Profile Photo
Josh Patterson
36 articles

Some 1:1 scale modeling.

July 14, 2018 · in Automotive · · 13 · 1.7K

Summer's here and I've been away from my bench getting some automotive projects done. Finally had the slushbox on my '75 rebuilt so I tackled something that always bothered me. The from the 75 and later cars. The 73/74 units look much more muscular IMHO and since my cars running a 304 it might as well look the part.

I sourced a 74 grille and bezels and thought of how I wanted them to look. I settled on silver over satin black after checking out color schemes on the web but the problem was masking the silver to spray the black. From the factory started with a black part and misted on the silver highlights resulting in a splotchy bunch of overspray when you look between the fins.

(I have heard the rumor that AMC might have really stood for Alcoholics Making Cars.) Fortunately my LHS saved the day. makes a size tape for everything that needed to be done which made masking all the tines (all 162 of them) a snap. I swapped the amber tun signals out with clear lenses and trim rings from a '70 AMX and I love how the grille looks like it's floating between the bonnet and the bumper. The grille is only temporarily mounted from the front as I need to source a 73/74 hood release as mine is trapped in the jail cell that is my new grill making it impossible to open the hood.

Now if I can only find a Johan kit of the Hornet!

(Martin if you feel this needs to be in my garage I won't feel bad if you move it. Johannes, this is part of the article I mentioned posting on Grand Retro.)

Reader reactions:
4  Awesome

13 additional images. Click to enlarge.


13 responses

  1. Fantastic! The real thing is always the best example for the scale model! Kudos.

  2. What a cool summer project! Josh, if you don't mind we'll put your article on Grand Retro as well.

  3. It looks so realistic, great weathering, but not overdone! Love these cars, have not seen one in a long time.

  4. You are a very fortunate man, Josh. That was one of my favorite cars of my young adult hood. Curse you for bringing back those early years...LOL. A 304 wasn't a sleeper by any means. Since I couldn't afford an AMX then the Hornet was my next choice. Then my son was born so for the next 40 some odd years all I could do is just look so I became content with that. Nice job on the car.

  5. Thanks for this Josh- is this the man with the golden gun car?

  6. An AMC Hornet...now there's a make and model ya don't hear every day - 🙂

    • And I just ordered a Johan promo model off of ebay, should get it around Wednesday! Hopefully it wont be hard to disassemble for painting. Would really love to see Round2 pop off some of the Johan molds.

  7. Car looking is good. Owned an old jeep when AMC owned them.Ah Johan, I did their Fury police cruiser awhile back.

  8. Very informative, fellows! Nicely done, Josh!

Leave a Reply