Monty

Chris, I love the way that Lincoln turned out & I'm also interested in finding this paint. Could you give us a mfr name & P/N?

I love it when an accomplished modeler refuses to settle for "good enough". Fixing all those issues must've been time consuming, but as we can see, the payoff is a much better build. Thanks for listing your solutions, Jürgen. I'm sure they'll benefit others who'd like to address those same issues.

So many things to like, but even if I had the money the styling would deter me.

If you'll allow me to offer some perspective on that, the majority of truck builders on here are from North America where 1:1 trucks like this are virtually unknown since they are neither built nor sold here. Having never heard of Iveco myself, I took this opportunity to look them up. According to Wikipedia: Iveco is an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, an Italian industrial vehicle and bus manufacturing company based in Turin, Italy. This name IVECO comes from a merger of Italian, French and German brands, and the brand has won numerous awards for quality and innovation. So, it's a European truck with no ties to the North American market. That in no way diminishes Rich's meticulous detailing and assembly work, let alone what looks to be a flawless paint job. Again, I believe the lack of comments is due to the lack of familiarity with this truck.

I'm not sure where to start with the compliments. Several aspects of this build got my attention right away, like the paint, the tight grain on the vinyl roof, the scratchbuilding (especially the grille) & the interior detailing, but the clarity & staging of the photography really helped make this a great post. May I ask what paints/techniques you used on the exhaust manifolds? PS - welcome to our board!

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Ray & I already arrived a consensus: the car should be blue & silver. Oscar, thanks for the names of the paints. That green is going on something of mine.

Oh, I'm a regular styrene wizard when I get to use all the parts I buy from GoogleImageModelStuff.com

Seriously, all the other work you've done on this is worth making this repair, and it's an incredibly easy fix. Use an X-Acto blade to trim the wire flush with the cylinder head and use a tiny amount of superglue over the holes. Move the wires up to where they belong and glue them on, then use a small brush to paint over the superglued holes. 100% more accurate and even beginner modelers could do it.

Chief Joseph is a member of this board who happens to cast some very nice tires for American cars of a certain era. He also has a wide-ranging list of white letter tire script decals for a variety of brands, which allows many of us to recreate the street machines of our youth more accurately. He does very nice work, his products are very affordable and he's very easy to get along with.

I see some nice work, but you really need to redo the plug wires. These Boss 429s are kinda like Mopar hemi engines in that the plugs go down through the top of the valve cover. See if this pic helps

You'll find it's a great way to experiment cheaply on matters such as: Does this paint work over this primer or Does this clear affect this paint etc.

I'd suggest you do a Google image search for these kits. In amongst the ebay listings you'll find some pictures of nicely built versions of each of the ones you mentioned. When the 442 was first issued, a couple reviews mentioned that the interior seemed "a bit shallow" and that the front glass/roof should have more curvature at the top a la the Revell '67 Chevelle. Some also say that the front grille comes off a little clubnosed when compared to the 1:1 car's. IMNSHO, it's not as bad as Revell's '69 Mustang grille, and most people won't notice the windshield curvature or interior depth. OTOH, Lindberg took the anti-Monogram approach and made most of the underhood parts separate instead of molding everything together. The engine seems to have all the right details and the chassis features fairly good engraving with separate suspension and exhaust components, making detailing easier. Some aspects of this kit may take a little more tweaking than usual (side chrome trim) but with nice paint & accurate detailing it displays very well. I don't recall any significant issues with the Chevelle, so it should be a fairly safe bet as well. Better tires might be the biggest improvement, and those can be cheaply and easily found. Since I never bought the Impala, I can only comment on the ones I've seen built on this forum, and they generally turned out very well. Strive for accuracy and I think you'll be pleased with any of these kits.

I remember when this stuff came out. I was surprised that my LHS didn't have it but, of all places, Woolworths did. I was big into Revell's 1/25 funny cars at the time, so I was disappointed to see that Aurora had issued all this stuff in a scale I didn't care about (1/16?) I'll bet if they had done these in 1/25 they could've given Revell a run for the money in accuracy.

Blue & silver two-tone. May I ask what manufacturer's paints were used on the spoons?

Ummm, what's up with the black intake manifold?

Wayne, this has me intrigued. IIRC, the 155 is a single needle/tip dual action AB that will spray anything from a tight fine line to a very wide pattern. I'm not sure if I've ever heard of someone not liking their 155. What is it about the Talon TG3F with its three needles/tips that make you prefer it over the 155? (I don't own either, but I'm always "looking".)

The AMT '68 Shelby kit has the optional parts to do this engine. If it matters, Ford never installed it in any production vehicle.

Peekay, I'm glad you brought this up. BVC500 is a fairly new member with less than 15 posts to his credit, but he stepped up to help immediately. Members like that make for a better board.

Ah, the new guy steps up & delivers the goods. Thank you!

Me too! That may be my all-time favorite AMT box art. If the store would've had more than one of those kits, I would've found a way to get them all.

No, that's the one on Walnut Hill Lane in Dallas, although I have been in there once. That's how I found out that HT carries Humbrol paints. The store I was asking about was in a shopping center in Plano. I drove over there a couple weeks ago to pick up some stuff and the place was empty.

I was happy to discover this store about a couple months ago, but now it seems they're no longer in their old location in The Shops @ Willowbend. Anybody know where they went?

Technically it's probably possible, but I think you'll find they work best in smaller areas by virtue of the size of the tips. Many parts of a model have (relatively) huge areas of plastic that need painted, such as the chassis, interior panels & engine blocks, and you're talking about using something with 1/2" or less tip size. Would you paint your house with a 4" brush? There's a reason we use spray paints and airbrushes. I'd think your results would be streaky at best. Another reason against is the vast array of colors used in replicating an actual car. There are untold numbers of model paints to help accomplish this, and if the specific color doesn't happen to be available, they can be mixed to get the needed result. No such option with markers. OTOH, they seem to be indispensable to the NASCAR guys and others who need a blacking agent around the edges of windshields etc. Red Sharpies can also be used to enhance clear red tail lights, and in conjunction with blue Sharpies, can help create the illusion of anodized fittings, while narrow silver Sharpies seem to be a go-to item for painting hardlines on chassis. As you've probably gathered, I use them to augment my paints. JMNSHO

I got ahead of myself back in the late '90s while building Monogram's F250 pickup. I had become fairly adept at removing all traces of visible join lines (engine block halves etc) and that carried over onto the truck's 2-piece muffler. It took some effort with files & sandpaper to get the seamless look I was after, but I was very proud of the result....until I looked at the instructions and noticed that Monogram intended for the flanged front half of the exhaust pipe to be inserted between the muffler halves. I'll finish it....someday.