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Dug this one from deep out of the stash. the body had been painted with nail polish in 2018. It was a custom mix of colors I had and was clear coated with Tamiya smoke then clear. Kit is mostly stock except for poseable front wheels and I changed out the molded in seats for something better. This kit was originally produced around 1964-65. So it is a very early AMT kit. I t has be re-issued many times but I am pretty sure the molds have never been updated. So it was like going back in time and building something from the 60's. It had the usual fit and clean-up issues from kits of this era. More comments below the pictures. Thanks for looking and comments welcome. Interior will be hard to see so I took this picture. Dash had some nice engraving but it was dated and was going to be hard to paint. So decals out of the stash were needed. Color is Tamiya LS 73 Khaki. Carving out the original horrible molded in seats was fun I replaced them with buckets from a Mustang kit. Aaahh..much better. Got some nice sun to photograph. Making the wheels poseable was fun but had its problems. All the emblems were bare metal foiled before painting then the paint rubbed off before clear. They were still real sharp and came out nice and clear. Rear veiw. Forgot to add a licence plate. No biggie...got plenty of em. Some nice detail back here. Kit had lots of options but I opted for mostly stock except for the fuel injected engine (not shown) The 63 Vette was a landmark car that almost didn't see production. It was totally new design and a huge departure from previous models. Independent suspension, lots of engine options and a totally new body. This was the year GM banned racing but that didn't stop Zora Duntov. The were a great many hidden options that were only available to select dealers and racers. This was a turning point in Corvette production. This was now a viable and true American sports car. An interesting addition to this kit was the 1/64 scale box cutout. It is posed here with a Racing Champions diecast. I have to set goals for myself otherwise I would never get anything done. This model is the first of 13 that I will be doing over the next few weeks. All of these have had the bodies sprayed at some point in time. Just finish the chassis, interiors, engines and detail the bodies. Some will be slammers others will be modified but all of them will finally be finished. Only two problems, which one do I do next and where am I going to put them when finished?. Corvette shelf is currently filled.

Another oldie from my bench: built box-stock in 1987 from the "Customizing series" - sprayed with car laquers from the can, BMF for the trim. Pics made 2 years ago immediately before selling it.

AMT Deuce Phaeton The AMT Deuce kits from the early sixties still offer the current modeller an interesting alternative in 1/25 Fords from the excellent Revell offerings. In particular the recently reissued Victoria kit and the Phaeton are the only options for these styles in this scale. They offer an interesting challenge for the kit basher and scratch builder. I had recently finished the fenderless Deuce Days Vicky for the gathering of the 1:1 scale rods in Victoria and for the scale contest being held. I also picked up the AMT Phaeton kit from one of the vendors, having had such a great time building the Vicky. Originally AMT released the roadster as the first offering, followed by the Vicky and Phaeton. As such, the roadster had a one piece chassis with the rear drivetrain molded in. For the remaining Deuces this was modified so that the rear axle and suspension were separate. Otherwise the three kits share a lot of the sprues, and by utilizing the more recent Revell kits a very decent rod can be built! For this project I've chosen to construct a fendered Tub with a chopped ragtop with an overall red on red colour scheme. The photos show the added detail to the inside of the ragtop and the modifications made to the body with spacers being added, installing the Revell gas tank, a new front splitter, and removal of cross pieces not required. To provide reliable power under the hood a late model small block Henry will be used from the Revell kit. In addition the front suspension is based on the later kit, with the original wishbone being split and mated to the front axle. Using the original 32 axle, the wishbone was removed and a modern version of split wishbones was constructed, using part of the original ones as corner reinforcements. As this is also a show vehicle it was decided to have the chassis and suspension chromed! All kit chrome was removed to aid construction and then was treated to the Alclad system. A complication arose in attempting to shoehorn the small block Ford and automatic tranny into the chassis. New crosspieces were devised for mounting the assembly, yet the original heavy crosspiece (Henry's secret to keeping the stamped steel chassis in one piece) interfered with the tranny. The solution was to cut a vertical section out of the case at the spot where the interference was. In the photo you can see the rear section of the housing connected to the drive shaft and axle. The other area that has required a lot of attention is the interior, which is very basic in the original kit. A complete rebuild is in progress with new door panels, detailed front seat, and a better fit overall being the goals. That's it for now, thanks for following along! Cheers Misha