bigbluesd Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 (edited) I've seen this car done a few times lately (must be something in the water), all of them certainly more impressive than my own but I'm happy with the direction it is headed at this point and it is definitely one of my better builds yet so I figured I'd go ahead and catch up with a WIP thread. I have no illusions about the fact that I am still a novice so I've yet to really venture too far away from the OOB builds, this will be one of those with a few very minor modifications that I'm beginning to get comfortable with. This is the Monogram reissue kit and it's not too bad. I'm not crazy about the way the suspension and exhaust attach but other than that I have few complaints. This is the car that I'm using for "inspiration". Not going for an exact replica, just thought it looked sharp, especially the way the paint goes blue in some of the photos of it. To get this effect I decided to try to custom mix Duplicolor blue and Pacific Green Metallic decanted from the can. I sprayed this through my airbrush and it was a disastrous rough finish, so it hit the bag filled with the Dawn cleaner and I started again from scratch, this time using the spray cans (if it ain't broke why fix it?). I did an undercoat of DC Bahama Blue Metallic and then a coat of Pacific Green Metallic. It ended up a bit darker than I had hoped and the blue isn't very noticeable (if at all). Whatever though, not a stickler! Finished it up with some Duplicolor clear lacquer (which is still curing prior to rubbing it out). Opened up the vent in the hood, made a bit of a mess of it but it's not too noticeable after a little putty and sanding. Also noticed in this pic that my decal on the hood is a little crooked, unfortunately I've already clear coated it so that ship has sailed. . The rear end (with the first coat of silver for the taillights). All of the trim will be masked and painted satin black in a few days when my next supply shipment comes in (or do you all think I should go flat black? feedback welcome). They included a nice decal for the "MUSTANG SVO" lettering but I couldn't get it to stick on top of the raised lettering on the kit. In retrospect I would have sanded down the lettering and used the decal but I didn't think about this until I had already painted the body (for the 2nd and a half time). TOOTHPICK PAINTING IT IS! Can't really tell yet because the glue is still drying, but I put some cigarette foil in the foglights and covered it with Testor's window glue/glass maker. Interior shot. Picked up some embossing powder today at Michael's for the first time, used it on the rear deck and it looks awesome, really like it. Wish I had some before I assembled the rest of the interior (I'm tempted to take it apart to do the floorboards). I'm really impressed with the gauge decals for this kit. Belly of the beast. I'm not huge on absolute historical accuracy and my hobby time is limited so I don't spend too much time dwelling on undercarriage colors. Basically just paint parts of it some color that looks normal and give it some variation to catch my eye and make it look decent. Made some exhaust tips out of aluminum tubing. Really wanted to convert it to a pipe on each side of the gas tank but my skill set isn't quite there yet so I opted for the simple solution. Need to find a good way to polish these in the future, working with something so small makes it impossible to sand and polish well. One of my pet peeves is crappy looking headlights on a kit. these look pretty bad on the box art, the side lenses have nothing to cover them, just the chrome piece. The headlight itself at least has a clear plastic lens but it doesn't obscure much and the flat chrome housing shows through and looks incredibly dull and fake. To counter this I've drilled a couple of holes in the housing and put pieces of clear sprue in there to (roughly) represent a bulb and bulb housing. Doesn't look too convincing here but I figure once the lens is in place it should be obscured just enough to look halfway convincing (at least better than it was before). I need some advice on the next part.... I am not sure how to go about making the side lenses look decent. I have two ideas at present... either coat the everloving #*$& out of the whole headlight housing part with some clearcoat, OR dip it in Future a few times, OR dip it in Testor's window maker. Either way it the contact points for the clear lens as well as the exterior borders will have to be sanded back down but that seems doable (?). Would be curious as to how some of you more experienced pros would do it? Tomorrow is beach and birthday party day so no more work on it until Sunday, the plan is to go ahead and rub out the body finish then mask the trim and possibly paint it (if I decide to go with the flat black.... unfortunately I have no satin other than some #*$&ty Rustoleum black). Also continue to work on the multi-colored taillight lenses. Any feedback or criticism is welcome and appreciated! http://i.imgur.com/yA2nCDo.jpg Edited June 21, 2014 by bigbluesd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 Looks great so far. Real nice color also... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1tim1 Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 That SVO looks great so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaguar man 21 Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Looks great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobraman Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Your doing a great job, keep it up ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jantrix Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Very good work. Most impressive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MsDano85gt Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 awsome!! by the way my "crummy" rattle can of rustoleum "matte" black is the best can of it i've had thus far!! i would go with matte black Tried flat black once on my 1:1 85 gt did not look right at all........