DEL

And midnight work last night brought it to here.. Please excuse the crappy camera/operator/settings et-all..

More pain(full)staking progress...

Thanks, Anthony!! And all... Ahem; ..."War is Hell" Well, I have my own take on that adage: "Carving headers out of stock strip styrene is HELL!" A few pics of the in progress of the early 79-82 LTD - S Single-headlight header panel...

(Very nice, Paul..) But if ya gonna hang out in places like this, you should wear a badge on yo didies, er sumthin.... Take the cuffs off, Junior...

GILLIGAN!! Nice build, seriously. I started out with sailing warships and battleships before I fell under the spell of cars, so I really like this. Good build!

The grille is very nice and using paints and wash effects I would say that is as close as you could possibly get to recreating the look of the grille/turn signals without a major workover. Another way of doing it (the major thingie) would be to use some Oyumara quick mold, make fast slush molds of the grille edges, and then cast those edges in clear resin. Then carefully remove the plastic kit molded in signal lenses and substitute the clear cast resin versions. Lotta work tho.. Still, barring that, (and I'm not even sure how good that would look, maybe not as nice as this) I would say that's as good as it gets using paints. I almost feel like I'm back in the 70's and looking at the REAL DEAL. Makes me wanna walk over and open the door!

Working on it as we speak. Thanks!!

GMP: Don't know yet on price, but this will be full easy to assemble kit. The parts I've received from Greg so far have been sharp, excellent and sturdy. They also prime and paint well. You shouldn't have to scavenge another kit for completion parts or anything right down to tires if it goes as planned. MichaelW: I will add you to that list and notify you when they are available. Greg, thanks again. I know major life milestones and work have intruded lately. Thank you for all..

Same thing here on the yard work. Model building usually slows as the grass on almost six acres needs a perpetual trim in the summer. Which in Louisiana is like from March to early November. That plus upper 90's, high humidity and a heat index of over 100 has me retreating more as time goes by. Very good of you to build the model as a giveaway. I hope they appreciate the hard work. I have two cats that like to come up in my most intense moments of modeling, stand up on their hind legs and use my outer thigh as a claw-popping location to demand attention. I never get used to the surprise.

Great Project Anthony!! And... I don't know exactly how, but... (Ever get that 'being watched' feeling?) I sense a possible disturbance in the Force, and that an attack of some sort may be imminent...

Look at the skid-plate under that baby doll!!

Well in the mix of others I am currently working on I threw the 79 - 87 Box body LTD CV into the mix. Made a bit of headway the past two weeks, so I created another thread to host that project and it is linked below. Thanks for looking and keeping up with my projects.

Having done the 1988 - 1991 Ford LTD Crown Victoria, I thought I'd back up and do the earlier version that begins with the downsize in 1979. Since most of the tough work of the overall body was done in the 91 CVPI master, I took one of the test shots of the body that Greg had cast and sent me and tried to see how far I could get in modifying that into the basic 79-87 box form. And since Mike Schnur removed the header panel on the 91 to facilitate casting of the 91, that helps too because there are two basic header panel shapes and three maybe four different grilles that came and went on the car in those years. All I have to do is create each header/grille and that along with the taillight treatment (2 versions there) will decide which year is depicted. So, just to see how hard modifying resin would be I tackled the rear section first. And then I did the hood. Next up are those headers and bumpers. Here are a few pics..

THAT is just GORGEOUS!! Personally, I never cared for Torinos back in the day. For me back then it had to be a full-size four door pillared sedan with the biggest engine available. In essence or to be exact a police car. But these have grown on me with the passage of time. They have their place as well for me now. (and even sometimes the odd disco song. Disco Duck, anyone? ) That said the detail is exquisite on this one. I'm a Ford guy, but the big Fords of 1975-78 are my favs. I'm very familiar with them and I've had plenty of them in that exact color interior but mostly with a white ext. This is detailed to perfection. A museum level piece in my estimation. Kudos, sir!

I have one of those 75 Torino kits, I haven't opened it yet but as I recall in the illustration it does seem to look kind of like it. I will look into that I also have a Futura put away AND I'm going to look into those buttons as well I appreciate all the suggestions and pointers. thanks guys!

Well, Having received a few test shots of 1991 Bodies from Greg to work with, over the weekend I started in on the mods to make the 79-87 body style myself. I hope to have a few pics to show shortly. Right now I'm modifying the trunk and rear fascias areas on the main body, then it will be a matter of a new hood and header/grille and then that one will be done too. I'm hoping since about 75-80% of the 'hard' or main work is done, I won't take another 9 years to finish this one as I did the 91. Also I spoke to Greg over the weekend and he had said to send on what I have done so the 77 LeMans, 1973 Bel Air and 78 Nova 9C1 will be going out soon as well. Greg has been a bit sidelined lately but I think he'll be back on it all shortly. So stay tuned...Same Bat-Time Same Bat-Channel.

