Building and Rebuilding
Wednesday, March 12. 2014
A quick recap for those just joining: late in 2013, a scale modeler who goes by the name Chevy Cheeseburger issued a challenge to his audience: locate an unbuilt version of the first model you had ever assembled, and do it again to see how far you've come as a builder. It sounded like a fun idea, though to be honest I can't remember which kit was my first. It was likely either an AMT '32 Vicky from my parents, a Bburago Mercedes Gullwing from my sister, or a 1/16 MPC '63 Corvette from an aunt. But the Vicky has long since been recycled, the Gullwing wouldn't show much progress since it was a screw-together diecast kit, and the Corvette has been shifted to "collectible" since my focus narrowed to ~1/24 scale only.
However, there was another kit from that time in my life that I do remember as being a "first." Another aunt had given me an AMT '59 Corvette, and it became my first ever attempt at customizing and detailing a model. "Customizing" meant a belly pan, an engine swap, and several of the optional parts from the kit. "Detailing" meant ignition wires, battery cables, and a fuel line. The results weren't very pretty: the belly pan was paper, the engine sat so high that I couldn't get the hood on it, the wires were held in place with great gobs of glue, parting seams and broken connection points were everywhere, and the "paint" was either Glosscote or Dullcote over bare plastic, with some very rough brush work for the details. In other words, this seemed like the perfect candidate for a rebuild and comparison:
It was a fun project, and although it's no show-winner I'm happy with the results.
However, there was another kit from that time in my life that I do remember as being a "first." Another aunt had given me an AMT '59 Corvette, and it became my first ever attempt at customizing and detailing a model. "Customizing" meant a belly pan, an engine swap, and several of the optional parts from the kit. "Detailing" meant ignition wires, battery cables, and a fuel line. The results weren't very pretty: the belly pan was paper, the engine sat so high that I couldn't get the hood on it, the wires were held in place with great gobs of glue, parting seams and broken connection points were everywhere, and the "paint" was either Glosscote or Dullcote over bare plastic, with some very rough brush work for the details. In other words, this seemed like the perfect candidate for a rebuild and comparison:
It was a fun project, and although it's no show-winner I'm happy with the results.
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