Lavender Suede '49 Merc

[Bernard Kron]

Revell '49 Merc done hot rod style with tail dragger stance, flames and lavender suede paint

(More pictures below)

To many eyes the Revell chopped '49 Mercury appears a little bland. But as a kit it's truly fine, with tons of options and many fine details. And it goes together like a dream. So decided to see what I could do to create a more aggressive look with a minimum of modifications so I could enjoy the kits great engineering

First off was giving the car a more radical rake: I lowered the rear end an additional 1 ½ scale inches. For a real period vibe I chose Modelhaus T-160 A, Commander 78 series tires. These are big early 50's style wide whites with massive 4 3/4 scale inch sidewalls. The hubcaps are Modelhaus modified 51/52 Olds six bar flippers. The hood is the kit's louvered option along with the DeSoto style bumpers, DeSoto grill and bubble skirts. Under the hood, for a more purposeful hot-rodded look, I went with resin stock Cadillac script valve covers courtesy of Replicas & Miniatures Co. of Maryland with the engine finished out in GM engine blue. The air cleaner is from an AMT '49 Ford kit.

The paint is Krylon Indoor/Outdoor Acrylic Gloss, the color being Gum Drop, a real hard-to-miss medium pale laveder. I shot it over white Duplicolor primer, applied the kit flames and pin stripes and then sealed the whole thing under Testors DullCote. The interior is finished in Duplicolor Ivory White and Tamiya "lavender" (really more of a plum purple). One of the oddities of this kit is despite a real effort to include many tiny and finely modeled details Revell left out any interior door handles, window cranks or armrests. So I added Replicas & Miniatures' gorgeous interior detail set created for this kit to solve this omission.

Otherwise the rest of the build is straight out of the box.

Thanx for lookin',

B.

Edited March 22, 2010 by gbk1

[Scalper]

Nice looking frame on that kit.

[Chuck Most]

I'd never call the '49 Merc 'bland'. Maybe 'overly familiar'. I have to say that Lavender paint really looks good on your Merc- you'd get some chicks with this thing!

[Harry P.]

You should have cut the flame decals where they cross the door openings and used setting solution to get them down into the panel lines for a more realistic look. I'm just sayin...

[Bernard Kron]

You should have cut the flame decals where they cross the door openings and used setting solution to get them down into the panel lines for a more realistic look. I'm just sayin...

Yeah, I thought the decal solvent would do the job but it did only sorta... I guess I could still cut the decals and hit em one more time with solvent. Hmmmm....

[Harry P.]

Yeah, I thought the decal solvent would do the job but it did only sorta... I guess I could still cut the decals and hit em one more time with solvent. Hmmmm....

Exactly. That should do the trick.

The decals crossing the panel lines in one piece is pretty obvious in the photos...

[Harry P.]

Other than the exceptionally large wide WW tires, (just a personal thing, I've never liked the really wide WW sidewalls like that on cars), that Merc is a winner all the way around. Really nice interior, & a great call on using the air cleaner from the AMT 49 Ford kit! I also like the lavender suede paint you choose for it.

On a scale of 0-5, I'd have to give this beauty 4 & 3/4!!! Great job.

And the final 1/4 comes when you fix the decals!

[Bernard Kron]

Thanx for the props everyopne! Frankly, I wasn't sure how lavender suede would go down!

And the final 1/4 comes when you fix the decals!

Harry,

Tryin' to earn my 5! Cut the decals and changed out the pics with new ones :

[Harry P.]

Yeah baby! Now yer talkin'! Very nice!

You got your 5...

[Sixties Sam]

Now that's a cool Merc! The color looks good on it!

Sam