Finished: 1953 Ford Pickup Mild custom

Finished 5/24/2018
7th Model finished in 2018

A new reissue of the first kit I ever built by myself in 1999
After not completing any trucks at all since 2001 I've now finished 2 in less than a month's time!
Painted Model Master Lacquer Light Gray Metallic, with Testors Red from a paint pen on the wheels.
Unusual for me to do a custom, I'm much more inclined towards factory stock, but decided to do things a little differently here.

1953 Ford Crestline Sunliner Completed!

I actually finished three models today, but only photographed this one yet. It's been a hard road for me. Everything I've touched since mid-2010 has turned terrible. My skills have pretty much totally left me, and I had no idea why- I didn't change the way I did things, but NOTHING worked right. I came close to walking away from the hobby several times, even considered selling my kit stash (!) I was so "done". But, every year, usually around NNL East time, I would get the urge to try again. Every year, I did...and failed. I have finished a few models since 2010...but they were all a struggle, and most of them were just "OK, it's good enough, I'm calling it done just so I can finish something". This year, the NNL East once again inspired me, and since it ended I've been working on models again...but this time...it's going RIGHT. I am still doing what always worked for me before, but this year...it's working again. I don't know why...but I'm not going to complain. Two of the models I finished today I began after the NNL...one of them, I started back in 2004! Finishing three in one day is a big deal for me. Everything is just going right. Working the first time. Fitting with no issue. Most importantly, my paint work is not too bad right now! Before today, I had finished three models total from 2015-2017, none in 15, 2 in 16 and one last year. Now, I've matched the total in a day and have more in the building stages. More on the other two (hopefully) tomorrow, but for now, here's some details on my 1953 Ford convertible:

It's the AMT, former Lindberg kit. It's painted Testors Bug Yellow, straight out of the rattle can. It's only the third convertible I remember building in my entire modeling career. (and the first one I didn't paint red!) It's a fairly close approximation to a factory color, but I don't know what Ford called the color- I found some photos of cars in the same color on Hemmings so I went with it. It's the first model I used the Molotow chrome pens on extensively. The window frame is all Molotow except for the very bottom of the vent window frames which are BMF. The trim around the seating area is also BMF. I made two mistakes which I noticed when cropping the photos for posting, both of which I've since fixed, and that is some BMF I missed trimming on the right side vent window, and I forgot to hit the right side door lock with silver.

My First Model: 1953 Ford F-100

I figured I would start out by posting the first model I ever built, back in November 1999. I had previously done some work with my dad- I would hand him the parts, and he would build them- but this was the first one I did by myself. I had no idea what I was doing, but I still ended up with a decent model. It turned out to be one of the better models of the more than 100 that I brush painted.

The pictures aren't that great- they date to 2006, and my photography skills have improved since then, but they are the only ones I have so they will have to do.

I didn't have any brown paint, so I painted the bed gold. This was before I had ever heard of Bare Metal Foil so the Ford badging on the hood is painted silver.

I didn't yet know to paint the inside of the body, and the tailgate hinge and front suspension have since broken. I missed applying the fuel filler totally.

Not great, but it was a start, and they would get better with time.

As always, thanks for reading!