63 Stingray Thanksgiving Build ?

[OldNYJim]

It’s a long standing tradition (that I just came up with this week) that I build a kit over thanksgiving.  Like those 24 hours of Daytona builds that some people do, but with more days and more turkey sandwiches.

My wife gave me this 1/32nd AMT Vette kit as a gift last month, and I’ve been wondering how to build it, so I figured this would be a good skills-challenge to see if I can make something shelf-worthy between tonight (Thanksgiving Eve) and Sunday evening.

To further add to the challenge, and partially because I couldn’t decide on a color, I figured I’d let my wife pick a paint from my airbrush stash for me to use.  I figure there’s not many colors you could paint a Vette where it wouldn’t look great anyway, right?

Here’s what she chose:

Welp, I wanted a challenge, and apparently “it reminds me of mermaids” is a valid reason to chose a paint color, so I’m gonna get thinking on some paint ideas with this color as a base.

Guess we’re not calling this one factory stock (although my stash of 1/32 spares is exactly zero parts, so it can’t stray too far from what’s in the box...).

This kit is REALLY low detail, as you’d expect from the scale and when it was originally issued, so I’ll be doing some fiddly detail painting over the next few days.  As you can also see here, the front and rear valances are moulded into the chassis, which seems like it’ll make it tough to get the bodywork nice...

So, some razor-sawing later I split those parts off the ‘frame’ and attached them to the body instead:

Better!  I’ll let those set up over night and then get to doing some bodywork tomorrow - and shooting some of those color over some spoons to see if I can find a base coat that makes it look decent.

More soon, happy Thanksgiving to y’all!

Edited November 26, 2020 by CabDriver

[cobraman]

Interesting "little" project. I will be watching.

[Modlbldr]

I'll be checking in on this one. If for no other reasons than it is a 63 Vette, the time limit is short, and I'm interested to see how the color turns out. Looks like fun!

Later-

[bobthehobbyguy]

Cool project. Will be watching.

[Snake45]

Hey, a purple '63 Vette might look pretty cool! Happy Thanksgiving and drive on! 

[OldNYJim]

Thanks fellas!  Happy thanksgiving!  Hope you’re all having a nice safe day doing thing you’re thankful for with people you’re thankful for!

Dinner eaten, family hung out with - back to work here ? 

Smoothed out the body and got it in primer - used a real thin coat just to give the paint something to bite onto:

Then, a base of Createx sealer:

I messed with some spoons this morning and tried the paint I’m using over some different bases and it looked kinda cool over a black base, but MANNN does it look nice over a Corvette body compared to a plastic spoon ??

Front and rear shot...

Those lines really set off that color! ??

Shot the underside in the same shade, although I’m definitely going to have to do plenty of detail painting on that...

Got a fun idea for a paint scheme on this one...this is just the first step...more soon!

[TransAmMike]

Very interesting color there Jim.  I started a Createx tread several days ago and it got pretty length but very informative. So since I have a Createx interest, would you mind telling me whichn of the Createx line you used there?

[TransAmMike]

Oops, looks like you used Folkart craft for the topcoat.

[OldNYJim]

4 hours ago, TransAmMike said:

Oops, looks like you used Folkart craft for the topcoat.

Yes sir!  Thinned with Createx reducer though, so I could airbrush it - and the black Createx sealer is my favorite airbrush black so I used that as a base.

Small update - shot a couple of coats of clear on the body - that purple pops in gloss!

Assembled these tires and got them in primer - will need to do some smoothing out tomorrow before I paint them...

And shot the interior tub in some black, a nice candy blue on the rim of the kit chromed steering wheel, added a little tinted gradient to the windshield and shot the dash to match the body, just because I was looking for something else to paint in this color ??

More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[bobthehobbyguy]

Wow. What a great color. This is coming along nicely.

[slusher]

Very nice Jim, sharp color!

[Spottedlaurel]

Sparkly! Looks great, doesn't seem to need much/any polishing?

[Modlbldr]

Moving right along! It's looking great!

Later-

[TooOld]

These smaller scale kits can be lots of fun ,  cool to see you building one ! 

[TransAmMike]

Looking great Jim.  What clear did you use??

[OldNYJim]

Thank you all!!  

22 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Sparkly! Looks great, doesn't seem to need much/any polishing?

The lacquer shrunk down a little overnight, which I was expecting it would so it’s not QUITE so shiny right now, but it’ll buff up ok I’m sure

11 hours ago, TransAmMike said:

Looking great Jim.  What clear did you use??

Just Rustoleum lacquer clear on this one.  I like enamel clear normally, but seeing as this one’s a weekend build kinda deal I didn’t wanna wait weeks before I could polish it...this lacquer will probably be good to polish out tomorrow I would think...

Little tiny bit of progress today, seeing as a lot of the major stuff is done now until I can polish the body up.  Masked up the frame with some Silly Putty so I could shoot a little silver on the exhausts (and a little on those front wishbones, for a little interest)

 

Silly Putty is GREAT for these kind of jobs - works just how you’d want it to, and is easily reusable and you can smoosh it into all the cracks and crevices with a toothpick or similar.

A little silver and some light washing and detail painting later, we have a slightly more interesting frame than we did...

I’ll do a little more airbrushing tomorrow to bring it out a little more, but honestly I’m never going to flip this thing over once it’s on the shelf anyway, so...

Oh, and I got my first chance to see this color in daylight - it was too dark here yesterday by the time I have some clear on it ?. Little vid below...more soon!

 

Edited November 28, 2020 by CabDriver

[NOBLNG]

It looks super nice in the video! I like that silly putty masking trick too.

[OldNYJim]

7 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

It looks super nice in the video! I like that silly putty masking trick too.

Thank you sir!  Needed some polishing once the lacquer shrunk down but nothing too major - good enough for a weekend build and something fun to put on my shelf.

Speaking of which, decided to give those skinny stock tires some ridiculous full-height whitewalls, so I cut a mask and shot them:

Polished out and waxed the body, and got the glass (and then interior) in there:

Got the frame under the whole shebang:

Wheels on (man are they a sloppy fit ?):

And a couple of chrome parts later this thing’s about done, except for going over it again tomorrow to see what I need to tidy up once my eyes are fresh:

Id like to build a 1/25 version of this now that I’ve seen it in smaller scale - do one where I can really get all the detail done how I’d like, but this was a fun little 2 and a half day project to mess with over thanksgiving!  And we still have left-over turkey left! ??