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Tamiya 1966 Volkswagen Beetle in Coral Blue


Chillyb1

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This Tamiya kit is right near the top of my all-time favorite kit list. If you like VWs, German cars, historically significant cars, or super-cute cars, then get this kit and build it.

For this one I used Tamiya TS-41 Coral Blue for the exterior and Tamiya AS-20 Insignia White for the interior. I used BMF for interior trim and window trim, and aluminum foil tape for the trim on the running boards. Chrome is Alclad II. I added some wires in the engine bay and a few decals. I put a lot of work into the wired distributor, which disqualified itself from being used by agitating me during construction, which, in turn, led to its destruction (stupid thing!). I added valve stems and used photoetch wipers, the blades of which are a weird rubber material used by fisherfolk in making lures.

These pictures come pretty close to capturing the actual color, but I'm not really satisfied with them. I'm using a new and better camera though the light refused to cooperate. Enjoy:

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Several more photographs can be found here:

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/ChillyB1/library/Coral%20Blue%20VW%20Beetle?sort=3&page=1

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The welting was the result of very tedious, very precise application of Tamiya masking tape and using my airbrush.

Beautiful job! I love a factory fresh Beetle, looks like all the extra effort paid off. I would love to see some pictures of how you did the welting or a more detailed discription maybe? I tried this with little stips of half round styrene a couple times but, yours looks perfect!

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Beautiful job! I love a factory fresh Beetle, looks like all the extra effort paid off. I would love to see some pictures of how you did the welting or a more detailed discription maybe? I tried this with little stips of half round styrene a couple times but, yours looks perfect!

I've built this kit maybe a half dozen times and never really found a satisfactory method for doing the welting. And I wracked my brain trying to come up with something fairly simple and foolproof, even thinking of your idea of styrene strips. In the end I decided this time just to bite the bullet and try it with masking tape. I used the 6mm Tamiya tape and burnished it down with (and this is my secret weapon, so don't tell anyone else!) a GUITAR PICK. Then it was just a matter of masking everything else off and shooting paint through the airbrush. Over the curved part of the fenders you can use a single piece of tape; on the flat parts of the car I think I used maybe three pieces, trying carefully to make each piece conform to a bit of the curve before transitioning to the next piece of tape. I usually shoot some clear coat before color to seal the masking tape but I don't think I did that with this job. Until and unless I come up with a better method (that is, an easier method) I'll be using this tape and much patience.

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