The 2015 /16 Red Hot and Rollin Automotive Group Build--Ended

got a whole bunch more done on the Model T:

This dash is actually kinda amusing after seeing Mustang's EPIC dash for his, oh, well, it was a 'slower' era, LOL:

The coil box to each plug, I used fly fishing wire. A bit tedious, but, I got 'em to settle down. Unfortunately, the plugs are just big thimble shaped masses on top of the head. Oh, well, it's ERTL:

Plugs and wires painted white with a hint of brass at each end to simulate the leads:

the hood was a one piece deal, so, I scored the insides and opened up the hood to the two-fold open position.The plastic is horribly thick, I know. I don't have a rotary tool or experience thinning out plastic parts :

The rad mounted easily and has a ledge to mount the hood:

Steering wheel, pedals and brake lever installed:

The ultra modern 'Starter', :

And, the 'up-top' installed with window in back:

ewheeler454

It's funny that I also have the 66 Impala hat I was planning to do after the current two, so I'll move it down my build list and do it next year maybe so we're not doing the same thing hehehehe.

Eric - Don't not do it because of me.  I '66 Impala challenge you to a build off. lol  My red is Vallejo Scarlett red.  Vibrant. Spicy. lol   My red car is gonna kick your red car in the balls.  :)  I picked up that amt 69 Chevelle convertible.  You should check it out, it seems really nice, might fit the bill.  I would eventually like to do every year chevelle, I own a 72-my first car, bought it at 15.

Looking good everyone.  I gotta try that hairspray technique, really nice results.  Do you have to chip it or can you do a sun faded/worn area?  I've seen both chipping and wear done but never know if the hairspray method is the way to go about it.  I thought it might be cool to do 2 of the same kit, one show room, one sun bleached and worn out.  Like beginning and end of life.

Mustang - that thing is looking amazing.  I also went out at lunch and grabbed some of that dull-cote for my tires-great tip-thanks. 

I think I hurried through the 57 because I lost steam on it as I started to get further into it and noticing the weaker detail.  It didn't deserve that much over-effort in my opinion. You couldn't even display the hood open, it's closed or removed -why detail the engine.  I just selected and focused on refining a few weaknesses which are many but mainly getting paint to lay smooth and stay put, and trying out more bmf.  Last year I completed 3 kits.  Poorly, but completed.  Your engine pics and post have inspired me to try my hand at upping the detail under the hood.

Gordy

I wasn't planning to start my build just yet, but last night I felt like opening the box and taking a peek. Then I figured I'd go ahead and wash the parts...you know...just in case. Anyway, here's all the parts minus chrome & tires cause my bench isn't big enough!

Oh, and outstanding work, Mustang! You're really going all out on that build - it's great to see.

Lookin' forward to the progress Seabe!

I managed to make some progress in the engine bay today but will post updates to that (which reminds me...............that's another full scale update I need to do.............oh well, almost caught up anyways! lol) . For today's progress: A horn was not included in this kit but I robbed on from a Monogram 1970 Mustang kit that was molded to the core support. I was about to install it and just couldn't bring myself to do it. Here's what it initially looked like:

There's what it's supposed to look like:

So I cut the original mounting from the horn, cut a strip of PE and broke out the super glue:

and painted 'er up! It aint exact but it's a helluva lot closer than what it was.

True to the build name, there's already some red hot action here! Well done, some truly impressive work!

Seems I have all the parts I require to adjust my build. So the P34 will become a Scheckter car! Think it will be the correct parts to depict the Sweden win (where they ran a 1-2). Having found all that, I still have to find some more time to actually build...  The later colourscheme (FNC sponsorship)  is nicer, but hey, it's not as if we're falling over South African F1 drivers!

Thanks Rommel...great guide!

Man, you guys are cranking out some nice goodies!  Rob S. your T is looking super good!  Keep doing what you are doing and you are there.  You are right, there is not much to T wiring.  Just in case, I have attached a photo for you for some detail reference.  You might already have it.  

I will be back to Model A bashing pretty quick.  Got a few other things to tie down first.  Keep it up guys, some nice builds here.  

Fantastic work, guys!

Super wicked tires Mustang! I really like your dulled down tires. Way more realistic for sure.

Very nice!

I get those kinds of bench times 2-3 days a week and still can't make it happen. lol

Final update and we're caught up to where I'm at right now so everything I do from here on out is real time....................finally! 

