Tabla de contenidos para August 2018 en Scale Auto

I’m old. I remember hearing Dinah Shore sing, “See the USA in your Chevrolet,” while watching Bonanza on our family’s black and white TV. And you can be sure many folks have seen the USA from a Chevy Impala. Launched as a chrome-laden family car in 1958 (see above) it became a flat-finned wonder in 1959 and a handsome, hardtop and convertible in the 1960s. I think the 1959-’67 Impalas are the real icons and it’s those that we celebrate here in glorious styrene. We turn our attention to Impala because of its anniversary and staying power. While there were a few short breaks in production, the most luxurious Chevy has hung in there for 60 years and only now is being threatened with extinction because Chevy, like Ford, is…

HERE AT THE T&T WORKSHOP, we love techniques that offer great results while remaining within the grasp of the average modeler. Kevin Murray’s method of making valve covers using simple hand tools and a few pieces of styrene is a golden example: You’re going to need pieces of plastic that are the length and height of the valve covers, but a little wider. Measure the width of the cylinder head and draw lines on the styrene block as shown. Drill holes down the lines on each side depending where you want the bolt locations. Make sure the holes are along the lines. Next, cut off the excess plastic, making sure to cut down the center of the drilled holes. Don’t cut the holes completely off! Sand and file the edges…

Chevrolet launched the upscale Impala in 1958 and was Chevy’s most expensive model in its lineup through 1965. The Impala has had longevity too, with only a couple of brief breaks in its 60-year run. Impala was a steady part of Chevy’s lineup from 1958 to ‘85, then went on a hiatus. It was back again from 1994 through ‘96 before being relaunched in 2000 and continuing through today. Although talk of late is that its most current run may end soon, sadly. We hope not. Impala’s popularity crested as the best-selling car in the United States in 1965. Everyone knew someone who owned one at the time. Remember “See the USA in a Chevrolet?” While there is certainly a lot of history around this iconic American car, the second…

KIT MANUFACTURERS churn out box after box of desirable kits modeled after rides we love. Muscle cars, exotics, motorcycles, commercial trucks; the list goes on. But in reality, there are vehicles that are overlooked or ignored that we’d like to build a replica of and proudly display in our collection. This is an important thing to discuss, because if we want to get more people, and younger ones, into modeling, giants like Tamiya, AMT/Round2, Revell, and Hasegawa, need to pay attention to today’s trends and tastes in automobiles. With more and more technology arriving each year, and a wide variety of vehicle styles to choose from in dealer showrooms, I can think of an entire parking lot full of subjects I’d like to see transformed into sprues of plastic. I…

ORIGINALLY RELEASED IN 1981, this Jeep J10 Honcho returns, this time with unique cargo, decals, and other accessories. The last time Revell’s Honcho was made available was in 2001, when it was dubbed “Pink Poison,” as a part of the Blacktop Warriors series. The first thing I noticed was the lack of a chrome tree. If you’re trying to build a semi-accurate factory/stock Honcho, you’ll need to apply chrome to the grille, side mirrors, and both bumpers. I used Alclad II. Speaking of the grille, it’s my least favorite part of this kit because it’s inaccurate. It’s too tall, and has too few horizontal bars between the headlights. In fact, I think the body sides appear too tall, too, which is a shame because it’s a unique subject and a…

KENWORTH BEGAN SELLING the K-100 cab-over-engine (COE) tractor in 1963, and in 1976 they introduced an industry-first, raised-roof sleeper called the “Aerodyne.” Revell originally released the K-100 Aerodyne in 1982, and then again in 1996 and 2005 by Revell of Germany. The kit has 284 parts and carries a skill level 5 rating, which I wholeheartedly agree with. Building a kit with that many parts is a marathon, not a race; if you’re looking for a quick build, or something that goes together easily out of the box, this is not it. With tooling dating back to 1982, there’s a fair amount of flash on the parts, and almost every part in the box requires significant cleanup. And it’s not just flash — many of the parts’ tabs do not…

ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC CARS in automotive history is Ford’s Model T, built at the Highland Park Plant in Michigan from 1908 until 1927. This 1912 Model T light delivery car from ICM, a Ukrainian manufacturer, comes with about 100 pieces, all of which are clean with little to no flash. A color chart gives recommendations for each part, and it took me a couple of looks to understand each of the callouts. I’d recommend painting the floor section first, then assemble and paint the cab. Don’t forget the two pieces for the hood, paying close attention and doing so will save you time when attaching the parts to the floor section, including its chassis. The engine is well-detailed despite being made up of only a few pieces. Fit…

