Panzón's builds

[Panzón]

I started building plastic models in the spring of 2019 (not counting the few I built as a kid, more than 50 years ago). My first build was AMT's '34 Ford pickup, a 3-in-1 kit. I built it as the service truck option. I wasn't happy with the kit's towing winch, which looked like it belonged on a toy truck, so I scratch-built a replacement. The truck is painted with acrylics, and weathered with washes and dry pigments.

[barryf1fan]

Very cool truck!! Looks great, and I've never built an AMT kit but have heard they aren't very good and don't fit properly. That old Ford looks almost real, especially like the custom work you did on the tow gear. And the gas can!

Weathering looks really good too, I've never tried that - the wheels & tires look fantastic... one day I learn how to do it.
Thanks for sharing that!

[Panzón]

My second build was Revell's '65 Chevy stepside. I live in rural Texas, and when I was younger, I could only afford old beater trucks. I sold my last one (a '67 Chevy) to a high school kid to use as a project in his auto shop class, so I decided to build this model as a high school kid's shop class work in progress. The engine and transmission have been rebuilt, and souped up, and the brakes, wheels, and tires have been replaced with custom stuff. The interior and body work still need to be done. This model was built out of the box, with no modifications, other than engine wiring and body damage. Painted with acrylics, rusted and weathered with acrylic paint, washes, and dry pigments.

[Panzón]

barryf1fan, thanks for the kind comments! Thus far, I've built mostly AMT and Revell kits, though I have some Moebius and Lindberg kits in my stash. The quality of the AMT kits is generally lower than the other brands. On the plus side, the extra work one must do to build an acceptable model with these kits improves ones modeling skills.

[digger303]

Nice builds

[Bdiddy]

they look incredible mate, great job

[Panzón]

Thanks for the kind comments!

[Panzón]

After doing a couple of mostly "out of the box" builds, I wanted to try my hand at kitbashing. I had recently picked up AMT's '60 Chevy Fleetside kit which came with a little twin-engine go-kart kit. I really didn't like the go-kart kit, so I thought I'd use it for my first kit-bashing effort. I've always liked the vehicles designed for George Miller's wasteland world in his Mad Max films, so I thought I'd try to turn the go-kart into a wasteland vehicle.


To this end, I lengthened the frame, put on larger wheels, and added a protective cage for the driver, and a larger fuel tank. I envisioned a small, low vehicle able to get close to other vehicles, and shred their tires, so I mounted a couple of saw blade sections on the front bumper so the driver could "ram" the spinning rear tires of another vehicle to shred them, and I added shaped pipe shredders that I saw on an episode of "Mythbusters" to the rear wheels.


In case the go-kart itself was being chased, I added a rear facing flamethrower (pressurized fuel injected into the hot exhaust pipe), operated by the red button on the driver's right, as a defense.

[digger303]

All that weight up top makes for a unstable cornering machine, but nice build just wouldn't want to race it

[Panzón]

Encouraged by the kitbashed go-kart build, I decided to try a larger vehicle. I had a '40 Willys coupe body, the bed off a '55 Chevy Cameo build that went wrong, an extra souped up engine, wheels from a Hot Wheels Monster Jam toy, a plastic Halloween skull shot glass, and a bunch of other bits and pieces, so I set out to see what I could build with them. The result was the wasteland cruiser.


I built the body first, using the sides of the Cameo bed as the front fenders, and cutting the skull out of the shot glass to join them in the front. I scratch-built the frame and rear suspension out of styrene and brass, and used leftover kit parts for the front suspension. I had to cut the rear fenders to clear the over-sized tires, and the cut-outs looked like horns, so I ended up sticking them to the skull up front.


The truck bed sides I used as front fenders resulted in a lot of empty space in front of the radiator, so I conceived a pneumatic Molotov cocktail launcher to fill it. The idea is that there is a manifold of 4 rows of 3 launch tubes sitting on top of a compressed air tank. The tubes contain Molotov cocktails, with the wicks draped over igniter sparkers. The driver can then ignite and launch the cocktails one row at a time.



Since it couldn't easily be seen, I didn't bother building an interior, and instead just painted it black. I wanted to fit out the trunk area, though, so I had to cut the lid from the body, and box in the trunk. I made a 55 gallon drum to act as a fuel tank to supply both the engine, and the scratch-built flame-thrower, which is also mounted in the trunk. I chained the trunk lid in place to act as some protection for the trunk. So the driver could see behind him, I put a rear-view periscope in the roof.