Ok, I had thought I was finished here...and this was last week. I got a fine point acrylic paint pen from Hobby Lobby ( the point is actually a little squared off but if you use the side of the tip you're in business)

and initially came up with these results on the tire white lettering:

However I just wasn't satisfied here and so I picked at it some more with a sharpened toothpick and got these results............

Finally after all of this I rustled up my Model Master flat clear and cut it with 70% ISO and went to work. I'm not a glossy wet "Armor All " kinda guy and just like my tires to be black so here's the comparison before and after. Before on the left, after on the right:

and all four.....

and that's a wrap and gets me caught up to now. Looking forward to seeing all the builds in here and actually building with you guys now.

Ha, quite simply Mustang...this is all I have to do right now. I am disconnected from my family in Toronto due to being in the military, so, I have a small apartment to myself, AND, I build models...lots!! I probably spent 3-5 hours a day at the bench!!

Rob I don't know how some of you guys do it. Your methods are good this is true, but how do you guys build a model in a flash? I can tell you that this Challenger will at this point still take me another two months if not more making it a total time of 4-5 months to re-build this thing. I do spend a lot of time in thought on obstacles and techniques and I know that makes for lengthening the time on the build but it still fascinates me on how quickly some of you guys build these great looking models. One day I'll get there I suppose....

Ok todays catch up is on tires. I started with this for wheels and tires. The slick on the left will not be used in this build but was an idea at the time. The wheel is original and the tire on the right is original though.

Here's the replacement tires ,

that I robbed out of this kit(hey bonus here: there were two sets of these baby's in there!)

as you can see these tires are more "meatier" than the originals:

I began by "chuckin' 'em up"  in the drill with a 12mm socket.....

and spinning them up on medium grit sandpaper to get this effect....

Then I took the wheels and sanded the backs down like so....

till I got this effect: (before on the right..after on the left)

masked off the wheels...

...................................

and painted them with acrylic silver like so...

and then applied a very light dark wash to the center where the lugnuts are and mounted them onto the tires....

the stance I'm after wheel / tire wise and ride height are along the lines of this..(and with this tire combo it's gonna be a perfect match!)

more on the way....I aint done with these yet!!! lol 

Thanks Steve...I put a note on the Artillery GB. As for this little Lizzy, I got the chassis mounted to the body and a good start on the cab:

Here's the chassis mounted into the body. This was quite a pain to mount, believe it or not. Because of AMT's 'quality' and unbeknownst to me during construction, it was slightly warped, so, it took lots of persuasion (an frustration hits of CA glue) to get it to settle down in place

I had to do some bending to get the suspension to sit square, but, we'll see when I get the wheels on if it sits flat. If I had a dollar for every AMT car that didn't sit flat on its wheels..yadda..yadda......

So, it's starting to look like a car. The cab went on easily with a dot of CA in each corner and the, what I'm callin' a COUCH for a seat...must've been a comfy ride!! I also lightly weather the body as I don't want it to be showroom shiny, so, I drybrushed a mix of enamel grey and brown.

And the seat with a dark oil wash to bring out the gaps between the 'plushness' of that monster piece of furniture!!

So, I can wire up the engine...really NOT much to do with this era car and there are two control rods I will scratch for the right side of the engine compartment. Also, the kit's hood is one piece BUT, it has grooves inside, thus, I decided to deepen them and forced the hood to be open on one side. More to follow....

You guys are really getting my blood boiling to start on my Shelby. Mustang the engine and dash.... wow.

Rob, that hairspray technique looks like it works great. I'm just ichin to get started now.

Looks great Rob and thanks for the pointers on the hairspray. I may end up giving that a shot down the line.........

Lovin' it Mustang...what an interesting way to do a build...taking what was old and making it new...AND awesome!! Very cool. As for the hairspray, if you spray acrylic paint over a surface sprayed with run of the mill hairspray, you can then scratch off the acrylic paint with a delicate tool, such as a toothpic, revealing the colour underneath. What it does is gives you that illusion of a layer of paint missing or chipped/eroded away revealing the metal underneath. In my case, the black paint has been chipped or worn away over the years and the metal underneath is rusted. Takes a bit of practice and I've not mastered it yet, so, I'm trying to get more opportunities to do it.