DRIVER JUHA KANKKUNEN and navigator Juha Piironen took Toyota’s Castrol-sponsored No. 1 1993 Celica Turbo to a victory during the 41st Trust Bank Safari Rally held in East Africa. The Safari rallies are demanding and treacherous off-road events, but the Toyota took both the WRC Manufacturer’s and Driver’s championship for the 1993 World Rallycross season. The Celica advertised is the unique, all-wheel-drive, turbocharged GT-Four, but this kit is a curbside and you’re unfortunately not able to show off that incredible powerplant. Instructions start with the buildup of the bucket style interior. As expected with a rally car, there’s minimal detail on the door panels but the seats are nicely rendered Recarros with provisions for the pass through racing seat belt harnesses. Make the belts by using a sheet of super…

I was a bit skeptical at first when the new Ford GT was unveiled. A twin-turbo EcoBoost V6? What happened to the rumbling sound of the historic V8 of its late 1960s brethren? Of course this changed quickly when Ford introduced the race version GT that would give most of the GTE class racers a run for their money. After its first year of racing the Ford GT had won its class in the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. Revell has hit a homerun with its new kit, which can be built to replicate one of the four team cars for the 2017 season. As soon as rumors started that a new Ford GT was being produced I contacted Ed Sexton at Revell USA to confirm the…

My inspiration for building this lowrider was a hope to create a replica of one of the world’s most famous lowriders, Gypsy Rose. The 1:1 Gypsy Rose is a 1964 Impala, part of the Imperials Car Club in Los Angeles, California, and owned by Jesse Valadez. My modeling debut was a bust out at last year’s Mooneyes Custom Car Show in Yokohama, Japan. To scale down Gypsy Rose, I used a ’64 impala SS lowrider kit from Revell. Its body was modified to be a non-SS Impala, by changing the original trim, followed by opening the doors and hinging the entire car. The finish was the most challenging part, as I tried to exactly match the original car that was painted by talented artist Walt Prey. A lot of aluminum…

IT’S NOT THE PRETTIEST race car, but since the Porsche 944 Turbo Cup was a landmark series, I wanted to build this car despite its, um, unique, paint scheme. Trying to find historic information on why someone wanted to paint a car white with pink splotches, then cover with gold ticker tape and Egyptian hieroglyphics was a quest. The model was a little easier to decipher. Hasagawa packs 111 pieces onto six sprues, four generic slicks staggered front to rear, retaining poly caps, photo-etched seatbelt anchors, adjusters and a buckle, vinyl to cut into seatbelts, and two sizes of black rubber hose to detail the engine. Yes, that’s right, this Hasagawa kit includes a fairly well detailed engine. Several parts are chrome-plated, and despite the satin finish, I opted to…

THIS IS A SIMPLE KIT with a skill level 1 rating aimed at a market likely to spend more time playing with it than building it. Packaging is similar to a traditional promo with 13 pieces Note, it shows a 2016 car on the box top; not what comes in the box. Semi-soft tires easily dismount from the rims to allow for painting the wheels and sanding tire tread. I left the wheels on their metal axles when I painting them Tamiya metallic black (TS-40). To build the Mustang, you must un-build it first. Its windows and headlights need to be carefuly removed from the body. Sand the rear side windows, headlight openings and their edges with 400-grit until there’s fit without friction. I cut half of the mounting tab…

THE FIRST THING that impressed me when I started taking parts out of the box was the amount of engraved detail. Its one-piece body was molded with the grille open so that you can see between the iconic Bimmer individual vertical bars. I was also amazed at how thin the 320i’s complete body is. The plastic is thin enough that it appears almost translucent when held up to any light. Molded as part of the sedan’s body are the grille, badges, and door handles. Thankfully I didn’t find any mold parting lines that required cleaning, only a few small feed tags. However, my sample had four round depressions in a row down the middle of the roof. There also was a visible straight line in the middle of the roof…

Lots of ground to cover this time so let’s get started. Q: I’m currently in the process of stripping the old paint off a 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle “Red Alert,” and was wondering if there’s anyone making replacement decals for this particular livery? -Kevin Morden Fall Creek, Wis. via email Ken: The kit you’re referring to is the old AMT “Bob Hamilton Red Alert,” a kit that commands a pretty good price, but you’re in luck. We found some on eBay for about $18, quite a bit cheaper than buying a vintage kit just for the decals. Go to eBay and search for “Chevelle Red Alert Model Car Decals” and you’ll find it too! Ken’s tip: Here’s a site we happened upon by accident. By their own description Acme Laboratories offers…

I’d like to think I remember this car fairly well even though I was not old enough to drive when my brother owned it. He bought a Mist Blue 1965 Impala from the original owner in 1976 for a whopping $160. Or maybe it was $100 in cash and a hand-shake barter deal for a Frantz oil filter, some miscellaneous parts, plus a few hours of mechanical work on an unspecified vehicle for the balance. Times were different then, and details are foggy after 40-plus years on a vehicle that really is only noteworthy as being someone’s first car. At 11 years old it was original, complete, and relatively straight, but well-worn and seriously faded with a “mild” rust patina some of us at that age might have thought could…

