Cars like this are what makes detailing diecast so much fun. It's great fun to take a cheapo model and making it look like it's something much more expensive. Maisto has make a nice representation of the '62 bubble top which makes the detailing really work well. They added all kinds of painted trim much of which I had to remove because it was incorrectly placed in some areas and too thickly done in others.
There had been silver trim painted along the top edge of the door. The only trim there on the 1:1s is a small bead of chrome on the weatherstripping. It is so small as to barely show up at this scale so I removed this painted trim and did not replace it. It really cleans up the window sills. I also painted the black recesses on the hub caps. Maisto cast them nicely but failed to paint them properly. I added chrome trim to the roof rails, side body and the tail panel trim. The front and rear window trim was already in place. I painted the bumper inserts satin silver, I blacked out the opening between the front panel and the upper center of the bumper and I blacked out the area of the body behind the grill.
Maisto makes this engine an a funky way. The air cleaner, inner fender side panels, radiator, front support and fire wall are all cast as one piece which snaps into the engine compartment opening. Regardless, it all looks decent enough when it is all assembled. I added painted to details to the engine, fire wall components and the hood latch.
I didn't add anything to the interior since, as is typical, Maisto did a nice job there. In this photo you can see that I have removed the painted trim from the top of the doors and that the door handles and lock bezels also got the chrome treatment. As per the 1:1s a bit of body color is visible between the roof rail trim and the window opening.
I'm getting better at my GM trunk detailing process. The trick is to get the white speckles small enough. I only had a little truck mat material, only enough to do the bottom well portion. Trunk mat material should also be on the portion of the trunk floor which is the next step up.
This is the one area Maisto really went the wrong direction. The entire undercarriage started out red and the exhaust and gas tank were chrome. The liberal application of paint and it's looking much better. At least things were fairly well detailed and accurate so it ends up looking nice when complete. The did do a credible job detailing the front suspension and steering components which turn out nice when detailed.
