Part 3, Assembling the Danbury Mint 1962 Thunderbird Sports Roadster

That is fantastic. Your skills are much admired. Thank you very much for sharing. 

Very nice work. I have two of these exact models. One of which has the " top down deck" that opens in place with the folded black convertible roof that sits in the top down position. Is this normal, because my other model does not seem to open in this manner?

that is absolutely bloody brilliant Pete! For someone like me just starting to paint models (albeit plastic) its fascinating to watch a master craftsman at work. thanks mate!

@pabalate9 

This is the way the model was built but is not normally seen.  The "top down deck" you refer to should actually be glued to the trunk panel that swings onto the body.  The second picture shows two small locating posts on the panel where it is glued.  Yours is placed upside down.  The assembly is usually glued to two pins located on the trunk floor so it is non-operational (first picture), but on some it comes loose allowing it to operate.  Check out these pictures and you'll see the pins on the trunk floor that hold it in place. It's easier to see with this white top.

Apparently the Danbury Mint originally designed this car to have an operation top, but scrapped the idea. You can see the precision of the Danbury Mint's design by the fact that the panel in the trunk is mounted to the chassis and meets the body perfectly when swung onto it.  There's a member here (Chav) that has a couple of Sports Roadster prototypes showing the early design of the working top, which is amazing to me.  Perhaps if he sees this he can repost some pictures.   

@pete-rovero 

Thank you, Pete. That explains alot. The deck is unpainted when opened as well. These models apparently are from two very different mfg. dates as you said.

Truly amazing workmanship.  I can't even glue a mirror back on without disaster ensuing.

Posted by: @whodeytink

Truly amazing workmanship.  I can't even glue a mirror back on without disaster ensuing.

+1  🤨 

Oh, I can glue parts back on. Wether or not they're in or near the right place is a whole different ballgame  

Absolutely amazing work! I'm nowhere in your league, but I use an HP Color Laser Jet Pro M254dw for decal printing. It has an option to swap our the black cartridge for a white cartridge (about $200 !!) and, with a little fiddling on the registration, it works pretty good for decals on dark colored models. 

@shambles 

You've always impressed me with your creative decals.  I just started playing around with making my own decals a couple of years ago, but my trusty inkjet printer is unable to print anything close to the quality of yours.

@pete-rovero Thanks, Pete. I'm a retired graphic designer/art director so I've got a few decades under my belt. I did many decals with my inkjet printer, but needed a white underlay for decals for dark models. The registration process is a little tricky, but with the white cartridge, it's doable.

I still subscribe to the Adobe Creative Cloud suite and use Photoshop and Illustrator for the decals. I'm selling my die cast collection and hope to get back into building a few kits and salvage yard dioramas, so I ain't done any decals in a while.