Thanks Guys! I will add each of you to the Nova list I am keeping and let you know when these are available. Back in that time period I had little regard for these because it was A) something Cali did (they rrty all kinds of things. Some OK, some not) and because in my limited experience young mind only big full size four door sedans with the largest big block available qualified as 'real' copcars in my view. Funny how forty years and the tinge of nostalgia (Pres. Carter, Billy Beer, those fun OPEC oil embargoes and the resulting lines and headaches for gas) makes one re-visit these original impressions in a different way. I see now it was a hot, fast little car which was light and had a couple of seats bolted to a 350/4bbl basically. How could it NOT be a screamer even smog emission choked? I have fallen in love with them.

Thanks, Danno! Here is another few 'almost dunn' pics of the 4dr-d interior showing rear door panel detail and the sedan package tray. Small mods to the dash to make a 78 one and find or build a Camaro steering wheel and I THINK this will be another one done and going to the que to be replicated. Thanks again to Anthony for the donor parts and all the encouragement and feedback on the project. When I get those other bits done I'll post another pic of the car mocked up. Heck, I might even go ahead and B&W it. Casting doesn't know color eh?

The ones in the pic above I sent to Greg are exactly what the MH Hubcaps are trying to be. Don't get me wrong, the MH ones were Ok when nothing else at all was available. And I greatly appreciate whoever created them, plus The MH for allowing us to use them. I too thought (by looking at pics of them on other models both earlier in this thread and below again) that they would be perfect for this car. Unfortunately holding them in your hand strips away everything a pic can do to redirect your eyes from wherever it may miss. I understand my modeling may well fall into this same trap once an eager modeler gets one in his hands. I hope not but that's why I took so long to even surface. Seriously, I thought the MH caps were PERFECT too. No offense to whoever created them I mean that, they ARE pretty good. Still someone added a Ford Oval in the center of the cap and unlike above where it is imprinted in the center circle it stands UP, way up above the surface inside that center ring. Also, the very edge of th real one has a small indented edge or 'lip' there. The other one omits that, and is almost flat as well. I took a crack at milling this very hubcap several years ago using my dremel. I have like 5-10 abject failures but I did make ONE that I was a bit proud of. So I put it in a safe place. So safe so far it has eluded me but I have an idea.. Also It just occurs to me that when I sent the master I built of my 1978 Ford LTD to Art Anderson it had no hubcaps at the time. I had nowhere near the skill to do that back then, so he managed to mill up some pretty nice examples. The inner ridge is not as stand-up-ish but I think the little rim at the edge is fairly well represented. It is attached for perusal as well. Hmm. They DO look verra, verra much alike.. Got me thinking about the chicken and the egg paradox. BTW: these hubcaps on both the 1:1 cars the 1978 LTD and the 91 CVPI are the exact same hubcap. One has a crest (the 70's one) and the other the Ford Oval imprinted in the center. The MH Hubcap below on the 91 CVPI. It looks nice! The following three pics are of the caps on my 78 LTD that AA created for it back in 1998. I think you can see that edge lip on it. I might even have a set of these somewhere but the center circle on this one is done as an inlay instead of a reveal.

Thanks guys for the encouragement... The interior is almost done, I am trying to do something with the kit glass... We will see. Or we WON'T! And then it would be pretty much done I suppose.. Keep watching. New pics coming soon..

What he said, and here you go. Any seat surface not where the body contacts will be color keyed vinyl. The backs & sides of the seats, headrests, and the panels below the seating area on the front and back seats. Ford in that era did not waste upholstery fabric on areas not making booty or back contact. Here is in the first pic, a picture of the interior of my restored 1978 Ford LTD Police. Have a look at those areas mentioned and you will see they are all vinyl. You can even see a bit of the back of the front seat just before it disappears down. the area you said you couldn't find a pic of. Also here are two more other LTD's, 75-78 and they will show it done the same way. Ford did all their cars in this fashion in that era. I used to strip out interiors to use in copcars that's why I'm fairly certain of it. A Torino or any other Ford offering with cloth upholstery is done the same way. Even the Landau's if I remember right. Doing a great job on this model, I LOVE your carpeted areas. Super realistic looking and in scale to boot Kudos! The one below is a bit more upscale version, a lower form of the Landau, and a 2dr to boot. Hard to tell but the surface seating areas and the contact points on the armrests are CLOTH. All else is vinyl. Hmm..Looking at the pic below I notice that the front seat back valance under the backrest, leading off the seat surface to the rear is also a piece of color-keyed CARPET. Forgot about that.

Thanks! As to Armor all or Son Of A gun read my comments earlier sans curse words about that stuff!!

Now the bottom & a bit of shaping. can't be just hard square rectangular.. Ta=Daaa!!

No sinister intentions taken. Just thought if you were trying to impart some info or guidance I didn't want to miss it. Moving on.. A couple of thrilling pics of the front bench seat build for the Nova 9C1. After the thrills, you may have to take tomorrow off from work. MAy want to save for Sat. so you have a day to recover. First off had to remove that pesky trans tunnel console shift housing and create a plain-jane tranny tunnel. Then you start with a rounded "L" cut from sheet styrene. Put a back, then a front on the backrest.

Huh? Did you mean to post a pic? Does not compute, Will Robinson.. Currently, I am scratchbuilding a front bench seat for it. When done it will be plain, flat stretched cowhide like the deck of an aircraft carrier and whatever color you want to paint it. Like so: