Nightmare Kits CBP - aka Masochistic Modelers Anonymous

[dodgefever]

I had build the Hot Rod version about 1987 or so and remembered how horrid that kit was.. upon getting this one for my birthday ( first time I had seen this style of box art. I cringed.. then I opened it in some hopes that the new box art = better model... wrong as with a lot of over ran model kits they get worse with time!! heck there is a 3/16 inch 1:1 measure not scale gap between the front fenders and the cab.. and thats just the easy to see hehe..

Sounds like the Hot Rod kit you're thinking of was the Revell '56. The '53 flip-nose is an old MPC tool, IIRC, but equally terrible.

I've just got hold of a new Revell '57 Ford to help with my Ranchero. The plan is to take a mould off the top half of the body and cast a resin piece to restore the top.

[Shardik]

Derick, I have added you to the list with the rest of us masochists.

Okay now that I have permission from the artist I present you with the inspiration and the design for my GTO. Gary Campesi's "Split Personality".

I will be building the '67 based on this artwork. It will not be a replica or 3D version, but it will certainly be close. I'd like to thank Gary for permission to post his work and his blessing on my build. If you would like to see more from this excellent artist please peruse the following website.

http://www.hubgarage.com/mygarage/GaryC/vehicles

Holy cow, Rob, You're not just going for the silk purse but the whole Gucci ensemble! I can't wait to see your interpretation of this!

[Jantrix]

I have never tried something like this. But guys like Ira and John T. have got me so jazzed to try my hand at some serious body work. The worst that can happen is one bad kit is trash. I'm spending no money on this, everything from the parts bins.

Accumulated parts so far.

Chassis and suspension - 40 Ford pick up.

Engine- Chevy big block.

Wheels/tires - Chevy SSR

Interior- No idea

Windshield - working on it.

[Jantrix]

I did some math this morning. First I scaled the side image of Gary's rendering down until the size of my 1/24 rear tire (and I picked a tall one) matched the image. Then I got out my ruler.

I will have to change the wheelbase from 115" to 109" - very do-able.

Change the cars overall length from 206" to approximately 148". Almost five feet shorter.

The height of the car to a scant 27" from the top of the highest point of the rear fender to the rockers. The height of the body where the engine is, is only 22" !

It is obvious that building the drawing perfectly to scale would be nearly impossible and still have room for a V8. So I'm going to have to take a much more liberal approach to building this machine. And I'm not even going to try to scale the narrowing of the body. I foresee my biggest challenge is going to be narrowing the grill area to the width of a '41 Chevy grill and still include the headlights and make it recognizable as a GTO.

The cutting begins this weekend.

[Shardik]

Rob,

I run into this allot at work (I'm a machinist): just because you can draw it, doesn't mean you can build it .

[64SS350]

After teardown

After purple pond

Tubbed flooring ..new vs cut down

[Jantrix]

Looking good Karl.

First blood!

I will be spending a lot of time shaping before I move onto the next alteration so I know the bonds are solid.

[dodgefever]

I've made a copy of the sedan top. Now to hack it up to fit the Ranchero.

[Jantrix]

Looks good Stu!

The side profile for the GTO. I figure thats pretty close. I'll be attempting the narrowing today. I figure I'll start at 3/4 of an inch in the rear to 1 1/4 inches in the front

[Jantrix]

Narrowed. 2cm from the rear, tapering to 3cm in the front. And don't sweat the wheel choice, its been changed.

Next up is to build a chassis and set the wheelbase. Chassis will be from the Revell '53 flipnose p/u, it fits perfectly. I'll admit I'm not looking forward to modifying that grill. The stock tail lights are intact, just closer together. I will be using a small block after all. More soon.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Jantrix

[Nick Winter]

You sir are a Madman, I love it!

Nick

Waiting on goodies from Modelhaus.

[dodgefever]

It'll get worse before it gets better. I've separated the dash because the cowl and windshield moulding will be replaced. This is going to be built as a '60s style street machine, maybe with some speed shop signwriting. I was going to put a Cammer in it, but now I'm thinking about an 8 carb Lincoln, putting more towards the early '60s.

[Shardik]

Nice work, Rob. Ira would approve.

