Finally got the hobby stuff all set up in the basement of our new home in Atlanta, so worked resumed on my 1/12 scale ‘57 Chevy Gasser model car. I still have some more to do: door jam detail, parachute cords and cable, and touch-ups. Boy has there been a lot of touch-ups! Since I make things up as I go with only a general plan—and I’m old—I make a lot of goofs.
Here’s some progress on my 1/12 scale 60’s era 57 Chevy Coupe Gasser being built from a Monogram kit. Seat is from a Corvette kit, the seat frame is scratchbuilt.
Painted the bolts semi-gloss black and dry brushed rusty red for effect.
Here’s an update of my 1/12 scale Monogram 57 Belair Gasser build. I’ve primed the undercarriage with red oxide Plastikote, and thin top coated with semi-gloss black paint. I then lightly rubbed edges with fine steel wool to age. Faux bolt heads and nuts are sliced styrene hex rod. When glue is cured I’ll finish sanding those and prime and paint them.
Here’s the modifications to the fenderwell headers I bought from Shapeways.com. I had to extend them to clear the frame. Also, I fabricated the framework for the tilting front clip.
Here’s the progress on my 1/12 scale 1957 Chevy model car interior. The first photo shows the bare metal foil panel and the LED lighted instrument cluster. Second photo shows added aging detail.
Didn’t take pics of the guage cluster construction, but is is made of different size lucite rods cut to 1/2 inches long glued to a roughly 1/2 inch By 1 1/2 inch by 1/16 inch lucite panel, which functions as a backlight. Micro LEDs are attached to the left and right edges of the lucite panel and then the entire backlight panel is wrapped in foil tape to reflect and prevent ambient bleed through light into the car interior. I then pressed that assembly into the hollowed out guage cavities.
The guage graphics are vector art printed on decal material. I couldn’t get the art to print opaque, so the entire guage face and cavity lights up instead of just the type. Not realistic, but still cool looking. I sealed the decals with clear gloss acrylic to get a glassy look.
Here’s the progress on my 1/12 scale 57 Chevy street rod. This is the popular Monogram kit that I am customizing with opening doors and trunk. It was quite a job to scribe through the thick plastic of a model this scale! Hinges are fashioned from coat hanger wire and aluminum and styrene tubing. Styrene sheeting is used to create the door jams and rocker panels. More styrene will be used to replicate the 3D sheet metal nuances of a real car.
This, my second kit after returning to model building, is a learn-as-you-go experiment! Thank God for all the modelers online!
Here’s progress on the engine for my 1/12 scale 57 Chevy model.
