The Little T: Black Tuxedo Edition faux-vivor

[Mr. Metallic]

In case you missed it, this is part of a set of models I built based on the 4 classic Monogram Hot Rod kits from the early 60's portraying phantom plastic colors not offered by Monogram for these kits. This particular one is the Little T: Black Tuxedo, based on the Little T kit. This one was based on the 80's release of this tooling, molded in black with "gold" plated parts. I also used the Little T specific parts from a couple trashed out Little T builtups.

The most difficult part for this build was finding a usable interior. While the interior from newer issues is similar, there are details that many would notice instantly. In order to keep up the ruse that this was a true survivor I HAD to use an original issue interior. The two builtups I had, the interior was hopelessly glued into the body. After searching for some time I decided to sacrifice the original issue body in order to get the original issue interior tub out of it. To do this I cut away the body, just below the lip of the interior. This made the lip very thin and fragile. To make matters worse, the top had been glued to the interior, resulting in damage to the upper surface of the lip. So, after severing and grinding away the remains of the body I then mixed up some "sprue glue" as a filler. For those not familiar, this filler is created by dissolving plastic in liquid cement to create a paste. I went with this method because I wanted to retain the appearance of bare plastic, so normal fillers wouldn't work. As a side benefit this goo, once cured, actually made the lip stronger. After some careful sanding, I had rescued that sad interior.

Then it was off to restoring the other parts. For some reason, the axles are always the first thing to break on any of these Monogram hot rods. In order to use the original issue brake backing plates (which disappeared with the 70's Street T version) with a modern replacement axle I had to modify the new axle to allow the tabs on the brake to slide over them. I also had to fix the damaged lower edge of the uptop. To do this I took the opportunity chop the top a bit but removing about 2 scale inches from the lower edge.

 

 

 I also had to come up with a molded in white telephone, which was a prominent and quirky feature of the Little T. To the rescue came an old AMT kit from which I liberated the earpiece.

After polishing all the black plastic parts it was pretty straightforward assembly, with minor details called out with flat black paint or my Molotow pen. 

 

 

To borrow a phrase from a popular Marvel TV show and comic series, What If... Monogram had released a third version of this kit before they changed the tooling? This is what it could have looked like. For more pics and details follow the link, and thanks for looking.

https://public.fotki.com/crstan/finished_models_by_me/survivors/life-cereal-faux-vi/little-t-black-tuxe/

And here's a link to the previous build in this series that I shared

Edited October 22, 2021 by Mr. Metallic

[Hard_2_Handle_454]

Cool

[spencer1984]

An impressive amount of work for a great little showpiece - nicely done!

[afx]

Very nice.

[Zippi]

They look great.  Nice job.

[chris chabre]

Killer, Looks like Mark Skippers T!!!

Edited October 23, 2021 by chris chabre

[carrucha]

Cool hotrod.  Nice save.

[slusher]

Nice..

[TooOld]

Beautiful Little T , I love it in black !  Using the original interior was the right decision even if it meant sacrificing a body , the later interior just wouldn't look right . Correct parts and polished plastic make this an excellent model , as are all of your builds in this faux series . Great work !

[David G.]

Nicely Done!

David G.