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Gangster-era 1934 Ford Police Car


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From the year and the city in which the notorious gangster John Dillinger was brought to justice...AMT's 1/25 '2-in-1' 1934 Ford 2-door sedan, done up as one of the first radio-equipped patrol cars of the Chicago Police Dept.

 

Basic kit was built stock with the nicely-detailed flat-head V8 plumbed and wired. Additions to the interior included scratchbuilt radio receiver (no 2-way, yet) and 'squawk box' speaker, stand-up racks for shotgun and Thompson sub-machine-gun, headliner and dome light, and additional detail added to door panels. One of the forward-opening 'suicide doors' was cut from the body shell and hinged with parts made from leftover brass runners from used photo-etch sets. Additions to the exterior were twin fender-mounted sirens (made from the kit's unused 'custom' dual-carburetor option) and the roof globe light made from ballpoint-pen 'clicker' parts. The windscreen wiper--shown on the box-art 'photo,' but not included in the kit--was added last from scraps of rod and strip.

 

Paint-scheme and markings inspired by online photos of a Franklin Mint collector die-cast vehicle in the same scale. Paints are Tamiya, with home-printed decals made up on my PC.

 

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41 minutes ago, Redstaff said:

What a great twist on the hot rod kit, super detail :)

 

Ian

Thanks, Ian.

I must say, when I was blown away by seeing this very appealing scheme on the die-cast model online (which was actually a '33, rather than the ever-so-slightly restyled '34), I immediately went searching for a kit to build it. I was very happy to see that AMT had left the original 'stock' configuration as a kit option. [Although--as you can see if you carefully examine the 'head-on' shots above--the 'original' tires they included are just a wee bit too narrow for the rims. C'est la vie.]

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All you need to finish it is Tony Curtiss and Jack Lemmon with a double bass full of bullet holes and maybe Maryln Monroe with a ukelele and you've got the entire business.

That really is a brilliant interpretation of the kit.

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Beautiful build. As has already been stated, it looks far better than AMT intended. When I used to build cars, usually Jo-Han, I always went for the stock version.

 

John.

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3 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

Beautiful build. As has already been stated, it looks far better than AMT intended. When I used to build cars, usually Jo-Han, I always went for the stock version.

 

John.

Thank you, sir.

Though my 'speed' preference in things automotive runs to actual race machines, I certainly can admire a fine hot-rod. But I, too, like doing these older machines in their 'stock' version...when they were literally the leading edge of both automotive engineering, and of 'style'.

And man, I loved those old Jo-Han kits!

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  • 4 weeks later...

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