Vintage Revell '54 Chevy Highboy Gasser

[BlackSheep214]

I love acquiring vintage kits and this one is no.exception. I wanted to do this kit as a kid/early teen. Typical 70s molding - molded in Orange. Keeping the top box cover and instruction guide. Did the same with the '57 Chevy Funny Car - kept the box cover & instruction guide.


I couldn't decide on the orange shade so I thought to myself; "why paint it when the shade of orange is right in front me" Sprayed 4 coats of gloss clear, used bare metal foil for the trim work, minimal decals, grabbed better skicks in my tires spares bin. Not a great fit but good enough for me.

Here she is as built up










Now if I can only find that vintage red, white, blue Panel wagon kit.

[keavdog]

Made quick work of that Tom! Turned out great - always like the look of those highboy gassers.

[Gary Brantley]

Nice looking jello mold! Your chrome work looks good, Tom. That chrome window trim is the main thing that keeps me from building a car model like that!

[Medicman71]

Very nice!!

[BlackSheep214]

Thank you for the kind words. I've been busy working on 4 different car kits in between. That's how the Funny Car and the Highboy got done so quick.

Yes, bare metal.foil is tedious work but worth it in the end. I would prefer using Molotow Chrome pen but I'm down to one. It does airbrush nice straight out of the pen. Tje '57 Funny Car is one example especially on the front and rear. The window frames are bare metal foil.

[speedgraflex]

An interesting approach to use the kit plastic color, Tom. I was watching an Atlantis video where they were choosing the right purple for one of their kits. I think your approach is very similar.

[BlackSheep214]

Interesting observation indeed, Bruce. This is the first time I ever decided to run the color molded in orange and spray 3 or 4 coats of clear gloss. Two reasons why… didn’t like the standard orange on Testors square bottles and too damn cheap and lazy to find the shade orange I’ll be happy with.

The more I looked at the vintage kit orange color mold, the more I know I’ll be happy with the end result. I actually was thinking about it while I was on my way to work one morning. Kinda like having an artistic Ah Ha moment; so I ran with it.

[speedgraflex]

I have seen something similar from vintage kit builders who keep the original plastic colors when they build the kits, actually. It’s cool seeing the follow up with clear coat.

[BlackSheep214]

And it’s so hard to try to have paint to get an exact match to the mold color, too. I usually hate kits molded in color but this one is an exception. Not too dark, not too light but juuuuust right.

[keavdog]

I've had some Tamiya kits that were just incredible in there molded state. Polished and cleared this Porsche a bit back.