Kmb0319 Posted January 7, 2016 Posted January 7, 2016 I hadn't built a model in 28 yrs. I did as a kid, and all through high school, but hadn't since. In fact, I fondly remember before having a driver's license, my best friend and I would ride our bikes 8 miles to the hobby shop, pick out our next build and paint colors, then hang the bag over the handlebars and ride back to my house, excited to get started. Anyway, in January of this past year, my wife started an intensive training program to become a yoga instructor. I have a pretty intense sales position covering 5 states, but was going to have to focus my travel around her schedule, and when home, I would find myself to be a single parent quite often. In my downtime, I will often slip off to the basement and grab a guitar for a while, but with the amount of time home without my bride, I needed to have something else to occupy me. The idea of building a model again became extremely exciting to me. I shopped around, and decided on my first build: a better version of one of the first models I ever built, Richard Petty's Dodge Charger. Only this one was the big 1/16 scale reissue. I bought it and the Buddy Baker 1/16 car right off the bat. I started in early February, and finished in late March. I had a ton of frustrations, and had to strip and repaint the body and order all new decals, but I was happy with the result: Then I turned my attention to the Baker car. Since that one was just red, I wanted to do something different with it. I decided to make a "what if" car.... one of my all-time favorite stock cars was Buddy Baker's "silver ghost" Cutlass in the late 70s, so I decided to combine that with the K&K car, and this is what I came up with: These two got me fully addicted, but I had to move back into regular scale. Even though I wasn't a giant Nascar fan, the classic race cars were a subject I loved. I jumped into building several: Richard Childress Chevy Laguna David Pearson Ford Talledega Another Pearson, this one a "what if" fantasy '72 Torino: Quaker State Thunderbird: AJ Foyt's 71 Monte Carlo Cale Yarbrough fantasy... did up his Hardee's Olds as if he went retro for a race: Terry LaBonte '84 Monte Carlo: Bill Elliott's Budweiser Thunderbird: Richard Petty Talledega, another "what if" idea: Donnie Allison's Wood Brothers Cyclone: Along the way, I grew a bit tired of just NASCAR builds, so I ventured back into muscle cars. The first one was a kit our son wanted, but then didn't want to build. The Foose edition '68 Firebird: '65 Impala: '68 Charger '68 Camaro '70 Camaro And my final completion of 2015, the '70 Hemi Cuda
68shortfleet Posted January 7, 2016 Posted January 7, 2016 Wow, that's one heck of a return. More than one per month is pretty good in my book.
horsepower Posted January 7, 2016 Posted January 7, 2016 (edited) Some really nice builds, but you're trying to fool us into thinking you haven't been model building at all since high school, or just not building cars? Just kidding, we're lucky you found other interests for a while, or the rest of us would be totally demoralized.Just as a side note, if the three on the other side of the Childress car is tilted to the rear also I think you may possibly have them on the opposite doors, I've never seen a Childress three that wasn't forward facing, that's part of his copyright on that number, sort of like the Allison copyright on the number 28, look closely and you will notice that the narrow part of the numbers is only present at the top on Davey Allison driven 28 cars. I didn't know this until years ago a local car owner leased a car to Davey for a Phoenix South West Tour race and Allison shipped him the vinyl to use on the car, with a letter explaining that any of the extra numbers that weren't used for that race weekend he could keep as souvenirs, but he couldn't use them for a race car as they were copyrighted to Davey Allison. If you look really close at pictures of Earnhardt Sr's. cars you will see the tiny ® behind and below the number 3 denoting it being a copyrighted emblem. Edited January 7, 2016 by horsepower
DumpyDan Posted January 7, 2016 Posted January 7, 2016 Really nice builds, love the story, your come a long way
Metal Man Posted January 7, 2016 Posted January 7, 2016 (edited) WOW!! You jumped back in with both feet! Quality to go along with quantity. Thanks for your write up - I to have been idle since my early teenage years and am hoping to have the time, steady hands, and adequate eyesight to jump back in soon. When I do, I know I'll never get 18 done in a year, but hopefully I can replicate the quality you've shown on these. I especially like the Quaker State bird (always liked that paint scheme for some reason) and the black Charger. Well done on all of them sir!! Edited January 7, 2016 by Metal Man
gtx6970 Posted January 7, 2016 Posted January 7, 2016 Looks like a triumphant return in a big way. I didnt get one built last year. Barely even got time at the bench at all.But 2016 is going to be different ,,,,and very soon
mikemodeler Posted January 7, 2016 Posted January 7, 2016 Nice bunch of cars and what a varied group. The muscle cars look great, nicely detailed. I would struggle to get 18 snap kits done in one year, let alone 18 detailed glue kits! Welcome back to the hobby.
Grumpa Posted January 7, 2016 Posted January 7, 2016 Quite a collection of nice builds Kevin. Love the '70 Camaro, and the Cuda!
GTJUNIOR Posted January 7, 2016 Posted January 7, 2016 Great way to return to the hobby. I've been back since August and barely made any progress on the one build I started with. Still got interior and body paint to do. Hopefully it will be done before mid year.
rmvw guy Posted January 8, 2016 Posted January 8, 2016 I would like to say "just like riding a bicycle" but, no. You are "the man" great work for such a short amount of time. NASCAR models are not easy to build nor are nice cars.
Balsa Mamufaktur Posted January 8, 2016 Posted January 8, 2016 This we can call 'more than only a comeback' nice production
Daddyfink Posted January 8, 2016 Posted January 8, 2016 Nice stuff! For someone just coming back to the hobby, it looks like you didn't skip a beat!
bbowser Posted January 10, 2016 Posted January 10, 2016 Wow, the wife must have been gone A LOT! Great group of builds, glad to have another NASCAR fan on here. Keep them coming.
PatW Posted January 10, 2016 Posted January 10, 2016 I love the Nascar's Kevin, well done and welcome back!
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now