[Panzón]

While building the wasteland cruiser, I kept looking at the diecast Monster Jam casting that I cannibalized for the wheels, wondering whether I could make anything out of it. I finally decided to try to make a harpoon and plow vehicle like those seen in Mad Max: Fury Road. The idea of the vehicle is to fire a harpoon into the prey vehicle, and then lower the plow into the ground to slow the prey vehicle so it can be captured or destroyed.



I used the body and the engine from the Monster Jam truck, mounting the engine in a hole I cut in the hood. Then I added fenders , fuel tanks, and exhaust pipes. I scratch-built a working suspension, and added some 18mm Stevens International wheels, and a front ramming bumper.



I built a hydraulically operated plow from styrene and leftover model kit parts, and mounted it to the truck bed and rear bumper.


Finally, I built a harpoon gun out of styrene, brass, leftover kit parts, and miniature chain and rope, and mounted it, along with a line drum, to the roof of the cab. This isn't built to any particular scale, but I think the original Monster Jam truck was roughly 1/48 scale. The finished harpoon and plow truck is 5 inches long over all.

[Panzón]

After three wasteland builds, I decided to do my next build "out of the box". I chose AMT's '40 Willys gasser kit. This kit comes with both a pickup truck body and a coupe body, which I used in my wasteland cruiser build. The kit is a rerelease of an older AMT kit, so not a very high quality kit, and I encountered quite a few problems during this build, dashing my hopes for a simple, "out of the box" build.



I didn't like the stance of the truck for a gasser, so I lifted the front end a bit to get that classic gasser look. And I couldn't get the flip-forward hood to work properly, or line up with the body properly, so I modified the parts until I had an acceptable fit. The letterbox air scoop doesn't protrude through the hood as much as the box art shows. The scale of the interior doesn't match the scale of the truck-- there is simply not enough room for a driver to fit between the steering wheel and the seat back. I couldn't think of a way to fix that problem, so I left it as is.



I scratchbuilt a drag chute for the back, and also the control lever in the cab.

[Panzón]

After the frustrating Willys gasser build, I decided to work on a build I had been mulling over for a while: a wasteland scavenger's vehicle. I figured someone has to scour the post apocalyptic wasteland for whatever usable items could be found, so I thought about what kind of vehicle they'd need to do the job. I decided to use AMT's '60 Chevy Fleetside pickup kit for the build.



I figured a scavenger's vehicle would need some tools for breaking things down to get at usable parts, some equipment to move heavier items, and somewhere to store collected items. I built a roof rack and filled it with scratch-built toolboxes, sledge hammers, pry bars, and the like, as well as a bit of extra "guzzolene", and mounted steps on the doors for easy access to the tools. I mounted a sturdy push bumper on the front, so the truck could push debris out of the way, along with a bumper winch. I imagined that a scavenger would travel with other vehicles to protect it, but some armor would still be necessary, so I put a bit of armor around the windows and the tires.



I made the bed larger by extending the frame to support the open tailgate. To lift heavier items into the bed, I built a chain hoist and frame, and then raised and extended the bed sides with homemade corrugated metal sheets. I filled the bed with leftover kit parts (this lucky crew scored a V-8 engine!) and styrene, brass, and aluminum scrap, and added a wooden gate to keep things in place. I put a couple of defensive spikes on the bed corners, but since the scavengers would need access to load the bed, I had to leave the rest of the rear free. I came up with the idea to use caltrop drop-boxes to foil any pursuit vehicles, so I built a couple under the tailgate.

[Bdiddy]

Damn you’ve got some skills man, loving the builds so far, looking forward to seeing some more

[Panzón]

Damn you’ve got some skills man, loving the builds so far, looking forward to seeing some more

Thanks for the compliment! While I only got into building plastic model kits a little over a year ago (not counting the handful I built as a kid), I've done other types of modeling on and off most of my adult life, but I was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to learn most of my scratch building skills on the job. In 1979, back when draftsmen used pencils, paper, and drawing tables, I was a junior engineer at an oilfield equipment company, and I was assigned the task of proving out the structural and piping blueprints of a new drilling fluid processing system by building a scale model of it directly from the blueprints. I spent the next 6 months building the structural and piping model, and then building models of additional equipment that were part of the system, and painting and assembling the whole thing into a display model for the Offshore Technology Conference in 1980. The finished 1/16 scale (3/4" = 1') model, built from Plastruct ABS, butyrate, and acrylic structural shapes and fittings; wire; miniature nuts, bolts, and springs; and dacron screen, was 12" x 12" x 42". Here are some scans of old photos of the finished model:

[Panzón]

While building my wasteland vehicles, I thought it would be fun to attempt a wasteland motorcycle to go with them. I wasn't able to find a motorcycle kit in the 1/25 scale of my other vehicles, however, so I shelved the idea until I stumbled on AMT's 1/25 scale double dirt bikes parts pack. This pack comes with two identical dirt bike kits, each comprised of 13 surprisingly detailed parts. Unfortunately, parts fit was quite poor, but with a little patience and perseverance, and a few modifications to the way the bike was assembled, I managed to put together an acceptable bike.





