ModelcarJR

Thanks, Jim, Roger, Bob, and James! I appreciate your comments! Jim, I normally build only 1 model at a time, just funny that way. I'm a closure kinda guy - finish what I start and don't start something I can't finish. But I wanted to get a few bodies painted while the weather is cooperating and unfortunately, I can't stop with bodies - I have to paint at least the primary color on all the other parts. So I have three that I am painting right now. I have to re-paint the 67 Chevy Impala once it is out of the oven cleaner. I may paint a few more bodies and try to stay with bodies only but it will be tough! Thanks for looking! ?

Thanks, Jim! I appreciate your comment! Rubbed out the body and added foil including on the taillight bezels. I'll work on the engine next. Thanks for looking! ?

Thanks, David, Jeremy and DW. I appreciate your comments! I built the '"old tool" convertible issue of this kit and it had some serious warpage problems with the hood and frame. I sorta got it straightened out but it still didn't look quite right. I'll find it one day ( I have to find it among the 350 or so built kits which is never any fun) and post it so you can see the issues. I rubbed out the hood and body today but had to repaint the top and re-clear due to a clouding issue fo some sort and I had a booger in the top that I had to get out. I'll rub the body out again tomorrow. Thanks for looking! ?

This is another kit I have started prepping. Its a Revell of Germany kit that I found at Michaels. Although its in the usual American boxing, its instructions reveal that if was designed for Europe. Instructions in 21 different languages. In my old age, I have finally determined what makes European models so different - they have discovered how to take something simple and make it very complicated as can be seen by the first page of instructions. I have done all the basic painting but there will be a lot of detail painting to do as I completed each step. But I will eliminate multiple shades of the same color and try to keep this simple. The body is painted Tamiya Italian Red and the rest have been painted with shades of black and silver. I still have to rub out the body and I have bagged all the parts so this should be ready to go once I start. Thanks for looking! ?

I started this one yesterday to get one painted and in storage while the weather is nice. There is a lot of flash, especially on the right side of the body. There are a lot of pin injection sites on a lot of parts, or as I like to call them "Li'l round thingys". So I cleaned everything up and got in prrimer. Next I painted the body with Tamiya Maroon but I didn't like it because it looks like dark brown. So I thought maybe the little bit of Tamiya Lavender would look better. So I gave it a coat of that and then cleared after I let it flash like I always do. But two things happened; I don't like the color and the finish came out very rough like fine sandpaper. Don't know why this happened the weather was 90 degrees and below 40% humidity. I didn't want to spend the time rubbing it out so its now in oven cleaner and I'll get back to the body in a day or two. I probably will just go with Dupli-Color Dark Toreador metallic since I know that will turn out well. In the meantime, I painted all the other parts after some assembly and will be moving on to another body to paint. Thanks for looking! ?

Thanks, Jim! I just use the Yost method for thinning paint both enamel and lacquer. I use a the cheap Klean Strip lacquer thinner from Walmart! Also, thanks for the reminder about the taillights and your suggestion to paint the Willys yellow. See below. I thought about the taillights and here was my solution. I took the bezels from the tree, sanded the chrome and some of the rim of the bezel and then glued them to a piece of 1/8" plastic tube. I drill out the holes in the body, and wallered (technical term) them out a bit. Then I stuck the plastic tube in each hole, straightened them so that they are pointing back and level and glued them in place. After paint, I'll foil them before adding the taillight lenses. Now they won't be pointing to the sky. Jim, I took your suggestion to paint the body Bright Yellow. I don't have anything that is this bright and there are plenty of these yellow gassers on the internet. The paint, Tamiya Yellow came out great as the weather has been great today at about 90 degrees with 40% humidity. Two coats of paint over Tamiya white primer and two coats of Krylon Clear Lacquer. It won't need much rubbing out. So maybe I'll find some decals for it. But I might get some more bodies painted while the weather is nice. Thanks for looking!