Gordy - Yup, I 'live' in Toronto (North York) but, I work south of Montreal, so, I only make to TO around once a month. Your Impala, despite the 'crappy' kit, looks excellent, by the way!!

Here's a bit more progress with the Model T. I started by painting the wood slats of the underneath wood and then drybrushed brown and then spayed some shadowing to age it up quite a bit. The rest was sprayed flat black then drybrushed with grey, gunmetal and brown.

A couple of more updates here. One being the instrument panel/ dash area. As pictured earlier we start here with the original built dash some 32 years ago. If I do say so myself , it wasn't bad for 14 years old.

We're shootin' for something like this(minus the aftermarket radio):

So we have to make some changes here starting with the gauges.....

Here's the result of the stepped drilling that I ended up doing cleaned up a bit:

 At this point I had a newer release of a Revell Challenger kit that I robbed these decals from......

I also needed a base in which to adhere the decals to.....

I cut it out of my sanding pad clear plastic package and painted the back of it black. I then applied the decals in correlation to the drilled holes in the instrument panel and sanded/filed the back of the IP so that the piece shown below would fit flat up against the back of the IP.

I also painted the instrument panel area where the gauges, radio and switches are with a coat of flat black and then shot a coat of flat coat over the whole dash to give it a uniform color. I brought out the raised radio and heater control detail with white and silver lead pencils and hit all the knobs with some gloss clear. Then I adhered the whole "gauge pod" to the back of the IP to look something like this:

There's a little dust in the speedo but that'll get cleaned up. I'll get back to all this in a minute.

Let's focus our attention to the steering wheel....

I took a shot of this before I went too far. I started with the original steering wheel and drilled the first of 9 holes to be drilled in the spokes...

and then we progress onwards until they are all done....

Then I repainted the steering wheel and drilled a hole in the column and added a turn signal lever with a drop of super glue at the tip to replicate a little "handle" and glued it into the column....

and just for a comparison recap so you can see the before and after results, here's the original dash build:

and here's the "after" result:

I'm happy with how it turned out  using all the original parts...

Thanks BS214.

They have the convertible, but I am looking for a hard top hehehehe. Hopefully Round@ will re-release it soon. :)

Check Hobby Lobby and use a 40% coupon.

Rob,

That chassis and engine are look amazing.

Gordy,

I've built that kit and know it's not a well molded kit. You did an excellent job with it. Kudos!

It's funny that I also have the 66 Impala hat I was planning to do after the current two, so I'll move it down my build list and do it next year maybe so we're not doing the same thing hehehehe. They look sharp red. I already ave the paint for it, Stoplight Red Metallic. I got a 66 GTO off Ebay last night for 12 bucks so I may do it after I finish the current 2. I really want to do another 69 Chevelle, but can't find one at a decent price hehehehe.

L8TR,

Eric

Man that '57 looks really good Gordy! I'm really liking the use of BMF on that car! I'll get your new build intro buddy!

Mmmmm... I just love those baby blues on classic cars - especially '57 Chevys. My dad owned a '57 Chevy 4-door in Aqua and white back in the day after he got out of the Navy.

Mustang, what the H?  I half expect to see some oil on that dipstick when you pull it to check it.  Awesome, awesome work.  Your 14 year old builder engine looks like my 42 year builder engine. 

Rob, I didn't realize you were in Toronto, I'm in Burlington!. lol  Nice work so far.  Well done everyone.  I'm looking forward to that Impala build, I love me some 60s Impalas.

Anyway, I beat the 57.  It didn't turn out as nice as I had hoped when I started but once again, I learned a lot.  Plus I got to do more BMF which I am really liking.  That doesn't mean I'm good at it but I don't dread it at all.

I'll keep the pics to a minimum as they mostly suck but I'll link the album.

The kit over all was pretty crappy.  It said level 2 but this was more like level 1, I'm not sure.  Minimal detail.  It had a molded on exhaust, the front suspension was like 2 pieces with the upper A arm just sitting like a hat on top of the "assembly".  The rear fit was far worse.  Very thin, chromed leaf springs(snapped), the shocks had to be set so far apart they don't look even close to realistic but realism is the least of the worries of the under carriage.  So don't flip it over.

The box claimed a whopping 70 parts! and molded in Aqua blue!  That is not a pretty colour at all.  The body seemed nice tho so just focus on that.

