mustang1989

I recall your Challenger very well. I thought it was excellent.

Bring it on, Joe!
 
(Perhaps it will inspire me to finish my own.)

You can tell you have built model aircraft engines when you wire the engine realistically. Too many cars leave the hood down, but then they do look like they move fast. Nice finish and a great build.
 
Tnarg

Well done, and Congrats on the awards !
 
Joe

After 4 months of building I finished restoring this build in late November/ December of 2014. It was only supposed to be a simple touch up that was initially gonna take a week or so to complete but ended up being my first all out attempt at getting auto model building as right as I could get it. I wouldn't touch another aircraft build again until nearly two years later as the auto bug had bitten..............hard!! 
   The quick story: I built this originally when I was 14 for my brother. I joined the Army at 19 years old and left home in November of 1987. I picked the car up from my parents house in 2003 (16 or so years later) and cleaned it up and gave it to back to my brother in 2009 after some years on my display shelf. It stayed there a year and was accidentally dropped and left on a bed head board where I spotted in and rescued it again. It was missing a wheel/tire, the hood and the rear spoiler. My brother and I found the wheel/tire and the hood without the air intake / air grabber. I cleaned it up and put it back on the shelf where it stayed until November of 2014 when I had some "spare bench time" between builds. I had bought a spare kit in which to replace the hood and rear spoiler with and that was all it was going to be was a parts replacement and that's it. Well 4 months later and 3 kits later I reformed this thing from what it was to what it is here. The body and interior are all original save for the shifter lever. Everything else was scrapped and started over with. 
Several upgrades were made and it proudly sits on the shelf again.....only now in a much better state.  

Before:
 

 
4 months later.........
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The engine compartment up close and personal:
 

 

 

 
This award was a TOTAL surprise to me. I was already stunned that I had just gotten a 1st Place Award in its category.
 

After 4 months of building I finished restoring this build in late November/ December of 2014. It was only supposed to be a simple touch up that was initially gonna take a week or so to complete but ended up being my first all out attempt at getting auto model building as right as I could get it. I wouldn't touch another aircraft build again until nearly two years later as the auto bug had bitten..............hard!! 
   The quick story: I built this originally when I was 14 for my brother. I joined the Army at 19 years old and left home in November of 1987. I picked the car up from my parents house in 2003 (16 or so years later) and cleaned it up and gave it to back to my brother in 2009 after some years on my display shelf. It stayed there a year and was accidentally dropped and left on a bed head board where I spotted in and rescued it again. It was missing a wheel/tire, the hood and the rear spoiler. My brother and I found the wheel/tire and the hood without the air intake / air grabber. I cleaned it up and put it back on the shelf where it stayed until November of 2014 when I had some "spare bench time" between builds. I had bought a spare kit in which to replace the hood and rear spoiler with and that was all it was going to be was a parts replacement and that's it. Well 4 months later and 3 kits later I reformed this thing from what it was to what it is here. The body and interior are all original save for the shifter lever. Everything else was scrapped and started over with. 
Several upgrades were made and it proudly sits on the shelf again.....only now in a much better state.  

Before:
 

 
4 months later.........
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The engine compartment up close and personal:
 

 

 

 
This award was a TOTAL surprise to me. I was already stunned that I had just gotten a 1st Place Award in its category.
 

Dude................you are tha MAN!!! This is nothing short of spectacular!!! I can't get enough of this build!!! Teach me oh master!!! Really though.............great work there J.

Thanks Gazzas.  It's taken me around 3 years to get any where near comfortable in my auto building ability. One of the first barriers I had to overcome was the gloss finishes associated with autos. My first attempt was my 1970 Dodge Challenger makeover that I did back in 2014. I got lucky (and really that's all it was) with the gloss finish on it. I didn't have to do any wet sanding or polishing on that one and it went on to win not only first place in the shows with it's mirror like shine but it won the Best Auto of Show Award as well. That was it...........I was hooked. My model building history was aviation only up to that point. lol . I haven't built a plane since..............although I am really wanting to.

Thanks Kevin. I haven't done a completed thread on that one here yet I don't think. 

