ACME

Build and Review by Robert Seinko – ACME

Robert’s review is long overdue because of me but fits in well with the recent release of the 1930 Ford kit by Revell. Hope you enjoy reading about and seeing Roberts build – Wayne

Hot rods first appeared in the late 1930’s in Southern California where people raced  cars on dry lake beds under the rules of (SCTA) Southern California Timing Association among other groups. This gained popularity after World War II because many returning soldiers received technical training.                           

The first hot rods were old cars usually typically Fords T’s model A’s, or model B’s. Ford’s flat head engines were very popular because of their power the ability modify them for more power & speed. Typical modifications included removal of convertible tops, hoods, bumpers, windshields, and or fenders to save weight and channeling the body for a lower profile. Most early hot rods used wire wheels of the era, however as time went on and the introduction of the steel wheel, a lot of hot rodders began using these for better strength and they looked cool too.                                                       That leads me to the Revell ’29 Ford model kit, it is a little different than the one issued a few years back and quickly went out of production. The main differences are the engine build choice and only one body but two choices of wheels, 2 frames, and 3 choices for headlights are included in this release. Thus said this kit looks to be engineered as well as any of the newer Revell kits issued over the last 15 years.

The inspiration for my example was the ’32 Ford hot rod in the first and second Iron Man movies. This car was owned by the director John Favreau and was used as all the computer screen savers in the movie. The license plate reads “Stark 5” which I will recreate. I realize the movie car is a ’32 and not a ’29 but I love the chassis in this kit with the finned brake drums and exhaust pipes that are close to the movie car. I will use the same paint scheme with left over flames from another kit, 3 carb set up and steel wheels. 

Now, onto the kit, on the direction sheet (which to me is a bit vague in some spots) you have a choice of A and B assemblies for engine, and chassis. Many of the same pieces are used in both assemblies, pay close attention to the photos, and reread the pictures to make sure you are using the correct parts for your version. I could not find a reference to what kind of engine this is but it looks very much like the one used in the Revell ’51 Mercury kit. I chose the 3 carb set up because it was closer to my Stark hot rod. After minor cleanup of all parts and painting it went together perfectly. It was painted with Model Master Chrysler Red over flat grey. Chassis A is the standard chassis, chassis B is for the lowered version, I went with the lowered chassis B, here was a small hitch, the transmission cross members are mislabled in the directions. A fits B and vice versa, it’s pretty obvious when you go to assemble them. One is too big, and one is too small. Not too big of a deal though. Another small glitch the tie rod assembly was warped and had to be gently bent back to fit the pins on the front axle. Everything else on the chassis assembled perfectly using the appropriate B components.

Assembly of the wheels was excellent, I wanted to use the steelie look again from the Iron man movie car. The wheels are a darker red than the interior and engine, so I chose Rustoleum Colonial red. Beauty rings have a tiny indent where the molded in air valve fits which is brilliant. The white decals went on without any problems and settled in without any decal setting solution. I used one of my Molotov Chrome pens for the inner silver ring, lug nuts and grease cap on front wheels. Brake backings and brake hubs fit perfectly although the metal mounting pins were missing from my kit, I could have ordered new ones, but I wanted to get this finished so I made some from wire, you can’t see them, so it doesn’t matter.      

Body was painted with Testors black enamel and covered in 2 coats of Tamiya clear, buffed, and polished. I chose the channeled style of build which of course fits down over the chassis, so you need to choose the proper interior pieces which I painted flat black then covered with two coats of Krylon matt Poppy Red, it gave the panels some depth without having to add a wash to them. Steering wheel center has a nice decal for detail and the stick shift has 2 different decals, a shift pattern, and an eyeball, pretty cool. I went with the shift pattern for my version. 

I could not find an interior shot of the Iron Man car so a went down to worm hole of Google to find inspiration. I decided to flock the floor with a maroon material I had and am very happy with the look.

My windshield was slightly warped, instead of trying to repair I used as is, I was afraid it might break. Other than that, everything else went together fine. Door handles, rear lights, and head lights all fit perfectly.

To sum it up, this is a very cool kit with a few minor hiccups that barely detract from the build. Take your time, decide which pieces you want to use and have fun. I give it 9.2 out of 10.                      

Review by Joe Fotschky

I want to start out by saying that this is my first Tamiya kit build. So if I happen to point out the obvious features of a Tamiya kit please understand that this is my first experience building one of their models. I typically build 60’s and 70’s muscle cars and those are usually Revell and AMT kits.

This kit can be built in one of three versions and I chose the US version, but you can choose the Japanese or European version for your build. 

Opening the box up and inspecting the contents made me realize that this was a different type of kit than I am used to building. The parts trees were molded in different colors which upon further inspection is a nice touch since the parts that were molded in black would either be painted black or grey. The kit contained a sheet of decals and two new firsts for me to have in a kit were metal transfers and window masking stickers.

