Lunajammer

There are many products readily available to help with this. I use this product on almost everything I'm trying to tarnish, but there are many similar products. I got mine from a stained glass store but there are similar products at larger hobby stores that offer metal craft, glass cutting or soldering products. Some nice brass, like hinges or clasps sometimes have a clear coat protective layer which will need to be stripped off. Acetone works for that. If your friend has large pieces for cars and motorcycles, he should inquire about acids dips which I have no experience with. These are some drywall anchors I blackened for a steampunk nerf gun blaster. At full strength blackening happens immediately but it can be managed by diluting with water. These were blackened, rubbed with a cloth, then lightly buffed with fine steel wool. I built this sci-fi blaster box from scratch and all the metal pieces on this and the blaster (except for the round canister and box handle) were darkened, including screw heads and other shiny bits. The rest was model paints and stain.

For a couple years our club met in the conference room of our old city airport. A new one had been built and the old one was very lightly used. I met with the airport authority director and he was quite happy that it was being put to use. Didn't pay a cent in rent and I'm sure if we wanted to host a contest that would've worked well. Plenty of parking and restaurants close by. That scenario is probably not available to you but might help you explore outside the box.

Time to go to the big box hardware store paint sections. Many have a good rack of small Testors bottles for under $2.

Not what I'd hoped to hear Mark but I'm grateful for the info. Thank you.

Is there a kit that features these taillights with the oval bases? The AMT 56 Ford has similar lights but I believe they're more consistent with the Merc wagon and have rounded bases. (Photo courtesy of Jim Stepanek)

I did get a six door limo once, but it was really messed up.

Tried it, along with any other term I could think of for long roof. I even tried "van roof" and I got a notice about using restricted verbiage. Maybe it thought "van roof" was a proper noun, a person's name. I also got restricted using the term "shooting brake."

I had to explain this very car to my buddy at work when I showed him the pics since there's hardly another American car like it. On some of the prompts I had to specify "American" car, since a lot of results on certain pictures had a distinctive European influence. Think Austin FX4 London taxi.

That's a huge step Gary. Now that monkey's off your back.

Lastly is this '70. I have a junker of one of these too, unbuilt but missing the chassis and engine so I thought I'd explore some ideas here. Again, I'm willing to accept the wonkiness of AI's uncertainty on some of this one, but I'm stoked about the concept.

This one has some exciting ideas that I'd like to explore more for my model.

This one gave me the most consistently interesting options. I love how the car in the back of this one even got a little PT Pronto treatment. This vert also required me to give it a little Photoshop treatment to dial out some wonkiness to preserve an otherwise great rendering.

I've had this bomb in my junkers box for some time and I'm considering a custom makeover by redoing the top and back and maybe the trunk. You can see the front of the top is gone and rear bumper is broken and missing. For inspiration, I explored generative AI to see what might look cool. This is what I've got. I selected the area I want to change and gave minimal prompts, just to see what AI would come up. For the first one I used an internet convertible. First pic of each example is the real car. AI seems to favor a sedan in this set. Love the traditional Cadillac look in this one, including the homage to the era of fins. There are a few of those wonky details I'm willing to overlook since I'm seeking inspiration, not logic. This profile shot seemed to make trouble for generative AI. Most of the time I just got craziness, like it didn't really know what it was looking at. Here's the original... 😄😆🤣🤨 In this set, AI seemed fully in control and gave some beautiful clean results... This up-top convertible offered some interesting considerations, but AI simply would not understand my prompts for a "station wagon."

Great save! I really had to do some photo comparo to even see the seams.

I really like these. The watercolor makes them look so retro and the feel is so organic. Superb work.