green with envy '59 caddy

[boyesreef]

started another model today with my daughter. she picked out the revell 59 Cadillac elderado and decided to paint it "daddys car" green. shes 7 and this will be her 2nd go at a model. she tells me what she needs and finds it in the box, i cut it out of the plastic and clean the extra extrusions off. she then decodes the color and has me open that color. the deal is she dictates, i cut, she paints, i glue. so far on day one, heres where we are....

i am truely not happy with the quality of the testors spray paint. i dont have access to an air brush, but ill never use that junk again. ill stick to rustolium.

[GTJUNIOR]

Looks good in the photos.  Great way to spend quality time with your daughter and get young blood into the hobby. I did the same with my 10 year old daughter on her RMS Titanic build. 

[StevenGuthmiller]

What kind of Testors paint did you use? Enamel or Lacquer?

Did you prime first?

Looks to me like the paint was sprayed on too heavy in one coat & pulled away on high points & pooled in low.

Testors lacquers work pretty well if you prime first & use several lighter coats.

Enamels have a tendency to act this way because they dry very slowly & will run & sag easily.

 

Steve

[boyesreef]

i think ill have to strip bath the body. whats a body safe solution for this?

 

[StevenGuthmiller]

i think ill have to strip bath the body. whats a body safe solution for this?

 

You have several options.

A couple that I have used are Easy Off oven cleaner & Super Clean.

I use almost exclusively Super Clean for stripping myself.

It's available at many auto parts stores.

a lot of guys use brake fluid as well.

I've never liked brake fluid personally.

It's too messy & harder to dispose of.

Super Clean is biodegradable so it's easy to dispose of when it's lost it's usefulness.

 

Steve

[Mahogany Rush]

Good choice! I am in the middle of my own 59 Cad build. I had to drill out the axle holes bigger to get the wheels to fit all the way on as not to rub on the body. And never could get the body on with the engine installed all the way. I had to put the pulley/belt/fan system within the shroud (loosely) then the engine. After that, the body went on easy. Good luck on trying without deviating from the instructions.

My 59 Cad progress thread

[boyesreef]

alright fellers, time for another update. we only get to work on this if its been a good day at school AND homework is done. remember folks, dad first, buddy second if there is time, lol. been putting more detail into the engine. she wanted spark plug wires like my other kits, so i let her pick out the color from the wires i had in my stash. picked a green to kind of go with the body. i glued them to where the plugs are, then i let her run the wires to the distributor. this kid may turn out to be a modeler or mechanic yet! got the exhaust and under body painted. decided the body wasnt too bad so we added a couple more coats of paint to hide the high spots.i have pictures of all this but of coarse photobucket is under maintenance. 

Edited January 31, 2016 by boyesreef

[DumpyDan]

SWEET!

[boyesreef]

Update

[72 Charger]

Love the paint . I would use BMF and not bother using the supplied kit foil as it does not conform to the body shape very well . Keep at it your doing great

[Speedfreak]

Nice work for a seven year old! 

[boyesreef]

To be fair, she paints then I touch up and glue. She has done a good potion of the work though.

[GTJUNIOR]

That paint looks pretty incredible for a 7 year old.

[charlie8575]

What kind of Testors paint did you use? Enamel or Lacquer?

Did you prime first?

Looks to me like the paint was sprayed on too heavy in one coat & pulled away on high points & pooled in low.

Testors lacquers work pretty well if you prime first & use several lighter coats.

Enamels have a tendency to act this way because they dry very slowly & will run & sag easily.

 

Steve

 

Steve's right on the money.

Testors enamels will work nicely, but you MUST use primer under them, especially the metallic colors from my experience. Metallic paint tends to be semi-translucent, as opposed to non-metallic colors, which are solid. 

Their lacquers are great stuff; go on smoothly, look very nice and have good color depth.  But, like the enamels, primer is needed for best results. 

For stripping, I like oven cleaner and Purple Power/Super Clean. 

That green is nice- not too far off from Cadillac's Kensington Green of 1959, although a bit more metallic. The interior is paired with the dash in the same color, but with a semi-gloss topcoat applied (the real cars were painted with the exterior color that had a flattening compound mixed in.) The carpet, seat bolsters and the bulk of the door panels should be dark green. Testors Beret Green with a small amount of flat white to lighten it a shade or so, is a good choice. The pleated portions of the seats and the inserts in the door panels should be white.

And yes, prime the interior as well. 

