Table of contents for December 2019 in Scale Auto

APRIL 13, 2019…

During the late 1950s, Texas oil hotshot John Mecom was one of the major players in American sportscar racing. On the East Coast, the Cunningham cars were almost unbeatable, as were Augie Pabst’s Meister Bräuser cars in the Midwest. Out West, the John Edgar, Tony Parravano, and Arciero teams battled for supremacy, while Mecom Racing ruled the Southwest. Mecom always had the latest and best cars money could buy. They were meticulously maintained and prepared, and the country’s best drivers vied for a seat in them. Ferrari GTO chassis No. 3987 painted in the standard rosso corsa (racing red) was delivered to Ferrari’s North American Racing Team (NART) on Oct. 11, 1962. Just a month later, with the Rodriguez brothers behind the wheel, it placed first overall at the 1,000…

Do you enjoy masking complex curves and placing lots of decals? If yes, the Revell Germany Ford GT Le Mans 2017 is the kit for you! While neither task is particularly hard, both consume time and dominate this build. Revell Germany packs a lot of detail into the GT’s 81 plastic parts. To start, the interior has all the telemetry boxes molded into the floor. Careful painting and the first round of 23 decals makes a far busier cockpit than its 15 parts would lead you to expect. Decals cover everything from logos on the electronics to steering wheel and dashboard controls; a pair of decals make the seat belts. The instructions intersperse engine assembly between steps building the interior. Revell renders Ford’s EcoBoost V6 in 15 parts and seven…

Introduced in 1964, the AMT ’53 Ford pickup has been released more than a dozen times with various decals and wheels, the occasional trailer, and even as part of a racing team. It’s one of those sweetheart kits from the glory days of the AMT Trophy Series. This version is part of AMT’s Coca-Cola series and comes with vintage Coke markings, a die-cast two-wheel hand truck, and die-cast Coke machine. Frankly, I was amazed by the kit’s quality, especially given its age. It’s flash free and well detailed with a 15-piece engine and a 22-piece chassis. I had no problems assembling either. That said, while the steering column extends to the floorboard, it stands almost straight up and hangs high over the dashboard. I trimmed it to about half its…

The endless debate I started building models at 9 years old when I saw the AMT Peterbilt Pacemaker 352 and 1966 Buick modified stocker kits. Like all beginners, I wasn’t very good. I tried to paint the interior of my first kit after it was all closed up! Still, I was hooked. Over the years, I started researching, detailing, and building kits for more realism. I developed a minimum number of details required for a model and got quite good at it. The problem was, it was no longer fun. Several years ago, I debated throwing the whole hobby into my personal dust bin. Before I did, I thought about when I last had fun building kits. It was as a kid. Against my better judgment, I built a kit…

CAN IT BE SAID THAT A DEMOLITION DERBY IS AS AMERICAN AS APPLE PIE? Maybe not, but they sure are as popular as cotton candy and corn dogs. More and more, there are more modelers like Will Hughes who see the beauty in demolition-derby beaters. Just like with beautifully polished customs, the more you look at Will’s derby destroyers, the more details you see. Because these cars are stripped down, a lot of support structures need to be created, as well as modeling the heavy panel damage and weathering. Clearly not out-of-box builds, how does he do it? Will’s inspiration for his weary warriors comes directly from teenage years during in the 1990s spent watching demolition derbies. He was smitten with the sights, sounds, and smells and eventually started competing himself.…

Kits of classic cars (with “classic car” usually defined as the most collectible domestic and import luxury cars between 1920 and 1940) were a very popular subject for model makers in the 1960s. We’ve covered kits of classic cars from JoHan, Monogram, and AMT in past editions of “Classic Kits”. Now, it’s MPC’s turn. The MPC 1927-28 Lincolns and 1932 Chryslers were among the first kits the company produced. To set its kits of classic cars apart from the competition’s, MPC developed a marketing hook: Each kit had a 3-in-1 gangbusters theme, which meant modelers could build the kit factory stock, as a police vehicle, or as a gangster get-away car. Depending on the kit, options included radiators and windshields with bullet holes, a whole arsenal of 1/25 scale firearms,…

