Tom Geiger Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 (edited) I logged into the board last week to find that our friend Snake, Richard Messner, had died. I was saddened because he was a fun part of the board. He will be sorely missed. We participated in the "Bring Out Your Dead" group builds that he moderated. I'll admit I failed to finish more than I finished! And he'd often jab me as to the whereabouts of my 1960 Plymouth Airport Limo. It has been my on again, off again project for probably 20 years. At least far enough back that this kit was cheap enough to cut up several for a project. So what better tribute could I pay to Snake than to finish this model in his honor. Then I saw that the MidAtlantic NNL Theme was station wagons. So it just had to be. My plan was to have this model on the table on Saturday May 11th! And here's where we were the last time anyone saw this model. After several attempts over the years, each time thwarted by my then skill level, with each attempt I'd get a bit further. It was up on wheels with an extended chassis. The stretched interior fit well. My issues were making the sides blend together well and adding the final pillars. So I figured if I could get past those two issues, I could indeed finish this model. So I started with less than two weeks to go. My first issue tackled was finishing the roof rack. Above is where I was last time. This attempt I glued down all the pieces, the round tire cover was meant to be a drum. I then made a mixture of water and Elmer's Glue. I cut down a brown McDonalds napkin that was already in my project box for this step. The soggy napkin looked awful! I figured I had crashed and burned, but let it sit over night. Come morning it looked salvageable. I gave it a coat of thick brown craft paint. Once that dried I dry brushed it with chalk dust. Added some ropes with my last 6 ship eyelets and it actually looked like I wanted! Here's the final result. Onward! I gave those center pillars like three tries before they finally looked good and stayed in place! Then a created the top drip rail from Evergreen rod. That covered some of the sins of the body joint! Here it is in white Tamiya primer. Next day I gave the sides a couple of coats of Tamiya Racing White. Here we are taped for the blue two tone. I include this photo to show that I used Tamiya tape for the critical edges, but cheaper blue painters tape where it was just protecting the paint. That's my answer to the guys who whine that it's too expensive to use Tamiya tape! While the blue paint... (my mistake was to use a hardware store satin blue paint) dried... well, it never completely dried... it was still slightly sticky as I applied BMF. My skills from the 24 Hour Build came in use here! I worked on the interior. The bucket was already painted. I added photoetch window cranks since the Johan engraving was nearly non-existent. I had the interior junk already done too. It was just a matter of doing some interesting and convincing placement and gluing it all in place. And bummer! It's hard to see through the windows. And as assemblies dried, I did the details like the steer horns and antenna. I continued on with my goals in mind. I needed to have this model on the table on Saturday to make Snake proud! I won't lie, as of 10pm Friday evening it wasn't going anywhere. I couldn't get the body to sit well with the chassis. I had it on and off many times and it always fell together! After awhile I deduced the back bumper was the culprit, I had never test fit the assembly with the bumper on! So I whittled the bumper mount off, and glued it to the body. Now we sat right. And by 1am Saturday morning, this is what we had on the bench! I made up a 1960s sounding band name and created the logo. The trick was to do the lettering large... the original is 11x17, then reduce the final art to tighten the linework. I then printed several copies. I'm very pleased with the roof rack. It came out as I had hoped. It's not glued in place, I used two sided tape in case I ever want to reposition it. The big secret? It hides the ill fitting roof joint. I never did try to fix it. I am soooo happy to have it done! I made it onto the show table, and got a lot of positive comments. I didn't win the theme award, which would have been the icing on the cake, but that was not the goal. My task was to honor my buddy Snake by actually finishing the model in his honor and making the show deadline! I hope he's pleased! Edited May 15 by Tom Geiger 27 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hard_2_Handle_454 Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 That's crazy. Nice work 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lunajammer Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 Fun and challenging project. Turned out good and it's right up Snake's alley. Yeah, he'd be pleased. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobthehobbyguy Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 The perfect tribute to Snake45. Great model. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khils Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 37 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said: The big secret? It hides the ill fitting roof joint. I never did try to fix it. Perfect!! ...as Snake often said ... Adapt, Improvise & Overcome!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spottedlaurel Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 Nice work Tom! And certainly a fitting tribute to Snake. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robberbaron Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 Glad to see this one finally "dragged across the finishing line", been seeing you post it for years. And yes, I think Snake would be proud! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisR Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 Looks great!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOBLNG Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 Nice tribute there Tom!😎 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncbuckeye67 Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 The story behind the build, is just as awesome as the build itself! I'm sorry to hear about your friend. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ea0863 Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 Way kool tribute! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rattlecan Dan Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 Excellent homage build. Nice job in bringing it to the table. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJ Deuce Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 Nice work. Model on! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PappyD340 Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 Very cool tribute! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yeah Nah Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 Like, groovy man. Nice tribute! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Street Rod Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 Very cool project, great job and congrats on getting it done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kah puts Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 Ooo… right on 👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott8950 Posted May 16 Share Posted May 16 Looks awesome you did a great job. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XYHARRY Posted May 19 Share Posted May 19 Your friend would be very pleased, really well done there Tom. Cheers, David. 😎👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KWT Posted May 19 Share Posted May 19 nice finish there Tom. I think he'd dig it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatz4u Posted May 19 Share Posted May 19 well done Tom, as Snake would say..Model On 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonhawk1066 Posted May 19 Share Posted May 19 The airport limo came out great! And what a fantastic way to honor "Snake"! I had not known of his passing until just now, so RIP Snake!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 Great build,Tom! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ybsluos Posted May 22 Share Posted May 22 Way to go Tom! Richard would love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stavanzer Posted May 25 Share Posted May 25 Awesome Build! Yes, I think Snake would be cheering you on. Good Show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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