Charlie Larkin

 

Edited February 1, 2016 by charlie8575

[boyesreef]

She kind of wants a custom look. The dash is painted the same as the body. The interior is mostly white and a green stripe on the centers of the seats. Pictures when we get home. One great aspect is that my daughter is very well concentrated when she is painting.

Edited February 3, 2016 by boyesreef

[talon63]

Good looking build, so far. I like the color. If you are looking to strip, I also use Purple Power. It can strip chrome finishes in about 30 seconds, the lacquer undercoat takes a bit longer. Paint may take a while, but I've left styrene soaking for a week or more with no ill effect.

Look forward to seeing the progress.

[boyesreef]

No, we didn't end up stripping it. Olivia was proud of her spray job so we kept it. I'm proud of her. Very proud. Let it be known that of course, no, she's not building this alone. But the paint is 90% her. She paints it on the tree, I cut it off and touch up the spots that the sprue was covering, if its a big peice she glues it, little ones I glue. She picks all the colors. She wants to get her skills up and branch off to build space craft models.

[charlie8575]

She did a good job. First time for her?

Charlie Larkin

[boyesreef]

She did a good job. First time for her?

Charlie Larkin

First time on one of these. She paints all the time, pinewood derby cars, figurines, all sorts of stuff

[GTJUNIOR]

Very cool,  your daughter is a natural. I would also be very proud if it were my daughter. Great job so far. I'll be checking in on this one. 

[boyesreef]

 Finally mated the chassis to the body. Like mahogany rush said, the body WILL NOT go on to the chassis without doing an interesting combination of pull the engine, spread the body, press them together. Pain in the butt.

Still got to finish adding the trim and do all the other stuff. The kid is gone for the weekend, so no progress til at least Monday.

[horsepower]

One key point in using the enamel paints is a very light mist coat for the first coat and allow it to dry enough so that if you touch next to the body on whatever you use for a stand that the surface is sticky but doesn't transfer any paint to your finger, and use several light coats, allowing time to tack up between coats, you will also get better results by heating the can in a sink or small pan with straight hot water from the tap, remove the can and shake it well a couple of times until the can stays warm to the touch. This will help build a little more pressure in the can atomizing the paint better, and the warm enamel will flow out much better and have a deeper shine. Using heated enamel paints is an old trick from painting full size cars, we could use less reducer and the paint would have less orange peel with everything else being the same.

Oh yeah almost forgot, be especially careful about getting water around the top of the can when warming up the paint, I use a paper towel in a point to wick out all I can, then blow it out, using my own air will usually get it all, but I still run a second piece of towel around it just to make sure. Or you can use compressed air, either from a compressor, or the canned stuff for cleaning electronics, it works good for even blowing dust off the model before painting, even with a tack cloth there seems to be that one pesky dust speck that hides somewhere until you get almost through the first coat then it will blow out onto the body, usually in the most conspicuous spot.

Edited February 7, 2016 by horsepower

[boyesreef]

One key point in using the enamel paints is a very light mist coat for the first coat and allow it to dry enough so that if you touch next to the body on whatever you use for a stand that the surface is sticky but doesn't transfer any paint to your finger, and use several light coats, allowing time to tack up between coats, you will also get better results by heating the can in a sink or small pan with straight hot water from the tap, remove the can and shake it well a couple of times until the can stays warm to the touch. This will help build a little more pressure in the can atomizing the paint better, and the warm enamel will flow out much better and have a deeper shine. Using heated enamel paints is an old trick from painting full size cars, we could use less reducer and the paint would have less orange peel with everything else being the same.

Oh yeah almost forgot, be especially careful about getting water around the top of the can when warming up the paint, I use a paper towel in a point to wick out all I can, then blow it out, using my own air will usually get it all, but I still run a second piece of towel around it just to make sure. Or you can use compressed air, either from a compressor, or the canned stuff for cleaning electronics, it works good for even blowing dust off the model before painting, even with a tack cloth there seems to be that one pesky dust speck that hides somewhere until you get almost through the first coat then it will blow out onto the body, usually in the most conspicuous spot.

Ill have tokeep that in mind next time. Every model on my shelf is a rustolium body and frame, testors parts.

[horsepower]

Some nice models on your shelf, but since it's definitely out of place you can ship that old Cox Corsair to me, it will fit right in with all my old (and new) control line stuff. ? 

[boyesreef]

That corsair is a lot of fun. I got that about 20 years ago and it's never been run. I still have the can of fuel it came with and the line is still wrapped and banded.