Some Vintage Models I am Restoring: AMT '34 Ford Pick-Up *Finished* 2014/01/29

That is just fantastic work, Blake.  Whatever wheels you decide on, this baby's gonna be a winner.

Thanks Allan!

Made a truck-box bed using balsa wood, and some Plastruct 1.6 mm styrene channel (painted with Humbrol 191).









So that lessens the 'too much orange' effect a bit :)

Thanks for looking more to come

-Blake

Nice.  Looks like you stained it to emphasize the wood pattern?

Hi Allan,

Honestly I did not.  All I did was select balsa stock with a nice pronounced grain...

-Blake

Exhaust system is now established. Decided to go with a funky side pipe set-up.  Bent, cut and drilled aluminum tubing for the pipes and heat displacers. Also bent a few parts lot pipes for the underside using a bic lighter.



will look like this:



More to come :)
-Blake in Montreal

Wheels wheels wheels...

I have decided to stick with the spoke wheels. In a perhaps over-zealous moment I stripped the paint from them. I had had a mind to paint them black, this I have reconsidered and will be matching the orange instead. I any case, the paint on the wheels was not great. Unknown builder did not use primer, which they got away on the body but wheels were quite chipped up.





I had thought black because I wanted a contrasting color for the orange.  I guess because Hallowe'en is coming!  But the color I need is white, like the dash and seats.  So...white walls!

I am still in the trial and error stage with hand painting white walls. What I have done here is sanded the area to be painted with a sanding stick, then washed the tires well.  I have now applied Humbrol 1 primer, next will be to add 2-3 coats of Humbrol satin and matt white mixed.  This worked fairly well for me on another set, I'll let you know how it works out here:



Thanks for looking, feedback/comments always welcome,
-Blake

Not that I'm a backseat driver, but acrylics are whats supposed to be used for painting whitewalls. Because of what the tires are made of, the regular oil based paints don't dry well and don't look very nice. Also, a circle template from a art supply store works well in aiding the painting of the whitewalls. Good Luck!

Hi Mark,

So now ya tell me, lol :)

I'd like to try an acrylic for this task, is there a particular brand you'd recommend?

Meanwhile, the Humbrol 1 has actually dried remarkably well on the vinyl (...or maybe it's rubber, these are really old).  I've given each tire the 'squish-test', no cracks in the paint!

Humbrol 1 is a weird and awesome primer, I find. It takes forever to stir, needs over night drying time, and still remains sort of tacky to the touch.  But it seems to have come through for me again on tires!

Best wishes

-Blake

They all look good. I especially like the yellow truck with the headlights. And I'd never thought of using corduroy for upholstery. I haven't built any cars in years. All my work has been on armor, aircraft, sci-fi and so on. But I love to build anything. I'll be visiting this section of the forums more and more to get ideas and inspiration for future car builds.

It's good to see someone taking a wreck-scue build seriously. it'd be a pity that these builds might have ended up in landfill. Looks like you have the skills to make some seriously nice models out of them.

minimagneto

Corduroy is what Unknown Builder used

scary that i used to wear trousers made of that stuff!!!

As far as the brand, I just use Testor's Acryl. That stickiness is why I don't use an oil based Flat white.

Thanks for all the kind words guys. A little break from the bench and now I'm back...with some spruced up WHEELZ

Though a touch labor intensive, the Humbrol enamels worked great for whitewalling the tires!

One more update before I finish up  I suppose...HEADLIGHTS!

Here is the original headlight set-up:

After searching high and low (for two years) I never did find that missing insert or and lenses. So I decided to use another one I found in the lot.  I also decided to go for it and install working bulbs.

A few holes are drilled and the headlights get added to the grill shell:

In past builds using operating lights, I took great pains to hide the switch and battery on the build. This time I've taken a different approach, which is to eliminate the battery and switch.  Instead, I've used terminals on the chassis.  These will have wires twisted on to provide power. Using this method will mean I can't just switch the lights on, but I can have them lit to take photos, and maybe way down the line hard-wire them into a display:

And here is the grill/light ready to wire to chassis:

Excited to get this one done soon!

Finished photos!

-Blake

Man, I had a blast just following along looking at the pics! Those intake tubes are sweet!

Thanks for the kind words jetmaker! I've had a blast building and posting as I go :)

-Blake

minimagneto

Hi I'm Blake, from Montreal Canada. Still pretty new at posting here this is my third post on FSM, first one in Autos.

About two years back, I bought a lot of models on ebay. It was a bit of a long shot, I didn't know what I'd be getting too well but I saw there were some cool cars there.

What I received was a big box on models, none of them together at all. Just a giant box of tiny parts.  With loads of great stuff in it!  Didn't take long for my buyer remorse to go bye bye and for the fun to begin :)

I figure most of these models were built in mid 60's. Revell and AMT. I will probably never know by whom, but they did a really nice job, for the most part!  The wild colors have stood the test of time, and there is this amazing corduroy upholstery in a bunch of them.  Seeing this old collection really got me inspired!

I began by sorting through all the pieces of my antique parts lot and deciding what would go with what.  And I've just started building them up from there. I had to add a few parts from my own collection to replace broken ones in order to complete them. 

 

Here are a couple that I've gotten together thus far:

 

Hi Blake,

I know this is an old thread but do you know what engine (with the scoop)  is in the green coupe? I need this type of engine to recreate a specific rat rod a friend has.

Also, what size aluminum tubing do you normally use for engine stacks?

Thanks!