This natty looking '34 Ford is actually in pieces, hence the back wheel looking crooked. The radiator has fallen off the engine, and the suspension is hosed. Can't put it in a display case without a lot of re-work.
Here you can see the care I took, and the extent of the damage, the whole suspension for the left wheel has gone, radiator/fan assmebly missing and the body completely come off.
The handles were stick on, but the dash was hand painted, taking a bit of care.
And professionally built it would look like this. I believe there is a disclaimer on AMT boxes saying they use a retouched photograph anyway.
It was nice finding this old car in the box, but I just don't have the energy or passion for a restoration job.
This blue Mustang has a few notes of personal import about it. Firstly, it was the first time I spray painted a body. I'd been doing brushed bodies for the longest time. I actually started with a brush again, but couldn't get it smooth enough, at 15 I'd had no trouble with a good brush job, but at age 20 I wanted it better.
I had actually stripped it a couple of times and restarted, a mistake as you can see the top of the door here started deacaying; the solvent was eating the plastic. That was when I committed to a spray can.Again, the glue has failed me. Revel liquid glue if I remember, or was it Humbrol. The car is a wreck now, wheels and suspension falling off, mirrors, tail lights all come loose. That and the dodgy door edge as explained before.
I actually had a '93 Mustang as a rental when I first lived in California. It was a rag top, same blue as this one here. It was kinda nice driving a car and having people oohing and ahhing over it. I remember a couple of 12 year olds walking by and saying "cool ride", and there was a girl, my age, driving an '89 Mustang filling gas at the next pump, and she was checking it out. I took that car out for a photo shoot. I used almost two rolls. When I took the film to be developed I remember one of the girls at the camera shop not comprehending taking a whole roll of one car. I'll dig out those photos and scan them for a separte blog entry.
This classic late '60s was only part built. I silvered the door trim myself. I'm not sure I'm happy with the brush work there. This was my last car build to use enamel paint (indeed, I haven't painted cars since). I guess it's silly of me, but while I was painting this we had a 12 week miscarriage. I don't think there was a connection, but you never can tell. Since then I've hardly touched enamels, using them once on a Warhammer 40K dreadnought for some high gloss. Otherwise it's all been acrylics.
One last car. I was first exposed to Holden pick-up in the early 80's when Matchbox released a model of the Holden Ute with a couple of dirt bikes in the back. On arriving in Yankeeland I found that GM had such tucks both in the US and Australia. Here in the US they were called El Caminos. The Chevy Imapala, which is the right size car to base a Holden Ute or El Camino on was just being retired as a muscle car. Sure Impalas still exist today, but they are family mid sized sedans, or fleet cars. In those days they were effectively a Chevy Caprice on steroids.
I took my interest of the El Camino/Holden Ute one step further and extrapolated what they may look like if they carried on past the 1980's. My first idea was to do a retro look with a step side bed. The donor model was a Ford Courier pickup. Later I decided to go fleet side, using a Dodge Ram as a donor. The project got shelved when work got too busy. About a year or two later Chevy release the SSR, a retro car derived pick up. I found Holden still make Utes, a big one called a Crewman and a small one called a Maloo. The Maloo is coming to the US in 2009, not as a Chevy, but as a Pontiac. So in the final years of the Pontiac Buggy company they will have a pick up.
I seldom do any modelling now. The busted up cars above are in the dumpster. Time to move on.
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2 comments:
Display space is a huge problem with a lot of hobbies. I used to build these things too, but didn't keep many of them long enough for them to fall apart. When still at home I had very little space, and even now I don't have a lot.
I suppose your Hot Wheels stuff takes up a lot less space, and comes pre-assembled! :-)
P.S. Few women would understand that much film being used on one car.
Dana was pretty cool, she liked a lot of my photos, but that shoot not quite so.
And for the small die casts, they were predominantly Matchbox and Corgi, with Dinky, Majorette, Siku, and the occasional Hot Wheels.
Most the Hot Wheels we saw in the UK were either funny cars or hot rods. As for regular cars, the detail was so lacking compared with Matchbox and Majorette. Siku had a nice quality and some intereting designs, their castings finer, but their hinges (and other mechanicals) seemed clunky and their plastics inferior.
To exemplify Matchbox detail I'd point you to the 1960's "refreshment trailer" with boiler and range cast in metal. For Majorette, their Jeep Cherokee, which had a dog looking over the tailgate, and one of their sedans had a pair of gloves laying on the seat.
The toy car collection is about 3'x3'x6' when all packed up, and is mostly still in Britain.
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