21 replies to this topic

[LAV25]

I accidentally posted this in the main "Trucks" section last night, self moving it here and deleting the old thread, sorry if I caused any confusion.

Hi all, after reading lots and lots of Tips, Tricks and Tutorials articles, I'm starting up a Revell 65 Chevy Stepside build. This is going to be my first build in, say 30 years or so. The last model I did involved lots of superglue, took about an hour, and got spraypainted with the glass installed and unmasked. As long as this looks better in the end, I'll be pretty happy.

The picture on the box:



I actually owned one of these (well, a 66, but it looks like the only difference was badge shape and placement), so I'm going to try and reproduce it. Reference pics, circa 1988:







Obviously, this is going to be an exercise in weathering and rusting. I assume everyone here knows what a model looks like going together, so I'll just post the things that I'm doing that aren't in the assembly instructions.

First, the driver's side door, a little work with a lighter and it's nicely rippled, pretty much the way I remember the 1:1 being:



Next, the photos don't show it well, but the left rear wheel well had a big snowbank dent in it. It wasn't as easy to do this well, and it has some anomalous ripples, but I guess it will do:



Chicago rot:





That's about where I stand so far. I've got some two part rust paint, similar (I believe) to the Michael's Weathering stuff I've seen here and on some of the RC sites. It didn't adhere too well to the headers, so I think I'm going to have to prime the other parts (chassis, body) where I plan to use it. I've got some sheet styrene that I'll test it on.

Anyway, that's all for now, I've got quite a few days off, so I hope to make reasonably speedy progress on this, without, of course, acting like an impatient ten year old. To the ten year olds on this site, that is a reference to my behavior at your age, not an insult to ten year olds in general

-Michael Valentine

[camaroman]

Your old truck looks like my old truck from the 80's except mine was a fleetside... The bed was so rusty we replaced it with a green 67-up stepside . Even the wheels were the same... but alas the next owner total it by hitting a Habersham County Sheriffs car.
Watching with interest!!

[Foxer]

Welcome back to modeling. That's a great start ... denting realistically as you did is not easy. I'm a strong advocate of building vehicles you've owned, so this will be a fun one to watch.

[LAV25]

Welcome back to modeling. That's a great start ... denting realistically as you did is not easy. I'm a strong advocate of building vehicles you've owned, so this will be a fun one to watch.

Thanks Foxer, the trick (or at least what worked for me) is to keep the lighter moving constantly. I did the denting with the handle of a paintbrush, which seemed about right. The how-to aspect of weathering is something I'm still researching, but it's been my privilege over the years to have owned a number of excellent examples of extremely weathered 1:1 vehicles, so I'm confident that it'll be easy for me to know what things should look like . Unfortunately, I won't be getting any more painting done today, it's extremely windy outside, and I live in an apartment, so my "paint booth" is gusting like crazy. Oh well.

-val

[camaroman]

Your old truck looks like my old truck from the 80's except mine was a fleetside... The bed was so rusty we replaced it with a green 67-up stepside . Even the wheels were the same... but alas the next owner total it by hitting a Habersham County Sheriffs car.
Watching with interest!!

[LAV25]

I'll bet you miss that truck a lot Camaroman, I know I miss my '66. Sold it to a friend of a friend who was into restoring/customizing old vehicles, unfortunately he ended up with some pretty serious family problems, and the last I heard the truck was just rusting in his yard.

Anyway, I lied about not being able to get any more work done, there's still some non-spray stuff that I had to do. I started on the engine a couple days ago. My truck had a 350 with an automatic transmission in it, this model comes with a 6 cylinder, but I'm just not that into things to go looking for another model with the correct engine to steal. However, my truck's engine was old, and gunky, but starting to get hopped up with a Quadrajet and a 360 degree air cleaner. I took the liberty of putting the chrome valve covers on, which I would have done if I'd had the money, just as a dress-up. The directions say that it should be "Chevy red." That's a bit of a problem here in Japan, so I went with Tamiya X-7 acrylic red. After that was dry, I did a wash of Tamiya X-1 black to give it that used, oily and disgusting look. I wish I had thought to dull coat it before I put on the valve covers, but I'm still fairly happy with the results:







I'm pretty happy with how this is turning out so far, now I just need a couple of days without wind to do some spraying.

