Merkur XR4Ti

Just off the workbench: Ricky Stenhouse Jr’s Fifth Third Bank Ford Fusion. Ricky got his first career win at Talladega in this car, in 2017. Stoney’s decals, Testor’s Big Bad Blue, and Tamiya TS-15 were used. I made a front splitter from sheet plastic and adjusted the ride height using the Clay Kemp methods shown in his YouTube videos.

I'm building the Smokey and the Bandit version of this now and the one thing I do like about the kit with it's diecast origins is that it assembles very, very solidly. Good strong attachment points, holes for mirrors, clever engineering of the headlight and grille assembly. And in black it looks good.

It's the overhead lights reflecting off the hood.

This car was driven in the 2003 Daytona 500 for Andy Petree Racing. I commissioned Sam Lopez of 3 Amigos Decals to make the graphics for this car, as I had always wanted to build it. Paint is Tamiya TS-50.

I got the vermillions from Salvino's as I'm a member of their builders club. I believe they are also available at Mike's Decals.

Built from the recently-issued brand new Salvino's kit. The Rocket Red is all decals, I only painted the blue (Tamiya TS-23). I didn't have to make any mods except narrowing the rear track; the stance is right out of the box using one rear spacer just like the instructions said. This was a very fun build.

Salvino's is a 3 man company that produces runs of 5000 kits each. I like them and am part of the Builder's Club, but it's much easier to be transparent when you're a very small company as opposed to Revell which is a large company that will produce kit runs of more than 100,000 kits.

Jay, this is an amazing replica. Love it!

I love the new issue! One question: are there guidelines or requirements for having our forum builds appear in the magazine? I saw those pics and really enjoyed that section of the magazine, would love to get one of mine in there one day. Just wondering about requirements.

Here's a look at mine, just painted, no decals. Might give a better idea of the body. I'm very pleased with the body lines and stance right out of the box.

This was built from the excellent new 3 Amigos decal sheet. I had been wanting to build this car forever! I used a pro finish Monte Carlo as I think the body is more accurate than the one in the glue kit. I painted it black, then misted the white background on the lower part of the body. All the rest is on the decal sheet, which was exceptionally easy to use. The colors are vibrant and the graphics perfect.

Shockingly this is the first '57 Chevy I've ever built. Out of the excellent Revell kit, painted with Scale Finishes Dusk Rose.

You nailed the paint! What color is the orange?

Built box stock from the Revell kit. This was a really nice kit to build, so problems at all.

What color blue did you paint the hood scoop?

First model of the new year: 1967 Olds 442. I have always had trouble painting black as it magnifies any paint flaws or scratches. I tend to shy away from it, but I decided to challenge myself and build this with the black over red paint scheme. For the new year and all. I’m very happy with the way it came out. This is the Lindberg kit.

I converted AMT’s Impala COT into a Fusion by puttying and reshaping the front end and with some painting. I used a resin front bumper from Mike’s decals for the 2011 specs. Decals are from Ace (made for the 2014 car) plus I used some from a Powerslide sheet for the grille graphics. I also made up a couple of my own on my inkjet printer, for the Pearson HOF decal and the Ford Parts on the rear. It’s not 100% accurate but it’s fairly close and I tried some new things. I’m very pleased with the result.

I had zero issues.

I received my copy yesterday and it's so nice to get an issue again. Thank you!

Powerslide decals and Testor's lacquer.

I used the reissue of the kit from...2012? or so. It had the Lorenzen decals and the rollcage parts in it, it's got the Lorenzen car on the top of the box.

Obscure? It's one of the most famous cars in all history albeit for all the wrong reasons. I'm still really surprised. I've built two of them, what a blast they were.

The 1958 Edsel was a sales bomb in kit form? I'm extremely surprised to hear that. That was a brilliant kit.