Snake45 Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 (edited) Few years ago I decided I needed a silver '70 Chevelle SS on my shelf. I got the Revell snapper, prepped out the body to my specs, primed it, and painted it with some kind of Tamiya silver in a rattlecan (Aluminum, maybe?). Tried clearing it by carefully hand-brushing it, one panel at a time, with Future. Bubbles and runs. Stripped the Future with ammonia, tried it again, same thing. Stripped the Future again. Cleared it with something else (don't remember what), rubbed it out, looked beautiful except a couple spots where I rubbed right through to blue plastic. Stripped the whole thing down to bare plastic. Primed again, repainted again with the Tamiya silver, cleared it again (don't remember what with--possibly a Tamiya clear gloss, maybe Testor One Coat Wet Look, I don't remember), rubbed it out again. Finally, it's beautiful! At this point the project stalled for lack of good SS stripe decals. Onto the Shelf of Doom it goes for three or four years. So I came up with some decals and yesterday got in the mood to dig the thing out and drag it across the finish line in the very near future. And NOW guess what, the clear is cracked! Not like you're probably thinking, the cracking is like subtle alligator skin, or like dried-up mud. The cracks are wide, but not very deep. And they're not real obvious, you almost have to look for them to see them. And oddly, they seem to only be on the horizontal surfaces (roof, trunk, hood) and not the sides. The hood and trunk stripes should cover a good bit of them. Might try to see if I can polish them out of the top, but will have to be careful--I don't think the clear is very thick after it's already been polished once. Could prolly re-clear it, but I'm not gonna. I just want this thing DONE. We'll see how it goes, I guess, maybe this weekend if I get the time (I already have the interior, chassis, and wheels built; it just needs the body finished.) Wish me luck. Edited March 10, 2018 by Snake45 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Can-Con Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 (edited) You mean like this Snake? I think it's from the top coats drying too fast and shrinking and the underlying coats not being completely cured. Only thing I could do is strip it and redo the car. It's now in primer but I never got around to redoing all that candy and fade work. Edited March 10, 2018 by Can-Con Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 Wasn't Tamiya clear famous for cracking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snake45 Posted March 10, 2018 Author Share Posted March 10, 2018 43 minutes ago, Can-Con said: You mean like this Snake? I think it's from the top coats drying too fast and shrinking and the underlying coats not being completely cured. Only thing I could do is strip it and redo the car. It's now in primer but I never got around to redoing all that candy and fade work. Yes, it's very similar to that. Not identical, but similar. I just hit it lightly with some polish on the top and the hood and it knocked a good deal of it down, maybe half or a bit more. The silver color is pretty good at hiding it, too. It would be worse in a dark color. I'm going to drive on. I think the idea at this point is to treat the build like it were one of my Toy Show Glue Bomb Rescues and just do what's necessary to make it look a little better and "git 'er done." We'll see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1972coronet Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 The most-recent "tooth-and-nail" build I've given up on was the c.2013 reissue of the old MPC 1975-1976 Dart Sport . Why ? Well , after I'd acquiesced to the curbside direction I had to take (no amount of fiddling could make that engine compartment look good !) , and after a third interior colour change , I was stealing home base when it hit me : that frickin' front wheelbase is markedly different from side-to-side ! After working on it one-and-off for the last 4 years , I put it back into its box , and surrendered it to "the closet of shame" . Oh , well ... maybe in a few years I'll be able to look at it again , and actually fix its maladies ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disabled modeler Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 Snake....Man have i been there before too. Is the Chevelle snap a decent looking kit..?...been wondering about it...may need to find me one for my collection..? Does it represent close to a 1/25th scale one or is it a bit larger..??? I have done weeks of bodywork to some only to have the paint give me issues requiring them to be stripped and redo the bodywork before...man that is a huge bummer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snake45 Posted March 10, 2018 Author Share Posted March 10, 2018 46 minutes ago, disabled modeler said: Is the Chevelle snap a decent looking kit..?.. Does it represent close to a 1/25th scale one or is it a bit larger..??? I think it looks good. It's 1/25 and shares nothing with the old Monogram 1/24. IMHO it's overall the best shaped '70 Chevelle kit you can get, though there are other opinions of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete J. Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 (edited) Oh, heck yes(expletive a bit more forceful)!! I have a model that has become my absolute nemesis! It is a Tamiya World Rally Ford Focus. I started it a little over 3 years ago. I am now on the 5th or 6th repaint(not sure which)! Chassis has been done for a long time. The body has just given me fits. First it was panel lines showing through the mica blue as white, then it was the mica coming out in the panel lines when I clear coated it. Then it was a sand through on one of the decals after clear coat. Latest is a bubbling of the clear in the panel lines. This thing has a real complex decal job and I have been through at least 4 sheets of decals and am on my second body. Lucky, Tamiya has spare decals availble and I bought a bunch of them. Every failure just strengthens my resolve to not be defeated by the POS! Edited March 10, 2018 by Pete J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snake45 Posted March 11, 2018 Author Share Posted March 11, 2018 Well I was able to polish a good deal of the gator-skin cracking out, and today I got the decals on, after all these years. It took two sets of AMT '70 Chevelle decals, as they were both too short and too wide. Job took me 3-4 hours and was as big a headache as any model airplane decal job I've ever done. Couldn't have done it without a google search for the correct size and placement of '70 Chevelle stripes. With a little luck, I might be able to kick this stupid thing through the goalposts tomorrow. Or, at the worst, next weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karl Sheffer Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 I think that snap Chevelle kit also has a beautiful interior! The separate side panels are so easy to detail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 On March 9, 2018 at 6:51 PM, slusher said: Wasn't Tamiya clear famous for cracking? I am going to ask again wasn't Tamiya clear famous for cracking? I have no idea why some don't seem to answer any of my questions on here lately... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete J. Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 43 minutes ago, slusher said: I am going to ask again wasn't Tamiya clear famous for cracking? I have no idea why some don't seem to answer any of my questions on here lately... When they first introduced it yes. The problem was shrinkage rates. I did some work for them at that time(same time I wrote the article that is still on Tamiya Americas web site) and realized that it was time between coats that was causing the problem. You either had to recoat within an hour or wait for a couple of weeks. Luckily, they have reformulated it and it is no longer an issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 18 minutes ago, Pete J. said: When they first introduced it yes. The problem was shrinkage rates. I did some work for them at that time(same time I wrote the article that is still on Tamiya Americas web site) and realized that it was time between coats that was causing the problem. You either had to recoat within an hour or wait for a couple of weeks. Luckily, they have reformulated it and it is no longer an issue. I have been wanting to try the clear. I love the paint. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disabled modeler Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 23 hours ago, Snake45 said: I think it looks good. It's 1/25 and shares nothing with the old Monogram 1/24. IMHO it's overall the best shaped '70 Chevelle kit you can get, though there are other opinions of course. Cool...ill have to find one sometime then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snake45 Posted March 11, 2018 Author Share Posted March 11, 2018 1 hour ago, disabled modeler said: Cool...ill have to find one sometime then. I'm pretty sure I saw them at Hobby Lobby yesterday. It's the version with the big goofy wheels/tires, no stock wheels/tires. On this build, I'm using the stock wheels/tires from an AMT. The first version of this kit was stock, and molded in green. I have one of those in the stash. It took me a while of looking for it on eBay. Well, not all THAT long, but it's not like there are three of them on there at any given moment. I'm hoping to build it soon. Need it for my Polished Plastic collection. I don't anticipate it will give me as many problems as this one has. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russosborne Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 Yes, every one I touch. Or wait, does that mean I am the one cursed? Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disabled modeler Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 22 hours ago, Snake45 said: I'm pretty sure I saw them at Hobby Lobby yesterday. It's the version with the big goofy wheels/tires, no stock wheels/tires. On this build, I'm using the stock wheels/tires from an AMT. The first version of this kit was stock, and molded in green. I have one of those in the stash. It took me a while of looking for it on eBay. Well, not all THAT long, but it's not like there are three of them on there at any given moment. I'm hoping to build it soon. Need it for my Polished Plastic collection. I don't anticipate it will give me as many problems as this one has. Id need to find the green one then being most of my builds/restos are factory stock. My biggest curse is trying to find parts,etc. for the ones I have from my dads old collection so i can restore them to what they should be like again...sometimes it can seem hopeless but I just cant give up on them. On my budget e=bay is out of the question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jantrix Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 On 3/10/2018 at 9:16 PM, slusher said: I have no idea why some don't seem to answer any of my questions on here lately... The jig is up fellas, he's on to us. On topic. Oh yes. Very much so. Pretty much every time I try to combine decals with clear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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