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Revell's Black Widow 1957 Chev Special Edition


MILD

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Before you ask- yup I'm going to number each of my builds ;)

I am going to build this one pretty much as an out of box replica of the race car. I understand the model is hamstrung by some historical inaccuracies and I won't be going out of my way to sort these out. I may make a few little changes along the way to accentuate certain parts of the car. I guess we can put this one in the 'over restored' category then B)

I apologise in advance for the mundane nature of the thread, however hopefully you guys can help improve my skills with your critiques.

Building my Impala taught me a few things that I have already put into practice for this build. The first thing is to test fit parts! I taped up the tub and fit the body over the chassis to make sure everything is snug- so far so good.

testfit01.jpg

testfit02.jpg

testfit03.jpg

With my first car I painted most small parts on the sprue. This lead to a few dramas with cleaning parts so I decided to try something new. I used cut down skewers, Blu Tac and some packing foam. A nice cheap option- you just need to make sure you've got the parts nicely fixed to the skewer or you'll lose something :P I spent a lot of time sanding down mould lines and casting imperfections and fixed them to the skewer at the same point they attach to the model. A paint free join should lessen a fair amount of the heartache I had last time! While I was prepping the parts I sanded back the moulded script off the rocker covers to use the supplied decals.

cheap jig01.jpg

cheap jig02.jpg

cheap jig03.jpg

cheap jig04.jpg

I'm going to finish the power plant on Sunday night before looking at the interior tub. Rather than brush paint, I think this time I will be spraying it with Tamiya's Semi Gloss Black and won't be flocking the floors. As I understand it the real car had rubber flooring which the moulding seems to represent.

Thank you for looking in.

Edited by MILD
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Look like you're off to a good start. One word of caution: Most spray paints will dissolve styrofoam giving off nasty toxic fumes in the process. I use florist's foam as a base for my skewered items.

Regards,

David G.

I was quite tempted to get the florists foam but given I was brush painting figured the packing foam was more than good to go. I will definitely track down a block for spray painting though.

Davyou5- the only problem I found with painting on the sprue was the touch ups once you remove it and all the missed mould lines etc. I may just be me, but I prefer to run my fingers over the parts and give them a real good inspection before and after paint. So far I am happy with how much cleaner those details are with this build.

Thanks for the comments gents.

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Just out of curiousity I tried your method for painting small parts.

While it may work for you, and that's fine, I think I'll stick with painting them on the sprue and then touching them up.

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Just out of curiousity I tried your method for painting small parts.

While it may work for you, and that's fine, I think I'll stick with painting them on the sprue and then touching them up.

Absolutely Donald. I hardly believe there is anything in modelling that is one size fits all so to speak. On thing I discovered was you really need to make sure the Blu Tac has a good hold- no one likes lost bits and pieces!

As for where to get it, Blu Tac is readly available at anything from News Agencies to department stores here in Australia. It's most commonly used for sticking posters and the like to walls. I'd suggest you shouldn't have too many dramas finding a similar product.

The kit is so far great to build- however I noticed I have a cracked windshield. I am in the process of tracking a replacement now but other wise I'll either try and disguise it or resign myself to buying another kit and stashing the left overs for a later project...junk yard 150 perhaps?

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  • 1 month later...

A very long time between drinks as my real life tried it's hardest to sabotage my modelling!

I have completed the motor, interior tub and am well under way with the chassis. The next step will be fitting the donk, lining everything up and then putting the wheels on. The body is in primer awaiting a good rub back but I'm confident I have removed most noticeable defects. I have decided to not go historically accurate with the car but instead am taking the 'over restored' approach to justify the far too bright chrome and a few creative liberties.

On to the photos!

comp tub1.jpg

comp tub2.jpg

comp tub3.jpg

I made the decision to go with a black interior with unflocked floors to represent the rubber flooring. Rather than go with a black roll over bar I decided to hit it with some white paint to make it stand out. It's my first car with one so I didn't want it hidden in a sea of black! I initially painted the dash insert in grey however it looked very unfinished as if it were in primer so decided to go gloss white with a matching steering column and wheel. I'm happy with the look of it even if the fine boarder of the white insert isn't my best work. I decided the chrome tacho wasn't a good fit so painted it black leaving on the forward edge in the kit chrome. I think it looks quite good.

donk 1.jpg

donk 3.jpg

A little more work will be needed next time on the mould line on the transmission. I think putty will be required in future. Other than that, I sanded back the moulded lettering on the rocker covers so the decals went on nice and flat. The other big decision was to leave the manifold and accessories in kit chrome- I was very, very tempted to try some aluminium paint over the top to dull them down but decided to leave it as part of the whole 'over restored' theme (some would call that laziness... I'm calling it a theme :().

Thanks for looking at the photos- hopefully the next update will come much sooner.

As always constructive criticism encouraged.

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I have run into a small problem- the drive shaft runs at a slight angle! I am thinking perhaps it is the diff that is out of alignment as the transmission seems to marry up with the chassis as intended. I was pretty sure the diff was all lined up correctly with the leaf springs but if it was surely the drive shaft would run in a nice straight line from front to rear and not veer off slightly to the right.

Has anyone else who built this model experienced this problem? What is a common fix for it?

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I have run into a small problem- the drive shaft runs at a slight angle! I am thinking perhaps it is the diff that is out of alignment as the transmission seems to marry up with the chassis as intended. I was pretty sure the diff was all lined up correctly with the leaf springs but if it was surely the drive shaft would run in a nice straight line from front to rear and not veer off slightly to the right.

Has anyone else who built this model experienced this problem? What is a common fix for it?

I've checked the 150's I've built and I think you probably have the carrier [pumpkin] rotated 180 degrees off. That would throw the drive shaft off to one side.

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