Custom Car Modeling

Begin with an ordinary kit and build the custom car of your dreams! Learn how, step by step, with tips and techniques from one of the hobby's leading modelers. Includes modeling basics, plus bodywork and painting.

Cars have always appealed as model subjects as - unlike aeroplanes or military subjects - the real thing is likely to be sitting outside the modeller's house. From the first car kits produced in the early 1950s, mainly dominated by American machinery, we now have a choice of automotive examples from around the world. The joint scale of 1:24/1:25 dominates car models, and it is these scales that will mostly be found in this book, from stock builds to race cars to wild customs. In addition, although injection styrene is the main material of choice, there are specialist builds using resin, white metal and photo-etched parts. The book includes detailed step-by-step guides for Building 'out of the box'; Customs and conversions; Applying decals; Dealing with resin; Wiring and engines; Salvaging old kits; A dented ride for 007; NASA's Hot Road; Dirtying a dirt track racer; An alien homage to Roth.

This generously illustrated guide to assembling, detailing and customizing model cars presents ten chapters covering plastic model kits ranging from muscle cars and lowriders to race cars, hot rods and pickups. Each project addresses a different set of techniques representing skill levels that grow more advanced as the book progresses. From assembling and painting a muscle car right out of the box to building a hot rod complete with fuel lines and plug wires, as the reader finishes each project he or she develops an understanding of the skills necessary to utilize laser-etched parts, assemble hinged doors and hoods, apply metal foil for chrome finishes and execute custom paint and decal finishes. Step-by-step photos -- including 100 in color -- illustrate all of the skills and techniques described.

In the 1960s, model kit building was a huge hobby. Kids built plastic kits of planes, tanks, race cars, space ships, creatures from scary movies, you name it. Before baseball card collecting, Pokémon, and video games, model kit building was one of the most popular hobby activities. Car and airplane kits were the most popular, and among the car kits, muscle cars, as we know them today, were one of the most popular categories. Many owners of real muscle cars today were not old enough to buy them when the cars were new, of course. Yet kids of the 1960s and 1970s worshiped these cars to an extent completely foreign to kids today. If you couldn’t afford or were too young to buy a muscle car back then, what could you do? For many, the next best thing was to buy, collect, and build muscle car kits from a variety of kit companies. Hundreds were made. Many of these kits have become collectible today, especially in original, unassembled form. Although people still build kits today, there is a broad market for collectors of nostalgic model kits. People love the kits for the great box art, to rekindle fond memories of building them 40 years ago, or even as a companion to the full-scale cars they own today. Here, world-leading authority Tim Boyd takes you through the entire era of muscle car kits, covering the options, collectability, variety availability, and value of these wonderful kits today. Boyd also takes you through the differences between the original kits, the older reproduction kits, and the new reproduction kits that many people find at swap meets today. If you are looking to build a collection of muscle car kits, interested in getting the kits of your favorite manufacturer or even just of the cars you have owned, this book will be a valuable resource in your model kit search.

Scale Model Life Magazine Volume 8 features some show cars and police cars, and a few others in this issue. Including Tom Daniel's 1/12 Big Red Baron show car kit, and AMT's Depth Charger Aqua Rod. The George Barris custom Bathtub Buggy is here too. For Police car models, there's the popular Lindberg Dodge Charger, and MPCs Dodge Monaco from the TV Series TJ Hooker. For an unusual kit build, we take a look at the Hasbro Stargate Terrain Cruiser. As always, there's plenty of tips, mods, and information to help with your modeling projects. A few of these cars were in an older model book, but they've been introduced with more text , as well as new and better images, in the Scale Model Life format.

Shows how to detail wheels and engines, and other skills to make your own stock cars the most realistic models ever.

Among the hardest core of American automotive enthusiasts there always exists a desire to press styling and performance a step beyond the showroom floor -- to truly craft an automobile of one's own. This photographic and cultural history examines the evolution of American custom cars from the 1930s to present, covering touchstone trends, influential builders (Barris, Roth, Coddington et al), custom shows, enthusiast magazines and regional styles. An expensive collection of rare period photography and exclusive modern shots help illustrate how Detroit informed the styling of customs (and vice versa), the explosion of the custom car scene after World War II and the factors that led to the custom's near-death in the 1960s and its resurgence in the '80s. But most of all, this chronicle is a showcase of the great cars and people who influenced the movement through the years.