AMT '55 Nomads (Wagon and Pickup)

[unclescott58]

OK, here are two AMT '55 Chevy Nomads. Both straight box builds. Adding nothing more than paint and glue. The first is a Nomad El Camino I built a couple of years ago. I always wanted to build this kit in the El Camino pickup truck version. To fill the roof seam I just used good old Testors Contour Putty. A lot of people tell the stuff is no good. I found in this case and on others models the stuff works just fine.

The second Nomad I built within the last month. It's one of AMT's ProShop pre-decorated kits. I was more than slightly disappointed with this kit. I've heard many people over the years talk about the chassis in this kit being warped, making it hard to build. The chassis on both of my Nomads here were OK. But, the body around the tailgate on this ProShop kit was warped. Had a heck of a time getting both the upper and lower tailgates to fit. Forget making them work. Just getting them to fit was the problem. An interesting problem and solution came up while trying to install the upper tailgate. I could not get the hinge bracket to stay in place. So I used a little Gorilla Super Glue. The fumes of the glue lightly fogged the glass near by. OK, now what does one do to take care of that problem?

At the same time I was over on Model Encyclopedia looking at old Car Model magazines. And an old tip came up about using toothpaste for polishing your models. I remember doing this back in the day. And it worked pretty good. I got thinking, "what would toothpaste do to the fogged plastic glass?" I gave it a try. It worked great! Polishing away the fog

So here is Nomad number 2. With ill fitting tailgate and defogged windows.

Mixed feelings about AMT's old '55 Nomad kit. Kind of a pain to build. The tooling for this kit has seen it's better days. It's a great car. But, not a great kit of that car.

Scott

Edited June 24, 2014 by unclescott58

[slusher]

Very nice builds..

[DeeCee]

2 great examples of a classic old kit.

[disabled modeler]

NICE!

[1930fordpickup]

Look Good.

[Bob Ellis]

Remember that kit came out in 1964-1965 before computer aided design. Complicated kits back them had some fit issues compared to the 4 screw chassis type that always fit together.

[PappyD340]

Nice!