'55 Chevrolet Bel Air A/GS

[Mr.409]

This one is finally finished! So this started out as Revell's new issue of Monogram's old BadMan '55 Chevy Bel Air. The body required some work as I had to rescribe some of the panel lines, add a new chrome trim above the windshield and in addition there were lots of mold lines and other stuff to be cleaned. A new firewall was also built from sheet styrene and inner fenders were modified to fit Fenderwell headers. Radiator wall was modified from Monogram's '56 Chevy.

I swapped kit's Small Block to a Blown Big Block from some old Monogram kit. Fenderwell headers were 100% scratchbuilt from plastic rod & sheet styrene and bunch of small details were added from various sources.

Interior is pretty much box stock with just some additional detailing. I built a new roll bar using a modified Monogram '57 Chevy roll bar as a starting point and rest was made from plastic rod. Seat belts were added, as well as a tachometer and a proper shifter.

On the chassis I cut molded in mufflers away, filled those holes with sheet styrene and I also removed the molded in exhaust pipes. A new transmission crossmember was scratchbuilt from styrene, front axle was modified and spindles were scratchbuilt from plastic and sheet silver. Otherwise both, front and rear suspension are pretty much stock with only some minor modifications. Wheels and tires are swapped too.

Body is painted and cleared with Tamiya Sprays and polished. Trim is BMF and the exterior parts are pretty much straight out of the box. The hole on the hood was completely reshaped to fit together with that scoop that I scratchbuilt from sheet styrene.

I'm very happy to see this one finally finished (Started in 2014). It took me a lot longer than I originally thought, but I also made lots of modifications on it that I originally wasn't going to do. There are some mistakes, but overall I'm pretty happy with how it looks. Anyway, here are the pics.














As I originally thought that this has to look better than the one I built from this same kit when I was a kid, now I'm sure I accomplished that goal at least!



Thanks for looking, all kinds of feedback is warmly welcomed!

[fordrodnkustom]

It came out great Niko! Excellent job updating and detailing that ancient tool kit!

[mack2856]

You nailed it Mr 409!

[deuce]

My neighbor's brother-in-law has a 55 with that exact color combo. Would that have been a factory blue? Very nice job on it. Yes, I'd say your skills have improved from when you were a kid.

[harron68]

YEP, totally authentic!!!! The 2-tone adds a degree of difficulty to an already challenging build. I luv the engine and underside details too. Most clever (to me) is thehome-made look to the scoop. That screams "Hey, I made this myself!" Just like the real thing.

[TooOld]

Wow that's really really sharp ! Congrats Niko on another job well done .

And that's about how long it takes me to finish some of my builds !

[Mr.409]

Thanks for the kind words everyone, I really appreciate them!

Deuce: My blue might be a bit darker than the factory blue, but it shouldn't be too far. I think you can't go wrong with this color combo on a '55, though it looks great on '56 and '57 bodies too.

Harron: The scoop was a "Must Do" type of thing. I like the look of a "boxy" scoop like that and luckily it's not hard to make from sheet styrene either. I think I'll be adding a similar one for a couple of my other builds too.

[deuce]

I talked to the owner of the 55 I posted earlier. He says the blue is Ford Grabber Blue.

I've been spending time on my motorcycles, but I need to start another build soon.

[dimaxion2]

Eyecandy . Just right , shiny and it's a Gas .. Really clean and the first one resembles a 1:1 someone does not have the Money Bucks to run first class . Just enough to run real fast . Thanx ..