Russell C Posted June 20, 2014 Posted June 20, 2014 (edited) Andy Martin is merciless about beating me up for not making normal models, but I did at one time in the distant past, when I tried my hand at work-for-hire model building. At the local hobby shop I'd seen a 3x5 card on their bulletin board about a guy wanting classic & muscle car models, so thought I could raise some money by having a bit of fun. Turned out to be an ear, nose & throat doctor in Texas, and it was rather fun to restore one older '57 Oldsmobile (promo?) of his, build another quickie Jo-Han '59 Caddy Fleetwood, and this T-bird, but I ended up becoming too much of an artiste for the '60 Caddy Eldorado convertible he wanted. He was willing to settle for what I thought was too simplistic of an interior, and I couldn't bring myself to finish it out with a substandard interior from whatever resin kit he'd provided, considering how much work I'd put into the nice stainless steel wire trim on the body (designed to fit in scribed-out channels). You know how it goes, you're truckin' along fine until you are stumped on how to do a particular bit right and the whole project grinds to a halt. So what we have here is the AMT '57 T-bird I built for him in 1994, pretty much box stock except for refinements with various metal bits, such as the lathe-turned rings for the taillights, bits of polished wire for the door handles, a little bit of engine wiring, and the then-new photoetch scripts and emblems. The "engine turned" dash piece is just Bare Metal foil, but where I somewhat laboriously pressed a spinning flat-end rod (in my motor tool) into the foil. Took a few tries and ripped out strips, but in the end I got it to look reasonably convincing. Probably various T-bird purists will spot errors in it, but it met my approval overall and the Doc sure did like it. Pics here are digitals taken of my old overly contrasty photo prints. Edited May 10, 2020 by Russell C fixed busted photo links 1
PeeBee Posted June 20, 2014 Posted June 20, 2014 Great job on a great old kit. I have one going right now, black over a B&W interior.
Lovefordgalaxie Posted June 21, 2014 Posted June 21, 2014 Very very nice. Super sharp and clean, and the most important, factory stock.
Maxicoop Posted June 21, 2014 Posted June 21, 2014 Back when cars were works of art ...... and you've shown it very well with your car ....... EXCELLENT JOB !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Russell C Posted June 21, 2014 Author Posted June 21, 2014 (edited) Thanks for the kind words. The '57s were my favorites. I will admit that back when I built it I was also scheming on how to build one for myself where a Formula 1 Benneton Ford engine/tranny could be dropped into the back, but the cabin would have been shoved so far forward, it would have rendered the thing into being way too weird looking. That, plus F1 kits weren't available in 25th scale that I could find. Edited May 10, 2020 by Russell C fixed busted link
John Goschke Posted June 21, 2014 Posted June 21, 2014 Very nice build of a classic AMT kit. Color combo looks very authentic. Well done detail painting under the hood, in the interior, and on the chassis bring out the best in the kit.
rmvw guy Posted June 21, 2014 Posted June 21, 2014 Very nice build of a classic AMT kit. Color combo looks very authentic. Well done detail painting under the hood, in the interior, and on the chassis bring out the best in the kit. X2 Couldn't have said it better.
dino246gt Posted June 21, 2014 Posted June 21, 2014 That does look very cool as totally stock! You did a great job on that one! How could the doc not love it, it's excellent!!
Modelmartin Posted June 22, 2014 Posted June 22, 2014 (edited) I may be brutal but I am not merciless. My jaw is fine. I caught it on the rebound. Edited June 22, 2014 by Modelmartin
Russell C Posted June 24, 2014 Author Posted June 24, 2014 I may be brutal but I am not merciless. My jaw is fine. I caught it on the rebound. Brutal, my bad. (also nuts, but that is a different topic) Sorry for the potential surprise injury, but it was too tempting to dig up really old photographs. Remains to be seen if I can build another normal model, I suppose.
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