bigbluesd

This is the block I put my bodies on to spray, this is the same outcome that I had on the body from the shortcuts paint.

Absolutely nuts, that paint job looks incredible. Also, your website is great.

I've been reluctant to post any of my models to this board because I'm just so #$^& bad at them at this point, I picked up this hobby in January and I've completed 10. I'm getting better with each one but it's slow progress. I decided I will start posting WIPs to hopefully get some constructive criticism and some feedback on what I can do to make my finished product better, so any comments good, bad or indifferent are appreciated! This is what I've got on my bench right now... No WIP pictures yet, there's not much to show. I primered all of my parts with Duplicolor sandable primer and went for paint on the body... I needed to find a spray can with an orange bright enough to bring back those neon 90's and the closest thing I found was Krylon Short Cuts in Glow Orange.It had that nice "hot" orange look to it that screamed 1990. I did two light coats and then a wet coat and it was a disaster. The paint went on thick and gross with a texture that was akin to snow (this is not an exaggeration). It felt like styrofoam. It must have been a reaction to the primer because I can't even imagine crappy paint being this bad, completely useless. (I would post pictures but I don't have any and I've already dipped the body before deciding to write this thread) On the plus side, once it hit plastic I realized that the orange was probably a little too strong anyways so maybe this is somebody's way of looking out for me. I've dropped it in some NAPA brake fluid to strip the finish and I am going to go back and redo it with Testor's Competition Orange that I have left over from a Mustang Cobra that I built, it's not quite as "glowy" as the other but it seems to be a reasonable interpretation of the original car.

Awesome... what did you use as a base for McQueen? It blows my mind that nobody has released a 1:24 scale version of these yet. We went the 1:1 route for my son's third birthday party:

When you talk about the blue/red labels you mean MicroSol and MicroSet, right? I have MicroSet as well, the label is blue on that. I brush it onto the body where the decal is going before I apply them.

I am 10 models into my education but I am having one hell of a time with decals. My current struggle is shown below... Am I alone in this being a problem? I can not get it to conform well to the contours of the hood scoop even after playing with it for half an hour. I get those ripples and can not get them out. I tried slicing the decal a little along the edge of the ripple to get it to lay down but it makes for an unsightly seam (see the spot in front of the hood scoop on the top stripe for example).I basted the decal with Microsol hoping it would help but it does not seem to have any effect at all on these spots (or any others for that matter). My usage of Microsol to this point (on other models) has been wholly ineffective... what am I doing wrong? Please ignore the completely screwed up matching of decals above the hood, I swear to you I used the right decals, triple checked it. They just don't fit. Has to be an issue with the kit. Not happy about that either. My other question is that after I painted the body with Testor's rattle black there were a couple of rough spots that I sanded with 3600, 4000 and then 12000 grit pads (don't have anything between). These areas are nice and smooth now but obviously the gloss is gone. Should my clearcoat render the gloss difference invisible when I put it on? Just hoping... Any input or criticism you can give is appreciated, I am frustrated to be a year into this hobby and still have every model end up an eyesore because of paint and/or decal issues.