Snakepit 2019 Review Part 1: January-August

[Snake45]

I completed 40 projects this year, about half of them simple diecast “Snake-Fu” fixups, which will be covered down in the diecast section.

This was a year of AMT '65-'66 Mustangs and AMT '65-'67 Impalas for me. I bought at least six of the former and seven or eight of the latter. I got four of the Mustangs completed (all survivor resto/rescue projects) but only one Impala, though a second one will probably be my first completion of 2020. I hope to get a few more of them done in 2020, too.

I'm gonna break my report into two parts. The second will be posted later, hopefully in the next week or so, as I don't even have some of my late-year completions photographed yet. Thanks for looking, and as always, comments welcome.

'67 Chevelle: ERTL diecast, but I have so much work in it—I had to install a full Revell kit interior to replace the toylike guts, and remove a bunch of goofy tampo graphics—I’m counting it as a built model instead of a normal diecast Snake-Fu. Finished Jan. 19.

 

'62 Corvette: Revell metal-body kit built straight from the box. Finished Feb. 19.

 

'94 Corvette promo: Bought at a local flea market for $9, dirty and with some damage. A polish job and a little Snake-Fu got it looking good again. Finished Feb. 24.

 

'57 Corvette gasser/street freak: This is the awful MPC flip-font gasser kit, where the two body halves don’t come close to matching. I wrestled them to the ground and made them work together. Started around 12 or 15 years ago, the paint took more than a year to harden enough to polish, by which time I’d lost interest in it. It served a long sentence on the Shelf of Doom, to be finally paroled for Round Two of the Great Bring Out Your Dead Group Completion Build and finished on March 31.

 

'65 Mustang Henry the 8th: This model was built by Paul Sable and featured in a 4-page article in Car Model magazine for February 1966. I bought it off eBay and restored it to its original glory, or as close as I could get. Finished April 7.

 

'65 Riviera: Dunno what to call this, a survivor resto, a glue bomb rebuild, or just a plain old “new” build. Everything but the body and hood are from the original first-issue kit I built in 1966. The body came from a box of junk at the local toy show, and the hood is a resin copy from Superbird McMonte. Whatever you want to call it, I brought it all back together and slapped it on the shelf as “DONE!” Finished for Round 4 for the BOYD build on June 30.

 

'65 Mustang HT: Bought this one on eBay planning to strip it and do a full rebuild. Then someone suggested a Lee Iacocca Memorial Community Build and I figgered since it was black, why not see if I could “rescue” it as is. I improved it quite a bit, but it’s still one of my least successful rescue projects and someday I’ll blow it apart and give it the full rework it deserves. “Finished” on July 28.

 

'66 Mustang FB: Another eBay buy. Again, I plan to strip it to bare plastic and redo it completely someday, but the paint on it was nice enough that I thought I’d just do a quickie rescue on it and enjoy it as the true survivor that it is for a while first. Finished Aug. 11.

 

'65 Mustang FB: Probably my favorite work of the year. This survivor mild custom came from eBay needing only a thorough cleaning and some minor touchup and repair. A true “survivor restoration,” everything about this one makes me happy. Finished Aug. 11.

Edited January 1, 2020 by Snake45

[bbowser]

Interesting work you do on these.  They all look great.  Looking forward to the Impalas.

[Bucky]

Keep up the great rescue work. They look mighty fine!!

[donb]

Wow Snake, 40 projects! You had a great year Sir! Keep it going. Looking forward to part 2. 

[TooOld]

It's great to see older builds restored to their original glory !   You sure move'em off your bench quick ,  where the heck do you put them all ? 

[mustang1989]

Dang Rich! That's a good compliment of cars built man. Never heard of that Henry the 8th Mustang but really like that one.

[Snake45]

19 hours ago, bbowser said:

Interesting work you do on these.  They all look great.  Looking forward to the Impalas.

Thanks for the kind words. I was hoping to have one of the '67 Impala promos rehabbed by the end of year, but didn't quite make it. With luck, I'll get it done this weekend. 

[PappyD340]

Great looking group!

[Nazz]

Nice collection Snake! I particularly love the Henry the 8th Mustang. Reminds me of the song. Everybody...second verse , same as the first, I'm Henry  the 8th I am........

[cobraman]

Nice, I really like the 57 Vette.

[Gramps46]

Congratulations on getting these done and out in the light of day again..  Really appreciate your sharing them.

[Snake45]

On 1/1/2020 at 9:23 PM, Bucky said:

Keep up the great rescue work. They look mighty fine!!

 

On 1/1/2020 at 10:51 PM, donb said:

Wow Snake, 40 projects! You had a great year Sir! Keep it going. Looking forward to part 2. 

 

On 1/2/2020 at 6:42 AM, TooOld said:

It's great to see older builds restored to their original glory !   You sure move'em off your bench quick ,  where the heck do you put them all ? 

Thanks for the kind words, Bucky, Don, and TooOld! Sadly, most of 'em end up in boxes; some get shown in rotating display. 

[slusher]

Really great looking models you have done friend!

[Hmann68]

A great year! That Vette gasser is cool, and the Riviera is also a winner, but all look great ??

[Snake45]

On 1/2/2020 at 9:34 AM, mustang1989 said:

Dang Rich! That's a good compliment of cars built man. Never heard of that Henry the 8th Mustang but really like that one.

Thanks! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it on eBay. 

On 1/2/2020 at 5:27 PM, PappyD340 said:

Great looking group!

Thanks Pappy! 

[Dragonhawk1066]

Nice work Snake!