A little over a week into the project and I’d say it’s coming along well. I haven’t hit a wall of frustration that usually grinds something like this to a halt. The body has needed a few structural upgrades so it can be mated with the chassis without cracking along the seams. I decided to add a roof from the hardtop version of the kit (another $25 into the model!), but I needed a second kit anyway to do the split hood conversion. The suspension is dialed in and the wheels all fit, however around the rear suspension the frame rails get a little wonky, I’ll have to see if I want to build to model car show specs, or will just leave it alone.

I had to add some major supports to the rear window frame because the real car had the flimsiest of roof mounts! I mean if this car went over in real life it’d be like you would have 4 chrome plated BBQ skewers to keep the car from crushing you. I think the swoop and contour that I added work well with the body and add a nice dynamic to the rear.

The hood is going to need a scoop in the front and a tunnel all the way back to make room for the motor, I was trying to stuff it all under the stock hood but it’s a no-go…I think the hood bumps can break up the monotony of the "dual hood" well, it’s not a problem, but a challenge to make it look good.

The motor has mounts and can now be built up. I started with the intake manifold, all 8 pieces of it! I gave it a sand cast finish so it looks like an aluminum part, with a little detail and some plumbing it should look very nice.

The overall paint finish has been figured out with the creative input from a fellow modeler, thanks Robb!...anyway it's going to be natural metal up to the body line you can see in the pictures, then a nice faded OD top with a black anti glare hood. I think I'm going to do some rivit work arond the panels to make them look extra bomber-like.

I’m trying to get 2 hours a day in on this build, so far my wife has been OK with that, we’ll see how long it holds out.