Intmd8r

Very impressive detail. Nice work!

a little progress and a quick mock up

This will never be a show model, so I'm going to finish it in box stock form and display it in my son's bedroom (he loves this truck!). Restoration includes the tonneau cover being painted black to hide the Ford decal. Still need to touch up the tail gate and bed sides. I love the blown big block in this kit!

The body is painted with Inca Gold Lacquer as the base, Transparent Red Enamel, and details were highlighted with Model Master Turn Signal Yellow, and Acrylic Neon Green. One Coat Clear topped things off (can you guess my mistake). Mixing enamel and lacquer was an oversight on my part and not intentional. End result was the obvious wrinkling of the clear coat. Being 20 years old, the decals did not fare well either. Excessive amounts of Micro Sol did not resolve the issue. After 5 years, you can call this a restoration or a rescue project. Somehow, I managed to wet sand the wrinkles and give the body a decent shine. Time to pick up where I left off. Sorry, no "before" pics.

Looks awesome!

Very nice!

nice work - very accurate to the real deal. Had the pleasure of touring the KTM assembly plant in Austria a few years back and saw these touring bikes (and other models) assembled in person. What a facility - the cleanest manufacturing plant I have ever seen, second to only to Toyota. Love the quality control: EVERY engine is strapped to a diagnostics machine and run at WOT for full 20 minutes. If there is a slightest vibration or RPM out of spec, then it doesn't see a bike chassis. When the bike is completed, it is driven off the assembly line and on to a chassis dyno where it is hooked up and again ran at WOT for 15 minutes. If everything is in spec, then its ridden (hard) out of the plant. Would have taken pics, but we had to sign an agreement preventing us from doing so. Thanks for sharing your model!

Interesting idea. Love it good luck with your project

Laid down a light coat of primer this morning to help me identify better the areas that need a little more attention. Glad I did - still some more work to do. Ultimately pleased with the progress so far.

Nice! reminds me of Dusty Crophopper from Disney Planes

Here's some progress pics of the rear hatch. I'm liking the new profile .

Thanks David. I’ve had practice with other failed projects. Learned some lessons along the way. Always start off with a spare body lol. That seems like a challenging build. Haven’t tried sectioning a body yet. Do you have a link to your project? I’m interested in tips for a future project. I like how the hood turned out.

Impressive work

I'm really diggin this!

Satisfied with how the "A" pillars came out, Going to finish off the "C" pillars/hatch next. Light coat of primer after that and then we'll see how much clean up is left after the body mods.

Thanks guys

More Chassis work. For those keeping score, the Caddy swap is becoming more trouble than its worth, but I'm going to see it through. Some minor trimming of the floor pans and gentle reshaping of the trans tunnel, now everything fits all snug.

Modified the "X" bracing today to fit the Caddy engine. Still have some filling and sanding to do, but things are looking better.

Great job - I've been glowing this build from the beginning. Accurate representation of the real deal. For extra realism, Honda's of this generation (I've been under been a few!) have light grey primer on the floor pans and uni body. The sub frame, gas tank, lower rad shroud, and suspension components were painted in semigloss black. That excludes the ones that were covered in aftermarket undercoating or rust lol. Here's an example of an Integra build I did as example.Hard to see, but there is body color over spray along the edges.

Nice and clean - well done!

I recall having a similar problem when I built this kit.

Excellent work. I’m a big fan of Ron Fellows and this car is a personal favourite of mine. Job well done ?

Nailed it!

Thanks Andy yes - lost of work to do still on the A pillars and rear hatch. Just nice to see progress. I did consider swapping chassis between the two vehicles, but the Mercury appears to be wider in scale form. Not sure if this is accurate for the real thing. Regardless, have plans to build the Merc to near stock specs in the future. Decided not to half arse the engine mounting - going to rework the x bracing of the frame so that the Caddy engine looks like an OEM fit.

Here's a few more of my additions to the list: