Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2016 14:23:52 GMT -5
Since I'm posting this on TRaK I thought I'd share it here as well, for anyone not a member there.
Over 30 years ago Dennis Doty wrote a book on building model cars:
In it he showed how to build a custom 57 El Camino based on the Revell 57 Nomad kit. Though I was out of the hobby at the time, I read the book & loved what he did.
A few years later the book was split into two volumes, updated & reprinted. Those are the copies I have & the 57 El Camino was in the second book:
When I got that book around twenty years ago I knew I wanted to build my own version of that El Camino. A detailed Google search failed to turn up any pics of it, so I took some of the book:
Now I didn't want to do an exact copy of what Dennis created, plus I didn't completely like the front end he created, or want to do all the work involved in creating that front end, He dechromed, narrowed & molded in the kit's front bumper & built up the canted headlight pods out of scrap plastic using a hotknife, among a lot more work, such as pancaking the hood. Having gotten a complete Trophy Series 57 Chevy several years ago, I knew there was an alternative to that.
Over the past few years I got a parts box/rebuilder of another original issue AMT Trophy Series 57 Chevy & a partially build Revell Nomad, A few weeks ago I got another started Nomad in even better shape, so I decided to take the plunge:
Here's a look at the custom front end from the AMT kit, with it's own pancaked hood:
Dennis built up the El Camino part with the very back of the Nomad roof & other parts cut from the roof. Initially I planned to use the El Camino insert from the AMT 55 Nomad kit, only to discover it was several millimeters too narrow:
So it was back to using Dennis' original idea for that.
Anyway the other night I got started, cutting, trimming & got the AMT front end attached, along with some strip styrene around the headlight pods to correct the droop of the fenders:
I also cut off the back of the Nomad roof. The black line is where I had measured to cut to attach the 55 Nomad insert:
Once I checked one more time with the calipers & discovered the 55 Nomad part wouldn't work, I used the back of the 57 Nomad roof, like Dennis did:
Then I got lucky. Sitting in a cubbyhole of my desk was the custom back light insert from the AMT 71 T-Bird. Out of curiosity I took it & tried a test fitting of it:
The curvature of the part matches the back of the Nomad roof almost perfectly. I've already trimmed the bottom of the part to fit the body & still need to enlarge the rear window opening. I'll also have to add pieces to each side to fill it in.
Off to a good start, but still a long, long, long way to go!
Over 30 years ago Dennis Doty wrote a book on building model cars:
In it he showed how to build a custom 57 El Camino based on the Revell 57 Nomad kit. Though I was out of the hobby at the time, I read the book & loved what he did.
A few years later the book was split into two volumes, updated & reprinted. Those are the copies I have & the 57 El Camino was in the second book:
When I got that book around twenty years ago I knew I wanted to build my own version of that El Camino. A detailed Google search failed to turn up any pics of it, so I took some of the book:
Now I didn't want to do an exact copy of what Dennis created, plus I didn't completely like the front end he created, or want to do all the work involved in creating that front end, He dechromed, narrowed & molded in the kit's front bumper & built up the canted headlight pods out of scrap plastic using a hotknife, among a lot more work, such as pancaking the hood. Having gotten a complete Trophy Series 57 Chevy several years ago, I knew there was an alternative to that.
Over the past few years I got a parts box/rebuilder of another original issue AMT Trophy Series 57 Chevy & a partially build Revell Nomad, A few weeks ago I got another started Nomad in even better shape, so I decided to take the plunge:
Here's a look at the custom front end from the AMT kit, with it's own pancaked hood:
Dennis built up the El Camino part with the very back of the Nomad roof & other parts cut from the roof. Initially I planned to use the El Camino insert from the AMT 55 Nomad kit, only to discover it was several millimeters too narrow:
So it was back to using Dennis' original idea for that.
Anyway the other night I got started, cutting, trimming & got the AMT front end attached, along with some strip styrene around the headlight pods to correct the droop of the fenders:
I also cut off the back of the Nomad roof. The black line is where I had measured to cut to attach the 55 Nomad insert:
Once I checked one more time with the calipers & discovered the 55 Nomad part wouldn't work, I used the back of the 57 Nomad roof, like Dennis did:
Then I got lucky. Sitting in a cubbyhole of my desk was the custom back light insert from the AMT 71 T-Bird. Out of curiosity I took it & tried a test fitting of it:
The curvature of the part matches the back of the Nomad roof almost perfectly. I've already trimmed the bottom of the part to fit the body & still need to enlarge the rear window opening. I'll also have to add pieces to each side to fill it in.
Off to a good start, but still a long, long, long way to go!
It's an interweb thing.....