Palmer 1961 Comet wagon

[Maindrian Pace]

Palmer is a company that needs no introduction, they are well known in the vintage plastic world for their incredibly bad representations of cars that look like 3D versions of cocktail napkin scribbles, as well as their occasionally pretty decent, as though by accident, models that somehow came out OK. The Multi piece body Comet wagon is not one of them.

To begin with, I didn't build this car. It was rebuilt from a glue bomb by Nick Whitlow on a Facebook model page about a year ago. I don't do much, if any FB, so a friend of mine forwarded that page to me to show that a guy on FB was building a model of my car, sort of. As it turns out, Nick is well known not only as a model builder, but also in the real car world, specifically as a fan of the AMT Piranha / Man from U.N.C.L.E. cars, and actually found and restored a real one. He then wrote a book on the subject. I believe he is also a member here.

He found a built Comet and started correcting the kit's many flaws, the most obvious of which is the too-tall top that needs to be chopped to look stock. He did this by making new side pillars and chopping the windshield frame.

After he modified the top, he adapted a shortened AMT '66 Mustang chassis and added AMT parts to the Palmer engine block to make it look less generic. He painted it black with a pearl white roof and added the wheels from a Piranha kit, naturally. These kits didn't come with glass, so he found a parts box windshield and trimmed it to fit. I told him he was doing a great job and posted a pic of my real car, and he seemed amused that one of these still existed and that the owner was reading his thread. His build turned out great:

Fast forward about 1.5 years, Nick PMd me on FB telling me he was thinking about selling the Comet. I asked him what he wanted for it, a price was agreed upon, and it was on the way to Mesa. Unfortunately, the mail monsters were not very kind to the package.

So some rebuilding was in order. Not a problem. With Nick's approval, I made some minor changes. I drilled the axle holes lower to pick up the ride height a bit, tried out a set of Modelhaus resin Falcon dog dish wheel/caps on promo tires, and added rear curved 1/4 glass to the model. To make those, I made a Sculpy clay buck with Evergreen styrene master glass fitted to the Comet, then vacuformed it. The glass was attached with CA glue and clear enamel paint in the corners.

Want to have some fun? Take a terrible kit and see what you can do with it. These are great blow-off projects between serious builds.

[rsmodels]

Wow, that looks great. I love wagons and the early Comets  are favorites of mine.  Even out of the box, these Palmer kits have a certain charm but this one is so much better.

[Oldcarfan27]

"A good looking Palmer".

Is that even a viable term?

Apparently, there is some hope for some of them.

Who'da thunk it? I may even have to look inside the boxes now!

How close is it to size of the 61 Ranchero?

[happy grumpy]

That is something that i don't think i would be able to do, I don't have enough patience, dedication ,meditation, love for lost causes, not to mention hair pulling which I am almost out of. But seriously, this a tribute to those who put their skills and patience to achieve some great results against all odds. Great results on a not so great kit. Bravo., A palmer kit that looks like an actual car !

the curved rear windows look great.

[Maindrian Pace]

5 hours ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

"A good looking Palmer".

Is that even a viable term?

Apparently, there is some hope for some of them.

Who'da thunk it? I may even have to look inside the boxes now!

How close is it to size of the 61 Ranchero?

They are the same width as the AMTs but a bit shorter, making the scale kinda 1/27-ish. Or thereabouts.

4 hours ago, happy grumpy said:

That is something that i don't think i would be able to do, I don't have enough patience, dedication ,meditation, love for lost causes, not to mention hair pulling which I am almost out of. But seriously, this a tribute to those who put their skills and patience to achieve some great results against all odds. Great results on a not so great kit. Bravo., A palmer kit that looks like an actual car !

the curved rear windows look great.

I just looked at your '53 Ford Victoria. Seems you have a good bit of patience, and perhaps a measure of the other attributes as well. But if you don't, you can always substitute stubbornness and determination, and you're there. 

[Kah puts]

Most of us can build a pristine AMT or RevelGram and make it look good without much trouble, but a Palmer! Takes someone with large cahones. Palmer kits also have IMHO great box art, marvelous build ? 

[Oldcarfan27]

6 hours ago, Maindrian Pace said:

They are the same width as the AMTs but a bit shorter, making the scale kinda 1/27-ish. Or thereabouts.

Yeah side by side, it does look stubby in the back.

Hmm, now you've got me thinking. I like a challenge!

I may have to keep my eyes open for a cheap opportunity. Definitely not going to pay big $$$ for a crummy kit.

Thanks for the inspiration, Mike. ?

[ChrisBcritter]

Funny thing is that the rear quarters and rear roof are so short that it looks like the Falcon wagon made for the Australian market - unintentional, I'm sure!

Via Wikipedia:

 

 

[Maindrian Pace]

It really does. It looks even closer to the '65 XP wagon, which used a mostly US Comet front clip.

[slusher]

Very nice wagon!

[PappyD340]

Looks great, well done!

[Wolfie]

Hi,Some fine gentleman, gave me your info

about your 1961 comet 2-door wagon?

I have the same car up here very rare in the west coast of CANADA!

and I am looking to buy that car model from you or if you know

where i can get the same?

Please contact me???

Thanks 

[Wolfie]

Greatly appreciate!

Thanks