Monty

That must've taken some effort to rub out satin paint and end up with that finish! Obviously it was worth it. I love the way that engine turned out, too. If your arms aren't too tired from making that paint shine, pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Any chance we can get a picture of that car outside in the sunlight?

Once you find an appropriate Cadillac, here are a few other ideas: 1) Paint all three cars with the correct shades of lacquer paint, then use an easily-removed paint to replicate the various slogans they wrote on each other's cars. 2) Find a 1/25 dead cow for Jeremy's Camaro. 3) Use the Tamiya "Friends" figures to replicate May trying to jump start his Caddy.

I've been a rattle can hater for decades, but that doesn't mean other people can't have success with them. Here's a mid-70s Vette that board member jcvt went old school on. This was painted using Testors enamel straight from the can. No polishing, no clearcoat, just well-applied paint.

It's not a stupid question. In the real world, one week of regular driving would trash those tires.

Christian, if you found a way to create and complete a model of this, could it be called a Fourgon Conclusion?

In my experience, newer modelers often overlook the interior as something that can enhance the accuracy of a given model. This is a major oversight because dashboards, especially the older ones, can be one of the most detailed aspects of the entire kit. I wish I could take credit for this, but IIRC, it was done by one of the members of this board. As others have said, study pictures of the 1:1 items and use whatever you need to emulate that look.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with the paint. Since you mentioned Testors by name, I assume the nozzle was responsible for most of the carnage. Here's a link to my comments about Testors cans from the Abandon the Airbrush thread: http://www.modelcars...pic=55515&st=41 That said, everything else looks pretty sharp.

Thanks Marcos!

Allow me to quote myself from a similar thread back in 2010: I gravitated to airbrushes years ago because I had too many projects ruined by Testors rattle cans. After hours of body prep, I would follow the litany of prescribed rituals required for getting a new can of paint ready to use (shaking the can, heating it in warm water, etc). Then, depending on the whims of the model gods, the notorious Testors nozzles would usually do one of the following: A ) ejaculate viscous globs of paint in a pattern that only Jackson Pollock could appreciate B ) allow a trickle of runny paint to spurt out 1/2 inch from the can. To get a proper visual of this, imagine trying to stop a bout of dysentery by cutting a cork from top to bottom and only inserting one half. C ) spray some paint in a usable manner. I can't recall if this ever actually happened on any of my projects, but a few of my friends say they had some success, and they don't lie very often. Unlike a lot of you, I couldn't seem to manage varying the pressure on rattle cans. (Mist coats? Ha!) To me, using rattle cans was the virtual equivalent of trying to do calligraphy with a charred log. I'll take the "extra effort" of the airbrush any day.

OK, looks like Roger was more than up to the challenge. Did you end up gluing the tire to the outside of the rim? If so, what do you recommend for that?

That's why I mentioned they were different from old AMT/MPC wheels, which, when assembled with the "backing ring", are closer to 1:1 steel wheels in that they have an inside and an outside flange to hold the tire in place. This Revell wheel relies on the inner cavity of the tire to "trap" the raised center ring & hold everthing in place. Grinding off the center ring might allow it to fit inside another tire but there is nothing to keep the wheel from just pulling through. Also, lacking a true outside flange like most wheels (model or 1:1), I'd be concerned about how they would actually look. Challenge: (similar to the one in my reply above) Show me a picture of this wheel mounted on an MPC tire roughly the size of the ones that would've come in the Impala kit.

I could see those hollow Firestones fitting well because the raised ring on the wheel would fit right inside the empty space between the sidewalls (pretty much like the Revell tires). However, the hollow AMT Firestones and the Revell tires from the Willys kit are too small for the car I'm building. If someone could show one of these wheels mounted on one of AMT's hollow Goodyear Polyglas tires, I'd love to see it.

