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1:64 Scale & Smaller
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Topic starter
16/07/2024 3:36 pm
Greetings, All You Lovers of Tiny Metal Things.
I am strictly 1:43, with only a couple of dozen “1:64 or smaller” models sitting around in odd corners of the collection. But the 1960 Chevrolet Impala is one of my favourite cars and some time ago I acquired a couple of 1:64 models of a 2-door hardtop by Racing Champions (because I quite liked both colours).
Then one fine day I got the notion to turn one of them into perhaps the most “dramatic” version of this car, the “flat roof” 4-door Sport Sedan with its huge wrap-around rear window. (Technically speaking it surely ought to be called a hardtop, but never mind.)
And that is how I discovered that making a model at half the normal scale didn’t mean half the work. Extending the roof wasn’t so hard, but persuading a couple of 1 millimetre wide rear pillars to behave themselves while I tried to glue them at precisely 55 degrees was a bit of a faff. (But they ARE at 55 degrees, I promise you.)
The rear window was done in my usual fashion with a balsa carving and hot moulding. Never done one that small before, but the principle was the same and it came out OK.
The two-tone paint is the same as used on my recent 1960 Edsel prototype (anonymous metallic blue and Ford Diamond White). The brightwork was done with BMF, which took a bit of care but was much easier than trying to do a tidy job with silver paint as on the original. Door handles were cut from small staples. I thought afterwards I could maybe have done one or two other small refinements like replacing the front quarterlight frames, which are way too thick, but wanted to keep most of the model original so I left them alone.
The headlamps on the original were just blobs of white paint, which looked perfectly fine at this scale, but being bloody-minded I filed them flat, applied some foil then glued on clear plastic lamps (roughly 2.5 mm in diameter) stamped from thin plastic with a punch pliers. They are probably a touch over-size, but it was just an interesting experiment.
Job done.
Next time: Adding a Vista Cruiser roof to an Oxford Diecast 1:87 scale 1954 Buick Century estate wagon . Watch this space.
Graeme.M. Ogg
London U.K.
16/07/2024 3:38 pm
Excellent work!! Thanks for the terrific presentation.
John Kuvakas and Jack Dodds reacted
16/07/2024 6:29 pm
Very nice. I have those 2 door hardtops, and can only guess the intricate work you did.
Ed Davis
Inverness, Illinois, USA
16/07/2024 6:43 pm
Graeme, I admire your work and thank you for sharing it with us. Especially nice is your writeup almost making me think I could do this before reality sets in to remind me that this old goat is not steady enough for this kind of work. I enjoy your posts and hope you will keep them coming.
17/07/2024 6:34 am
Graeme, you did a very professional job on this model. I have done dozens of 1/43 modifications and I always enjoy seeing your projects.I only have about a dozen 1/64 models but it never occurred to me to attempt to modify one in this small scale.That is really ingenious to use a staple for door handles.I am also interested in how you make your windows. I follow you on the balsa to shape the window but how do you accomplish the hot moulding? Maybe you could do a tutorial in "Model Related Handicrafts" in the future please. The rear window on this model is stellar. I try to shy away from BMF on models and only use it for straight line side mouldings, never around window frames. Too many curves. One process for window frames that I would like to try is to first tape off the frame to be chromed with Frogtape (this tape is fantastic and never bleeds), then airbrush using alclad chrome or Molotow chrome. Krylon chrome in a spray can works pretty good too. I have used these products for small chrome parts but have yet to use them on window frames.
Topic starter
17/07/2024 9:26 am
This is the mould I used for the Chevrolet. That's the balsa "male" mould on the left , sitting on top of the "female" mould, and although it's it's a little hard to see clearly, that is a trial run of the finished screen on the right.
Actually I did post a tutorial on "hot screen moulding" in the Handicrafts forum last November but it must have slipped past un-noticed.
To save you searching for it, here is the illustrated Word file I posted there. As I said at the time it looks a bit "wordy" because I wanted to cover all the little problems that can make the difference between a nice moulding and a failure.
If you are thinking of trying it and anything in my description isn't clear, let me know.
Graeme.M. Ogg
London U.K.
17/07/2024 9:39 am
I have used the masking and spraying approach in the past and it worked well for me. I first used it for airplane canopy framing where I sprayed either aluminum or olive drab as appropriate. I also did it on some 1/87 scale cars, back when I had HO scale trains. I used aluminum spray paint.
Ed Davis
Inverness, Illinois, USA
22/07/2024 11:37 am
Really cool Graeme! 😎 😎 😎 Not many 1/64-ish 4-door flattop replicas out there; you fabricated something truly special! 100 years ago, I wanted to replicate, in 1/64, a 1:1 4-door car I actually owned. THIS is as far as I ever got.... I may finish it one day, but don't hold your breath!
Congrats to YOU for this '60 Chevy AND your determination to see the project through! 😀 😀
David Green and Tony Perrone reacted