I thought I would cheat a little and picked up a Ross Gibson 427 Pro stock engine. Bad move; as bad as the headers are in the Monogram kit, the RG units are worse ! They used an open mold...for headers. After 2 hours of meticulous clean up they still look like garbage. Add to this the harmonic balancer that looks like melted silly putty and the intake runners that won't fit with the valley cover in place unless you offset the heads one scale inch too low on the block. I am seriously unimpressed with Ross Gibson. For this price their product should be far better.

So much for cheating. It looks like I'll be scratch building some headers and an intake.

On the bright side, I picked up a "scratch & dent" discounted Mongoose so the coupe will have some serious grip in the rear. I also cut away the floor pan in the rear to make room for the fresh meat and the heavily 'z'ed frame yet to come.

Edited January 7, 2013 by Shardik

[scaleauto]

I am in, I have a glue bomb. It is a 1961 Ford Starliner.

[Jantrix]

Vaughn you are added to the roster.

More on my GTO soon. I'm fighting off a wicked flu and I can't build when I feel like crapola.

Edited January 9, 2013 by Jantrix

[scaleauto]

A few more pics. I got this 1961 Ford Starliner in a trade.

It was painted black and lots of glue.

The model is completely taken apart.

[Erik Smith]

Well, the last thing I should do is commit to something else...but what the heck.

I bought this kit recently:

I don't know why, really, but I thought it looked cool. I even did a little search on my phone to see what the kit looked like. Well, somebody on a Danish or Swiss forum had some pictures of it built. Unfortunately, I couldn't read the text, which probably would have told all the extra parts and such needed to make this dog of a kit presentable. I will post some pictures of the "wheels", four wheel drive tires and such later. But for now...

My plan is to make a common, run of the mill, ho-hum, Porsche 904 gasser - you know, the kind you saw everyday at the neighborhood drag strip on Sunday afternoons. I have never made a gasser - or any drag car for that matter, so, I guess it is time to learn...

[Jantrix]

I love it Erik! Way to think outside the box, and then put said box under the rear wheel and mash the accelerator.

[Erik Smith]

Here are some pictures of the Porsche:

Body

The deep tread, large tires

The wheels - I have no idea how these represent the actual wheels pictured on the box.

The window doesn't quite fit

And that is why I will be smushing it together with this started (somebody cut the doors and trunk lid out and startec sanding parts) kit I got from eBay.

We will see what happens!

[Erik Smith]

Going to really stick it to this thing - some gawdy, hippy panels should do...

[W-409]

I have done something for the interior of my '86 El Camino. Because the quality of it is very poor, I decided to go simple way and paint everything with different shades of black paints. I didn't have any good seats for it, so I used those from the kit, dashboard quality is not very good either, but I had to go with it this time. I added those little door "handles" to the door panels. They are made from Solder.

Still missing Shifter, some adjusting to the cauges and other cleanup.

[Jantrix]

Looking good guys! I should be back at the bench this weekend!

[Ron Hamilton]

Can I get in on this madness? I have a Johan 1966 Rambler American Convertible that needs a rebuilding. I recently picked up this beauty off of Ebay, and it needs a lot of attention.

It was hand painted in Testors Metallic Green Enamel with Silver trim from the '60's, and it was glued pretty tight, in that I had to cut it apart.

It was a little dirty, and had some holes bored in it for mirror and spotlight installation.

The rear panel had some custom trim glued on it at some time. I hope to be able to clean this up.

The person who sold it to me sent some pieces from an SC Rambler to make the restoration a little easier. However there are several missing parts, and I have to either find a hood with no hole in it, or fill the hole in this one.

I have a complete resin Rambler 6 Cylinder engine from Replicas and Miniatures for it, and I am going to raid my parts box for anything else I need, as I am not able to invest any more funds in this endeavor. Push comes to shove, I may have to cannablize a SC Rambler kit for some parts if I cannot restore some of the over-glued and mis-painted parts on this one.

I plan to do a '60's "Day Two" car out of this, which is a street driven car with minimum bolt on accessories.I stripped the paint off of the body, using no chemicals. I had a couple of breakage issues in the body, which I hope that I can fix.

All of the scripts and trim will be left on this one, and it will be painted in a close representaion of a 1966 Rambler American Color Combination.

[Erik Smith]

Nice Ron. I think it's pretty interesting a little fun to get old build ups on eBay. I look forward to seeing the Rambler 6 too, I have a 770 promo I would like to add an engine.

[Jantrix]

Happy to have you Ron. Looking forward to seeing this done.

So you are going to sand all the paint off?