The instruction manual is very well planned out and there were no issues following the assembly steps. It did help by going through the manual and cutting the parts of the versions you are not building off the trees and tossing them in your spare parts box. I am familiar with the Tamiya paint line and was happy to see a paint guide that corresponded to their paint colors in their instruction manual.

One thing that surprised me was that this kit did not come with an engine or transmission. I was not disappointed by this as the chassis and suspension is nicely detailed as it is made up of more than 30 parts.

The interior was nice to paint and assemble as the door panels, console, dashboard, and seats were made up of multiple pieces. I painted the interior black with German grey accents on the doors, console, and seats to help add a little color to break up the all black interior. There were many decals applied to the interior, many will probably never be seen once the model is completely assembled.

The body of the car that receives paint is made up of six pieces. This is where I needed to decide what body parts I wanted to or could glue together that would not cause assembly issues down the line. I chose to cement the front and rear facia as well as the two door sections to the body to eliminate any issues with glue accidentally meeting fresh paint. The hatch was left off so I would have access to place a Toyota badge from the back in later steps. The body had only one set of faint mold lines on the side of the body that were easy to remove. The car was painted with Tamiya lacquer metallic orange LP-44 that Bob Downie gifted me for this project.

Window painting and install went really well. The kit comes with pre-cut window masks so you can easily paint the black trim on the inside and outside of the window glass. The windows come with big tabs that fit in to recessed areas molded into the backside of the body and gives a good surface to glue the windows in.

I was amazed by the headlight assembly. One headlight is made up of five plastic parts and six decals, it’s a model all by itself. Just like the windows the lights had big tabs with recessed areas for them to be glued in with a positive fit.

Grills, vents, and other trim pieces were all separate pieces and not molded into the body. This allows you to paint them as single units and attach them to the model which make for a clean look.

I liked the body to chassis connection as no glue was used to mate them together. You simply slide the front section of the chassis into slots in the body and push the rear down where it is captured by a plastic spring tab that is molded into the body.

This model and its engineering left me feeling really positive throughout the entire build. This is the eighteenth model I have built since 2010 and it is one of the best if not the best I have built.

I am sure many of you have seen the various “Woodies” built by Robert Sienko at our meetings, various contests, in Scale Auto, or on Face Book. To say Robert has mastered using wood to create unique models is an understatement.

Robert Brough several samples of models he has used wood on to either create a more realistic pickup bed, add true wood panels to a Woodie, create scale surf boards and even create complete bodies for his builds.

He information not only the types of wood he uses but also where to find them, how to work with them from original shaping to finishing, staining, etc. .

Check back tomorrow for some pictures from his workshop,

Well, it’s a Tamiya kit so it’s likely to go together trouble free. Here is the spread of all the parts trees
in the box:

Here’s the engine installed into the frame. The main frame goes together quite easily as there’s two sides and a small middle piece. It also has a nice kickstand that attaches with a metal bracket that gets screwed into place. The engine color calls for polished aluminum, so I used the AlClad Polished Aluminum. The engine also assembles very nicely and pretty easily too. It was easy to insert into the frame too, it’s held in place with three screws.

Here’s the shock assembly, it was pretty easy to build and paint. I used the Al Clad Titanium Silver as opposed to the Tamiya color, although I have both. I think this assembly will be completely hidden when the model is completed.

The wheel is a little trickier, first I had to drill out all those little holes in the brake rotor. It goes together easy enough but there are little mating pins on the inside ends of the spokes to align with the hubs, I used CA on it. There is an inner brass tube for the axle, once it’s together you have to insert it into the tire. You have to be more careful than on the racing type bikes with the one piece wheels. You don’t want to push against the spoke while inserting the wheel into the tire. That’s a good way to break the spokes and then you’re in some real trouble. So as you can see I got the wheel into the tire correctly.

I have the belt and pulleys all painted up, I painted the pulleys with Al Clad Polished Aluminum. One detail that’s a little lacking is that they didn’t mold the teeth into the rear pulley on the inside where the
pulley is exposed. The front doesn’t matter as it will be hidden anyway. It turns out that when it’s all installed into the rear swing arm there is a lower guard in front of the rear pulley so you wouldn’t see the teeth anyway. I masked over the pulleys so I could brush paint the flat black onto the belt without messing up the pulley sides because the belt’s height is a little above the pulley’s and I wanted the paint to cover it.

The rear swing arm went together fairly easily. But it was a bit tricky getting together the left side with the belt/pulleys and lower belt guard together. Once that assembly was dry then the rest was pretty smooth.

So far this kit has been going together very well. Next is installing the rear swing arm into the frame.
That went pretty easy too.

Now here are the fenders and gas tank. The rear fender is three pieces and the gas tank is in two halves. The two side skirts on the rear fender I painted separately. I painted everything else in Tamiya’s champagne gold. Those Tamiya lacquers have nasty fumes, I had perfect weather to spray them outside. It also does not have a high gloss shine. So next I masked the gas tank. They give you a pre-printed masking tape and the instructions show you how to place them. I easily masked the front fender to paint the sides. After all that was dry the next day I painted Testors clear gloss coat over it. See the photos below.

