a little side trip through 1957 cars lately. I'll get back to the '58's soon. Mike, I guess I either got lucky, or, as I said, did it right and let the Dremel do the cutting without forcing it. This was the very first time I've ever used a cutting wheel in a Dremel... I impressed myself..!! Carl, my plan is to use clear acetate from the top of a box of Christmas cards. i save decent sized pieces of the stuff for just such a project.

Yeah, Bullitt is one of the great ones, and I also love the one in The French Connection with Gene Hackman.