Tabla de contenidos para April 2020 en Scale Auto

Q I have noticed that some of the paint finishes on model cars are so shiny that they appear out of scale. I’ve also noticed that some of the articles in Scale Auto mention using a dull coat as a final coat. Is there any discussion in the model-car community about paint finishes being too shiny and out of scale? – Don Waldron, via email A If not, there is now! Yours is a great observation that does come up from time to time. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in showing off our painting and polishing skills we forget about scale realism. Super glossy and deep finishes may look great on a custom model having what would be a mega-dollar paint job on the “real thing,” but that same…

An often-overlooked area of cars is the trunk. Other than the weekly trip to the grocery store, it almost never gets used. Ask yourself when you last vacuumed the trunk of the family car. Do you remember? Don’t feel bad: Most model car kits don’t even come with an opening trunk; the engine compartment has more to offer with a detailed power plant and radiator. However, this gives you an opportunity to stand out from the crowd with just a little work and imagination. Today, with the internet, you can access far more photo references of automotive details than you ever could before, no matter the car you’re modeling. Join me as I show you how I detail a trunk using basic supplies and tools that most modelers already have…

London, England, was my home for many years, and few things seem as quintessentially London as its black cabs. The basic design hasn’t changed in 70 years, and Aoshima produced a wonderful ½4 scale kit of the Austin FX4, which was made by various companies from 1958 until 1997. That’s a long time for a car to be produced, and with an estimated 75,000 built, I’m sure there were many that ended up derelict in back alleys or empty lots. That got me thinking about how I could model what is, no matter how iconic, a plain black vehicle and turn it into an eye catcher. The answer: Model a black cab as I believe it would appear if it had been abandoned and forgotten in the back streets of…

JUNE 8-9, 2019…

Building a model is but one part of the entire possible modeling experience. At the next level is presenting the model. One way to do this is to construct a diorama and place the model in a scale environment. I enjoy taking photos of my models. Photos of your models can range from posing it in a simple setting to a complex production. The latter results not in a shelf piece like a diorama, but a two-dimensional image of the model within a context; one that lives only as an image. I took the second approach with my streamlined Beetle, and you can achieve similar results with your models, too. When photographing your model, you control the setting, the lighting, and, with the help of software, you can retouch, refine,…

Originally issued in 1991, Revell’s rerelease of the iconic ’70 Pontiac Firebird is a welcome one. While the kit captures the essence of the car, it has a few accuracy issues that may go unnoticed by some and stand out to others depending on one’s familiarity with the real cars. By making a few simple adjustments, you can increase the kit’s accuracy and create a better model. First, as an owner of a real F-body of this era, the roofline stood out to me: As you can see, the tops of the side window openings are flat — too flat, 1. The kit has no drip-rail trim (optional on the real cars), which makes the fix a matter of sanding the openings to match a photo of a 1/1 Firebird.…

This rerelease of the Revell ‘55 Chevy Indy Pace Car includes the original parts with a new decal sheet. The instructions are formatted as a 14-page booklet that includes a parts layout, paint chart, and 45-step illustrated assembly guide. Although the plastic felt brittle to me, I didn’t have any issues with it breaking or splitting. The car’s 265 cid V8 engine with a four-barrel carburetor is well represented. The two-part small block also includes a Powerglide transmission. Individual components build up the rest of the engine and dressed up with a full complement of decals, right down to the manufacturer markings on the fan belt. Additional under hood items include a battery, wiper motor, master cylinder, horns and a clear washer reservoir. The frame, underbody, and gas tank are…

More than 40 years ago, a Minnesota local named Al McKenzie rescued a 426 Hemi from a junkyard. Al laid plans to build his dream hot rod — a Ford coupe — around this engine that had survived a total wreck intact. Through the years, Al collected the parts he’d need for his ride, including a ’39 Ford coupe. It required work, but the essentials were there. Friends and family suggested he buy a finished coupe, but none had Hemis, and most were small-block cars — not at all what Al wanted. After decades of off-and-on work, the chassis and drivetrain were rebuilt and installed, and the 426 Hemi mill found its home in the front end. The car wears dragster wheels with a red body, and a white interior…

In this car from the 1940 Ford Deluxe coupe, I include parts pirated from an AMT ’49 Mercury. I also built the articulated support linkage out of brass. You must always research to reproduce an accurate trunk. For this ’55 Chrysler 300, I had to sink the spare into a wheel well. I cut up a manila file folder to represent the insulation in the trunk lid. A photo-reduced owner’s manual and X wrench add interest. If you are good with a computer, you can take pictures of the model kit’s box and assemble them with photo-editing software into a folding pattern that can be made into a scale kit box. This ’69 Charger’s trunk was treated to a paper trunk mat with a grid pattern I printed on it.…

Don’t you hate hitting a bump in the final stretch on a project? Your paint job appears to be fine until you notice a scratch or a fingerprint. Perhaps some errant glue got on the finish or a minor run in the paint becomes apparent. Or maybe you overdid the polishing and rubbed through the clear into the paint, or worse, down to the primer or plastic. In this case, while working on a Tamiya ½4 scale Ford GT, I shot the first coat of clear too soon (and probably too wet) over the Tamiya mica blue. It hadn’t dried sufficiently to accept the clear. Mica, metallic, and pearl colors are susceptible to blushing as it is, but you should always make sure your base paint is fully dry before…