Thanks, Jim! I took a picture of the can below. The top of the can says I paid $6.05 years ago plus shipping which probably means it was about $12 total. I've only painted a couple of models with it so I have at least another dozen or so that I could paint with this 4 oz can. I think a fellow modeler who does pin striping for a living gave me the idea to do this. Those guys have crazy skills! BTW, looks like you took the bezel and the light and molded it into a taillight of your own and painted it red. Probably made sense at the time as the bezel and taillight aren't a very good part of this kit because they point upwards when you mount them as a unit. There's no angle to the bezel like there should be. Not sure what I'll use for this one. Thanks for your reminder!

Thanks, Jim! I appreciate your suggestions! I have the same concerns about the Candy Lime, especially on these fat-fendered builds. Yours looks really good in the Sublime Green and I see you did your thing with the modifications which look great! I may go with another color, still undecided. Here are my two iterations of the street rod kit. One in Aqua Sign Painters lettering enamel shot through an airbrush with white interior. I frenched the headlights and taillights and it took first place in Street Rod. The other is Tamiya Orange and Dupli-Color Gloss Black with orange interior. I think I built it around Halloween. It also took a first in Street Rod. So Yellow may be a good choice.

I had a window today where the humidity got down to 50% so I primered the body and all the other white plastic pieces. I am using a new primer called NOW which I am not real high on but its $7.49 for a 9 oz can made by Krylon and sold by O'Reilly's. I'll probably rub it out a bit and wash it before I paint again. I have time as its gonna rain anytime now as I type this. I haven't figured out what color yet but here are my choices from what I have on hand: Tamiya - Italian Red, Maroon, Orange, Yellow, or Metallic Orange or Candy Lime Green (either over gold). Dupli-Color - Black, White, Dark Toreador Metallic or Bright Aqua Metallic. I'm leaning toward Italian Red because it would be quick and easy. But I also like Candy Lime Green, if I could pull it off. I wish I had a medium blue or a Light Blue Metallic but its not in inventory at the moment. Let me know what you think. Thanks for looking!

Thanks, Bob and Carl! Bob, thanks for the video as it helped in getting a couple of things taken care of. I wouldn't have found the extra plastic on the inside of the A pillars on both sides. I removed both slivers of extra plastic with my X-acto knife and then sanded it out. Now the windshield glass will fit flush and stay in place I probably won't use the red glass and will probably cut my own using clear acetate since its essentially flat. Unfortunately, the trim built into the red glass will probably not be present and I probably will just not have any chrome trim on the windshield. I also wouldn't have found the mold line on the nose of the hood between the two trim pieces on each side of the hood. I did find the mold lines that seem to run from the midline trim the back fender to the edge of the trunk. And I always take the clips off the hood that clip into the slots on each side of the hood. This time I even filled the slots with a bit of plastic to prevent the slot from ghosting out from under the hood when closed. I also always sand down the fat front fenders to eliminate the crown on these fenders. Yost indicated that there were mold lines on the tops of these fenders. I don't know if there were or not but they are gone now because I sanded out the tops of the fenders. There is also a mold line on the hood between the scope opening and the cowl. I sanded that out too. I also deepened the door and trunk lines by back-scribing with my knife and even added some gray panel line accent color to see if that would work. So I think that everything is taken care of. I don't have before photos but here are a few photos of the finished corrections. Thanks for looking!

I hear you, Jim! You could spray a little paint into a lid and touch up the gray with a fine brush. Once the gray is gone, no one will notice because its under the trim. You could also rub out the top of the fender and if you damage the paint you could use three index cards, one taped inside the hood opening, another at the base of the A pillar and a third taped to the top edge of the fender. Even if you need to add primer because you are sanding/rubbing out metallic paint, you could do it for just the fender top with this method. You could also add a light coat of clear to the fender, if needed. I'm glad you had a chance to rub the paint out a bit. I'm sure it looks better than without it. Overall, it looks great! ??

Good catch! That's why I only use Meguiars; it is sandible and paintable and no silicon!

Thanks, Bob and Bob! I appreciate your comments! Bob T, I watched about 12 of the Yost videos and didn't see anything specific on the 41 Willyous yexcept taking parts of the tree. Was there anything else?

