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1970 Chevrolet Chevelle (weekend build)


Lovefordgalaxie

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I have a friend that is into this thing of building models only over weekends.

Well, he asked me if I would join him and other two of his pals on a weekend build. The rules were simple. The model had to be 1/25 scale, had to had an engine (no curbside) and finally, all parts had to be painted, including the body (no such thing as "it's a lovely shade of plastic, I'll just polish it to a shine").

The guy is a GM maniac, he owns a sweet 1957 Bel Air four door black over red that I find to be of extreme good taste, and he was the one picking the theme. It was GM musclecar. For my luck I had just the thing: A AMT 1970 Chevelle. A simple kit, not too many parts, and that I thought it would be easy to put together.

We had from 00:00 of Saturday to 12:00 of Sunday.

I started painting the body, as always. Gave it a couple of primer coats, as I was going to use automotive paint, but couldn't afford to wait overnight for it to dry, so I shot the paint on the body just two hours after primering.

That's when the problems started. The primer was not 100% dry, so the paint "called" some of the mold lines back. Also crazed the plastic a little here and there. No way I would strip that in time, so I just kept modeling.

After another hour, I the paint was dry enough to decal the body.

Decals on, I let the body rest on our summer 38 degree Celsius heat for some hours.

Then, I used Testors flat black acrylic to paint almost everything else but the engine, that I painted with Testors Chevy Orange acrylic.

When I finished that, the decals wouldn't move anymore under my finger, so I clear coated the body, and again let it to dry, this time overnight.

Still on Saturday, I painted all silver details (exhaust, transmission, interior trim, dash trim, and some firewall pieces) with Testors silver chrome enamel.

On Sunday, I foiled the body, detail painted the front bumper/grille and the rear bumper. Also painted the flat black detail on the wheels, and some lettering on the tires.

Just after 16:00 I put all parts together.

White glued the headlight lenses, and super glued everything else with care.

When the model was ready, I managed to break and loose one of the parts box mirrors I had on it, so I had to touch up the paint, what let a messy spot on the passenger door.

Finished it by 19:00, so I made a couple of "cowl induction" decals for the hood and custom licence plates on the spare time.

The finished model is quite a glue bomb. Bad paint, crazed plastic, missing a mirror, almost no underside detail, but it was built in just a weekend.

12090682923_3d5f0f6068_c.jpg

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Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback.

The model does look good from a distance, but click on the pictures and go to Flickr to see them in full size, and you will notice the crazing on the body.

If I had more time, I would had striped the body, and tried to sand the crazing off. Thane I would repaint the best.

Now that the car is ready, I don't see myself doing that.

looks good from my house!!

rush the clear? ;)

otherwise very clean build :):D

I couldnt do less than 30 days,.. but thats just me

Bruce

It was the primer.

I didn't give it time to "harden", so, the automotive paint attacked the body and did some crazing.

The clear is fine, I use to clear automotive paint the same day even on a "normal" build. I learned that with a friend of mine that is a painter at Globovel Ford dealer. He said to me that with high solids clear is best to clear as soon as the paint is dry to the touch, what happens in minutes on the heated booth used for real cars, and in a half hour in room temperature.

Edited by Lovefordgalaxie
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