espo

Great looking little midget racer. You're right about the delicate parts, and the rear nerf bars in particular on this kit. Like the engine and wiring detailing. The paint work is really well done, and the period correct style.

Beautiful paint color and finish. Like the understated look of the engine finishes. Cutting off the roof and covering the rear seat give this a really different look.

Beautiful looking paint finish and the stripes look good on this color. Clean looking trim finishes on the body and interior. Every time I see one of these on the road, I think it's some Italian Exotic car at first.

Try some Clear Red paint much the way you would detail the area with black paint if you didn't have taillights there.

I think AMT was using front spindles that had three settings on this kit. The middle setting is what they are calling stock height. I would suggest doing a few mockups of the suspension and the wheel & tires combination along with the rear suspension. This should give you an idea as to how the model will sit when you put it together. As with anything we are doing here there is bound to even show other issues as well. I'll do several mockups before I ever commit to any painting as invariably there are adjustments that need to be made and if parts are already panted you can pretty well count on having to redo something along the way.

Looks like you have added wider wheels and tires. While the '57 Ford wagon has a larger wheel well, inner fender specifically, than the coupe kit, it still is really tight and doesn't leave much room in there without enlarging the wheel wells. Might want to check clearance between the wheel & tire with the suspension and wheel wells. Any minor tire contact, usually hard to see when mocking up the body and chassis, can give you fits. I'm fighting that same battle on an AMT '57 Chrysler 300 build and finally just back off on the tire width and solved much the same problem.

Like the flame graphics, what type of mask did you use?

Adding open vent windows is a good eye catcher. Like the bed floor here.

A lot of fine details throughout this build. Like how you made it a Mercury. The bed portion is a model all by itself. Great engine detailing.

Enjoyed following your WIP on this one. Beautiful looking paint color and finish. Goes well with the interior. Like the bed finishes and the wheel tubs.

Beautiful looking paint finishes and color combination. The chrome trim is all cleanly done, not easy with the lightly done molding on this kit body.

The paint color was a popular choice at the time and the finish with the Z-28 decals looks great. Like the extra effort you put into the wheel and tire combination.

Like how the roof flows naturally onto the rear trunk lid. The roof lines don't fight the body lines of the Studebaker.

Striking color combination and the paint finish looks great. Like the clean looking body trim and the interior color.

I experienced much the same problem on the wagon. In my case I found that the bottom edge of the inner fenders would meet the frame before the chassis would reach the intended position. Sanding the bottom edge on the inner fenders seemed to improve the issue but didn't solve it completely. The top edge of the inner finders also makes contact with the bottom side of the front fenders and that also interferes with the front-end seating as it should.