Project Easy Thunder ('64 Ford Thunderbolt)

[Snake45]

Bought this Maisto '64 T-Bolt used at the local toy show last year for $12. Had never seen one before but I thought overall body shape rated at least an 8 (out of 10) for accuracy, and I liked the chrome reverse wheels, the slicks, and the screens in the inner headlights—nice detail touches. It followed me home, and then sat in the Snakepit for a long time waiting for the mood to strike me, which it recently did.

Had to use 2nd Degree Snake-Fu on this one, and had 8 or 10 hours in it. There was no tampo silver around the glass, and I determined that the glass would have to come out to properly hit the frames with Silver Sharpie, so the rivets had to be Dremeled out. Then, the side window frames had a lot of problems. There was casting flash around all the inner edges, which had to be filed out, and paint runs and drips on the frame sides, which had to be scraped and sanded out. When I got them acceptable looking, they too got the Silver Sharpie.

The left side of the hood stood proud almost 1/16”. With repeated and careful bending force, I was able to get it down to darn close to flush. Close enough. I was afraid if I went any harder, I'd break something. The windshield also had to be adjusted and finessed to fit better on the right (passenger) side. Again, I didn't get it perfect, but did improve it quite a bit. 

The body side trim all had to be touched up with Silver Sharpie. I did the white strip with a permanent (oil-based) White Sharpie as an experiment. Had to do this in three coats, and I'm still not 100% happy with how it looks, but it's kinda-sorta okay. (It looks less ragged in 3D than it does in the photos.) In retrospect, I'd have had an easier time (and better result) just masking and airbrushing this, and I might do just that sometime in the future. (In fact, I might strip all that off and foil the side trim and then airbrush the white.)  I detailed the grille and rear panel trim (and taillight bezels) with black wash and Silver Sharpie.

The whole front end looked a little “heavy” to me. The grille and bumper are molded together, with a strip of chrome between them. I figured this strip was probably body color, but in researching, I discovered something interesting. On stock Fairlanes, there is in fact body-color sheetmetal between the grille and bumper. But on the Thunderbolts, no body color is seen there—it looks like this piece was dispensed with (no doubt for lightening) and the bumper mounted a couple inches higher, just about touching the grille. So I razor sawed the grille and bumper apart and filed this strip away and mounted the bumper higher, like the real T-Bolts. I was surprised how much better this made the whole model look. Between this and the “chrome” trim on the window frames (and at the base of the C-pillar), body accuracy now looks to me on the plus side of 9.

25

I spent a little time on the interior of this one, which I don't often do on diecasts. Everything is molded in a very light tan, very monotonous looking. I painted the headliner and dashboard with Krylon Nutmeg, decanted and brushed. The floor was hand-brushed flat black to represent the simple rubber mat seen in some of these cars. The dash (and steering wheel horn ring) got detailed with Silver Sharpie with black gauge faces. A nice touch is the model has a tach mounted on the dash, and a couple of gauges in a panel under the dash.

So that's my Project Easy Thunder. The cherry on top is that it scales out to true 1/25, not 1/24, as I'd assumed the whole time I was working on it. For about the same amount of time I'd have spent scribing out the Revell kit body's panel lines and doing other standard body prep, and priming and painting (but NOT polishing) it, I have a fairly nice '64 T-bolt on the shelf—time, effort and money well spent. As always, comments welcome. (Oops, just saw I forgot to Sharpie the door handles. Will take care of that!) 

[cobraman]

Looks good to me !

[PappyD340]

Looks a lot better with your modifications, good job

[randyc]

One thing I've found on chrome reverse wheels is to use some detailer black liquid on them.  It really helps the depth of the chrome wheels.  I'll try to get a photo of some I have done.  This looks dang nice though.   I kinda want this one even though I recently sold my plastic built up of this same car.   Bumper mod looks especially effective.

[TooOld]

Not a bad looking diecast , you've done a great job taking it to the next level !    Raising the front bumper must have caught on as I've seen it on a couple other cars .  I'm just starting an Eliminator II and even though it's a composite body in photos it has the bumper raised too .