Hi-Po

Nice, clean build. I like it!

Very nicely done!

Simply beautiful! I love the color. Nicely done.

Looking sharp!

Looks good!!

Love the color combo! Keep up the great work.

The stand is left over from some long ago and forgotten airplane kit. All I did was drill some holes in the vertical part and then added lead shot to the underneath of the base, which I then covered with sheet styrene. I did this to prevent the model from tipping over. Thanks again for all of the nice comments.

Looking good!

Fantastic paint job! Nice and clean build.

Nicely done. Beautiful build.

Looking good! Love the color.

Thanks everyone for the comments, they are appreciated. Terry

Three or four months ago I was looking through the an issue of Hot Rod Magazine when I came across a short article about a 1954 Buick Mobile Starting Gate. The subject matter really caught my interest and I saved the article for later reference. It was a month or so later when I decided that I was going to attend the IPMS Nationals in Phoenix, AZ. It was at this time that I decided to build the mobile starting gate. I was not able to find a suitable '54 Buick, injected or resin, so I did some research and discovered that any number of different vehicles have been used as starting gates. I settled on the MPC 1970 Pontiac Bonneville because I wanted a LONG vehicle to accommodate eight gate positions. Note: the Pontiac is really showing its age. Lots of flash, soft moldings, warpage, etc. The entire starting gate was scratch built using styrene rod, tubing and rectangular tubing. Other items that were scratch built include the control pedestal, chair, loudspeakers (front and rear), gate supports and the clipboard on the front seat. The Pontiac was modified by scratch building a trunk lid cover that hides the supporting framework and mechanicals for the starting gate. The kits molded in headlights were drilled out and replaced with clear lenses. I used various sizes of wire for the electrical and hydraulic lines. The model was painted using Tamiya Light Sand Metallic (TS 700) for the car body. The interior was painted Model Masters Leather. The starting gate is a mixture of Tamiya and Model Masters paints. The decals were produce on my home computer and transferred to Microscale Decal Paper using a laser printer at the local FedEx store. This was a fun and enjoyable build and I was able to finish it in time to enter it in the Nationals were it took first place in its class. Enjoy the photos.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. To BigTallDad, in regards to the steering wheel, I have seen boats steered from either the left or right side. I am not sure if that has something to do with the manufacture or not. Anyway, the kit came with left side steering and I just left it that way.

When I am not building cars or aircraft, I tend to stray into other areas of the hobby. Case in point is this Revell Hemi-Hydro speed boat. I build this a couple of years back after buying an estate collection. The kit was complete minus the trailer. Not wanting to scratch build a trailer, I decided to mount it on a pedestal. The benefit of this is that the work that I did under the boat is now plainly visible. Some of the modifications that I did to the kit include: scratch building a cover for the V-drive, angled the mountings for the gauges, added moldings around the seats, open storage area in dash and made new header pipes using solder and plastic tube. The headers were chromed using Alclad ll as were the valve covers, fuel tank and other items. The motor has been detailed with spark plug wires, fuel lines, alternator, oil line, coolant tank and lines and heat exchanger. I also scratch built the skag, prop shaft and mounting, along with the adjusters for the cavitation plate at the rear of the boat. I even built a "floatie" for the key chain. Look to the left of the steering wheel and you will see it. The boat was painted using Model Masters paint. I don't remember the exact color names other than one was a purple and the other was an orange. A reference to the colors is in the boats name, " NEHI", as in NEHI soda. The "bubbles" are yellow decals that I cut from a solid sheet of decal paper. Yes, that is a lot of bubbles, 127 to be exact. I then added 3-D effects to the bubbles using acrylic paints. The orange stripe was made using orange decal paper. The model was then clear coated using MM clear from the spray can. Enjoy the photos.

Nice representation of the one to one. Great job.

Very nice, clean build. Great job on the paint.

Simply beautiful. I really like what you did with the seats, very convincing look of leather.

As Fabulous as the Fab Four! Fantastic paint job, well done, ol'chap.

Outstanding build!!!

Love the old Chevys! Beautiful build.

Looking good!

A very beautiful build. Nice and clean.

Great job on a very interesting subject.

Outstanding work! Beautifully done.