There are a few race cars in history that have an undeniable pedigree, an iconic design that withstands the test of time, and, of course, success on the track. The Ford GT definitely has to rank as one of those few, starting with the GT40 that won at Le Mans in 1966 and repeated in ’67, ’68, and ’69. And the third generation Ford GT, 50 years after that first victory, took the highly competitive GTE-Pro class win. Announced a little over a year ago, the Revell Ford GT kit was worth the wait. It comes in two boxings: the one you saw in Eric’s review on the previous page, and this one from Revell. The plastic inside is identical, but the decal sheets are different. If you plan to…

As a kid, almost every Saturday morning my time was occupied by cartoons, and in the afternoon was Thriller Theater. A special surprise was those movies in which enormous monsters would emerge to raise havoc on the puny humans. With the release of the latest Godzilla movie, it makes sense Round 2 would build on the nostalgia. The MPC Planetary Defense Vehicle (PDV) from Invasion of the Astro-Monster is based on its WWII MB Willys jeep kit. The decal sheet provides markings for the PDV or a WWII build and also gives you the option to build a Willys Surrey with canopy and chrome hub caps. A cardboard backdrop is also included and depicts a mountain range, power line towers, and Godzilla. The 13-piece, four-cylinder flathead assembles well with little…

This year marked the 50th anniversary of the unveiling of the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona, the first of Chrysler’s two “Winged Warrior” aero-cars. The Daytona and its cousin the Plymouth Superbird were designed specifically to meet NASCAR production rules and dominate the racetrack. The Daytona won the Talladega 500, its first race, and became the first car to break 200 mph during a NASCAR race. The Charger Daytona went on to win six races during the season. Plymouth produced the Superbird only for the 1970 model year, but it made an enormous impact for such a short-lived vehicle. It brought Richard Petty back to the Plymouth NASCAR team after leaving for Ford because he had wanted to drive a car like the Daytona. Little wonder why: With a 426 Hemi…

At a meeting of my scale model club, a fellow modeler brought in his 1969 JoHan AMC SC/Rambler. I was so excited! I knew that this was going to be my next build, but I wanted a Pro Mod version. To get there, I needed a road map, so I drew plans of how I wanted the car to look, right down to the red, white, and blue paint scheme. After reviewing a lot of real Pro Mod cars, I knew there would be a lot of scratchbuilding involved, from the chassis to the interior details. After 600 hours, I finally called it done. And none too soon, because the next project was already calling! MEET TIM Making models has been part of my life for 50 years. I started…

Air suspensions have gotten more popular lately, particularly in the custom and hotrod scenes. They allow easy changes to handling and carrying loads, but for our purposes, they also simplify altering ride height. Air springs come in two basic varieties: double-convoluted and sleeve. For double-convoluted, imagine two donuts stacked one atop the other and capped with aluminum discs. The sleeve air spring (or air bag) consists of a long rubber tube folded on itself at the bottom where it’s clamped to an aluminum piston. Most often you’ll see the double-convoluted type up front on a car and sleeve types in the rear. TOOLS YOU’LL NEED Superglue Accelerator Testors black chrome enamel (No. 2735) — or similar paint Fine-tipped brush Sharp No. 11 knife blades Pin vise and micro drill bits…

Revell Germany’s newly tooled Porsche 356 C Cabriolet hit the North American market in spring 2019. Inside the big box you’ll find a plethora of plastic, five realistically detailed rubber tires, and a richly colored decal sheet with multiple license plates and country markings to choose from. The color instructions include a helpful painting guide and also let you know what parts on the sprues you won’t be using during your build. The 356 comes with parts to build either a U.S. or European version; I went with the European version. I was surprised at the number of sink marks and mold lines for a newly tooled kit. The main body (Part 89) had the most; both doors (parts 133 and 140), and the hood (Part 121) also needed cleaning…

Round 2 reissues the MPC 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am kit with a wider variety of decal options: blue, black and silver, and black and orange. It also includes tires with tampo-printed Goodyear logos. Most of the kit comes molded in blue plastic with clear front and rear windows and chrome-plated trim and wheels. The T-top panels come molded in blue; there is no clear option included. Assembly begins with the 6.6-liter V8 engine, which needs some clean up, as does the manual transmission. The shaker scoop (parts 37, 38, and 39) sits on top of the air cleaner (Part 36). Toward the end of the build, to my dismay, I found the air cleaner and shaker scoop sat too high and pushed up the hood. The simple fix was…