More later

-val

Edited by LAV25, 08 February 2011 - 11:28 PM.

[Olskoolrodder]

Awesome bodywork,great engine wash-details! This is a kool project!

[crazyjim]

Welcome back to modeling. This build is looking interesting and I plan to follow along.

[LAV25]

if you are in Japan it should be easy for you to find the Tamiya weathering kits, pick those up as they are really nice. for that engine i'd go over it with the black, rust and maybe one of the lighter dust or dirt colors. i think it will tone down that engine quite nicely and make it look nice and well used at the same time.

Yup, I've got two of the Tamiya Weathering Master kits already, the B kit with snow, soot, and rust, and the C kit with orange rust, gun metal, and silver. They work pretty well, it's just imperative that you spray some sort of fixer (dullcoat) over them if they're going to be handled at all. I'm also thinking of just masking the chrome on the engine and hitting it with a bit of dullcoat.

I wanted to spray my chassis today, but it's snowing! It never (like, hasn't in the past 3 plus years) snows around here. What's up?!?

-val

[MikeMc]

I'm playing with the same kit now...If you want to slam it low, and use the kits mag wheels, check here:

http://www.modelcars...20

[wooddreams]

And... another version of the '65 C10. This one I am building as a 1966 C20 crew cab. I wanted to go 4x4 but decided since the 4x4 kits and/or parts are so hard to find at a reasonable price that it will just be 2wd. The doors are being cut to open suicide style (although there is a post between).

Attached Files

•  IMAG0177.jpg   55.32K   45 downloads

[LAV25]

i'd do the weathering with the Tamiya kit after the engine has been glued into the chassis, that way there really is no handling issues there.

That's probably a good idea, DoubleD, but it looks like I'll have almost all my weathering done before I get started gluing.

I took off the chrome valve covers. I would have like to have had them when I was 17, but never got around to it, and I thought they made the engine look kind of fake. Put on the regular covers, painted the same Tamiya red as the block, and gave them a wash of Tamiya flat black (XF-1). I also washed the aluminum intake manifold with flat black, makes it look a little more used. Finally, I put on the headers. They've been rusted with a Japanese product similar to the Sophisticated Finishes rust. It's a two part, the first is a suspension of iron filings in a clear liquid, and the second is a clear liquid corroding agent. The first stuff is pretty hard to paint on, it likes to clump and not cover well. Anyway, on to some pics:







The camera makes that rust look a lot, well, fluffier than it appears to the naked eye. I'm in the process of rusting the chassis now, once it's done I'll decide if it needs a touch of sanding or not. This vehicle was a daily driver, so it shouldn't look like it's already fallen apart, just on the way there. Got to find a better place to spray paint than the apartment parking lot, too. The breezes are killing me .

More later.

-val

[Eric Stone]

...
I started on the engine a couple days ago. My truck had a 350 with an automatic transmission in it, this model comes with a 6 cylinder, but I'm just not that into things to go looking for another model with the correct engine to steal.
...

If you're trying to replicate your 1:1, you're in luck because that's not a 6-cylinder, that's a small-block V8. You're probably thinking it's a six because of the exhaust port spacing.

[LAV25]

If you're trying to replicate your 1:1, you're in luck because that's not a 6-cylinder, that's a small-block V8. You're probably thinking it's a six because of the exhaust port spacing.

Well I'll be, I guess you're right. The headers threw me, mine had a 4 pipe per side pattern IIRC, something like this picture, but all rusty and in bad shape:



I'm not going to bother to try and find something to kitbash from at this stage in my modeling career though

Thanks Eric!