Now the model is starting to look like a bike. The fork went together pretty easily. I did have to do some detail painting on the brake calipers and paint some black onto one of the chrome cross pieces. I installed more detail parts onto the frame and installed the fork onto the frame. When I glued the two halves of the mufflers together I didn’t like the seem line so I sanded it smooth and used Al Clad chrome on it. It came out pretty good. There is a bracket molded into it that gets painted black, easily done with a brush. The gas tank has a nice emblem on the side. It’s chromed and then detail painted, easy to do. I used black India ink for the recessed letters and the Star. and I used a champagne gold enamel I had to paint into the “wing”. The directions called for metallic gray but the box art had the champagne gold so I went with that. There are a number of rubber hoses to hook up for the brakes and clutch. I have some hooked up. Those are a little tricky to push onto those tiny plastic pins, I usually stick a sewing pin into the hose to stretch it a little bit.

The footrest assemblies went together pretty easily, some painting is required over the chrome parts. They align with square pins or round pins with a flat. The assemblies then attach to the frame, I glued
them on but they each get a screw to really secure them in place.

Now the bike is finished. I have installed the final details, the windscreen, the mirrors, the headlight assembly, etc. The seats and saddlebags were easy to assemble and I sprayed them semi gloss black and used Molotow Chrome on all the rivet heads. I used it on the handle bar and foot peg ends too. All the lenses were clear and I used the Tamiya clear orange and red to paint them. I found I had left off a few
small decals in places by the time I was nearly finished but they were all accessible to apply them. A really good kit to build, now onto the rider figure.

The model even has a working kickstand.

Here’s the kit. He can be built two ways, The first as you see him in the box art. The second is with him wearing a woolen beanie cap, holding his helmet and he also has sunglasses he can wear. I think I’ll build the second pose. You can see the two pictures on the instruction sheet.

I have not built a figure before so I don’t know how good I’ll be able to paint him but he’s going together real easily. The texture is well molded and he’s looking pretty good so far. First here’s just the legs:

The jacket assembles over the legs in three pieces. But first I painted the legs blue. It doesn’t matter what shade as jeans come in so many. Then I dry brushed some light blue and then white over it. Next I painted the leather jacket. The instructions call for semi gloss black as shown in the box art but I went for a brownish color that looks just like a jacket I have. The color is Testors Rubber which is really just a dark flat brown. So I painted the three pieces first. Then I did the arms the same color. There’s also the gloves and the hood. The hood and what you can see of the shirt are flat gray. The shirt is part of the leg assembly.

The next challenge is the head, especially the face. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

I painted the skin with Testors Skin Tone Warm Tint, the lips were painted with highly thinned red. At first it looked like lipstick, but then I lightly painted the Skin Tone over it and that made it look realistic.Here he is all finished. He seems to have a blank stare but it is what it is.

And both together:

Revell 1970 Plymouth AAR ‘Cuda Kit Number 85-4416

Kit number 85-4416

I may be a little biased – this is my favorite muscle car of all time. A family friend bought a Lemon Twist for his wife in late 1969 or early 1970 and at the age of 13 I fell in love with the car and as they say, “The rest is history”.

This is an updated re-release of the 2013 issue of Revell’s 1970 Plymouth Hemi “Cuda kit number 85-4268 with the correct parts to build an AAR. There are even some extra parts included in the box. There is an amazing number of decals in the kit including those for the battery caps and marking for the heater hoses. With additional research, time, and patience it can be built into the best AAR ‘Cuda possible.

This one is built “box stock” using no aftermarket parts using only various paints and Bare Metal Foil to enhance the details. I wanted a “Vitamin C” colored body with the period correct white and black interior.

Pro’s: Extremely accurate details with accurate AAR parts. The model went together very well, so well I look forward to building another.

Cons: The decals are slightly thick, needing patience to get them to lay down flat. With the addition of white strobe stripes the builder would have the option for additional body and interior color combinations.

Overall, I highly recommend this kit and if you love Mopar Muscle it is a must have.

Regards,

Harold Sullins

ACME

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Name:  Jim Shepherd

When did you start building models?  Around the age of 7 or 8

Why?  I always liked cars and like the idea of building miniature cars that I liked.  Also, the box art caught my attention and still does.

What was the first model car you built?  It was a 1963 corvette – that my uncle repainted while I was asleep.

What types of models do you build?  I like factory stock and restomods.

What brand(s) of models do you build the most?  Revell and AMT

What do you like most about model building?  I find it relaxing.

What part(s) of model building do you find the most challenging?  The sanding and polishing to get that brilliant shine!

Anyone special who provided you guidance/inspiration/support?  I would build models occasionally, but when I met the guys from the ACME Club I really started to build a lot of models.

If you could have one older kit reissued what would it be?  The one I am searching for is the MPC 1985 Pontiac Trans Am

What new model would you like to see issued?  I would like to see 4 door cars and wagons from the 1950’s & 1960’s.

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