Ace-Garageguy

Actually, the Indy car is a model of a Kurtis, circa 1955, indeed Monogram. The Watson was similar (the first successful Watson was a modified Kurtis, if I remember correctly) and began a little later than Kurtis in the Indy "roadster" line. Pure trivia....some versions of the AMT Watson also had hard plastic tires.

Harold:" Where did you get that custom grille?" It's from the old Monogram Predicta kit. Thanks again for all the interest. I'm trying a new technique on the repairs....will update if and when it works.

Wow. Beautiful model.

Beautiful build, and as said above, that engine bay shot is absolutely incredible. Man oh man.

She's a beauty, a real stunner.

Great project. Looks just like all my cars, models and 1:1.

Truly interesting concept.

Thanks very much, Bernard. To answer your question, I guess it was the twin challenges to complete something by a deadline and the requirement to work outside of my particular box, which doesn't usually include muscle-cars, that prompted me to go for it. I had been thinking of doing something similar with an AMT '69 Trans Am shell I had, but when the Gearz contest came up, I started wondering how the same treatment would work on the Chevelle. I looked at pix of the car in 1:1 chopped, and thought most of them kinda missed the mark, flow-wise, so it became a challenge all around. Once I got into the kit itself and found it had some issues, primarily mold parting-lines badly messing with the character lines on the front fenders, it was starting to look like I'd never make it. I had originally planned to do Lambo-style doors too, but thankfully a friend talked me out of it. I just barely made the deadline as it was. I made plenty of mistakes during the build I had to correct too. I have a history of not completing my own projects that seem to start well, and I felt if I really held my feet to the fire, so to speak, on this one, maybe I could finally break that bad habit. All of the builds I have going are experimental in one way or another, and I've been polishing old skills and learning new ones for the past 5 years after about 40 away from the hobby. I'd sometimes get to a point where a build would require me to stretch my abilities a little more than I was comfortable with, and I'd shelve it rather than risk screwing something up that already had a lot of time in it. But it just seemed that everything lined up to make it happen now, and I figured if I let myself slide another year or waited for another contest, I'd probably never finish anything. You asked. And thanks again.

That is without a doubt one of the strangest things I've ever seen. Love it, love it, love it.

Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement. I got the molds pulled off of the repop body and cleaned up. Now for the tricky bit.

Thank you. The paint is Testor's rattle-can Flaming Orange "one coat" lacquer, 5 coats actually, over white Duplicolor primer (over gray high-build Duplicolor primer) and 4 coats of Testor's "wet look" clear, the top surfaces sanded and polished.

Man, I love this thing. I was a mechanic on some racing Abarths in the early '70s including a 1300 OT, which was on a modified Fiat 850 chassis if I remember right. We bought several Abarth cars from Al Cosentino / Faza, and ran them in SCCA. Incredibly fast for what they were, and tough. What engine is going under that hood scoop?

Great looking little car. Really fine work on opening those doors too.

Now that I've actually finished a build, I've decided to bring this one home next. It came with a mixed-lot of gluebombs and assorted junk in an ebay purchase, and I really didn't even know what it was until I researched the "Phoenix" script on the quarter panel. It had been painted with a dirty pinecone, and then either stepped on or thrown against a wall. Something about the remains struck a chord, and I found myself thinking about how to restore it. Not much to restore, but after a bath in oven cleaner and re-attaching the two major parts, it started to look a little better. I'm going with a contemporary mild-custom style build, as a convertible. Chassis will be a later-model Mopar, with probably something like a multi-carb 383. The body is missing the roof and major chunks from the quarters. It shared bench space with my '70 Chevelle for the Gearz contest before I had decided to finish that one. I found a nicely done resin repop of the original kit, and made fiberglass molds of the missing sections of the green body.

Thanks again for all the kind words. Here are a few more pix.... A profile showing the chop better..... A higher chassis shot..... And a better shot of the rework of the tail and decklid....

Thanks for all the positive comments, everyone.

I really want to thank you all for all the info on entering, resizing, etc. I hadn't gone thru to the "thank you" page, and assumed it was just a glitch. If it hadn't been for all of your helpful posts, my entry wouldn't have made the deadline. Thanks again, Bill

I haven't finished anything in years, but the 2012 Revell-Gearz contest was the inspiration I needed, I guess. Just got it in at about 7:00 PM. Scale 4" chop, de-chromed body and flush-fitted windshield; Corvette C5-R chassis stretched using the original Chevelle center pan and a partially scratch-built cage and fuel tanks; Chevelle kit 454 modified with front blower and magneto, custom through-frame exhausts; filled parking lights and reshaped, narrowed and painted front bumper; Hood opened up for radiator duct with scratch-built gills; Deckild opened with through-panel vintage Indy-car fuel filler; custom rear panel with C5 taillights and rolled pan; Optional Chevelle-kit chrome wheels with custom alloy rims.Testors Flaming Orange lacquer and 4 coats of clear.

I'm new....thought I'd post a few pics of some ongoing builds, and see if I have a handle on the procedure for same. Let's see what happens with a '34 Ford tracknose.... and a sectioned and channeled '40 Ford custom..... ...a chopped and channeled '37 slantback on a C5 chassis...... ....a Ferrari powered '34 Ford pickup...... .......and a rework of the old Monogram Predicta kit, for starters.