Tabla de contenidos para October 2019 en Scale Auto

This issue’s cleverly simple tip effectively squares off a piece of small material, in this case 1⁄32-inch brass stock. Submitted by C.J. Mahovic, his unique method also prevents the material from kinking while it’s filed. C.J. says: “While replacing a broken vent window post, I had to make a precise length of 1⁄32-inch square brass with squared ends. I taped the brass stock against the lip of a single-edge razor blade and used a second blade for more stability. I filed along the edges of the blade to get perfectly squared ends.” That’s all there is to it! Thanks, C.J. Before using this techniques, tape over the business ends of the razor blades to prevent any cuts that might result if your file slips. (Don’t ask how I know that.)…

Round 2’s latest release of the 1/25 scale AMT ’60 Chevy pickup with go-kart looks nice in the box. The parts are clean and well detailed. But I wanted more than a sharp-looking stock pickup. I wanted a mildly customized speed-shop machine, and that was going to take a bit of work. As it turns out, the kit more than looked nice — it built like a dream. Wheels mean a lot to the appearance of any vehicle. For this truck, I wanted American Racing Salt Flat rims. I took the rims from a Revell Snap-Tite ’57 Chevy and machined away the heavy rib around the perimeter on my Sherline lathe; I could have just as easily used a motor tool or side cutters and a file to accomplish the…

The Camel Trophy race series was held from 1980 to 2000 with the series getting its iconic name from the Camel cigarette brand. The race originally featured three Jeep-equipped German teams who explored the Amazon basin. After the first event, organizers approached Land Rover to support the series, which it did for 20 years. The Camel Trophy used Land Rover models exclusively for its race vehicles, but other makes appeared in support roles. They all wore “sandglow” and were modified to cope with rough terrain. With the Italeri Ford Transit Mk2 in my stash, I got to thinking: What if it had been used as a support vehicle in the Camel Trophy Race? Ford owned Land Rover at one point, and the Transit was built in the UK where Land…

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Until now, this was one of the rarest kits in the AMT Piranha series and consists of three complete models: a tow car; a 392 Hemi-powered funny car; and a simple, tandem-wheeled tilt trailer. I found no proof of this “race team,” but the individual cars are real and documented. The tow car matches the Piranha from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and does not match the actual production coupe. The funny car accurately depicts the real publicity vehicle built to promote the street car, which laid down a 8.81 elapsed time at more than 182 mph on its first public quarter mile. Most of the parts, especially the larger ones, are cleanly molded, but several of the smaller parts have substantial flash. A thorough decal sheet includes markings for the…

Recent Le Mans cars are somewhat polarizing to many enthusiasts — they don’t have the simple, smooth lines they once did. But form follows function, and with the Toyota TS050 model from Tamiya, we can see how the new hybrid cars are affecting already complex Le Mans body shapes. The kit includes 146 plastic parts, Mylar mirror transfers, two sheets of decals with more than 100 different elements, and a comprehensive sheet of masks. A curbside model, the TS050 assembles relatively easily despite the aggressive styling with good cockpit and suspension detail and posable front wheels. The challenge comes with masking and painting the signature Gazoo scheme. Read through the instructions and familiarize yourself with the parts to develop a plan for painting. The instructions include a helpful five-view plan…

The customized van craze that boomed in the late 1970s prompted U.S. auto manufacturers to push out some of their own factory-built custom vans. Ford’s Cruising Van offered bright graphics, swiveling captain’s chairs, dark-tinted porthole windows, and a slew of other popular options. This AMT offering is a re-release of the original 1977 kit with some new parts and decals. While there aren’t photos of a built-up model on the box, you do get a look at the new pad-printed Firestone tires with raised white letters and the elaborate decal sheet. Inside, the parts require little cleanup considering the kit’s age. There is only one option for wheels — newly tooled five-spoke covers. Optional custom parts include a CB radio, spare tire and mount, choice of two antennas, and a…

Back in April, I met Rich Clark at the NNL Milwaukee show. Among his builds he displayed four Ford F-100s that came with an interesting story. But first you have to know one thing: Rich is a Chevy guy. “For me to like Ford trucks,” Rich said to me as I talked to him on the phone for this piece, “I’m surprised I still have friends.” He laughs and relates that the “yellow truck” started it all. While scouring eBay one day, Rich came across a “glue bomb” that happened to strike his fancy: an old AMT 1963 Ford F-100. He bought it, and when it arrived, Rich saw that it missed a few parts, most notably the battery and firewall. Off to Facebook he went to find someone who…

During The Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) Mitty race at Road Atlanta the Vintage Racers for Rescues organize a silent auction to raise funds for animal rescue organizations. Every year I donate something to them to help raise money. This year I had a buyer back out on a diorama commission when it was half finished. What to do? Finish it for the silent auction! I tossed out the original theme — drag racing — and went with vintage sports cars instead. Inside are an AMT March 88c and a Union Model Ferrari 330 P4. Both are staged with work in progress for the upcoming vintage racing season. Overall, the diorama took me about 10 weeks to complete. I enjoyed building it, and I was able to help a good cause!…

WE COMPLETED THE BODY and fenders in the August 2019 installment. Now let’s button it up with a with a radiator grille, details, and some paint. The basic shape of the grille shell is similar to the ’32 Ford, but with a flat bottom and extended sides. started by making a backing plate matching the hood profile. Then I glued the ’32 grille shell to the plate at the appropriate angle and cut the bottom flush with the bottom of the hood unit. Styrene shims fill the gaps at the sides. Putty helped blend is all together. Reproducing the louvers on the hood was a process. First, I cut the side louvers from the AMT ’34 Ford and removed a matching rectangle from my the SS100’s hood. Putty hid the…

