From the Archives: 1989 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible

This is one of several  American car kits I built when I was at school, 20 or so years ago. It is an AMT kit of the 1989 Chevy Corvette droptop and by the standards of car kits of that era, it is nicely detailed and builds up into a nice replica. I made a few small improvements to the kit but it is otherwise box stock. The model has suffered with a little dust over the years but is still OK to display.

History: Chevrolet launched its new C4 Corvette in 1984 and had developed it into a faster and better-handling car by the late 1980s. Like all Corvettes before it since 1957, it featured a nice small-block V8 engine and a fibreglass body, and just two seats. With more power, electronic fuel injection and a choice of transmissions, the Vette was beginning to bite back at the European competition and with kits like this, AMT was beginning to do the same to the Japanese kit manufacturers.

The kit: I can remember building this quite clearly, bearing in mind it was done 20-odd years ago.  The kit included a set of custom parts, such as a bodykit and wide wheels, making it a 2-in-1 kit in the traditional American fashion. At the time, this Corvette was definitely a modern car rather than a classic, which was a bit of a deviation from my usual style at that time. I chose not to use the custom parts: my 'Vette would be a showroom example.

I remember enhancing the front and rear lights in the kit: the rear lights (moulded helpfully in red clear plastic by AMT) were improved by adding small discs of tinfoil underneath, which were cut out using a hole punch and fitted under the lenses to aid reflectivity. The front lights were supplied as chromed plastic parts and didn’t look that much like the lights on the real car, so I cut pieces of clear plastic from some packaging and glued it over the top of the kit parts, which looking back at it worked fairly well though still doesn’t look quite like the real Corvette lights. The bonnet, or hood, is a very large part and does not fit perfectly onto the lower body. The alloy wheels are beautiful mouldings but the slots are filled in with plastic, so I used a technical drawing pen to fill the relevant bits of the wheels with black ink to look like slots. The tyres (‘tires’ if you’re living west of Ireland) are lovely gator-back mouldings. The body was spray-painted with some sort of metallic blue and polished with T-Cut paint renovator. AMT supplied various decals to represent the manufacturer labels under the hood, and these work well.

Bad bits: the kit hood doesn’t fit too well

The front lights are not inset like on a real ‘Vette

Good bits: very nice detail overall

Excellent wheel and tyres

Nice engine detail and engine bay decals

Project Heavy Haul: Update 1

For a while, I have fancied building a model of a heavy haulage truck. A heavy haulage tractor unit (or truck tractor I believe they’re known as in the USA) is much like the kind of truck you see pulling Sainsbury or BP trailers on the road every day, but with a few subtle differences. They often have an additional axle or two to enable them to haul heavier loads legally, they usually have the biggest engine available, and they tend to have numerous additions to help them handle hard jobs and hard working conditions – from powerful spotlights, bull bars and tool boxes to hydraulic cranes and more.

Though there are plenty of truck kits on the market, nobody makes the kind of truck I wanted to build, which means building my own from available parts. I have built a couple of trucks over the years but I have never attempted this kind of conversion before, so some research was in order. First job was to choose a truck kit to use as a basis and to provide most of the parts.

I settled on this 1/24 scale Volvo FH16 kit as a basis for the project, Volvos turning up quite often in my search for reference photos online. However, the kit only has a single rear axle, so I would need to lengthen the chassis and add an axle, either a driven axle or an unpowered ‘tag’ axle. Other than that, it looked like a good starting point. Further research, including looking at some of the projects under way at the  Truck Model World forum indicated that a good source for the required chassis conversion would be Lincolnshire-based Kit Form Services who produce many conversion and add-on parts for model truck kits.

KFS supply all the parts required to turn the Volvo 4x2 chassis (4 wheels, 2 driven) into a 6x4 chassis (6 wheels, 4 driven) giving two driven rear axles – just what you need on a damp winter’s day when you are pulling a heavy trailer up a steep quayside. I took the opportunity to also order some amber marker lights and hazard beacons from KFS while I was at it.

The conversion kit from KFS proved to be of excellent quality, with a mixture of resin parts and white metal parts (white metal is a soft alloy which feels a bit like lead) and was assembled over a week of evenings. Resin and white metal parts have to be assembled using superglue or epoxy glue: normal model glue (polystyrene cement) cannot be used because it relies on partially melting the joining plastic surfaces, and this does not work with resin or metal pieces.

Then it was time for the tricky job of fitting the KFS rear chassis section to the kit’s front chassis section. I decided to build the chassis as per the kit instructions, then simply cut off the rear half as required and fit the conversion kit in its place. It was totally up to me how long the chassis would end up, but I decided to keep the distance between the front steering axle and the first driving axle the same as it would have been if I had left it as a 4x2, and cut the chassis rails accordingly. I then glued the two chassis halves together with superglue, adding a couple of small strips of sheet plastic inside the chassis rails to give a larger, stronger bonding area for the join. After a shot of Tamiya German Grey acrylic aerosol paint, it started to look the part.

While I was waiting for the conversion parts to arrive by post, I made a start on the cab. I decided to go with a simple red colour scheme, maybe with grey wings to match the grey chassis, so I assembled the cab and primed it with Halfords white plastic primer (I prime all my vehicle builds with this) followed by a good solid coat of Audi Laser Red. I then polished the cab with G3 cutting compound to bring out the shine.  

Next steps for Project Heavy Haul: complete the engine and fit to the chassis. Add the chassis ancillaries such as mudguards and exhaust system. Glaze the cab and fit the interior.

In the Beginning...

Hello! Thank you for coming and taking a look at my blog. I am a model maker, and I spend my spare time immersed in the absolute pleasure that I find in recreating things in miniature. This blog will focus on my current projects, invite comments and contributions from readers, and look back at some of my old projects.

I have been fascinated with miniatures since I was a child, and began my modelling career (look out, Kate Moss) at the age of 7 with a Matchbox Canberra model aeroplane kit purchased from the local newsagents, Parnell's.

Back then, I was enthralled by the attractive box art and the carefully laid-out frameworks of pieces inside, and I remain so to this day. Over the years, I have built planes, tanks, cars and trucks - and a single ship - as well as a few small dioramas.

I decided to start this blog for a few reasons. First of all, I sometimes speak to people, young and old, who confess almost ruefully that they have decided to try their hand at building a model kit but that they don't expect it to turn out as nice as it looks on the box. For those people, I say get stuck in and enjoy yourself, and if you're not 100% happy with the result, build another - and come here to tell me what you're doing and have a chat. Secondly, for the reason all people start blogs..... because I hope people will visit and enjoy reading the posts for a few minutes. Thirdly, because life is full of challenges, trials, stress and all sorts of things that give us cause to escape to a warmer, easier place. This blog will be exactly that kind of place for me and for you.

I intend to post updates on whatever projects I have on the go, as well as looking back at models I built in the past, and I'll also post on things going on in the model industry.

I hope you will enjoy reading this blog and think to visit again in the future. Thanks for visiting, Simon.