67vette-roadster

'67 CORVETTE ROADSTER

The model in question is a 1/24 Revell 1967 Corvette Coupé . I decided to convert it to a convertible. I began to make it because I thought that there did not exist any such model until I got the news from my friend Al Superczynski (R.I.P.) that there actually did. Anyhow, some work had already been started so it had to be finished.

I cut the roof and opened the boot lid area. I manufactured a tin piece to cover the triangular hole left after the boot lid, and fixed into place with epoxy adhesive. The irregularities at the matching edges were sanded. I also made the boot lid from tin.

The following are two photos about how the backside looks like.

Below are the pics of the bootlid. The inside of the bootlid has the reinforcement also made of tin and soldered into place, then grinded to smooth shape to match reality. The edges where the reinforcement meets the lid are then lined with putty to close the gaps.

Then the bootlid was put into place and this is how it looks now:

SEP.12th,1998 Now is the turn of the engine. The stock engine was used, but with the addition of PCV hoses and spark plug cables. The cables were made of 0.3 mm copper wires and painted semi-matt yellow ( Revell 310). The PCV hoses are from 1.3 mm OD insulated (black) copper wire that are fitted in the holes drilled on the rocker covers and the intake manifold.

SEPT.19th,1998 Now back to the body again. The headlamp recesses were cut out by Dremel Moto-tool, followed by X-acto knife to smoothen the cut. The aim is to make the headlamps in the open position. They will be scratchbuilt. The thickness of the plastic body is too much as seen on the left headlamp recess, so it was filed down to 0.5mm so that it could be as close to scale and yet firm enough not to break. The filed down recess is on the right side as you see in the picture.
My,my,my--- A primer coat at last! It was really nice to see so few points to take care of. It ended up better than I expected, so I served myself some whisky upon drying of the primer coat.
The sides of the headlight recesses are no good like this. The gaps should be closed by some means and seem full when viewed at an angle with the headlamps.
The side profiles were cut from plastic sheet and glued, and then smoothed with putty and sanded for a flush fit with the recess edges. Fine sanding took care of the unwanted residues due to moulding as well.
JAN.24th, 1999 . The floorpan is painted satin black and the engine and the exhaust manifolds are assembled on. The exhaust piping is a bit weathered.
The dashboard is painted red ( 1:1 mixture of Humbrol 60 and Humbrol 19 to give a satin effect ) and satin black (Hýmbrol 85) , the glovebox lid Aluminium (Humbrol 56) and the switches, radio, gauge bezels and emblem on the glovebox lid Silver ( Humbrol 11). The gauges are done with application of the stickers

And now the headlamps. First, the bezels and headlamp housings are cut from thin sheet brass. Then the housings are bent to suit body profile(1st picture). The reflectors are prepared from aluminium sheet (2nd picture). The rounded tip of a wooden rod is used to press the aluminium inside the female part, still made from wood. Next, the bezels are thickened with solder(3rd picture) , filed to required thickness with hand, and countersinked with a proper tip of Dremel moto-tool (4th picture). Then the whole are assembled with 5-minute epoxy and painted (last picture). The lenses came from my parts box.

THE FINISHED PHOTOS: The body is painted and overall assembly completed. The paint is composed of 4 colors: met.red (ModelMaster 2724 - 30%), met.dark green (ModelMaster 2716 - 30%), met.blue(Humbrol 52 - 30%) and gloss black(Humbrol 21 - 10%). When you look at it, you see all the tiny glitters of 3 colors in black. The windshield is cut from acetate sheet and radio antenna from 0.2 mm dia. copper wire is added.