My PPG Build...

Well, well… It seems like ages past since this contest, and I’ve finally got off my duff to type this story on how my entry came into existence. This article is going to be a long one, as the inspiration for my build is rooted fairly early in my childhood. Let me explain.

As you know the RMMC hosted an in-house contest last year named “the PPG Contest”. For a dollar you got in on the contest and were supplied a kit (thanks to Invader Hobbies) - either a ‘57 Chevy Pickup or a ’32 Ford Coupe (I think I can still hear people whining about the fact that the entries were cars). The rules were simple; you had the kit, and had to build it with whatever you had at home - Paint, Putty, and Glue. Raiding the spares box was permitted provided you didn’t go out and buy anything extra to enhance your build.

Now set the “way-back machine” to say the early 1980s. I was at a Boy Scouts meeting one night and it came time to hand out the merit badges. Guys got this and that for doing whatever, I even got one for teaching myself how to tie something other than a Granny Knot. But one guy got an award for, what I thought at the time was incredibly stupid and juvenile, taking a model kit of a Datsun sports car and gluing 1/35 machine guns to it. At the time I was jealous of the fact that he got a badge for doing something so silly and easy. Little did I know that it lit the smallest spark of interest in the back of my brain.

Fast forward to about 10 years ago. I had finished building one of many Gundam kits I had at the time, and I noticed that I had a plethora of leftover weapons. That small spark from long ago lit into a flame. At this point in time I had a thing for Mercury Cougars (don’t ask… it doesn’t matter) and I knew that Revell had a current model Cougar on the shelves. So I went out and bought one, fully intending to go to town on this thing, but for some reason that flame sputtered out to a very small pilot light.

I toyed with the idea over the years. I had a move from Edmonton to Yellowknife, thought about it some more, even getting a couple “alternate” cars (a Boss Mustang and a Chevelle 3 in 1) should I ever want to proceed. Moved to England and thought about it some more. Moved back to Calgary and gave it some more thought… only to never get the build done. By this time the Cougar kit had lost a number of important parts (namely the entire outer body) and I’d lost interest in the alternates, and thus, the flame sputtered out completely.

When the PPG contest was announced last year I entered, received the ’32 Ford Coupe and set to work - That old flame I keep referring to was about to go nuclear.

Taking stock of the kit and of what I had in the spares box, I set to thinking. I wanted to go the same kind of “Mad Max” angle that that fellow Boy Scout had done all those years ago. But since my modeling skills have somewhat improved since then, I thought I might embellish a wee bit more.

The basics - I fashioned the rear axle into a dually using the kit tires, rims, and some inventive work with super glue. I heated the fenders over a candle and used a metallic pen cap to make the dents. I chose not to include the motor parts, as they wouldn’t be seen (or needed) in the finished product.

The Extras - If I remember right, extras include parts from an AMT 1/48 A-10, photoetch bits from Eduard for a 1/35 Pz-2000, parts from the Revell Germany Pz-2000 and a Tamiya 1/35 Challenger 1 Mk.2, a partial cockpit from a Revellogram 1/48 F-89 Scorpion, dive brakes from a 1/48 A-1 Skyraider, wings from a 1/48 RAH-66 Commanche, and the most obvious addition of two jet engines from the AMT “Anakin’s Podracer”. I made an entry door in the top, and added a “poster” of Shakira on the inside of it (to keep the driver company on those long, lonely drives through the desert. Along with some chains to “hold down” the engines, I also took the extra tires from the main kit, mounted them on the front with a bit of photoetch barbed wire.

Weathering was accomplished using mainly the Rustall weathering set. I attempted to dirty it up using Tamiya’s new weathering sticks, but I found that I didn’t like them for this kind of job. (Perhaps I just didn’t use them right).

I must have done something right, because I took the main prize for the PPG contest. It honestly was a surprise to me, as there were some contest-winner worthy entries, including one that looks like it rolled right out of the Ardennes, ready for action.

My thanks to the club for a great turnout, and my thanks to Massimo and Scott for making one of the most interesting contest ideas I’ve ever heard come to life.

Remember, keep building… and have fun!!!!!