I recently traded for two sets of the front wheels and tires from Revell's Big John Mazmanian Willys kit because I wanted a full set of these wheels for a pending project. I'm very happy with the appearance of the wheels, but the car they're intended for will require larger tires, and that's where I run into a problem. Upon receiving the wheels, I discovered they don't "mount" like a standard AMT or MPC wheel. These have a raised, centered ring that goes around the outside of the wheel and fits into a recessed groove molded into the inside of the tire. If you've figured out a way to use these wheels with other tires, please let me know how.

Way to go, Domink! Your color choices really work well on that body style, and the red pinstripe provides the perfect accent. What paints did you use for the two main colors?

I remember being all excited about this kit, even though I wasn't familiar with the manufacturer. I was a huge fan of the styling on the then-current T-Birds and Lincoln Mk IVs,and this was about the only game in town when it came to getting a model of one. The box illustration gives the impression that there would be at least two wide wheels and tires with the kit (probably a set of four like AMT or MPC, my 13 year old mind reasoned) and goodness knows what options they included to hop up that big ol' 460. Yeah... as I'm boiling the skinny, stock tires (per the instructions) to make them more pliable so the stock wheels can be installed, I'm fuming at the lack of...everything. No engine, fat tires, or even aftermarket wheels (despite the misspelled "Crager" decal) on the box art. Needless to say, this didn't turn out well. And the moral of the story is: if you're going to punish a plastic model for being a suggestively packaged, poorly designed excrement heap, cover it in kerosene and toss a match on it. Kerosene burns slowly, which will allow you some time to enjoy watching it turn into an even less useful lump of plastic. Ah, catharsis!

Just another example of the impact a well-executed factory stock build can have. It may have Jeep paint, but on that car it looks like it might have been part of the firemist collection of colors available back then. Nice job!

Paul, nice to see what you've been able to complete since you took up the hobby. That little Maserati was originally made by Aurora & had opening doors, trunk & hood, so yeah, it's a bit fiddly. Monogram ended up with the tooling in the late '70s(?), and molded them in a hideous shade of eggplant purple. Looks like you got all the body panels to line up nicely! (side note: I saw one of these 3500GTs on Wealth TV the other day when they were out at a concourse event for Italian cars. The car was a '57 with factory electric windows.) For only having six months experience, you seem to have gotten the basics down. If you have any questions about techniques etc, feel free to ask. This board has some very talented & helpful members.

OK, apparently I missed a memo somewhere along the line. I'd heard rumors that Accurate Miniatures was either no longer in existence or they had relegated themselves to only producing aircraft models. So who, exactly, is releasing this kit?

I see several people have given you instructions on how to detail the front of the grille, but if I understand your question correctly, you want to know how to make the back side of the grille look as accurate as the front. Is that correct?

Alex, I like what you've done so far. One quick tip for accuracy: On most (All?) Mopars of this vintage, the engine bay was painted the same color as the car itself. On yours, it would be fairly easy to mask this area off and spray it. It probably wouldn't hurt to mask across the bottom of the engine bay to keep paint from going through and possibly ending up back on your car. Once the paint has dried, you can do all the detail painting etc.

How 'bout this: instead of looking to others for inspiration, ask yourself what you would do if you owned the real car and had some funds to modify it. Which colors/engine/wheels/tires etc would you like to have most? Failing that, it never hurts to check out Google images. You'll see details of the real cars you can use to make yours more authentic, and you'll probably come across some ideas you may want to incorporate into your build.

Paul, thanks for clarifying that for me.

Paul, looks like you've done a great job on your truck. Would you mind explaining the term "Oregon doubles" to me? Are they anything like super singles? As you've probably already guessed I don't know much about semis, but I occasionally drop in on this section to see what's being built. Lotta talented guys here.

Mark, if this turns out as well as I think it will, is there any chance it might become your new avatar?

Check out Art - layin' down a sweet paint job like that on his first try with Tamiya lacquers. I'm guessing he used Mica Red to top off a very clean build.