Oh Hell yeah!! Man this thing just keeps getting better and better!!!!

The stab is "corrected" I mean it's been painting as it is on the plane dffering from the design.
 
Since painting yellow is never easy, and even less if painted over red! I sprayed a bit of white over the existing color and then I painted the yellow, Thanks God I still had the mask I used the first time so It was fairly easy to paint
 

 
Now it is ready to get the gloss treatment unless there's something else I haven't seen!!
 

 
And one pic of the real plane just for illustration purposes! credits to the author
 

you have the approach for a beautiful gloss down to a science.  just stunning.  when I do a mirror finish I'll be asking you for some coaching.

Thanks Gazzas.  It's taken me around 3 years to get any where near comfortable in my auto building ability. One of the first barriers I had to overcome was the gloss finishes associated with autos. My first attempt was my 1970 Dodge Challenger makeover that I did back in 2014. I got lucky (and really that's all it was) with the gloss finish on it. I didn't have to do any wet sanding or polishing on that one and it went on to win not only first place in the shows with it's mirror like shine but it won the Best Auto of Show Award as well. That was it...........I was hooked. My model building history was aviation only up to that point. lol . I haven't built a plane since..............although I am really wanting to.

Thanks Gazzas.  It's taken me around 3 years to get any where near comfortable in my auto building ability. One of the first barriers I had to overcome was the gloss finishes associated with autos. My first attempt was my 1970 Dodge Challenger makeover that I did back in 2014. I got lucky (and really that's all it was) with the gloss finish on it. I didn't have to do any wet sanding or polishing on that one and it went on to win not only first place in the shows with it's mirror like shine but it won the Best Auto of Show Award as well. That was it...........I was hooked. My model building history was aviation only up to that point. lol . I haven't built a plane since..............although I am really wanting to.

Just test fitting everything here with the motor/ xmsn adhered into place to make sure the stance is still good (which it needs to drop in the rear just a smidgen) and to make sure that the engine is still gonna clear the firewall. Here's an overall shot with the spare body and interior tub set in place. A little tweeking and we're "there".
 

OMG!  When I was a kid and I tried car models, I felt insulted by the color of the plastic.  I don't know why.  The real killer was the lack of armament.  But they still use that plastic!  Back then I had no skill, and no money to get things that might help me make a decent rendition of a kit.  Now I can afford anything I want...but I can't buy skill.

Just test fitting everything here with the motor/ xmsn adhered into place to make sure the stance is still good (which it needs to drop in the rear just a smidgen) and to make sure that the engine is still gonna clear the firewall. Here's an overall shot with the spare body and interior tub set in place. A little tweeking and we're "there".
 

Just test fitting everything here with the motor/ xmsn adhered into place to make sure the stance is still good (which it needs to drop in the rear just a smidgen) and to make sure that the engine is still gonna clear the firewall. Here's an overall shot with the spare body and interior tub set in place. A little tweeking and we're "there".
 

Thanks Kevin! Hopefully within the next few days. I need to BMF it and paint all the details out. I'll wait till the body is mounted on the rollin' chassis before I start putting all the emblems on it though.
 
Thanks Gazzas!! Engine building and interior work are my two favorite things about auto building.

Marbeling is a by product (requirement) of black basing.  Black basing works for me and I really like the results I can achieve.  There still may be pre-shading in my future.  However, the black basing approach is clever and I'm having fun improving my air brush skill sets every time I use this method.
 
Here is video link from Doogs' Models:  Doogs' Black Basing Video
 
First time marbeling results when I worked on my FW190.
 

 
 

 

 

 

Nice Job on the engine!

Now that I'll be looking forward to.

Ok folks. I believe that the 396 is done enough to where I'm going to put it in the chassis and get started on the exhaust system. I temporarily installed the center section of the fan on the front of the front just for picture taking purposes and will remove it so I can use it on the backside of the other fan I have for a future build. N E ways..............here she is:
 

 

 

 
And this one I throw in for all my friends at work. They always tell me that I have a giant clothespin hanging out in my garage. 
 


 

Thanks Shawn! Been working on wet sanding and polishing the body out over the course of the last few days. Updated pics coming soon......

motor looks great!