MPC Ford Econoline High Jacker 1/20

Scarecrow Joe

This is a reissued model from the 70's and early 80's.  I first bought it in the early eighties when I was 13 to 14 years old.  I never could finished it and got so frustrated that I just put it in the box and dumped it into my closet.  Years later in a house clean up it was discarded.... 

 

When MPC reissued it I had to have it.  This is the one who got away. I was heavily into military modeling and tried my hand building it.  It was a very difficult kit in fact it is recommended to advanced modelers...I dont knoe if Im "advanced" but will try it again.

 

Its not going to be black and the decals will not be used.  Im planning on doing a little diorama.  When I finish this will tackle the DeAgostini Falcon.

 

20150327_145025 by nenekinkin, on Flickr

 

Thanks for looking!

Wow, funny I've got almost the same story.

I think I'll order one from the hobby shop today.

Will watch with great interest!

PANZERJAGER

Thanks man!

Here are a few pics showing the progress Ive made so far.  The engine is a 302.  I had to scartchbuilt some springs and shocks since the original sucked.  Im planning on also building the complete mufflers and God knows what more!

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Engine will almost dont be visible but I detailed it a bit more than planned...its a moral thing! LOL!

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Springs:

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Shocks:

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Both installed:

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All except tires:

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Weathering done to achieve a more machinery, clean and well maintained look.

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Tires and wheels also weathered to take away the toyish look

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Body mocked up:

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Body and doors primed.  Just started the interior and finished some final details in the engine and radiator.

Mock up....like the stance it has.

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I saw that it was released recently. Looking forward to seeing the finished product!

Thought the seats looked a bit plain so I added some texture.  Its just kitchen paper towel (think is Bounty) soaked in distilled Elmers glue.  Will let dry until tomorrow and then paint it, possibly in a two tone brown and tan scheme.

20150409_191159 by nenekinkin, on Flickr

Thanks for looking!

progress looks good. That's a technique i haven't seen before.

Thanks!

Here are a few more pics of the progress so far.  I weathered it a bit, and shocks and springs were scratchbuilt.

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Painted seats...look very 70's to me. Excuse the bad cell phone pic.

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Well, following the colors chart Ive chose, found a good candidate for my floor carpet, both in scale look and color...an old t-shirt!

Fitting test after cut

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Colors check

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A bit of mild brushing to distress a bit the cloth and bring back the "hairiness" of it.  Looks like a used but well maintained carpet that was recently vacuumed, huh?

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I will add real wood accents so I think the colors will mesh together fine.

Carpet glued with diluted white glue.

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Seats installed, as well as steering wheel in place.  I dry brushed the seats with a darker color (Vallejo's Leather Brown) to add some shades and contrast.

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Finished for today but...just took sometime to mock up the body with the chassis and interior.

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So, what you guys think?

Added angry eyes to the headlights since I thought the front looked to innocent for such a bad ass van. 

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Testing its photographic looks with my real camera...

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Following with interest, you've got a great nostalgia build with good scratchbuilding! I had forgotten about all the "novelty" kits that were available in the seventies. Thanks for posting.

Mike

Thanks Mike.

I took a few beauty shots of the chassis and motor since it will never see the light of day once the body is on.

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Radiator hose was made by using the original plastic one, covered with shrinking tube to get a realistic looking rubber hose.

Love those tires & great mock up earlier.  Nice photo work too!  I like the motor, my 390 sports those same style valve colors.

Nice work.  Only nit I see that struck me is that if no one is in the seats, the outer armrests would probably be in the down position.  Love the carpet and will file away the shrink tube trick.  You should submit that one to the tips section of the mag.

Thanks for the props.  I should add that regarding the shrinking tube it was heated after it was put over the plastic hose to get the smooth look over the tube itself.

I was planning to add a driver....reason why keeping armrests up.  Anyways, once inside the van these are almost lost among all the things going on in there! LOL!

That's a real good looking van. I've not seen one before so ill be interested to see it done.

Thanks Misty.  Its a good looking kit and van indeed but it has a lot of poorly detailed or poorly fitting parts that unless one is not into scratch building the end result may leave you dissatisfied.  Im waiting for some balsa wood to do some scale cabinet work on its interior.

Worked on the dash today.  The kit comes with a lot of accessories, like a CB radio.  I added the cable to make it a bit more realistic.

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Oh, also I weathered it to make it look used...not completely destroyed...but well used...LOL!

You know when I saw this kit boxing I didn't like it too much. Watching you build this is making me want to go buy one. Did I perhaps see this at Hobby Lobby?

You're doing a good job with this thing BTW.

I've been thinking about doing a van model for a while and remembered back to my early teen years when I picked up a Chevrolet Mean Mudder van kit. Apparently that one is going for a pretty penny these days as I've found two but the asking price is $179 and $199. It comes with a dirt bike in the kit too. I'd love to get my hands on one of these!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MEAN-MUDDER-2WD-Off-Road-Chevy-VAN-Revell-1-25-Opened-vtg-70s-Kit-H-1393-/371298601308?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item56731f095c

Looking good. I would leave the engine cover off to display the work you did there, just leave it loose in the interior someplace.

Today was a very special one since I did two things Ive never done before.  Painted the van in a two tone vintage looking combination of blue and white, very close to original Ford colors. The other thing was using Bare Metal on the doors emblems. Overall Im happy with the results.  Here is a few preliminary beauty shots of this thing.

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Just for fun here is the original and mine.

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Those colors are nearly spot on!

Thanks Lee!

I bit more scratch building in between some fixing of a few odds and end on the body.

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