By 1966, the model car hobby had reached its apogee and was starting to contract as many Baby Boomers moved on to other pastimes. You’d never know it though by looking at AMT’s 1966 product lineup, particularly their Ford kits. A great example, AMT’s 1966 Ford Falcon Sport Coupe. The third generation of Ford’s compact shared much of its underbody with the new intermediate Fairlane, while its styling shared influences from several rejected designs for the first-gen Mustang. AMT’s “3 in 1” kit brought well-turned out custom and drag versions to go with the factory stock offering. The kit included a rare feature for its time, a separate rear seat that could be omitted for a drag version, revealing a simplified rear floorpan and bulkhead. The engine was a Ford…

This year marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most exciting Indy 500s. The green flag dropped and 1968 looked like it was going to be the year of the turbine car. Narrowly losing the prior year due to mechanical failure after leading almost the entire race, Andy Granatelli’s STP team returned with a vengeance, fielding three turbine-powered cars redesigned by the legendary Colin Chapman of Lotus fame. The turbine’s major opponents were Dan Gurney’s fleet of new AAR Eagles. With seven entries, the Eagles made up almost a quarter of the grid. And, to counter the winning Ford four-cam engine dominating Indy much of the late 1960s, the Offy engine returned in a new turbocharged form. The tire wars were in full swing too since the 1967 race…

THIS KIT REPRESENTS a 1973 version of one of BMW’s flagship cars. It builds a curbside and is left-hand drive only, with 106 parts and more than a half-dozen extras. Four rubber-like tires with tread detail similar to vintage Michelins, are included with poly caps to mount the wheels to the chassis. Self-adhesive chrome Mylar transfers for mirror faces and other bright finish items are included, while the decal sheet has all the little badges and many options for things like gauges and radio faces. There are multiple choices for the exterior graphics. Some decals will benefit from a small amount of Tamiya Mark Fit (Strong). Instructions are typical modern Hasegawa. Read all the way through before painting, to not overlook holes to open or dimples to fill. The well-appointed…

NORTON’S COMMANDO WAS produced from 1967 to 1977. Engine displacement was 750cc until 1973 when it was enlarged to a broader 850cc. Italeri’s release of this Norton bike appears to be a tool previously released by Protar and this kit is definitely for the experienced modeler. There are 161 parts plus 56 screws, nuts and springs and be ready, no screwdriver is provided. In total there are 32 vinyl parts, 14 representing electrical and mechanical lines. A clear fuel line also is supplied. Instructions for the bike are presented in 40 steps printed across five pages, front and rear. I found it confusing going back and forth with their fold-out format when tracking where a vinyl line started and stopped. I finally cut the sheets apart and put them in…

THE CASTROL JAGUAR XJR-9 IMSA is a reissue kit of the tried and true Silk Cut livery that Hasegawa released many years ago. The Castrol-sponsored car ran at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1988, and this No. 60 car won its class. This reissue is a curbside with absolutely no engine detail, except the exhaust hanging out back. I noticed a lot of flash in the kit indicating the molds are getting tired. Directions were a bit poor on some of the details that needed to be changed on the body to make it correct for the victorious Daytona car. The Jag’s chassis is molded in one piece with the interior tub glued to the top, and there’s no front suspension detail at all, just two locating pins for…

REPLICARZ HAS BEEN MAKING an exclusive line of cast resin Indy 500 winners for years. Lately it has turned its attention to Indy-winning Duesenbergs, including the 1924, 1925 and now 1927 Indy winners. All are terrific. This most recent one is the baby blue-gray Duesy that George Souders used to crack the winners circle in his rookie year at Indy. It also was the last Duesenberg to win the 500. Souders started 22nd, but worked his way through the field and ended up leading the last 51 laps. This model is, well, a winner. First, it’s beautifully molded and finished with just a dark blue No. 32, trimmed in red, gracing its body. No sponsors in 1927! The hood comes off in two pieces if you unfasten the leather straps,…

Remember the Isuzu VehiCROSS? You know, the obscure two-door 4x4 that looks like the Rancor that lurched around in the shadows of Jabba the Hut’s palace from Star Wars? Isuzu made the tiny SUV from 1999 until 2001, and while it may not have been the most mechanically sound or attractive vehicle to scavenge the roads, it’s since developed quite the cult following. While some may laugh, others, like myself, admire its unusual and bizarre genetics. I’ve always thought this intergalactic design from Isuzu has aged quite well, even today in a sea of bland, boring crossovers that pollute the roads. That admiration also made its way down to scale modelers like Paul Nolte from Okemos, Mich. Paul ordered the kit from Hobby Link Japan nearly 10 years ago, and…