Once I had a workable bike, I lengthened the exhaust pipe to make it look a bit like a stinger, added control cables and a "leather" seat cover (washi paper impregnated with brown acrylic paint), and built a rack to hold the scratch-built incendiary lances and skull totem. I made the skull from epoxy putty, roughly molded to shape, and then carved to finish, with a bit of miniature chain wrapped around it as a crown. The bike is painted with acrylics, and weathered with various washes and dry pigments. I haven't yet built the other bike in the kit, but I'll probably use it for another wasteland build.

[Panzón]

Next up on my bench was MPC's "Rat Trap" Vega kit, which I got specifically to bash into a wasteland "buzzard" vehicle. The simple kit (no clear or chrome parts) builds into a low-slung, dirt track racer, which is perfect for what I had in mind, and so I had to do very little modification to the basic structure of the model.




I added ribs to the front of the car, a bit of armor in the windshield area, mesh to other windows (except for the driver's window-- the car has no doors, and the driver must enter through the window), and covered the roof with spikes.




I added a couple of large fuel tanks to the rear deck, and a spiked shield plate and bumper at the rear. And because buzzards are all about destroying other vehicles, and have a penchant for saws, I added a couple circular saws that can be extended by the hydraulic cylinders they are mounted to. I used actual Dremel tool saw blades for the saws because they were in scale, but in retrospect, the model might look better with slightly larger, more cartoonish saw blades.

[Panzón]

After the run of 3 wasteland vehicle builds, I decided to to another old pickup truck. I chose an older issue of AMTs '50 Chevy 3100. The parts were generally cleanly molded, and fit reasonably well, so I built it without modification, and painted it to look like a reasonably well maintained 70 year old farm truck.

[Panzón]

I had been wanting to build a rat rod for a while, so when Round2 rereleased AMT's chopped 1925 Model T hotrod kit, I bought one. What attracted me to the kit was that it included parts to build both a stock and a hotrod version of the Model T, and the stock version could be built as a pickup. Unfortunately, this kit turned out to be an even bigger mess than the '40 Willys gasser kit. Nearly every part required cleanup, and parts fit was atrocious. Even parts with keying fit poorly. The instruction sheet was little more than and exploded view of each build option (including optional parts), with no detail views showing how parts were meant to fit. At one point, I almost abandoned the kit, but I don't like to be beat by a poor quality model kit, so I persevered, and ended up with a couple of acceptable models.




I tackled the stock T pickup first, and because I am lousy at factory finishes, I decided to paint it as a derelict.




Because the hood fit so poorly, I decided to build it in the open position. I scribed a crack into the windscreen as an added detail. I did a little research, and found that, while early versions were available in colors, by 1925, all Model Ts were painted black at the Ford factory, so my derelict would be black, too.




Though the entire truck is black, I tried to get the canvas top to look different from the bodywork, and also look worn. I think it looks different enough, but not worn enough. I decided to put the spare tire in the bed, and indicate where it had originally been stowed with an arc of rust on the body panel. I also tossed the rubber-bulbed car horn in the bed. I rusted and weathered the model with my usual combination of acrylic paint, washes, and dry pigments, and then decided to scatter some paper autumn leaves ( made with GreenStuffWorld punches) to make the truck look a little more forlorn.

After the miserable experience with the stock T, I was reluctant to move on to the rat rod, so I took a break and customized a couple of 1/64 diecast cars before starting on the rat rod. By this time, my goal was simply to get it done. Due to parts fit problems, I ended up making a few modifications, and ended up building a not-very-ratty chopped T dragster, rather than a street rod.






I mounted the Moon fuel tank up front, rather than behind the seat as the instructions had it, and I was unable to route the steering arm below the headers per the instructions. In the end, I opted for just a dirtied primer finish with a few manufacturer's stickers to add interest. The best thing I can say about this build is that it's done, and I've learned not to buy any more AMT rereleases (though, unfortunately, I still have a half dozen in my stash).

