Six97s

Last one from the holiday, which I hadn't got around to uploading. And one from a recent walk. I think this is what the Americans call "yard art"?

Is there any other source for this information, or just that thread? Is it actually "Deluxe Orange", or is it "Dulux Orange" - Dulux being the tradename used for Dupont automotive enamel. My usual starting point for paint chips and colour codes is https://paintref.com but there's no mention of 83-2588, nor any Dupont codes beginning 83- (Dulux were 93- AFAIK). However, 93-2588 is Chevrolet Airedale Brown, so that can't be it.

If you're talking about the reboxes of the Fujimi kits, then no, they don't have engines.

The wire looks good, but if I can be "that guy" for a minute and offer some constructive criticism, it's only the inner bead that is metal trim. The outer bead is just a raised part of the vinyl, and it's only that that continues onto the kick panel. The metal trim is only on the door.so less work to do . Photo for reference: https://www.wallpaperup.com/uploads/wallpapers/2013/05/31/94469/49807843549cf9059abb2f1884749895.jpg

They (Meng) have done a rather poor job on that engine - the dimples for the valve cover bolts are way oversize, yet have no bolt detail, then there's the mess that is the timing cover, water pump, alternator and drive belt all moulded as one piece. You've certainly made the best of it.

Quite a few on the A148 and A47 today. A black E-reg MG Metro, a maroon MGB GT, a Riley RMA "Police" car, then much later a Standard Vanguard Phase I closely followed by (I think) a Wolseley 6/90. Also, a Polestar 2 electric thing... not that interesting to look at, but the first I've seen on the road.

Saw what I could only identify as a "1930s sports car" on the A148 today, but after much image searching, I think it might have been a 1935 Lagonda... something like that anyway.

Today threw up a Citroen Traction Avant on the A148 near Holt and several bay window VW campers. I managed a photo of one of the latter, with Fuchs style wheels (presume copies) and some questionable '80s stripe graphics. Will retrieve it from my phone later...

Another split window VW. Also saw a 1972 or 1973 Mercury Montego in metallic green with a black vinyl roof, but it was going away so I didn't see the front to narrow down the year. Many old Fordson tractors on the beach, only one photo though.

A few around Cromer and Sheringham this afternoon: Rover P6 in red with a black vinyl roof and spare on the boot, a very rusty (patina ) '48-'52 Chevy 3100 cab on a new duallie chassis, today's oddball - an X-prefix Maestro (Bulgarian CKD, presumably), then a very clean B-reg Morris Traveller followed in procession by MkI and Mk2 Consuls.

Fireball Modelworks has an accurate factory wheel & tyre set, but also offers a variety of chunkier off road tyres and wheels, as well as a resin fender flare set for the Bronco.

Four hours on the road and only two interesting spots - a Singer Gazelle (III if I had to guess) and a 1967 E-reg VW split window bus.

Nice progress. My life would have been a lot easier if I'd decided to roll with it OOB. Just a heads up, you can fit the front and rear parts the body and still have room to get the chassis in.

One for @MR2Don yesterday - a black MkI MR2. I'll see if I can get a photo next time I'm passing. This Fulvia pulled in while I was airing up my tyres this evening. Apologies for the blurry pic, I'm a bit self conscious taking photos of people...

I quite like the Magstar wheels, not so keen on the 10 spokes though. It looks good with the Cragars. I'm not sure about the decals, those side stripes look a bit heavy?

More on the '65. The original Monogram issue had tiny Michelin TRX tyres, which are all kinds of wrong. This one comes with generic Polyglas/Wide Oval low profile tyres, which are an improvement, but still wrong. The '65 Shelby had 7.75-15 tyres with an 80% aspect ratio, so I took a set of tyres from a Chevy pickup kit. The tread is narrower, the sidewalls are taller and they fill the wheelarches better. Kit tyres on the left, pickup tyres on the right. I came to the conclusion that the only way I could fix the front end was to cut off all of the valance so I could get at the grille and headlamp surrounds. The sculpted edges on the hood need to come in a bit to meet the corners of the grille, the front lip should be vee shaped in plan, and slightly upbowed from the front. Still needs work, but less than the '68. I lowered the front about 1" in scale to mimic the "Shelby drop". Also dearched the rear springs a bit.

