Restored original Futura

[Maindrian Pace]

Hi everyone, new guy here but building since the mid '70s. I didn't want to step on anyone's thread, so here is a car that I brought back from a glue bomb about 20 years ago. Back then, a Futura was a very rare and expensive kit to find, and unbuilt originals were crazy money. This one showed up at a kit swap, complete down to the antenna, painted Batmobile black and looking quite tired with most of the chrome worn off. I did some trading, and got to work. All of the chrome was sent off to Chrome Tech, and the body was stripped with Easy-Off.

I had a few pictures of the car in an old book, with one sort of faded color shot with two women in it. I didn't have a computer, and the internet wouldn't have been much help in researching it anyway. So I took a best guess at the color, and combined Plasti-Kote GM light metallic green lacquer with silver lacquer to get what looked like the right shade. Both were decanted from the spray cans, mixed, and airbrushed on over Plasti-Kote T235 primer, and it was rubbed out with a Millennium 2000 sanding cloth kit. I took a wild guess at the interior color combo, added BMF to the canopy, and it was done.

Of course, a few years later, the kit was reissued, and it wasn't the first time that I rebuilt something rare to have it become available again. Always mixed feelings, but overall positive for the hobby. I took about 15 years off to build 1:1 cars, but I'm getting back into it to build some cars and trucks that I always wanted to do.

-MJS

[my66s55]

Welcome to the forum and nice work on the restoration. I especially like the fact that you left the REVELL, INC 1956 on the bottom. It validates the release of this kit and , in my opinion, should be left alone.

[Mike Kucaba]

Very nice save!

[deathskull59]

wow a very rare and exspensive model kit from 1956. thats even more rare and older than most kits on this site. from the 1960s both originalle and reissued. and the newer ones.

[customsrus]

Great looking build.

[Dr. Cranky]

Beautiful addition to your collection. Thanks for sharing.

[Maindrian Pace]

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome. Model building sure has changed over the last 15 or so years, and it will be fun (or interesting) to see if I can bring myself up to date. I started about a half dozen kits back then, and the plan is to complete them and then start on a couple of new projects. This site was a recent discovery for me, and it's just amazing. I'll post a few more old builds in the Under Glass forum, and then hopefully before too long, some new builds.

-MJS

[charlie8575]

Great job on that. The color, from what I've seen, looks about right, too.

Charlie Larkin

[RancheroSteve]

the color is wrong for the original car.

Maybe, but it's still a really awesome build. Nicely done!

One of the things I remember reading about the Futura was something to the effect of, "no two people could agree on what color it was." Just kind of adds to the mystique. I think.

[RancheroSteve]

If this description of "retina rivalry" is correct (and I have no reason to doubt it), it would be one more reason that a photograph could never accurately capture the color - cameras only have one "eye", right?

[RancheroSteve]

OK, I'll have to consider that one. But I'll also throw in that different cameras, lenses, film (and now sensors) record color differently.

And how do you explain the case of a "day-glo" orange paint (STP cars, for example), which photographs as a bright red and doesn't really capture what the eye sees?

I suppose it would be easy to get into a whole discussion here about "perception" vs. "reality". But first we'd have to define reality.

[Maindrian Pace]

I know what color the car was now, because now you can do a Google image search and come up with nearly a half-million results. But in 1990, no such thing existed, there was a faded Kodachrome that showed it in the pale greenish color, and all anyone knew about it was that it was "most likely" in that color family. It didn't help that the Revell box art showed it in green, or that the model was molded in pale green. Most of the Futuras I've seen built are green, so it was a popular misconception. But now that the ice pearl white truth is out for all to see at any time on their smart phones, the question is, has anyone finished the kit in that color yet?

-MJS

[Harry P.]

Correct color or not, that is one very cool model!

[SSNJim]

Welcome to the forum and nice work on the restoration. I especially like the fact that you left the REVELL, INC 1956 on the bottom. It validates the release of this kit and , in my opinion, should be left alone.

The recent reissues of this kit have the same © REVELL, INC 1956 on the bottom. It is not unique to the original issue.

Nice work on the restoration, and welcome aboard!

[FordRodnKustom]

Excellent build! FYI the last time I looked MCW lists a color called "mink" for this car.

[Junkman]

has anyone finished the kit in that color yet?

-MJS

Yes:

http://www.modelcarsonline.com/Galleries/FoMoCo/1955%20Lincoln%20Futura/1955%20Lincoln%20Futura.htm

[sjordan2]

Yes:

http://www.modelcars...ln%20Futura.htm

If you click at the bottom of that page, then go ahead a couple of pages, you'll see he did his best to replicate the "pearlescent frost-blue." As with the 1:1, the pictures don't really capture it.

Edited August 22, 2011 by sjordan2

[Junkman]

Be it as it may, H.B. Halicki did a superb job on his resto.

[sjordan2]

Be it as it may, H.B. Halicki did a superb job on his resto.

Totally. Excellent work.

[Harry P.]

How cool would it be if the folks who are releasing the new full-detail Batmobile kits also released a new, full-detail version of the "Pre-Batmobile" version of the car? In other words... the Futura!

[Harry P.]

Not sure if there's a liscensing issue or not, but doesn't Revell have the Futura sewn up at this time?

Didn't Shakespeare once say, "First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers"...

[Maindrian Pace]

Be it as it may, H.B. Halicki did a superb job on his resto.

Thanks Junkman, but my friends just call me Toby.

-MJS

[Maindrian Pace]

I think my favorite part is the nice job on the whitewalls. Also wondering Mandrian (love the screenname) is that gold foil on the hood emblem or did you paint it?

Futurabat, your screen name tells me that this car is pertinent to your interests. (Just a feeling I get.) I did the tires in Testors spray can flat black, and for the whitewalls, I used white Tempera paint from an art store that I originally bought to do raised white letters on vinyl tires. I thinned it with water and airbrushed it on with a round stencil. They came out very well, which pleased me to no end because such experimentation didn't usually go so well for me. The hood emblem is foil, I bought a whole sheet of Bare Metal gold just for that emblem, never used it again, then the adhesive went bad, so I tossed the rest.

-MJS

[Danno]

Nice build, Mike!

Hey, since you're getting back into the "sport" {or, "hobby"}, check out the local activity ... www.moonlightmodelers.com ... and check out the local bulletin board (hot link at the Moonlight Modelers website's "Cool Links" button on the main page).

Drop in & see us!

[RancheroSteve]

Thanks Junkman, but my friends just call me Toby.

-MJS

I just saw your name - Mike Schnur! I remember you from the Falcon Digest Group days! Welcome aboard.