1950 Mercury - Class of '50 - Graduate # 6

[Ramfins59]

This time it's a 1950 Mercury done up as a very mild Custom.  I used the MPC Super Snap 1950 Merc kit.  It's a pretty rudimentary kit with only 26 pieces.  The color is Tamiya maroon.  I trashed the 2 piece plastic tires and used a set of whitewall tires from my stash, along with the stock hubcaps from the AMT '49 Merc kit.  I gave the grille a blackwash, added PE headlight half-moon covers from Detail Master and applied white pinstripe decals to the hood & trunk.  The lake pipes got PE flames attached to the end caps and I installed a sunken antenna on the passenger side rear quarter.  I gave the taillights a coat of Tamiya clear red along with tiny MV lens blue dots.  The outside mirror & license plate are parts box items.

The interior was painted Tamiya light sand with brown painted "carpet".  Resin door handles & window cranks were chromed with Molotow ink and side trim was done with BMF.  The dashboard was painted body color with BMF & Molotow trim, and a piece of shirt pin was added to the steering column for a shifter.  I also added an interior mirror, visors and a dome light.

This was a quick and relatively easy build to add to my Class of '50 collection.

Thanks for peeking in on this.  As always, any and all comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Stay well all.

Rich

[Phildaupho]

I had no idea that MPC snap kit could be built as such a good looking Mercury

[damodelguy az]

nice to see a mild custom in your garage richard.  low key, mild, perfect 50s,  50. small touch of stripes works perfect

[espo]

I thought this was an AMT Merc at first. Great paint finish and color. all of the trim is very cleanly done. 

[larman]

Nice mild custom, suits that model perfectly, great color too!

[Ramfins59]

Thank you all very much for your very encouraging comments.  It is greatly appreciated.

[72 Charger]

As usual Richard you knocked it out of the park again mate. Love the blue dot rear lights

[slusher]

Sweet Merc Rich!!

[Tom99]

Looks good.

[Koellefornia Kid]

Nice Merc, Richard!

[Jim B]

Nice looking Mercury.  The fit looks a lot better than the AMT kit.

[StevenGuthmiller]

Nice work Richard!

 

I do have to ask the question.

What differentiates a '49 from a '50?

They look pretty much the same to me.

 

 

Steve

[Ramfins59]

13 hours ago, Jim B said:

Nice looking Mercury.  The fit looks a lot better than the AMT kit.

There's not much to have to fit in this snap kit.  It's a one piece body with separate headlights, taillights, grille & bumpers.  The interior is 4 pieces that fit together well.

 

13 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

Nice work Richard!

 

I do have to ask the question.

What differentiates a '49 from a '50?

They look pretty much the same to me.

 

 

Steve

I'm thinking the same thing Steve, although from pictures the front parking lights are in a round bezel on the '49 and on the '50 they appear to be in a more or less rectangular bezel in some pictures.  Other than that, they appear pretty much the same..

[donb]

Great looking car Rich. 

[larry ray]

It looks good What is on the end of the Lakes pipes That is new to me.

[Ramfins59]

2 hours ago, larry ray said:

It looks good What is on the end of the Lakes pipes That is new to me.

Thanks Larry.  Model Car Garage makes photo-etched metal flame tips to wrap around exhaust pipe tips.  I cut small pieces off and CA glued them to the back of the lake pipe end caps.

[Ramfins59]

Thanks again to everyone for your very kind comments.

[Force]

Good work on your model Richard.

But this kit is a 1949 and not a 1950.
There are lots of small differences between them and one giveaway is the dash panel, on the 49 all gauges are round and the 50 has one large half round speedometer and the other gaugs are squared (the same dash was also in the 51) the rear glass was separated into three pieces on the 49 and was a one piece in 1950
The side trim is slightly different between the two years, the hood has MERCURY spelled out with separate letters on the 49 and a badge and a trim piece with MERCURY stamped in on the 50, the trunk badges are different, the door handles are different.

Here are some pictures to show the most significant differences.

1949 front

1950 front

1949 rear

1950 rear

1949 dash

1950 dash

The 1950 in these pictures is a Monterey so it has a vinyl roof and Monterey badges on the doors, these are not on the regular coupe's.

Edited February 8, 2020 by Force

[Ramfins59]

 

5 hours ago, Force said:

Good work on your model Richard.

But this kit is a 1949 and not a 1950.
There are lots of small differences between them and one giveaway is the dash panel, on the 49 all gauges are round and the 50 has one large half round speedometer and the other gaugs are squared (the same dash was also in the 51) the rear glass was separated into three pieces on the 49 and was a one piece in 1950
The side trim is slightly different between the two years, the hood has MERCURY spelled out with separate letters on the 49 and a badge and a trim piece with MERCURY stamped in on the 50, the trunk badges are different, the door handles are different.

Here are some pictures to show the most significant differences.

1949 front

1950 front

1949 rear

1950 rear

1949 dash

1950 dash

The 1950 in these pictures is a Monterey so it has a vinyl roof and Monterey badges on the doors, these are not on the regular coupe's.

Thank you very much for your information and reference pictures to show the differences between the '49 & '50 Mercurys.  Obviously MPC mislabeled their snap kit.  I knew that the '50 had rectangular front parking lights.

[PappyD340]

Very nice!

[geetee66]

I had to go back and read the intro again, because I was also thinking this must be the AMT version. I had no idea a snap kit would look this good.

and how many fathoms deep, is that shine? Beautiful.

 I tried using blue dots from RMM, or was it Modelhaus.. anyway mine looked black, but yours look blue. Nice touch ?

[ATHU]

Looking good. Great work!!

[Dave Darby]

On 2/6/2020 at 9:13 PM, Jim B said:

Nice looking Mercury.  The fit looks a lot better than the AMT kit.

That's ironic, because they cloned it from the AMT kit.