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terminator-Fox Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Looking good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wonderbread Kustomz Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbluesd Posted June 25, 2014 Author Share Posted June 25, 2014 (edited) No photo update, always way too late when I finish up my modeling work for the night and never have time to take pictures! I did want to bounce something off of ya'll though... Trim paint is done, I ended up using Testor's flat black with a brush for all of the window trim and some hard to mask body trim (years of DIY painting house trim by hand have given me a pretty steady edge), the easier to mask portions got shot with an airbrush. Everything turned out really well with that, will post pictures later. Finished up airbrushing the taillight lenses (they had two varying shades of red, amber and flat black, a lot of masking and time for such a small part) and also blacked out the interior of the body shell and did some under the hood painting. Letting it all dry until tonight then it's generally ready for assembly.My problem child on this though (and the thing I wanted to ask for feedback on) is the headlights. I posted photos of them in my initial post and the problem is that there is no clear plastic lens that goes over the turn signals, etc., just the middle panel. Of course this looks very cheesy. For my first attempt in correcting it I tried multiple applications of dipping the whole housing in Future and hanging it to dry upside down (so the Future would pool a little on the surface of the lens area instead of running down into the housing). I'm up to about 7 applications now and the end result is that it doesn't make much of a difference... the future just dries too clear and makes the chrome look even shinier with no real sense of depth. I contemplated using Testor's window maker but I think it will be too clear as well -- the lens needs to obscure the chrome a little bit and be at least *slightly* opaque in order to look more like the 1:1. My Plan C is to use Elmer's white glue and literally just gob it onto the surface. If applied heavily and quickly it does tend to self level (and a little bit of water could make that easier). I did a few test spots on the chrome sprue last night but have not seen the results yet. Has anybody ever done this or do any of you have any better ideas to replicate that lens look on this piece? Any advice is appreciated... Edited June 25, 2014 by bigbluesd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
microwheel Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 (edited) For chrome plated side marker lights that need a semi-transpartent lense look, I usually paint the crome areas that need coloring, such as amber colors, or if more of a silver color is needed, I use testors metalizer aluminum; for side turn signals and such first.. then when that is dry, I use a milk bottle cap lid and poor a little bit of tamiya acrylic clear in it, then add a drop or two of tamiya acrylic gloss white. Just enough to give it a opaque or semi-transparent look, then apply the mixture to the lense area you want to cover. You'll have to do a little trial and error with the mix and application to get it right, but it works pretty well for me. If the area being covered is recessed enough I sometimes even use a little bit of clear 2 part 5 minute epoxy mixed with a drop of tamiya acrylic gloss white, instead, and yes it will level fairly well on small areas, but make sure you get a brand that dries fairly clear as some brands tend to yellow more than others. Hope this helps. Edited June 25, 2014 by microwheel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbluesd Posted June 26, 2014 Author Share Posted June 26, 2014 (edited) A little more progress, polished and waxed the body and it came out REALLY well. Unfortunately as it often does things tend to turn to #$*& at the last minute. First I fought the rear view mirror for the better part of half an hour (as I always do), then fought part of the exhaust that is supposed to run under the front suspension and attach to the motor after installation of the rest of the chassis, then broke half of the parts off the motor trying to get the chassis into the body shell. Of course once I got it in and glued a few contact points I realized I had forgotten to install the interior. DOH! Now putting it back together I get superglue on my finger which gets on my shiny new paint job. GRRRRRR. Now that's in and the ride height is screwed up, body is not sitting straight on the chassis and don't know why (see rear tire height, too high on one side, too low on the other). I'd take it apart again but I am learning to leave well enough alone to avoid a bigger disaster. At this point I have to wait until the headlights are done, I have added a little white acrylic to the Future as suggested and it does seem to look better. Still needs a couple of coats though. Thanks for the advice. Also scratch built a radio antenna out of some Evergreen and guitar string. Doesn't look too bad, really pleased with myself on that one. I'm waiting until the last minute to install it as I'm sure I will destroy it in the process of building the rest of the car if I don't. Edited June 26, 2014 by bigbluesd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davewilly Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Looks pretty nice so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 Great work on those tail lights Brandon and progress. Love the wheels also... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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