Well, the second year of “club projects” was a bit mixed up.  The theme was “Birds”, meaning Thunderbirds, Superbirds or Screaming Chickens (Firebird Trans Ams to those of you too young to remember the continuous tradeoff in the 1970-80s between macho decal size on the hood and breathless content beneath). 

I picked the Monogram 1958 Thunderbird (#2759) and in fact built up two at once. The idea was that I’d make all the mistakes on one and the other would be perfect.  If memory serves me, there were only three or four completed projects, most notable being Les Smirle’s beater Superbird with the correct (black) primer showing beneath its chipped paint. 

First for me on both of these models was paint – custom mixed into PPG white lacquer base to match real colour chips.  Turns out the Seaspray Green was an also exact match to the sink and tub in my  house. The perfect touch-ups have also lasted eighteen years.   Who says model-building skills don’t transfer to real life?   Photo-etch was just about brand new that year, and the better bird has a “Putty Thrower” (Mark Gustavson) grille.  Yes, those are VIJOMA 1958 Ontario Laser Plates,  marketed by a very young Randy Frost - another of those aftermarket products that was very cool for the time.