IMC VW Beetle—Shelf of Doom Parolee (BOYD Build)

[Snake45]

I started this thing somewhere in the 1968-70 timeframe, not sure exactly when. I got it about 80% done—chassis built, body painted and doors hung, wheels and tires selected—and then for whatever reason lost interest and never finished it. It's spent most of five decades locked in its cardboard cell, serving time on the Shelf of Doom.

Over the years, I've hauled it out probably a dozen times with the idea of finishing it. After playing with it for a few minutes, I'd always put it away again as taking too much time on a bunch of tedious, fiddly work to produce a mediocre (by my current standards) result. The most recent time was four or five months ago. I pulled it out, and looking it over, I saw a spot of dirt or something on the roof over the left door. In trying to take that off with a fingernail, I managed to take a great big chunk of paint off. Back into the box you go! You can see the chip, and what I was starting with, in this pic:

Over the last couple years I've had a lot of fun buying fairly clean glue bombs at the local toy show and spending a few hours polishing them, touching up the paint, fixing flaws and errors, and getting them to somewhat presentable shape. I've often said on these deals that if I can end with a model that looks like something I might have built in 1968, I'm happy; if it looks like I built it in 1969 (when I was getting a little good), I'm ecstatic. This year I decided it might be a good idea to apply this philosophy to a few of my own long-stalled Shelf of Doom projects—things that I knew were now far below my current standards, but I didn't want to strip them out and start over completely. Earlier this year I finished a '69 Charger 500 started in the early '90s and a '77 Monza started sometime in the '80s.

So Judge Snake offered this IMC Beetle a parole from the Shelf of Doom on the same terms. I'd treat it like somebody else built it and do the minimum necessary to get it on the shelf, with the full knowledge that it wasn't going to be perfect, nor exactly what I had in mind when I started the project.

I carefully washed the body and took care of a couple little problems with the chassis, mainly a missing tie rod (found it and glued it on solid). Next big problem was matching and touching up the paint. The original paint was AMT Burnt Orange Metallic lacquer, long unavailable. Not only did I now have that big chip on the roof, but in cleaning off a few spots of random molding flash on the body edges, I created more chips. Even worse, when I painted it as a kid, I had neglected to paint the taillight housings. Testors Fiery Orange One Shot lacquer turned out to be a passable match. I shot it over black primer on the taillights and if I hadn't told you, you'd have never known. Elsewhere, I decanted some of it into its cap and used a brush to touch up the chips and nicks. The color match on the roof chip is much closer in real life than in these pics, although of course the touchup spot is an obvious lump or wart in the finish.

I'd originally painted the hood and side chrome strips with Testor Silver. I did a pretty good job but over the years some of it had worn away and other parts had turned dark from handling (the stuff never dries, and easily picks up dirt). It looked bad, so I just polished it off (mostly, anyway) with Wright's Silver Cream silver polish. The original plan was to then lay razor-cut strips of masking tape on each side of these chrome strips and hit them with my beloved Silver Sharpie, usually an easy trick, but by this time I'd learned how fragile the original paint was and didn't want to risk the tape pulling up big chunks of it, so I just left the chrome strips alone. It is what it is.

All the glass requited block-sanding for flatness and then polishing, not a big deal. When it came time to button up the interior, I couldn't find the kit steering column, so had to make one out of Evergreen rod. I just left the seats, steering wheel, and steering column in white for a little contrast in the interior.

Front wheels are Baby Moons from an AMT Meyers Manx (my original one, back in 1969) on common AMT Firestone Supremes, and the rears are some kind of chrome reverse wheels on those lovely old MPC solid vinyl Wide Ovals. You saw a lot of Bugs running similar rear wheels/tires back in the day.

So it's not perfect, but it's DONE, after all these years. It is what it is, and I can put the stupid little thing out of my mind and move on to other projects. Next time I build a Beetle, it'll be the Revell kit (I think I have a flared-fendered pink one somewhere in the stash). I've had quite enough of the super-fiddly IMC kit.  As always, comments welcome. 

Oh, I forgot to mention, despite all the various snags and troubles, the doors still open! 

[89AKurt]

There has been some progress in models over the decades, hasn't there?  Only because the GSL Common Kit theme is the Tamiya Beetle, do I appreciate your conundrum.  Are all IMC kits so bad?

[disconovaman]

I admire the imperfect approch on rebuilds you have...makes it that more interesting... I don't know why I want to get every spec of paint and glue off a rebuild.. it never occurred to me that the original build is part of the originality of a model built 30 or 40 years ago. Not that I have any that old yet, but I will give any future rebuilds more thought before ripping one apart.

[Snake45]

  On 12/19/2018 at 3:10 AM, 89AKurt said:

Are all IMC kits so bad?

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So I've heard. This is the only one I've ever built, much less finished (-ish). I own several of the Mustang IIs and one Cougar II and one Little Red Wagon, but have never worked on them. 

The VW is supposed to be one of IMC's easier kits! And truth to tell, if I were starting it from scratch today, I'm sure it wouldn't be THAT big a challenge. Just trying to get a semi-presentable result from my work as a 15-year-old was the real battle here. 

[dimaxion]

This is my ITC Stock '64 MY (?) build . Challenging . Not impossible . Plastic Half Shafts , It does sag .. Auto Touch Paint Air Brushed . Thanx .. 

[r60man]

I highly recommend the Tamiya Bug kit over the Revell kit. I have built both. The Tamiya is a dream. The Revell needs a ton of clean up to look right and scale.

[Snake45]

  On 12/19/2018 at 6:56 PM, r60man said:

I highly recommend the Tamiya Bug kit over the Revell kit. I have built both. The Tamiya is a dream. The Revell needs a ton of clean up to look right and scale.

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But isn't the Tamiya 1/24? 

[Lovefordgalaxie]

  On 12/19/2018 at 4:09 PM, dimaxion said:

This is my ITC Stock '64 MY (?) build . Challenging . Not impossible . Plastic Half Shafts , It does sag .. Auto Touch Paint Air Brushed . Thanx .. 

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WOW!! That looks real nice!! You should make a post of this model, with more pictures. I'm partial to the old IMC kits, as I had a lot of fun building a '48 Ford. A IMC '48 also was one of the first three models I ever built when I was 7 years old. I managed to finish it, and the doors would even open, but the paint was all brushed on, and it had glue marks all over... The one I built about three years ago is way better. 

[vintagercr]

I have a few of those kits in my stash.  I've only seen the gasser done.  Very nice!

Edited December 19, 2018 by vintagercr

[ewetwo]

came out nice

 

[r60man]

  On 12/19/2018 at 7:25 PM, Snake45 said:

But isn't the Tamiya 1/24? 

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It is, sorry about that, I didn't see the scale of the kit you built. What is the scale of that?

[Snake45]

  On 12/20/2018 at 3:33 PM, r60man said:

It is, sorry about that, I didn't see the scale of the kit you built. What is the scale of that?

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1/25. 

[Snake45]

  On 12/19/2018 at 6:24 AM, disconovaman said:

I admire the imperfect approch on rebuilds you have...makes it that more interesting... I don't know why I want to get every spec of paint and glue off a rebuild.. it never occurred to me that the original build is part of the originality of a model built 30 or 40 years ago. Not that I have any that old yet, but I will give any future rebuilds more thought before ripping one apart.

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It really is FUN to try to fix up an old build into presentable condition, whether it's yours or someone else's. When you accept that your final result is going to be less than perfect, it can really free you up to enjoy the journey--and the history of the thing.