This article originally appeared in Kitbuilders, Issue #12, Fall 1994 and is reprinted here with permission. Copyright 1994, Kitbuilders. All rights reserved.

by Fred DeRuvo

I grew up reading Archie comic books and building Aurora figure kits. I never knew that Aurora had produced a model of Archie driving his car, until I read Aurora History and Price Guide by Bill Bruegman a few years back. I probably missed seeing the model on the store shelves as a kid because I was so much into figures that I didn't really give cars much attention at all. That's pretty much still the case today. Archie's car is pretty cool, as far as cars go. In my opinion though, it's the figures of Archie, Veronica and Hot Dog that made the kit and it's those figures that helped me decide to get my own Archie's Car kit.


Well, fortunately for me, a few months ago, I was finally in a position to be able to get one of my own Archie's Car kits and I was excited. But since I was mainly a figure kit builder who liked some type of diorama base that brought the kit to "life" what about Archie's car? It didn't have a base. I couldn't just build the car and place it on the shelf. That kind of thing could possibly disrupt the space-time continuum!

The answer came one day when I was thinking of how cool it would have been to have had my own hobby store like the one that I use to shop in when I was a kid. What better way to display Archie, than in his car driving up to my own store that specialized in Aurora kits, Batman-related merchandise and even contained a soda fountain area?! So, I decided to build it in miniature, complete with sidewalk, fire hydrant, roadway and dumpster alongside the building. Archie's car would be the focal point as it "drove" up to the store.


Base construction:
Constructing the building facade, by using a number of Evergreen and Plastruct sheets of brick wall was no problem at all. I glued the brick to balsa wood the same width and length and cut out the door and window, using a 1:25th scale standing figure for reference. Opting for a "metal" framed glass door look, I used some plastic "beams" painted gloss silver and filled in the "glass" parts with heavier clear plastic sheeting that is used in the packaging of many products on most store shelves. I gave the window frame more of a "concrete" look by mixing the Dark Gray and Light Gray Pactra acrylic paints. I didn't want the window or the door to be see-through into the store, because there wouldn't be an inside (maybe later!) so I opted to fill the glass in with "sale" banners that I had created on my computer and model company logos.


As far as painting the walls of the building, I had considered airbrushing then creating the mortar look by using a fine tipped paint marker or brush, but after completing one wall, I decided it looked too fake to continue. I chose instead to hand brush the walls, without trying to create the appearance of mortar. Brushing the paint on (Pactra's Flat Insignia Red) gave it a slightly irregular pattern. One that you would see on a real brick wall. Once the walls, door and window was completed, I hot-glued the two walls to each other from the back then hot-glued them to the base, which I had also made from balsa wood. I fashioned a drain pipe from Evergreen Tubing and lightly heated it about one half inch from the bottom, until I was able to slightly bend it at a rough 45 degree angle. I used an iron for this, on the lowest heat setting and simply bent the tubing around the pointed edge of the iron. I then glued it to the corner where both walls meet. This conveniently eliminated the possibility of seeing the seam.

Of course, above the window and door would be a sign with the name of my "store" - Fred's Toys, Models & Malts. Also featured would be an Aurora logo, prominently displayed, so that Archie would know where he and Jughead could purchase their favorite kits!

For the roadway in front of the store, I used fine grit sand paper, painted with Pactra's Flat Black. The sidewalk was created by using a sheet of "sidewalk" plastic and then a thicker, square plastic tubing cemented to the side of it, to represent the curb.

I scratchbuilt the dumpster using another piece of plastic sheeting, from a pattern I created, then painted it with Pactra's Gloss Yellow, with a few added "rust" spots for realism. This was accomplished by watering down a bit of Testors Model Master Rust paint, then gently brushing it on where I wanted the dumpster to look rusted. After it dried, I very lightly drybrushed some Gloss Yellow over the spots. I purchased a 1:25th scale fire hydrant from Mark's Minis (no longer in business), glued it into place on the sidewalk then painted the curb gloss red near the hydrant.

Once the base was completed, I moved onto the real project - Archie and his car. They went together just like the instructions said they would, although I made a few minor changes. I decided to leave the engine out, since I was planning on gluing the hood compartment closed anyway. I painted the car more in line with the art illustrations from an old Archie comic book I had, instead of following the Aurora box art, which is one of the few Aurora box illustrations that I don't like. I thought the car looked much better because it represented the true comic book, all the way down to Archie's white/black oxfords.

Archie is one of my favorite comic characters (second to Batman) and his car has a lot of character as well. What could be better than having Archie driving to his favorite store to pick up the newest Aurora release and a malted?