Neddy

(Pops a couple of tranquillisers, tops up popcorn and waits...)

Nifty bit of panelwork making the front panel fit. Nicely done!

You're on the money with the chassis, I remember the AMT '25 double kit - I built the woody variant in glorious fluorescent catsick yellow with black woodwork. I did rob parts from Jo-Han kits later in life but this would have been too early for that - my main sources of parts would have been Revell, Monogram or AMT/MPC. As far as the wheels are concerned I can't help there either other than state that I never had a Willys kit and the grille is a one-piece centrepiece from a relatively recent ('60s) model kit, possibly a custom kit. That's all I can remember I'm afraid. EDIT: I can confirm the seats came from a '56 Ford Victoria custom but I never built the kit - I must have swapped or otherwise acquired them.

...and here they are. Handily, 50-year old tube adhesive deteriorates as I discovered the hard way, hence this view of the chassis... ...and here's a close-up of the wheels which might help identify them...

I didn't get that far - I stalled at the GT40... Fantastic place to visit, I've been there three times spread over several years and love it.

Blimey, I get tired just watching this, it's quite exhausting! Your usual amazing ingenuity and skill in what amounts to micro-engineering has me on the edge of my seat. Wait for me to replenish the popcorn and catch my breath before posting the next installment, will you?

Is there room for me on the train following this build? The moulding quality looks very impressive, the vehicle itself is a fascinating subject for a model and it'll be interesting to watch it develop. I can imagine how fragile the roof pillars are going to be - it'll make building very tricky but the end result should make it worth all the heart-stopping bits when you're sweating fractured pillars. I came very close to ordering it's successor the XM before being tempted away by a SAAB 9000 back in the '90s.

Wow. I'm sure I'll be the first of many to comment on this beautifully executed and detailed model of a most unusual prototype. Excellent detailing, especially the engine bay pipework and the ubiquitous Mk 1 Cortina rear lights. Love it.

Coming through Canterbury earlier today, a beautiful creamy yellow '65 Ford Mustang coupe pulled out behind me and burbled sedately behind me right through the town. As I turned off for home it swept past emitting the glorious V8 rumble only a well-tuned 289 can make. I was able to get a good look albeit in my mirrors and noted some useful detail for the 1:16 scale model currently in build.

You could very well be right about the AMT '25 Model T, that's just the sort of kit I would have raided for parts. You're also dead right about the turtle deck being shortened to the hinge line, I can remember doing that, and the seats were certainly from a much later custom vehicle of some kind. I'll take some more pics from other angles plus the underside when I can.

(Bar? They've kept that quiet, I must hunt it out...)

Thankyou! At the time I used Testors metallic paints a lot (and still have most of them!), it's a shame they're no longer around, most unusual colours.

Thanks! I suspect you're right about the Monogram Little T, it would certainly make sense. MPC made some Model T based kits at the time and I can remember robbing them of various parts at various times. I also remember spending a lot of time on the turtle deck, mainly shortening it IIRC to make it fit on the chassis. More when I can dig them out and clean them up.

One or two threads recently have really taken me back to my time as a spotty adolescent modeller eagerly digesting anything and everything from Car Models and Hot Rod magazines, gazing admiringly at the brainchildren of Ed Roth and George Barris and doing my best to emulate them in some small way. Having mentioned this a few times now I thought I'd better put some evidence of this where my mouth is (so to speak) and to that end I've dusted off (literally) one or two examples that have survived the last half-century and many house-moves more or less intact. I hope you don't feel this is too much of an indulgence - if so please say so! This one I can only describe as a spares-box 1:24th scale T-bucket. I can't recall after all this time where the various bits came from other than the body and chassis are much-modified and from separate Model T kits, the engine from a third car kit, the radiator grille from some nameless piece of 1960s American land-ship and the bucket seats from yet another kit. The exhaust headers were scratchbuilt, took me ages and involved a LOT of Humbrol body putty! The wheels and tyres came from who knows where, steering column and gearshift ditto and the whole thing was sprayed using Testors metallic yellow and an old Humbrol airbrush. I must have been about thirteen or fourteen when I built it, so about 1965-ish. If any of you actually recognise any of the components I'd love to know what and where they came from!

Oh wow... seeing these again almost reduced me to tears. I used to buy Car Model mags from a (then) local newsagent (Heaven knows where he got them from!) and devoured them avidly when I was a youngster back in the '60s. I learned a huge amount about building and customising car models from them and remember those years, those mags and those models with great fondness. I lost count of the number of custom builds I carried out with the aid of CM mags and mourn the loss of the custom car scene as it was then, both 1:24 and 1:1 scales.

That engine detailing really is superb, it's almost a shame to have installed it. Great work.

Having stumbled across this last week a couple of tickets are winging (sorry!) their way to me as we speak. Is this an event regularly attended by some members? It looks like a great day out to me and I wondered how well known and/or popular it is with people here. https://www.headcornevents.co.uk/Events/Southern Model Show/ EDIT: I do apologise, I only found the Shows section after I posted this. Could one of the Mods please move or delete this thread?

No worries @Spiny, I'm in no hurry. I'm retired so nothing gets done in a rush - see my current Mustang build f'rinstance! I enjoy the journey more than the destination when it comes to model building.

As previously observed, a cracking result from a pig of a kit. Beautifully finished and detailed. I admire not only your skills but your patience! You needed bucketloads of it.

Great, an unusual Tamiya car model kit. I look forward to seeing it take shape. OK if I tag along?

That's something I used to do to bed-in tyres for use on slot-racing cars I was building whilst still in single figures. Mounting these on a suitable shaft would be a tad tricky at this early stage (the wheels aren't assembled yet) but it's a very effective method.

(Passes well-filled Scotch glass...) I think you need this! Despite everything it's thrown at you it's still one beautiful model and one heck of an achievement. The mounting of the glass is superb, as are the various scratched components. Well worth all the effort and aggravation IMHO, I hope you feel the same way.

Engine now complete I'm pressing on slowly. Next up for attention is the running gear, starting with the tyres. The moulding is pretty dire - the treads are quite good but the mould alignment is off, meaning there's not only a rib of moulding flash round the centre of the tread but the two halves of the moulding (and therefore the tyre) were misaligned. As you'll see from the before (right) and after (left) pic below, it took a fair bit of work with an emery board* to get them trued up and at all realistic-looking... (*I really must buy some of my own before Mrs Neddy notices they're going missing...)

A few days ago in the Canterbury area, put-put-putting along in a cloud of blue smoke, the antidote to classic cars - a Trabant.

Agreed!