'64 Impala SS Convertible

[Tcoat]

OK I had no idea that this kit was so scarce until looking for a good box pic and stumbled across this thread on here. 

I picked it up at Michaels just before Christmas 2018 when my wife dragged me in to get some craft supplies. I always head over to the model section even though they usually only have about 12 or so of the same old kits. I spotted the box and grabbed it with shaking hands and tears in my eyes.  To top it off there was a 70% off coupon so I paid around $12 for it!

The reason I was so excited was that my very first legal car (safety inspected, with it's own plates and actual insurance) was a bright red '64 Impala SS convertible! Finding this kit by pure chance was what set me in motion to build all the cool cars I ever owned that have been kitted. 

By the looks of the other thread I see I don't need to go into detail about just how great this kit is. It is probably the best Revell kit I ever saw.

This project has been on and off the bench about 10 times in the last couple of years and unfortunately I have somehow lost many of the pictures I took but there is still enough left t document much of the process. 

Step one was to cut that beautiful roof off and shape the windshield frame.  If I had know that people would have wanted it (see old thread) I would have kept it. The inner fenders were then painted black and masked off.

 

Next up came that little jewel of a 327. Unfortunately the build up pictures of that were some of the MIA but here it is in place.

With coat of tinted Future (RIP) to bring out detail, add some grime and artificial shadows.

 

And after a coated of Testers Dullcoat to have a more realistic shine and tone down the shading. 

No the plug wires do not look like rope on the real thing!

Next up was doing the underside. Build pics gone but it looked like a bunch of white plastic glued together which I am sure most here have seen before anyway. Completely out of box with no modifications done.

When I got my car it was 12 years old. That may mean nothing with todays cars or people down south but up here anything made much before the mid 90s had about a 4 year life expectancy for the body and floor. I bought the car after an almost complete floor replacement was done and it was well undercoated but still had some rust tones peeking through in places and things that had not been replaced such as the fuel tank and exhaust were quite rusty. I finished the underside to reflect that. 

 

Edited December 1, 2022 by Tcoat

[FLHCAHZ]

Very Realistic!

[slusher]

Great detail!

[gotnitro?]

All I see are photos of a real car..wheres the build pics ? Lol very detailed work, especially the convincing rust and grime 

[Tcoat]

Thanks guys.

This one will be sort of a mixed bag of old and new since when I got it the body paint was still fresh but the rest was still untouched original. 

[redscampi]

Very well thought out weathering on that car.

[espo]

Well-seasoned looking undercarriage.  

[Tcoat]

OK time for some base coat. There are a lot of different reds on this thing but all started out as a base of flat Testers red. The black coated parts will come into play later. 

And here is why the black was there. The lower door panels and floor were a very low pile red carpet with sort of black threads through them. The black undercoat simulates this effect very well.

It also nicely fills in the "open" spaces of the side vents giving a sense of depth.

Next up is the actual colour coat for the Naugahyde (no Naugas were harmed in making this model).

 

 

 

Then my standard tinted Pledge wash on all except the carpeted areas. (this goes on almost everything and you will get sick of hearing about it)

 

Missing pics again but the whole interior was given a coat of Dullcoat and BMF was used for most chrome. The items too small or complicated for BMF were done with Testers chrome silver enamel.

And this is the end product. The black shading on the seats and such is of course exaggerated by the photos. It is really much more subtle as the overall finish is more of a low semi gloss than it appears here.

 

 

 

 

[Tcoat]

Chrome prep.

Never was a huge fan of model kit chrome. It just looks wrong for most things (to me) since in scale it is far to bright and every single part has the exact same look. Only the most expensive of cars, after market re-plate or massively polished parts would ever have the shine of model chrome. There is a time and place for it (hot rods, showroom fresh cars, etc) but since I am modeling a 12 year old vehicle the chrome had to be knocked down to real world and scale shine.

All identical and much detail is lost in the glare.

 

Coated with...ah you know by now.  This makes them even brighter but also fills the voids with black and highlights details. The black in the grill was from simply brushing the Future on. No wiping or other clean up needed. Then a light overspray of  Dullcoat. Much more appropriate for a 12 year old daily driver street car in Canada.

 

The shine can be varied by applying more future to selected areas. In this case the outer edge and center of the caps should be glossy but the middle a matt finish. Again there is the benefit of putting black in the areas it needs to be because the self leveling properties draw it down.  

Only outer ring done on left. Center and ring done on right. 

