February model car contest?

That Merc is badass Turner! 
 

Here's my finished product. Not crazy about the decals. I melted the "2" on the right rear with the hair dryer trying to get the middle "2" down around the logos. :/  and some other corners and spots had weird issues. Still pleased for a month long build though. 

In reply to Saron81 :

That turned out great!!!

In reply to TurnerX19 :

Aww man, we still don't know what engine? 

In reply to ddavidv :

Nuts. It really does look great, too. That bonnet issue is super frustrating. 

In reply to Javelin :

Well you saw the built up flatty......nah....This post window doesn't want me to post a photo.

So it is complete, a Mercury with a cat inside...

3.8 Jag from the Tamiya Mk2 kit. 

I had to recess the firewall about a scale foot. Rear two spark plugs awful to change! Also this required the use of the kit provided interior console for gearbox clearance. Still I think it could be done on a real car. Twice the power at the same weight. The kit had Lucas driving lamps, so i used them for the total English experience.

Overall I am super pleased with the results.

Everyone did a great job, I'm sorry that Triumph was such a pile.  The Corvette is a pretty decent kit other than the flash and someone with a bit of skill could make a pretty nice model of it.  
 

I used a House of Color green over Duplicolor silver for the body, Testors Metallic green for the engine and rear axle, and Tamiya green and gray for most everything else.  
 

The engine is the kit fuelie with headers and ignition from a later Nascar kit which also gave up it's shifter, electric fan, and brake resivours.  The wheels and tires are from an MPC Vega modified. 
  

It's not done, but I don't think thrashing to try and get it done tonight is the right answer. Ideally it would probably take two or three evenings to put on what's missing, fix what needs fixing, and laying down the decals. But I'll show where the Grand Sport stands now for the record.

This is probably at best a cautionary tale about sending a glue-bomber a better-than-average kit. I can definitely see where a better modeler could build this into something very appealing; I am not that guy.

Today's last thrash got extremely frustrating. The dry winter air caused the body to have static electricity, and when I went to paint the windshield and rear window trim it jumped off the pen and went where it wasn't supposed to. The instructions said to install the front inner fenders and then the air jack plugs that go on the right front fender. But you can't get to that air jack place with the inner fender in place, so I had to rip out the half-dried inner fender and stick the air jack in, then hope I could get the inner fender back in place. While doing that, I smeared black paint from the air jack onto the white fender. That should polish out but it reminded me why I shouldn't be rushing this stuff.

Mating the interior into the body, and the body/interior onto the chassis, was work as everything was an extremely tight fit. And as what always seems to happen in this step, parts start flying off as I try to make everything play nice. I don't know why these last steps always seem to be the hardest parts of my builds. I had to reattach two wheels and still have to replace the exhaust on one side. The body is a little tall in the rear and a few hairs too far forward, but I'm afraid if I try to fudge with that stuff more I'm going to break more things.

Having said that, I still think this is going to be a decent looker when I do finish it. The red pinstripe that goes along the white/blue line should hide most of my wavy lines on the fender flares and add a needed third color to the body. Add the numbers and lettering and it'll be pretty sharp. From a respectable distance.

This was a nicer build than the Pinto I was going to build this month, but I don't think I did the kit justice.

Since it's a short month does anyone have an issue letting it go a few more days? 

In reply to Wally (Forum Supporter) :

I don't. I needed to get mine done anyway to make time for preparing my upcoming gallery show. See "show us something you made" thread for the poster and details.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

Wow, Jag 6 came outta nowhere! I love it! The build is really nice. Love the color and the driving lamps. 

In reply to Wally (Forum Supporter) :

Ah man that thing is cool. I bet a real one would be a hoot to drive! Love the green and gold.

Well, after a deep breath, some chicken Parm and steamed broccoli, I decided I needed to complete something in February. So here it is. Just don't look too closely at the windshield. Aside from that a great but tedious kit to build.

On to the show:

In reply to Claff :

It's actually looking pretty nice! I agree with not rushing it, take a breath and take your time. I bet all cleaned up and finish decaled it's going to be a stunner.

In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :

Dude that's awesome! If the windshield really bugs you you could try lightly weathering the car to make it look like it's done a few laps. That usually pops on white cars, too. 

@Claff, even a moderately skilled builder like me has the 'exploding parts' problem on final assembly. That mother berkelying Triumph tried to completely disintegrate after the 3rd or 4th time I tried slipping the body over the chassis. Sometimes those 60s AMT annuals are a blessing.

I don't get the hate on AMT. Simplified sometimes, but my experience has been good fit and minimal warp. The Mercury had no fitment problems at all until I put the A/C condensor on (from the AMT Avanti) and it fouls the front pan, keeping the bonnet up a little. I should have caught that before final assembly, but I didn't

I'd say that AMT  made good kits, generally. The body proportions were almost always spot-on and they usually gave you 3-in-1 type options. Revell came along and upped the detail level on the chassis. Monogram figured out how to make them really easy to assemble. And MPC did their best to make you hate the hobby while offering stuff nobody else did. 

I grew up on AMT kits. As a kid, Revell sometimes was a bit too complicated for a kid. My AMT kits almost always looked good and were simple enough to complete. And, with the metal axles, they even had some 'play value' the others didn't. 

Where AMT fails today is the antiquated tooling of the chassis and interior. Compare AMT's 66 Mustang to the 65 from Revell/Monogram. My YouTube build review  That said, my little AMT Mustang is still one of my favorites when I pass by the display case. It just looks right, despite the chrome plastic headlamps and basic interior. Just don't turn it upside down or open the hood.

I used to build almost exclusively AMT car models. Monograms didn't seem as good and Revell for some reason I never really built. I skipped them and went straight to Tamiya when I got better.

AMT, like JoHan, have amazing accurate bodies that look totally correct. Unlike JoHan, they do not assemble well at all. I've found this in every AMT I've ever built (along with excessive flash and huge sprue connections that damage the part that is attached).

This is the rear bumper on the Impala. It has no attachment points at all, literally nothing. Behind it is air. So the only way to glue it to the car is to glue the top of it to the underside of the decklid, which isn't very secure. It's also not molded to fit well so there's a gap at both ends (or you can push it to the body and have the entire back of the car overhang it with a super ugly overbite). The valance panel below it is the same thing. No attachment points at all and not the same shape as the body.

This is where AMT always fails, the chassis to body. Notice that the chassis is totally square to the body yet one fender is much farther from the chassis than the other. The chassis is molded bent like a banana in 2 dimensions, so it sits closer to the LF of the car and lower to the ground on the RF making it look like a drag car on launch but just in chassis squareness.

Here's what I mean by 2 dimensions and closer to the ground. The rest of the chassis, including the front wheel tubs, is perfectly square and connected to the body. The front of the chassis just sits cocked to the left and down to the right in front of the front axle. The front grill/bumper (which also attaches to thin air) is narrower than the car body. If I squeezed the fenders closer the hood won't close. So instead I have this ugly gap.

That's why I dislike AMT.

Boy that Mercury came out fantastic. The Jag six is a nice out-of-left-field twist.

In reply to Claff :

Thanks. I like to poke at the Chevy V8 all the things crowd. I put a Jag 6 in an early Nova wagon too, see the other model cars thread.

That's what we need to do next... an April fools build. Something normal, modified in an outrageously dumb way.

AClockworkGarage said:

That's what we need to do next... an April fools build. Something normal, modified in an outrageously dumb way.

That's genius! I'm in. 

I have to say that this was the best build to date. Every build turned out great and really inspired.