[Panzón]

My next build was Revell's 1/24 scale sprint car in Joey Saldana colors. I originally purchased this kit to use as the basis for another wasteland build, but I was fascinated by the asymmetry of the rear tires, suspension, and wing side-panels, all used to maintain traction on the tiny oval dirt tracks on which these cars are raced, so I decided to build it out of the box. I also wanted to gain experience applying the very large and prominent decals which add interest to this subject. Parts in this kit were well-molded, and, for the most part, fit together nicely. Revell rates this as a skill level 5 kit, and the assembly is quite a bit different from the usual car model kit, so is somewhat tricky in places. The kit includes a driver figure, but the arms must be added to the figure after it is placed in the seat, a procedure that was too much of a juggling act for me, so I left the driver out. Unfortunately, no seat belt parts are included in the kit if one chooses not to include the driver. The large decals were a bit tricky for me, but I managed to get them all in place without damage.

[Panzón]

Following the successful sprint car build, I decided to revisit an older release of AMT's '55 Chevy Cameo kit that I had abandoned twice. I wasn't happy with the way the bed went together, so I set the kit aside. I came back to the kit when I came up with the idea to bash it into a flatbed street machine. I got most of the construction done, but abandoned the kit again when I couldn't decide on a paint scheme. I did a custom paint job that I liked on a Matchbox truck, so I thought I'd finish the '55 with that scheme. I finished what little construction there was left to do, and dechromed the trim parts, and painted the truck with the custom-mixed graphite and lime green, and then added some decals. While I like the colors, I'm not happy with the overall design of the truck-- the cab just looks big and clunky next to the flat bed. I believe 1955 was the first year Chevy used the boxy cab design, so I think an earlier model like a '41 or even a '50 would look better with this flatbed.




The grill was molded closed, so I sanded away the back to open it up.


The scratchbuilt flatbed is made from styrene and basswood, and the absurd fuel tank is scratchbuilt from styrene, as is the rear bumper.

[Panzón]

I wanted to try another rat rod build, so I dug out an old Revell '32 Ford hot rod kit I had, thinking I could do a little kit bashing with it-- the kit builds into a car that looks stock, but with a fancy paint job. Unfortunately, the kit was a Revell Skill Level 2 kit, so the frame, fenders, and floor pan are molded as one piece, and I could see that major surgery, along with a lot of scratchbuilding, would be required to build what I had in mind. In the end, I opted to build it out of the box, and paint it like the box art. The build was simple enough, and I did an OK paint job on it, and began to apply the decals to make it look a little more like a street rod. This is an old kit, though, and the clear part of the decals had yellowed enough to look a mess when applied, so I removed what I had applied, and just went with the plain black paint job. I left the hood off to give the model a little more visual appeal, but really the only thing I like about this build is that it's done.

[digger303]

[Panzón]

I was looking for something a little different to build that would be simple and fun, and I decided to try Revell's 1/12 scale Custom Chopper kit. It a appears to be a rerelease of an earlier chopper kit that had been released several times, with different parts depending on what Revell chose to call each release, but the custom kit contains all the part variations, so the builder can customize the model to suit his own tastes. The custom kit comes with 3 seats, 2 handlebars, 2 front forks, 2 front fenders, 2 rear fenders, 2 fuel tanks, 2 exhaust pipes, 3 sets of wheels, 3 air-cleaner covers, 3 drive-belt covers, and 4 decal sets. The air-cleaner and drive-belt covers have different motifs: a skull, an iron cross, or a playing card spade design. The kit is well-molded, with lots of chrome parts, and looks easy to build, but is a Revell skill-level 5 kit. I thought I would be able to build it OOB for a relaxing build, but when I started test-fitting the parts, I could see there would be far too many visible mold and seam lines on the chrome parts, so I ended up de-chroming most of the chrome parts, cleaning them up, assembling, and then painting them with Rustoleum Bright Coat metallic finish. I could also see that the instruction's assembly procedure wasn't going to work for me, so I ended up modifying the front fork pivot, and the rear axle. I also had trouble with the decal set I originally chose. I couldn't get the decals to lay properly over the compound curves of the fenders and gas tank, no matter how many applications of Micro Sol I used. I ended up using the decal set with the narrowest design, and got them to lay properly. This probably wasn't the best choice for a simple, relaxing build, but in the end, it did challenge my skills, and I'm satisfied with the finished model.


