LacrosseBoss

I'm not a big fan of race cars, mostly because I can't stand roll cages or decals. I have just started getting back into modelling though, and since I don't have a TON of money to dump into the hobby, I picked up 2 modified dirt-track kits from DTR at 2-for-1 last week: the Modified Vega, and the Gremlin. I do have some other projects on the go, but this looked too cool to just let sit, so I had to crack into it.

While I'm inspired by these forums to get into some of my own kit-bashing and scratchbuilding, I usually do all my models box-stock. In fact, if all goes well and I don't chicken out, this will be my first time ever trying to add sparkplug wires.

Onto the kit.

This is what the kit looks like out of the box. The biggest thing I noticed right away was (1) the body is in pieces (not a fan) and (2) the tires are also in two separate halves and they're hard plastic, not rubber. I'll probably use them still since this is a build to kill some time and add variety to my shelf, but if you're going for realism, probably have to look elsewhere.

The other thing about this kit, these writings/markings are all over the place. Nothing a bit of sandpaper or the hobby knife didn't fix.

Here's the tub which, as you can see, has rivet markings around the edges, but also these circle marks (forget the technical term for them) everywhere. They're not just prominent here, but in countless parts around this build, especially the bigger body pieces. A real pain to sand out, especially on this piece since they're so close to the rivets. I think I lowered some of the rivets, but they're all still there. (This picture was taken halfway through sanding. The left side's circles are gone, but they're still in the tub and on the right)

The other issue I have with this kit is flash. Every piece has massive amounts of flash everywhere. This is not the worst sprue for it, and I've actually cleaned some of the shock support (bottom right) before taking this picture. So, if you enjoy cleaning flash, this is the kit for you! Be sure to lay a drop cloth or something before starting.

Ok, enough complaints, let's look at the actual build.

I'm not entirely sure what the technique is called, but what I want to do is paint a car with a couple different colours such that when you look at it from different angles, you see a different colour.

This is what I mean:

(this is not my image. I found it online as an example of what I am trying to do)

I THOUGHT this was done by putting down a base coat of darker paint, and then using a lighter colour, or a lighter coat or even a transparent colour over top.

What I tried was a single coat of copper paint from a can on my plastic spoon. I waited a few hours for it to dry and I added a light coat of transparent candy green overtop. I believe there's three light coats on here, but it looks more like dinosaur hide than it does this effect.

It's not the best picture, but does anyone know why it looks like this and not the effect I'm looking for?

And how do you get that effect?

Thanks!

I was in my local model store the other week and they were selling CC Lee kits for 99 cents. I've just started getting back into the hobby with some older kits from the 90s I found at my parents' house (I cleaned out my stuff from when I lived there. When I got married four years ago, I never "moved out" I pretty much just "left").

I picked up the Ferrari F50 Barchetta and the Mercedes-Benz 600 SEL kits. I figure, if they turn out to be junk, I spent 99 cents. I can practice techniques on them, I can use them for parts etc.

The biggest question I have is, why would these be 99 cents? When I asked the clerk sort of chuckled and said they're not overly great and they had a surplus but I'm slightly suspicious. Anyone built a CC Lee car kit they liked (namely one of these)? Did I just wait 1.98? Should I go buy out their stock?

Thanks