Fat Brian

Yeah, the gold stripes on the green are so classy looking. The white is kind of jarring. I also went with a slightly darker top color to stay with the understated looks. I can't wait to get it in the sun and let the paint do its thing.

I'm calling her done for this year. This is one of the stockest things I've ever built, especially considering the amount of kitbasing it took. This is the Hertz kit with body from the 64 convertible. The only change I made to the driveline was swapping in a T5 five speed for high speed driving. I also added a roll bar and a center console with a short shifter for the five speed. The wheels are from the 69 Talladega kit with Revell tires in the front and AMT tires in the rear. I also widened the rear wheels and added the optional through the valance exhaust. I thing the rear bumper is from the AMT 66 GT kit that just came back out. It worked out well because the bumper drop down pieces are closer together so I could run them with the exhaust.

Yes, you need to use acrylic paints or Future on tires. The plasticizers in the tire compound won't allow enamels to ever dry on tires. I used Tamiya on these, one coat under the tire decals to give them a good surface to adhere to and one on top to even out the shine.

For painting on the body I use water based Tamiya paint so I can clean it quickly with a damp q-tip. For painting on the clear parts I mask the straightest sections one or two at a time and use Mr Color flat black. It cleans up with alcohol so it won't hurt the clear parts. Once I've masked as much as I reasonably can I free hand the rest. The trim on this car was an absolute nightmare buy it turned out better than I expected.

The terrible headlights and surrounding area of the front end.

I'm looking for options to build a 64 Polara 440 or 500. My first thought was to swap the roof from the Lindberg Belvedere to the 330 body but after taking some measurements it won't fit correctly. Has anyone used modern kit guts on the Johan body? Do the Lindberg grille and bumpers fit the Johan body? Does the Lindberg Belvedere glass fit the Johan body? I don't want to pay collector prices for a Johan kit just for most of to go unused.

Does he have anything to fix the front end?

Honestly, I've completely switched to Mr Color, Tamiya, and Vallejo brush paints. They're just so much better it's worth the expense.

That's the thing, the average run of a kit today is 5k pieces. You might see 10k on a new tooling that's expected to really move. The only way they're going back to the well on the Mustang kit is if they decide to do a GT one day. Personally, I think that's highly unlikely because it under cuts kits they've already got, the 1/24 93 Cobra R and 90 convertible kits.

The 69 Charger, 57 Fairlane, 69 Mustang, and 70 Torino have all had revisions to their bodies or parts after release. Only the Charger was as much work as what the Mustang would need. Once the windows are in the Mustang it doesn't bother me as much. I also sanded the edge of the roof a bit thinner and it helps some.

If you want to go really low there's the "suicide perch" where you move the spring perch in front of the radiator. This also lengthens the wheel base.

I second Steve's coat hanger method. As an added bonus you can hang the body upside down to minimize the chance of something landing on it while it's drying.

Unless the box survives the building process in particularly good shape and I'm looking for an extra box for something they usually go in the trash.

It's the same basic kit, body, interior, and chassis all the same. The pink car has stock parts and the fake fender vents, the black car has all the race stuff.

I crammed a 427 in one but had to shave the spring mounts paper thin and use very tight exhaust manifolds. If you cut the spring mounts out if the inner fenders and switched to a Mustang II style front end more stuff will fit.

Yeah, the 65 or 66 Galaxie kits are about as close as you can get. The 65 chassis is more detailed overall but has the exhaust molded in, the 66 chassis is more basic bit has separate exhaust. I'm leaning toward the 66 chassis for a 68 LTD and dressing it up with some parts box bits.

There's a lot of gray area here. Even with printed parts they are rarely direct replacements for kit parts so there is almost always a degree of fitting required to make the finished product shelf-worthy. I think I fall on JC's side that it's an entirely different skill set but still a creative activity. I know when I built 3d models I put as much time and effort into it as I did a traditional model, the process was just entirely different.

I use a really fresh Xacto blade to slice the bracing off the parts the go back and clean up the little nibs.

Ok, I got it. That's going to look great in my GT350R.

Hey Charles, any ETA on the cross ram SBF?

I only saw the single carb intake in this one and only the cast aluminum valve covers. I might try to pick the decal sheet up though.

I went and busted out the calipers on this because you piqued my curiosity. The Monte roof is about 1/4 inch too narrow and the rear window shape isn't even close. I think a better option is the roof from the AMT 70 Impala. It's only about 1.5 millimeters narrower than the Revell roof and it has the correct C pillar shape. You'll need to cut the rear window frame out of the 66 roof and shorten it and graft it on to the 70 roof. Overall it seems pretty do-able. Here's the 70 Impala for comparison.

I agree, the AMT 67 GT350 kit is easy to get and by far the best choice as a donor. I was just speaking to the commonalities between the 67 and 68 kits because I've been testing stuff to build the best possible 68 GT500KR.

The dimensions of the AMT 67 and 68 are pretty close, the 67 guts go in the 68 easily. The issue is you'll have a 67 nose and 68 taillights. It will also take a bit of work to figure out where to cut the nose off.

Yes, the AMT headlights are taller than the Revell parts. The AMT front fascia also leans back at a steeper angle than the Revell nose. So the lights don't fit without swapping the entire front end. Really, you need to save the AMT lower bumper air dam to keep it a GT so there's some creative cutting needed to make it work.