Stephen Nolen's 1/24th Scale Models

1/24 Scale Model Days

Having been into cars since a little kid, I had an interest in scale models and built quite a few during my pre-teen and pre-driving days. Those models are long gone but in the middle/late 1980's the interest was reawakening. The auto club I was in at the time and participated as secretary and later President, The Knights Auto Club of Shawnee Oklahoma, began having an annual Model Car Contest. I couldn't resist and ended up spending many hours building models to compete in the show on a regular basis. Much time was spent on the models that would have been better spent on the '69 Mustang but you know how hindsight is. What follows is five surviving models from those days.

1970 Mustang
1970 Mustang | 1940 Ford Coupe | 1940 Ford Sedan | 1986 Thunderbird | 1987 Thunderbird
Built as a 'box stock' kit in the 1970's, the model was 'rebuilt' with the addition or engine wire, fuel lines and undercarraige paint.
The Knights Box Stock class allowed such additions, but no body paint or body modifications. The body is the original polished plastic color.

1940 Ford Coupe
1970 Mustang | 1940 Ford Coupe | 1940 Ford Sedan | 1986 Thunderbird | 1987 Thunderbird
This was yet another revamped model of old. I originally dropped the big Ford motor in this non-hotrod kit and later repainted it, setup the body to be flip body drag racer style setup. The blower belt is an old black rubber band and the injectors and fuel lines are plumbed.

1986 Ford Thunderbird
1970 Mustang | 1940 Ford Coupe | 1940 Ford Sedan | 1986 Thunderbird | 1987 Thunderbird
This is the only pic that turned out of this attempt. This was the first ground up built I did for the Knights contests. I owned a 1986 TBird Turbo Coupe then so it was fun building this ProStock kit and doing a lot of detailing. I opened the doors and trunk, made the front clip removable, wired the engine and plumbed the fuel system. Additionally the parachute has a release cable and some brake lines are run.

1987 Ford Thunderbird
1970 Mustang | 1940 Ford Coupe | 1940 Ford Sedan | 1986 Thunderbird | 1987 Thunderbird
Even though I owned a 1986 Turbo Coupe, I really wanted the 1987 version and decided to build another ProStocker in 1987-88. However there were no '87 ProStock TBird kits so I used a regular 1987 Turbo Coupe kit's body and a '86 ProStock drivetrain. Wanting to be somewhat different and keep the setup true to the Turbo Coupe theme, the engine is a dual turbo charged, intercooled ProStock type (429) engine. Although hard to see in the pics, the turbos are mounted off of some custom built headers and the horns on the carbs can be seen. All the aluminum is real aluminum skin (Coke cans inside out). I opened the trunk up but not the doors on this one.

1940 Ford Sedan
1970 Mustang | 1940 Ford Coupe | 1940 Ford Sedan | 1986 Thunderbird | 1987 Thunderbird
Last and by far not least is this 1940 Sedan. I had a real '40 sedan in my garage as a project (never completed however) at the time and this is what I wanted that car to look like in the end. I went to some extremes on this one with working front suspension feature A-Arms from a late model Mustang, working rear suspension, opened doors and hood, and more. The body can be lifted off the chassis to see the chassis work, brake and fuel lines, and other details. The engine is a 302 Ford just like my real plans were. Unfortuately I finally realized that I had two life time projects in the real world, the '40 and my '69 Mustang, and only one lifetime to cover them. I sold the real '40 years ago but kept this model as a reminder. (This was a LOT of work...)

1970 Mustang | 1940 Ford Coupe | 1940 Ford Sedan | 1986 Thunderbird | 1987 Thunderbird

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07/22/99