Studebaker Community Build...with a Meet & Greet in South Bend, IN?

[Crazy Ed]

That's coming along nicely Casey. FWIW rather than raising what's been turned into the drivers headrest might I suggest a simple hoop rollbar. It'd add the height with a period look.

[cobraman]

That is looking very sharp. I have to agree on the wheel wells. They just don't look quite right to the eye. I think modifying them could make a big difference.

[Jantrix]

Yep, I have always hated the Avanti wheel wells, but love everything else. Great work going on here.

[Casey]

FWIW rather than raising what's been turned into the drivers headrest might I suggest a simple hoop rollbar. It'd add the height with a period look.

That's kind of what I am going with, as the fairing behind the driver's head will not to very tall, and likely not as high as the top of the driver's helmet. I always liked the hoop on Marv Eldridge's Fiberglass Trends 'Vette roadster F/C, so I kind of emulated that here. I plan to position the driver so that his eyes are just over the top of the body, which will allow me to use a lower rollbar hoop like so:

I used two sections from the Avanti's original C-pillars to form the hoop, then laminated a thin piece of styrene on the inside for strength. I will thin it down a bit and blend it into the fairing/hood bulge once I get closer to determining the driver's final position, as it was left too tall for now:

The rear wheel arches are going to need some filler strips and sanding, as they are uneven side-to-side, and need more forward lean to be consistent with the front wheel arches.

[Crazy Ed]

You had mentioned using the C-Pillars for a Rollbar in your concept description. I wasn't sure how that'd work out. Turns out Very Well!

[Casey]

I had been eying up a Star Wars kit at Michaels, hoping the exhaust outlets would work since there's no scale listed on the box. Today with a 50% off coupon in hand I decided to roll the dice and see if they were the right size:

Almost perfect. Now I have to clean up the headlight holes, make some beveled mounting rings for the outlets/tips, and drill the centers out.

[Danno]

Holy Studejet, Batman!

Gee, Grandma, what big peepers you have!

[Wicky]

Hi guys , I'll join in here as there's plenty of time left , I wont be making the meet and greet though as it's a bit far for me . I'll have a dig through my kit stash , there's a salty dog and a miss deal in there somewhere .

[Wicky]

I found the Salty Dog , so this will be my build

somewhere in there is a complete ( I hope ) kit .

Edited September 4, 2012 by Wicky

[Wicky]

made a start on the body

for anyone unfamiliar with this kit it comes with a stock shell and a seperate roof panel , to build it by the instructions you're supposed to chop it through all the posts ( in the right place of course ) and glue the new roof on , problem is the replacement roof panel has no top for the windscreen or front quater lights ( box art actually shows it with the quater lights removed , but I wanted to keep them ) , so when I mocked it up like that it just looked wrong to me . My answer was to use the rear half of the replacement roof and the front half of the original and do a " propper " chop on it , looks a lot better like this I think , I also removed the moulded in windscreen wipers , they look way too long with the chop and I dont think you'd be using this thing in the rain anyway . still a ways to go on this yet , lots of filling and sanding to get the roof lookin right and ready for paint .

Edited September 11, 2012 by Wicky

[cobraman]

Does this kit only have the twin blown motor option or does it have a stock hood and motor also.

[Wicky]

this ones only got the blown engine and hood , no parts to build it stock if you wanted to .

[Jantrix]

I built the Salty Dog version as a kid. Nice to see it again. Hows the decals?

[Wicky]

somewhere between poor and unusable I'm afraid ( they're starting to crack ) , but other than the numbers and class decals I've got the others in my stash anyway , I'll come up with something .

[W-409]

Can I still join in with '56 Studebaker Commander? It'll have '75 Dart Chassis and interior and it will be basically Street Car. It's a shame that I can't take part to the meet, but it's bit too far away....

[Casey]

Absolutely, NIko, anyone is welcome to join. All you need is a Studebaker.

[W-409]

Thanks, Casey! Here are some pictures about the start. Not much done yet, but I'm going to use '75 Dart Chassis and interior, as mentioned above. The chassis needs some work, but it's possible to fit inside that Studebaker body. Not sure about the engine yet, I have one Thunderbird engine and many, many Glue Bomb engines that needs to look what fits the best. But engine will NOT have a Supercharger, Pro Charger, Turbos or anything. It will be just basic Street Car.

Well here's the body:

What I'll use for the chassis and interior:

[Danno]

Well, Niko, since you bring up '56 Commanders ... here's mine:

Phantom Kansas Highway Patrol cruiser.

I really have to take some new pix of this one.

[W-409]

Wow, that's cool! Is it built from AirTrax kit (or body) too?

[Danno]

Nope.

Art Anderson's All American Models resin (mastered by Juha Airo) with '53 Studebaker engine, drive train, suspension and various other donor parts.

Thanks!!

[martinfan5]

Nice job on it Dan, it look likes the top part of the roof in middle is dipping down, was that like that on the 1:1? or is that the resin just losing its shape?

[Wicky]

got some paint and decals on it

didn't want to go over the top with the decals , after looking on the web last night for classes and finding the C/GS class ( the kit decals ) is actually for stremliners , I went with C/BGCC class , I'll clear it tomorrow if it stays dry then it's time to sort the chassis out , after a quick mock up the rear needs lowering and maybe a different rear axle .

[Crazy Ed]

Hey Casey, Any progress on the Turbine Itnava ?

[Casey]

Hey Casey, Any progress on the Turbine Itnava ?

Not really. I tinkered around with the engine, as I didn't care for the molded in details and the location of the mold seam, and scrounged some LEGO pieces and kit pieces which might look better that the Homet's turbine when assembled.

[Chuck Most]

Nice job on it Dan, it look likes the top part of the roof in middle is dipping down, was that like that on the 1:1? or is that the resin just losing its shape?

Not Danno, but that's gotta be drooping resin. The 1:1's were straight across the top. Still looks great, though.

Juha does a lot of master work for Airtrax, and he did the AAM master as well... wonder if those bodies are based off the same master?