This is the Big John Mazmanian 41 Willys Gasser that I bought from a Louisiana modeler at the last Houston show. He had his collection ruined by Hurricane Ida in 2021. He bagged a lot of kits and the decals are ruined but the rest of the plastic is in good shape. So I bought a couple of kits and this is one of them. I could get another set of decals and some Candy Apple Red paint but I probably will just paint it with something I have and mark it with an A/GS in the window and call it good. I have built two of these as street rods and both came out very well and placed in two different contests. Its a simple kit but builds up so well. It paints and rubs out easily and looks great once complete. It rained yesterday and will again today. But that's great since we haven't had much rain in two months so I won't complain. For the moment, I just wash off the Louisiana mud and put a few things together to get ready for paint. Thanks for looking! ?

I wouldn't do anything. The finish looks fine to me and whether the stripe is gloss or semi-gloss isn't worth bothering with, even for a contest entry.

Jim, I am just curious. Did you rub out the paint at all? Although the paint looks fabulous, I haven't seen any finish that couldn't be improved by rubbing it out a bit, even if its just polished with some Scratch-X or similar polish. It might be more complicated without a clear but still could be done to the top and wells on top of the front fenders. The fender edges might be a problem but after all that fabrication work, it might be a good idea to add a clear and rub it out. Just a thought.

See, you saved it and it turned out very nice! Always keep a can of oven cleaner handy to deal with the vagaries of paint. Great color, foil and working tailgate! Congrats! ??

Thanks, All! I appreciate your comments!

This one is painted with Dupli-Color Gloss Black and a combination of MCW Yellow Gold mixed with light green nail polish lacquer to create Crocus Yellow. The Yellow in the photos has a strong hint of green but you may not be able to tell it due to poor photos and/or computer recognition of the color. Interior was painted two-tone with the same colors. Twenty inch wheels and tires were added from the parts box and turned to aluminum using Dullcote and blackwash. MCG Chevrolet scripts were used on the rear fenders. No additional detail was added to the engine. Thanks for looking! ?

Thanks, All! I appreciate your comments! This one is done! See all final photos in the Under Glass section. Thanks for looking! ?

Thanks, All! I appreciate your comments! Before starting this build, I watched the HPIGuys video on the Model Roundup website. Some of the things they do, like using Rustoleum paint is a little surprising to me, but I did pick up a couple of things for this build. I assembled the front suspension before painting and painted the whole assembly and chassis at the same time. They also did this for the rear suspension and then cut the tailpipes at the loop under the axle and mounted the tailpipes in two pieces and the cut pipes met with a little glue under the axle so that it wasn't visible. I didn't do that, but I did assemble the rear suspension on the chassis, gluing everything together, except for the spring mounts and shock mounts to the chassis. When the assembled rear suspension glue had dried, I removed it and painted it as one piece. It fit into place beautifully once everything was painted and the tailpipes were in place. I also chose not to use the split spoke wheels that are in the kit and found some suitable replacements in the parts box. Looks like they have a Pontiac logo in the centers so i guess they came from a Pontiac kit. I would prefer a rounded spoke, but this is as close I could find in the parts box. I gave the chrome wheels a coat of Dullcote and then brushed with some blackwash when dry to get the aluminum look. So after having to adapt these wheel hubs to the lowered alternate chassis suspensions, I got the chassis together. I also ran into another problem of my own making in getting the interior into the body and body on the frame. While gluing the interior into the body, My glue stem fell out of my superglue and right onto the rear glass. In my panic I tried to wipe it off but that just created a bigger mess. Instead of sanding for hours to try to get the clear plastic repaired, I found another back glass in my clear parts box and used it although it didn't fit perfectly and I used some black paint to emulate the rubber around the glass and fill the slight gap at the top of the window. Once everything is together it is barely noticeable. So now its on wheels! Here's a few photos. Thanks for looking! ?

The interior is done. Nothing special. Two-tone with foil and chrome pen. Kit decals.

Thanks, Carl and David! I appreciate your comments! Finished the foil on the body and finished painting the interior with one door foiled. Once I foil the other door panel I'll get busy with assembly. Thanks for looking!

Thanks, Joe! I appreciate your comment!

Nice work on this less than stellar kit! Your work on the doors, paint and decals is top notch! ??