Revell ‘29 Model A Highboy

[OldNYJim]

I’ve wanted one of these since the first time around!  I nearly picked one up when they were originally issued but didn’t...then regretted it for a few years when the price was super high everywhere for them.  Moral of the story: always buy the kits.  

I ordered this last week and paid for 2 day guaranteed shipping hoping it would avoid getting caught in the hell that is overloaded-NYC-USPS-distribution-centers lately, but the seller sent it USPS anyway so here we are 10 days later:

I’ve got a BUNCH of ideas for these (in fact, I ordered 2 more today soon as I’d had a look in the box), but I figure first go around I should at least INTEND to build it mostly box stock.  Except plug wires.  Probably fuel lines.  Maybe some photo tech.  Maybe some resin stuff, etc etc ???.

Mr Chips decided I’m going with Option A in the manual which is the Highboy version:

I like it already!  I would definitely mess with the stance a little on future ones, but I’m trying to exercise a little discipline for number one at least:

First impressions are pretty good - I wish my chrome wasn’t scratched up from being bagged up with the regular parts, but the wheels made it out alive which was the main thing I didn’t want to have to redo so we should be good...here goes nothing!  More soon, soon as I did something!

Edited May 1, 2020 by CabDriver

[mrm]

I just received two of these two days ago. I still have not decided what I want to do with them, but I have that image burned in my head of a teal '29 highboy with full hoods on the cover of Street Rodder magazine from years ago. And I mean many years ago. What I really want is a full fendered model A, but I feel too lazy to tackle that. 

Here is my roadster. It is box stock, except for the wheels/tires. 

 

Edited May 1, 2020 by mrm

[Deuces ll]

That turned out really nice!!!..... ??

[heyjohnxx]

Mr. Chips approves!

[Deuces ll]

Cute Kat!..... ??

[OldNYJim]

Thanks fellas!

On 5/1/2020 at 11:48 AM, heyjohnxx said:

Mr. Chips approves!

He also likes stealing tires off my bench, which is less endearing....

Made a start on this - I figured I’d get going on the body first so it can sit and dry a while whilst I work on the other stuff.  It’s ALMOST ready to paint out of the box, very faint mould lines...the main thing I needed to fix was a big sink mark on both sides of the cowl:

 

Kinda hard to see here, but definitely becomes more evident as you start to sand it out:

 

Got it all smoothed out though without needing to use any filler...I’m also fairly certain that the raised lines either side of the trunk aren’t both the same diameter but I’ll leave addressing that for another build when I’m NOT trying to actually build something box stock without redoing every little thing:

 

Went with a white primer seeing as I’m going for a bright color on this one:

Before I painted the body I needed to prep the interior panels (the outside of which are the rear inner arches) and the firewall:

 

Went with a bright Rustoleum red for this one - I want to do something 2-tone like the Deuce I’m also working on, but in red and black this time: 

 

It was meant to rain all day today but woke up and it’s like a beautiful summer’s day with really low humidity so I got to put color on this sooner than I expected - I like that color!  Nice and bright!

Whilst that dries for a couple of days I need to start work on the frame - there’s a rough jagged edge to the passenger side frame rail just under the reveal which really stands out if you don’t fix it (judging by the builds I’ve seen where people haven’t fixed it)...

And they’re hard to photograph, but those reveals also have some decent sized sink marks that will be pretty obvious what with this being a highboy...more on that soon as the filler dries!

 

[mrm]

I enjoy watching your progress. I started one of these kits too. But mine is going to be far from box stock. 

[Pierre_tec]

Looking good,  anxious to see how it looks in red

[OldNYJim]

It’s red and black now ?

Should look cool with my semi-matching Deuce build:

Waiting for a low-humidity day here so I can shoot some clear over it...got lucky with a couple of nice days over the weekend but it’s been 75-85% humidity here ever since and that’s not conducive to a nice smooth paint job...no rush though, I’m not exactly short of things to work on ?

[OldNYJim]

Ask and ye shall receive - according to my fancy new humidity measurer it was super low humidity today so I shot some clear - only got a quick snap but the clear laid down nice and smooth and should settle down nicely in my improvised drying booth (a box):

Working on the engine too - the chrome is about perfect on my kit except on the blower scoop which had a bunch of roughness and patchyness, so that’s sitting in the Purple Pond until it learns it’s lesson.  Shot a little Alclad aluminum on the block whilst I was looking at engine stuff - I haven’t used Alclad for a while but I always like how it lays down and it’s nice to mix up some metal shades to add some variety and visual interest:

More soon!

Edited May 8, 2020 by CabDriver

[OldNYJim]

A little more progress on this one - I’m using the kit blower setup on this build, but the chrome on my blower was pretty rough so I stripped it back down to bare plastic so I could Alclad it.  My local hardware store was out of the enamel black paint that I like, but I picked up a can of a dark brown and tried it out with the Alclad - worked great!  

Cleaned up parts in brown;

And after chrome:

I’ll nub out  a couple of the little dust marks and give the parts that need it one more light coat, but I was pretty pleased with how they came out!

Meanwhile, a little embossing powder action for the floor:

A couple of little bald spots to fix and then I can start on the interior too.

All the painting and prep steps are kinda boring to follow along with, but I’m running out of stuff to paint here so more interesting stuff soon!

[OldNYJim]

A little more today...I’d let the Alclad set up for a couple of days and then got the block assembled - I used most of the kit chrome where I could and actually added a little Alclad chrome to a couple of bits then gave it all a light black wash to bring out some detail:

This little piece was broken on my kit right out of the box - has anyone else had that, out of interest?

You can’t really see it on the completed engine anyway, so no biggie...

With that done, added plug wires:

 

I’ll add the carbs and blower intake further down the line I think to avoid knocking-them-off-itus whilst I’m still assembling stuff
 

In other news, man those gauge decals are tiny!  Impressive how small they can print this stuff!

Might’ve been a cool idea to mould that chrome panel with holes and have one diamond shaped decal that could sit behind it somehow. But they look good I think...I straighten that one wonky one and gave them a little dab of epoxy each for make some glass.

And finally, seeing as it’s a Model A and everyone seems to have one of these lately I made some license plates...they’re meant to say “Ah! Olé!” in case the DMV ask:

Ive been trying to master making those raised letters for a while - getting closer!  

More soon!

[gman]

Looking good. I like what you've done.

I have to confess, I LMAO when I saw the license plate, but once the laughing subsided, got curious as to how you made the raised letters. 

[gman]

...and just checked the alternator mounting bracket in my kit- broken

[Deuces ll]

??

[OldNYJim]

On 5/13/2020 at 2:31 AM, gman said:

Looking good. I like what you've done.

I have to confess, I LMAO when I saw the license plate, but once the laughing subsided, got curious as to how you made the raised letters. 

Nothing fancy - just cut some vinyl of the right color on my vinyl cutter.  There’s a free font called License Plate that is a pretty good match for the standard characters that the DMV uses on their plates - you could also download an image of a blank license plate for the state of your choice and print them if you don’t have a cutter.

On 5/13/2020 at 2:36 AM, gman said:

...and just checked the alternator mounting bracket in my kit- broken

I just opened a couple more from my stash here too - seems like they’re all like that.  Annoying...

Anyhoo, got a little more done on this thing - it’s almost at ‘roller’ stage here...got another week before I can polish out the body but then when I do I’ll be basically ready to assemble it!  More soon!

[Deuces ll]

It's lookin' good!!!!!..... ??