Slide show of horror - http://s293.photobucket.com/user/elass0wyp0/slideshow/Scale%20Models/AMT%201957%20Chevrolet%20BelAir%20HT

Good from far, and far from good.  She looks decent from arms length.  I'm going to put it in a plastic case and give it to my mother.  She won't notice any of it.  :)

I chose and started my next build.  The Revell 66 Chevy SS 396 HT.   Which is a funny way of saying a 1966 Chevy Impala SS.  I'm well underway with it and have some good time off this weekend to hopefully do some real damage to it. 

I am really digging these street burner kits.  Everyone I've looked closely at has been really nicely detailed.  After that molded on exhaust stuff it's the first thing I look for now.  lol  I'm going to keep an eye out for more of these.  I picked up 2 of this kit for $16 bucks each.  I'm glad now that I grabbed them both.

Box art:

Sprue spread:

Wish me luck, or rather wish the kit luck.  I'm going for Scarlett red as I some how have the most red paint.  lol

Gordy

Rob: Thanks man! I've since gained some knowledge that will make this process a little easier with the dipstick. That's a great start on yours. What's the idea behind the hairspray?

modelcrazy and Eric: Thanks guys!

Mike: I'm actually surprising myself with half of this stuff. The last thing in 24th scale I built was a Trumpeter 109 and I didn't go near this far with it. Looking forward to your build as well and glad that your air compressor troubles are over.

Can't begin to tell you fellas how much I'm enjoying watching your builds come together!  My modeling career started with cars all those decades ago and now I feel that same youthful enthusiasm - hard to describe, but it's a great feeling!

Joe, that engine is just, well, I'm just blown away man!.........and that dipstick?!  Never seen anything like it! Amazing stuff!

Rob, that  Model T chassis/drive train is a beaut!  The finish looks flawless!

BS214, you're off to an excellent start on the Impala.  Love that car so I'll be watching that build closely for sure.

Eric, great stuff going on with the '51 Chev.  ....and those wheels look perfect!  Been building military stuff for so long, you car guys have me feeling like a beginner (and I'm sure learning a lot!).

rommelkiste, fine bit of kit bashing to get that engine looking the part.  All that work really paid off - beautiful stuff!

Had a few compressor issues over the weekend but they've been resolved, and the chrome is finally stripped from all the engine components (thanks for the tip on the Westleys, Greg!) so I can finally get to work on that big KB 426 hemi.  Lots of flash and mold seams to clean up but it'll be worth it.  The hefty black band included for the blower belt will be replaced with one I plan on scratchbuilding.  Got a few ideas how to pull it off. 

Really, I just can't wait to join in on the fun here and get started on this beast!

Great start Blacksheep. I too got a bit of work in tonite on the Model T. I left off with the chassis completed with engine installed. I then painted the entire assembly enamel rust. Following that I sprayed the entire assembly with run of the mill hairspray last nite and let it all sit and set up to today. I oversprayed, tonite, the entire assembly flat black. After that dried, I went to work 'scratching' off black paint with a toothpick in random placed to reveal the rust underneath.

I realize I didn't explain what my plan was for this build..I want this roadster to be 'used', perhaps, 10 or so years old and still on the road. It's well cared for, but, it's starting to show its age. That's my theme. Not showroom new, rather, somebody's daily driver just prior to WW2.

So, here's the progress. Overall rust coat and a good layer of hairspray:

Here's the black coat ensuring I left some rust exposed in nooks and crannies:

Here it is now with scratched off black, some light rust drybrushing, some light gun metal drybrushing and some gray drybrushing:

I can't start wiring the engine until the 'cab' is mounted with the firewall, so, I started on the cab by scribing hard to release the right door from being molded in place:

Before

After some hard scribing

That's it for today. Thanks for lookin'!

Mustang,

That's some motivating work! Nice details.

BS214, I built the hardtop version of that kit. It is a nice kit.

Now if I can get some warm weather so I can something done hehehehe

L8TR,

Eric

Yeah. I'm happy things are going right for me with the Impala SS. Did more painting and worked on the engine a bit. It won't be anywhere near as your mustang. Too much for me to wrap my head around it. LOL! I'm just gonna go with the flow and enjoy this build.

I remember those days of the 8 dollar kits!! Looks to be a good build BS214!