-val

[whale392]

yup, being that yours has headers and the kit has exhaust manifolds, I can see how you would think the V8 could be misconstrued as a V6. I am not a big fan of the siamesed-type center runners for the exhaust, even though almost all Mopar/Chevy V8 engines (Hemi and BB Chevy/LS series small block excluded) share this design.

[Nick W.]

I believe the engine in the kit is a 283. Dont quote me on this though lol!

[LAV25]

I think you're right, Nick (notice I didn't use the quote function), but I'm too lazy to look it up

Anyway, slow and steady wins the race. Presenting one rusty chassis:







The rust is a combination of a lot of things. First, I used the two part antiquing finish that I mentioned earlier. However, it really doesn't like to stick, tends to clump up, so I was left with a bunch of bare white patches. I painted these over with Tamiya Orange (X-6), and then washed that, which is nearly hunter orange, over with Tamiya Red Brown ((XF-64). The second problem I had is that where the rusting paint did work, it came out really dark, almost black-ish, even after a second application of the corrosive step, so I had to use Tamiya Weathering Master Orange Rust on top of it to lighten it up. I didn't do everything with that, just added some highlights.

Next, a spare tire:



That's the spare from the kit, I painted the wheel with Tamiya Black (X-1), and then added the two part rust paint. The whitewall is a plastic piece that snaps into the rubber tire. Once that was in, I washed the tire and whitewall with Tamiya Flat Earth (XF-52), which I think ages it up nicely, then snapped in the rusted wheel. It looks a little dirtier in real life, the flash washed it out a bit. This will ride in the bed, my 1:1 didn't have a spare tire mount when I got it.

Finally, I couldn't resist just sort of stacking the parts that I have somewhat done together, so sneak preview time:



I'm pretty happy with how things are going so far, working on the interior now, then I've got to paint the cab and get down to some serious weathering.

More later

-val

[RodneyBad]

It's looking perty good so far.
nice weathering, that chassis looks perty bad but in a good weathered way

[LAV25]

I haven't quit working on this. It amazes me how fast some of you are able to complete your models! This should be done in the next couple days, I'm just waiting for some rust to dry so I can dullcoat it, but anyway, here's some progress that will never be seen:

The dash. It has the gauges and such molded microscopically on to it, and then it's covered with a section of clear plastic. It'll be almost impossible to see, but I took the Tamiya Weathering Master snow and ever so lightly brushed it over the instrument panel, making the speedo and such somewhat visible:





The seat. I've been agonizing over this one, my truck had buckets, I think from a Camaro, but the kit comes with a bench. Do I stop building and search for another kit that has buckets to rob? But then what becomes of the other kit? So I went with the bench. I had some Tamiya Field Grey laying around (a friend of mine was into military modeling, when he moved back to the world I inherited his paints), which seemed like a reasonable color (the instructions say to paint the seat flat white, which isn't going to happen). After I painted the seat, I used Weathering Master soot to build up a few decades of dirty jeans and sweaty shirts:



The back window. This has been the hardest, most frustrating part of this kit. Somebody at Revell decided to go with the optional panoramic window. I hate those things. They're too modern. Sure, my truck had blind spots that you could hide a freight train in, but that's the way it's supposed to be!

So, I did my research, and started measuring and converting, and measuring and tracing, and then started cutting .1mm plastic sheet. Then I tried to fit it in the window opening. More measuring, more cutting, more fitting. Lather rinse repeat.



Then I realized that I was doing it the really hard way. I found some spare masking sheet (from the edges of a Parma precut mask), traced the shape I needed twice, and stuck it onto the kit window glass:



A couple coats of paint (gloss black on the inside to match the interior, flat white on the outside, with a freehand flat black edge [which isn't very good, but it's the best I can do]) later, and we have:



A proper back window!

Now it's off to spray some coating, let some rust do it's rusting, and I hope to finalize gluing tomorrow or the day after.

YES!

-val

[LAV25]

Done!



I'll be posting up a whole bunch of pics in the "Under Glass" section in a little while, I'll include a link once I have one.

-val

Edited by LAV25, 01 August 2011 - 11:41 AM.