That looks tough already. Interesting that Extra Thin works, seems unlikely to be the typical polyurethane if that's the case. You can fit the rear valance before painting,you just have to insert the rear of the chassis first and spring the body sides apart to wiggle the front in. The roll bar and the other engine are carry overs from the initial 1/25 release as a '69 Shelby Mustang. If you look closely at the door panels in the interior, you'll see they still have the Shelby snake emblems. The protrusions on the roll bar are the seat belt mountings: https://photos.classiccars.com/cc-temp/listing/119/2613/15476479-1969-shelby-gt500-std.jpg

You see why I have difficulty finishing things. I've spent the last hour on the front end of the '65, attempting to reshape and redefine the grille surround. It's too thick and too flat, compounded by the grille insert's trim being about 4x too thick. The ancient AMT body looks miles better; the only major flaw on that is the top of the A pillar isn't curved where it transistions into the roofline, it's a sharp angle. Still, it would probably have been easier to rebuild that as a Shelby instead...

Only two? I have four in the Mustang GB alone... no guarantee any of them will get finished though.

I'm fairly certain that's the one I saw last Saturday. There might well be more than one black 1966 coupe in the county, but seems more likely it's the same one. The Bentley is rather nice.

I made the mistake of looking for reference photos - https://classiccars.com/listings/view/685543/1965-shelby-gt350-for-sale-in-scotts-valley-california-95066 The first thing that struck me was the front overhang drops down too far and too straight... it ought to finish roughly in line with the bottom of the door and curve under to match the valance. I've already filed some of that away here, but it needs more work. It still looked off, so I dug out my 1965 AMT promo body. Compared with that, the Revellogram one looks like it's been punched in the face. The valance is still too thick and too square, the lower grille surround is too thick and blunted, and the eyebrows over the headlights don't flow into the hood as they should. I really don't want to get into another massive reconstruction job, but I will see if I can relieve some of the clunkiness.

Carnage is the word. I start out trying to do clean work, but invariably end up hacking and relying on filler. The '66 kit turned up this afternoon. The Plymouth GTX was in a box and arrived intact, but the Mustang was only in a poly bag, with no protection at all. The box was crushed and I feared the worst... The body had taken a hit and the rear window surround was creased. If it wasn't for this rubbery Chinese plastic, it probably would have cracked. The whole roof was a bit lopsided too and another time I'd have returned it, but I decided to try and save it. Now, I don't remember this huge gap in the front end. I suspect that's a result of the tooling mods for the GT350R version, but whatever, that needs filling. I don't remember the fit of the front and rear valances being so poor either... maybe the moulds are showing their age. This was going to be a quick OOB build, but the front end seems a bit blocky... the lower fenders and valance need some rounding off. On the upside, the louvres, Monte Carlo bar and the traction bars are all there, so the only problem remaining is the decals.

I replaced the front part of the hood, so now the scoops have some depth instead of appearing as narrow slits. I'll clean it up and spray some primer on it later, but I want to get the grille surround and bumper mounting roughed in first. The bumper will end up spaced out a bit from the grille.

That's a great idea. You just need to flatten them where they connect to the carb hat. This is a T-bolt, but a similar setup. https://cdn1.mecum.com/auctions/fl0117/fl0117-269830/images/fl0117-269830_10.jpg?1479928442000

I'm going to throw in another one. I gave in and ordered a '66 GT350H from Amazon, but I'll be building it as a '65 GT350. I salvaged most of the '65-specific parts from the one I built in the '80s, so the only things I'm missing are the louvre inserts for the quarter windows, the Monte Carlo bar and the traction bars. I think (hope) the louvres are still in the '66 kit? I can make the other parts if need be. I didn't strip the spare wheel cover, because I think that looks OK as it is. I'm not sure what happened with the side exit exhausts, but I can restore those easily enough. I'll delete the radio this time - must have missed that.