Jump to content
Model Cars Magazine Forum

Recommended Posts

Posted

Great job of one of my favorite Buicks, Steve! Nice work detailing this kit's Spartan engine compartment! The silver works beautifully to highlight the deeply sculpturing body.

One thing about this kit that is worth taking the time to fix, and would bring yours even closer to rep. stock perfection, is fixing the wheelbase, which AMT made too long, putting the front wheels too far forward and the rear too far back. Ironically, it's almost the same length too long as SMP made the '60 El Camino too short!

Anyway, here're some illustrations of the problem from a previous online discussion of adjusting wheelbases and ride height in early kits...

Uncorrected restorable ragtop with axles in the lowered position....

60Buick2_1-vi.jpg

Adjusted ragtop. For this one that was going to be built rep. stock I redrilled the axle holes, enlarged the hole in the engine, and had to grind the inside of the chassis to allow the axles to slide all the way through. A number of years ago I did one by sectioning the chassis, which may have been the easier way...

invicta2-vi.jpg

buickWB-vi.jpg

The real deal. Hope you won't mind this little nitpick. I love your work: it's some of the best I've ever seen on here!...

12709533784_02ee2ac373_o.jpg

Posted

Not at all Froghawk. I did notice that the wheelbase was incorrect on this kit. A lot of these old kits had wheelbase/ ride height/ tread width problems. I usually try to correct these problems as much as warranted. For some reason I didn't on this one. I'm not exactly sure why. May have gotten side tracked as this kit has several other "fit" problems to deal with. This being the one of the first kits with an engine that AMT offered, things were a little "crude" in the engine compartment. I"ve dealt with the tread width issue on every older Johan kit I've ever built, & the '63 Ford truck that I have posted on the "light truck" forum required some front wheel re-positioning. The front wheels on that kit are too far back & it was really pronounced with lowering the front end. With that one, I had to move the wheels up & forward to get them to look right. I could do some "re-vamping" on the Buick, but at this point, it's "under glass" & I'm calling it good enough. :) Steve

Posted

One of the outstanding designs of the era, IMO - I prefer it to the 59 Buick, and even the 59/60 Chevies. And I've never seen a more exquisite model of the car.

I wish MCM would bring out a special issue just on your models! They're going to get buried here.

(BTW A good way to access a favourite modeler's past posts is to Google "mcm under glass + name of modeler".)

Posted

The outdoor shots really make the car look 1/1 scale. Your builds are making me pay closer attetion to the little things on all my builds and I can see a difference. Thank you.

Posted

Thanks Guys! I appreciate the nice Comments. I love these old annuals! You'll probably see quite a few more before I run out of subject matter & have to go back to more "current" kits. I have plenty of them I'd like to get done too! :) Steve

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...