NOVEMBER 2, 2019…

Kit collectors and model builders have enjoyed comprehensive coverage of most 1960s-1990s Chevy pickups. But they had to wait several decades for kits of pre-1960s Chevy pickups. Meanwhile, GMC kits have remained few and far between. And we’ve drawn big blanks on fully detailed ½4 and 1/25 scale kits of all 21st century Chevy pickups. While Ford has been No. 1 for the last four consecutive decades, Chevy fans will note that during some of those years when Ford led, had Chevy and GMC pickup sales been added together, the combined sales of the two essentially identical GM full-size pickups would have still ranked them as the overall sales leader. Among auto industry professionals, for decades Chevrolet was thought to be the preferred pickup brand for personal use and casual-work…

AMT’s ’65 Chevelle Malibu wagon dates back 55 years, but the tool seems to be in good shape with clear scripts and details. I noticed upper trim of the passenger-side rear window is uneven, an issue which appears to be the result of a mold flaw because it also appears on earlier versions. Careful sanding above the trim and some re-scribing are necessary to clean that up. Otherwise, the kit is easy and fun to build! This new release makes it a 4-in-1 kit: stock, custom, drag, and surf wagon. New parts include a pair of two-piece surfboards (a longboard and a shortboard) and a six-piece surfboard rack for the roof. Like other recent AMT kit releases, the Malibu includes a fabulous decal sheet with a lot of tiki-themed markings…

The all-new 2020 Supra is the fifth generation of Toyota’s flagship sports car. There hasn’t been a new Supra produced since 2002, and, in the U.S., sales of the last generation ceased in 1998. The first Supra to be offered as a two-seater, it’s pushed by a 3-liter inline-six with a twin-scroll single turbo rated at 340 horsepower mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. Buyers can choose from several exterior color options, including vibrant blue, red, and yellow tones, plus a range of pearl white, gray, and black. A limited-edition color called “matte storm gray metallic” does a good job of showing the car’s lines, so I paired it with the optional ignition red interior called out in the instructions. The kit builds into a traditional curbside model with suspension…

One of my “holy grails” of race cars is the beautiful Stingray Racer of 1959-60. Also known as the XP-87, Bill Mitchell, famed GM vice president of styling, privately funded the development and racing of the car because of the 1957 Automobile Manufacturers Association manufacturer-sponsored racing ban. After scouring the internet, I determined a kit of the XP-87 didn’t exist, except for an old, all-but-unobtainable slot-car body. I had no option but to scratchbuild the car. The 1963 Corvette Sting Ray, which was based on the Stingray race car, is an obvious starting point. But with all the differences between the two, I wanted a scale drawing to help ease the build. I found photos of the car as it was raced in 1959-60 (not the later modified version used…

A great set of wheels and tires can elevate your model car to the next level. And for race cars, whose tires are so often front and center, this becomes doubly true. Many kits now include decals to detail sidewall markings, and some are designed specifically to adhere to rubber tires, not plastic. While typical water-slide decals have clear carrier film and are printed faceup, these new tire decals come printed facedown and don’t have the clear film. Instead, they have a waxy paper covering to protect the exposed adhesive with heavy backing paper to shield the delicate printed image. Tamiya and Hasegawa have used these tire decals for many offerings through the years, and the process to affix them correctly applies across the board, regardless of scale. WARNING! If…

Apart from a few modifications, I built my De Agostini 1/10 scale 1967 Toyota 2000GT mostly box stock. De Agostini has the best kit directions and packaging of any model I’ve ever seen. The company treats every part like it’s a piece of jewelry, and the more recent kits include a link to online instructions. A history of the car is included in the box, along with a facsimile of an original sales brochure and a DVD. Fit and finish on my 2000GT were excellent and most parts just snapped together. I built it in one month and gifted it to a friend currently battling cancer. Years ago, the attention at model car shows would be focused on Corvettes and Cobras, but times are changing and this 2000GT is just…

The now-classic Volkswagen bug has been a darling of car aficionados and customizers since its American introduction after World War II. Popularly known as the “Beetle,” it was produced from 1938 until 2003. Ultimately, it became one of the longest and most produced automobiles from a single design. The Beetle remained a top seller even as front-wheel drive models were replacing rear-wheel drive subcompacts. It has also been the starting point for countless automotive projects including street rods, custom cars, off-road vehicles, dragsters, land-speed record cars, and art cars. Since it had great potential, and to honor Tom Wolfe’s seminal car-culture book The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, I decided to take one on. The base kit I used was the Revell ½5 scale Skip’s Fiesta VW cabriolet. I was relying…

Can 62 parts be right? Even at 1/16 scale? Let’s remember, the tooling goes all the way back to 1980 and is a straight scale-up of Revell’s 1/25 scale 928. So, with half the parts count of today’s typical 1/25 kit, your expectations are probably tempered, but all the better to be surpassed! Parts simplification is typical of most 40-year-old kits, kid friendly being the rule. Both the front suspension and the 928’s fabled Weissach axle at the rear are distilled to one piece incorporating inner rotor surfaces, suspension arms, and a central crossmember; no complete tie rods for the front and no drive axles for the rear. The inside rearview mirror is omitted and the entire interior comprises nine parts. The barely representative intake and exhaust manifolds show some…

Some successful 1970s cars seem to be mostly forgotten by both today’s real-car and 1/25 scale collectibles worlds. The Ford Capri is a classic example. The first-generation Capri was a successor of sorts to the Ford Consul Classic 109E-based Capri two-door hardtop sold in the U.K. The lessons learned from that product and the success of the Mustang led to the development of the 1969 Ford Capri for the U.K. and European markets. The Capri was introduced at the 1970 New York Auto Show as part of the Mercury lineup for the U.S. Slightly smaller and lighter than the Mustang, the first-generation Capri became a major sales success here and abroad. A second-generation Capri II followed in early 1975. The styling introduced a new, lower beltline, eliminated some quirks from…