My concept was to create a car that felt like a World War I German Fokker biplane. There had to be scrapes and bullet holes, and grime — a lot of grime. What if there was a huge hole in the roof from a shell passing through? Yeah! I got to it, blending a 1/24 scale Italeri 1933 Cadillac with a 1/25 scale Revell 1959 Cadillac, all the while envisioning my rat rod pushing through a fierce dogfight as the Red Baron’s ride. I wanted to incorporate all the recognizable elements from Baron von Richthofen’s infamous WWI Dr.1 triplane. The Von Baron Rat Rod earned the People’s Choice for Best of Show Model Car award at the 2018 Concours d’Elegance in Dayton, Ohio. MEET JOHN Growing up in southwest Ohio,…

We bought our 1994 Camaro in March of the same year. Just a step up from the base model, it came with Z28-style alloy wheels, driving lights, and cruise control. It had a 3.4-liter V6 under the hood, a 5-speed manual transmission, and wore a color GM called quasar blue. It served us for 103,000 miles, and I’ve never seen another Camaro exactly like it. After 20 years, the car was still good mechanically, but it was developing some intermittent electrical gremlins. By 2013, the paint had begun to delaminate on some of the upper surfaces; the wheels on the left side saw more sunlight than the right. We wanted to keep it, but the investment to restore it was prohibitive. In 2014, while parked in front of our house,…

The Mustang received its first major restyle for the 1969 model year. Penned by ex-GM designer Larry Shinoda, the Boss 302 version was basically the road-going version of the Trans Am racer. The Boss 302 featured four-bolt main bearings, canted valve heads, and aerodynamic and suspension modifications for great all-around performance both on and off the track. This latest Mustang from Revell has been reworked to correct some inaccuracies in earlier releases. The 22 parts look good in the box molded in white with a tree of chromed parts, transparent red taillights, and clear parts separately bagged and scratch free. The decal sheet contains all the stripes, instruments, interior wood panels, and engine-bay markings. The instructions have paint callouts and clear illustrations showing each step of construction. I started with…

Revell has given us a new tool of the 1968 Chevelle SS 396, and it was worth the wait. Cleanly molded in white, the body is one of the kit’s standout features. The decal offerings are another. The instructions are in Revell’s latest format: a booklet featuring a brief vehicle history, parts index with descriptions, paint guide, and visual assembly steps. There are 18 of these steps, plus a page showing decal placement. Twenty-three pieces comprise the 396 big-block engine. The water pump, oil filter, and oil pan are molded separately. The mounting bracket is molded to the alternator, but there isn’t a bracket for the power-steering pump. On my sample, the fan clutch (Part 101) was short shot without the pin that mounts the fan-belt assembly to the engine.…

Virtually all the major generations of Ford pickups have enjoyed 1/24 or 1/25 fully detailed model kits. The kits shown here cover nine decades of Ford pickups, and represent kits first introduced as far back as 1960 to as recently as earlier this year. The obvious and yet puzzling missing pieces are the two most recent generations of Ford F-150s and the latest F-Series Super Duty. FORD Anyone who follows the auto industry knows that the American pickup truck is a phenomenon unlike any other automotive trend around the world. Ford F-Series pickups, already the best-selling truck in America for over four decades, has also been the best-selling automotive product of any type for over 35 years. In fact, Ford sold just over 1 million F-Series pickups in the U.S.…

Dodge redesigned its D/W (twoand four-wheel) pickup line in 1972. From the boxy lines of the ’61-’71 trucks, Dodge introduced a rounder, more sculpted look to reflect modern styling. The new look was such a success that by 1978 Dodge claimed to be the fastest-growing truck company in America. In 1972, MPC introduced an all-new 1/25 scale kit of the Dodge D/W pickup in its annual kit line. That kit, called the Baja Brute, featured the long-wheelbase Sweptline pickup with an 8-foot pickup box. The kit allowed modelers to build the truck either as a two-wheel-drive D100 or as a four-wheel-drive W100 Adventurer SE half-ton pickup. The kit featured two sets of wheels (the 4x4 wheels and tires were grossly oversized), both suspension options, and decals and options to build…

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The Round 2 rerelease of AMT’s Chevy police van is an ambitious kit with 177 parts called out on the instruction sheet. Unlike its previous incarnation, the van’s body comes as a single piece. I removed the molded-in hood, opting for the separate part so I could see inside the engine compartment. Fourteen parts make up the front suspension, including lower control arms, shocks, tie rods, drop links, and a complete steering column that connects the steering wheel to the tie rods. Unfortunately, there are no positive locators for connecting these parts to the frame, and the instructions are vague enough to leave you wondering about placement. So, take care and testfit parts. The front crossmember (Part 83) needs to curve forward to allow clearance for the engine oil pan.…

Sometimes the stories behind the cars replicated by scale models are as fascinating as the kits themselves. At least that’s the case with the Testors SuperVan kit. The highly customized Dodge van by famous car customizer George Barris was initially promoted as the Love Machine. IMC first released a model kit version in 1973; one of the very last products from IMC before it exited plastic models. Barris later freshened the real van for the lead role in a 1977 Hollywood movie production called SuperVan. In the meantime, Testors bought many IMC tools, and a second release of the kit under the Testors label appeared in 1977 with the same IMC stock number. Inside, the instruction sheet includes the typical Testors introduction. Happily, the remainder of the instructions are drawn…