Dash should be a very low gloss not bright chrome.

Toned down but knobs and radio highlighted. 

Even the smallest chrome part can benefit. The Future gives a nice gradual demarcation line between the edge and center. 

 

[Tcoat]

Body painted. It is a different shade of red from the interior but you will have to take my word for it. The adventure in BMF is successful. So far. The elusive to replicate SS reflective patterned side trim white base is done. Will need to figure out how to the a very thing silver was over it to get the right effect.

 

 

[Tcoat]

After 4 attempts of paint, strip, repeat I finally got some tail lights that I am happy with. When they cleaned up the molds for the most recent  release they apparently forgot to do the tails. They were just sort of vaguely round blobs in a sea of flash and misaligned mold seams. I was one more attempt away from just scratch building them.

 

Decals on and first gloss coat to sea.

l

[Slotto]

Incredible! Love the weathering. Very realistic 

[Tcoat]

16 minutes ago, Slotto said:

Incredible! Love the weathering. Very realistic 

Thanks. Like I said before the real thing was sort of a mixed bag when I got it. They went to great lengths to restore the body and do a good paint job but it still had the 12 year old exhaust and the engine was just a grime pit. Also had a completely tattered top but I had to wait for about 3 months for the guys I bought it from to find a replacement. Or at least that was their excuse! On the way home from picking it up I ran out of gas. This was odd since it had a quarter of a tank when I left and it wasn't that far. Turned out they had accidently drilled a hole in the bottom of the tank and what ever was blocking it opened up as soon as I started driving and the fuel sloshed around a bit. Think I paid $900 for it with a safety certificate so it was still a bargain even in 1976. 

 

[Larry Rose]

That turned out very nice, Tony. Great detailing and use of Pledge.

Congratulations from 130 miles west of you.

[Superbird McMonte]

That’s gonna be sweet! Can’t wait to see it done!

[Tcoat]

Almost there!

[slusher]

Looks great!

[Tcoat]

6 hours ago, slusher said:

Looks great!

Thanks! I am 100% happy with the interior, engine and chassis but only 75% satisfied with the body and trim. This was my first go at gloss paint and Bare Metal Foil on car trim about 2 years ago and it is not my best work. This project keeps getting pushed aside while I learn some car modeling techniques and gain experience. Even after reworking them 4 times the taillights are still just shapeless blobs on the back of the car so I am most certainly going to scratch build them after I get the right materials. I will see how it looks once I get the grill, bumpers and top tonneau cover on it but may just end up striping all the trim and paint and starting over on the body.

[Perspective Customs]

On 12/1/2022 at 6:51 PM, Tcoat said:

With a coat of tinted Future 

Care to share your recipe?

[Tcoat]

10 hours ago, Perspective Customs said:

Care to share your recipe?

Oh it is really easy.

I use an empty, cleaned Tamiya thin cement bottle. Fill it about 3/4 with Future/Pledge/Pledge with Future/Whateveritwascalledwhenyouboughtit. I the squeeze a pea sized dollop of Dollar Store water colour black into it. Mix it really well by stirring and shaking. Then add another dollop about the same size. Repeat.  I keep adding the water colour until I can no longer see through the mixture. It will look WAY too opaque in the bottle. I then brush some onto a part that has some texture to it. The mix should flow to and fill the low points while leaving the raised sections relatively unchanged. Let it dry. It will look horrid when still shiny but once hit with an overcoat of flat (I prefer Testers dullcoat) it will calm down and become more subtle.  If I am happy with the mix the I go to town with it. If too deep I add a bit more Future and if not deep enough more black.

When using it you need to make sure that you keep gaps you want filled as horizontal as possible so it stays put until it drys. Of course to flows better and leaves less on the flat surface of the paint when put over a gloss coat. When on a flat coat you get a bit more discoloration of the base but that often works well in your favour. If you want to wipe some off just use some untinted future on a tissue before the tinted drys completely.

One thin cement bottle of it lasts me about two years and I use it on almost every single painted part. 

The one on the left has been coated. The big vent fins were allowed to fill and dry. The panel lines were just how gravity pulled it in after a coat was applied to the whole surface. I left some on the flat white for weathering and wiped some off to get a mottled effect. There were no other weathering products used here just the black tinted Future and a flat over coat.

Base coat

 

Tint coat applied to whole model still glossy

Flat coat end result

[Perspective Customs]

Thanks for the info. I'll give it a try.