I know absolutely nothing about motorcycles, but I did a little research, and decided to add a couple of the control cables in what I hope are the right places. Cables are made from round wound guitar string.

[jchrisf]

Wow Mike! You are a great builder! And a true artist!

And you only started doing this a year ago.. blows my mind.

[Twokidsnosleep]

There is some spectacular work in here on a multitude of topics
Splendid stuff

[Panzón]

Thanks for the kind comments, guys.

And you only started doing this a year ago.. blows my mind.

I only started building plastic model kits a little over a year ago. Over the years, though I've dabbled in stick-and-tissue airplanes, card models, historic figures, wooden boat models, and gaming miniatures. I learned to use my imagination, to pay attention to both the details and the big picture, and how to paint doing the historical figures and gaming miniatures.

[Bdiddy]

Really impressive Mike, I love the colour scheme for the chopper!

[BigWall]

Very nice work. Great job!

[Panzón]

I finally finished my latest wasteland build: a '59 Chevy El Camino (AMT rerelease) done as a "Fury Road" style lancer's vehicle. I like the lines of the '59 El Camino, so I did very little modification to the structure of the vehicle, only lifting it a bit and enlarging the wheel-well cutouts to handle the truck tires I put on it.


I added a bit of armor to the windshield opening, and individual ends to the headers, and I removed the side trim pieces.




Fire damage from a thunderstick.




The bed has three lancer's platforms, and can hold 13 thundersticks, though I only made 10 for the model.


I added a defensive bumper to the rear, but put it on frame extensions so I could preserve the look of the original rear of the El Camino.

[jchrisf]

So cool.. you are so creative and artistic!

[Bdiddy]

Nice job Mike, that looks really cool

[Tomcat64]

That wasteland Chevy is very "Mad Max" nice work!

[Panzón]

Thanks for the kind comments, guys, and thanks for looking!

[aur0ra145]

That Fury Road truck is awesome! Well done

[BigWall]

Very nice! You're really popping them out.

[Panzón]

I finished bashing my Konflikt '47 M8 Grizzly walker into a search & rescue walker:















I may eventually build a diorama around the walker, but for now, there are other projects on the workbench.

[BigWall]

Very nice work and a great idea! I love your twists on your models!

[Panzón]

I finished my Kaiyodo gacha-nen 1/35 Ma. K. Fliege. Decided to build it as a space construction-worker power suit. To that end, I modified the weapon arm to be a welder, and I painted the suit construction yellow. I chose to display the figure flying, using the optional foot position and the clear mounting rod included with the kit, and I also opted to snap the base to one of the capsule halves for a larger, more stable base.

[BigWall]

Very cool. Nice work again!

[baztheoldguy]

Hello Mike,
your builds are brilliant, I love the mad max themed ones of the scale ( no pun intended ) just what I like doing with sci fi builds, keep it up.

regards Barrie ( the old guy who wishes he could piant so good )

[Panzón]

I finally finished the Sky Mark buoy. I had to learn to solder PE, wire LEDs, scratch build a base, and weather something that is a lot more complicated than a pickup truck.

[ForeverPlasticKits]

Wasteland vehicles! yes that's a topic which can bring me to the cars modeling! Nice models!

[Panzón]

Finally got some modeling done this year. I finished Revell's 1:24 Porsche Diesel Junior 108 kit. This is an inexpensive, relatively simple snap-together kit with a decent amount of detail, and is a good subject to practice one's weathering skills on.

[Tomcat64]

Lovely work as always on that tractor Mike, the weathering is superb

[Donkeywalloper]

What awesome builds and truly marvellous work.
Nice job chap
DW

[BigWall]

Nice tractor! I always enjoy seeing your work.

[digger303]

Very nice tractor well done. The scratches and paint chips look very realistic, well done.

[Panzón]

Thanks for the comments, guys, and thanks for looking!

[Panzón]

After finishing the tractor, I completed work on a diecast makeover that I had started at the same time. This is an inexpensive eBay '46 Dodge Powerwagon with a camo paint job that I remade into an old service truck with the addition of some accessories from MiniArt.


I started with this 1/32 scale diecast '46 Dodge Powerwagon.


Built MiniArt's 1/35 scale 3-ton crane kit for the truck bed.




I cleaned up the castings a bit, and repainted and weathered the truck.






Added a fuel drum with pump and some tools from other MiniArt accessory kits.


The only modifications I made to the truck itself were to add the gas tank filler neck and the exhaust pipe, and to drill out the lug nut and center holes on the spare wheel.