Nacho Z

Good Lord, that thing is gorgeous!! I love it! You did such a nice job on it. That color combination is soooo nice.

She’s a beauty, Mario! I really like that kit. If I remember correctly, it goes together very well with no major issues at all.

I just got done watching a YouTube video on this car. I’m sure there are several out there. This one interviewed folks who worked on the development of the car. I will admit that I had never heard of a Z07 option but there is one!

Regarding the use of primer, Keith has nailed it. You may have perfect body prep but I’ve never been that lucky. Primer really brings out sanding marks, etc. Unless you empty an entire can of primer on your model I seriously doubt that you will completely bury detail under it. Personally, I like to use gray primer for my body work. Depending on the final color I may actually shoot white primer over the gray primer.

Here is my 2021 Halloween themed group build. I have always wanted to build this kit. It is a simple, low detailed, shelf model. I do realize that the driver's sided tires have the tread facing the wrong direction. I will have to fix that. If you would like to see the WIP here is a link: On to the pics.

This is the last update. Even seasoned modelers make dumb mistakes. In the last post I showed the clear right after I shot it. Like an idiot I laid it down to heavily. It bubbled and wrinkled as it cured. I will go ahead and share the photos of how bad it looked. The good news is I was able to save most of the body. The roof could not be totally repaired without actually taking it down to the plastic and redoing it. It was not worth the effort to me. I did not spend much time on the interior as it really can't be seen on the completed model. And here is what a healthy dose of stupidity will get you. I had to do a heck of a lot of work to fix my mistake. I used Micro Mesh cloths and Tamiya polishing compounds to get to this point. I will post the finished model in the Under Glass section. Thanks for taking a look.

For decals, I bought a larger sized 3-ring binder and a bunch of document protectors, (those clear plastic sleeves). I drop my decals in those. My decals are kept in their original package along with that slick paper that comes with them. My hobby room is in the climate controlled basement so light exposure, temp. and humidity are not big concerns. My PE is laid flat in a drawer.

I hear you, Mike. I use Tamiya primer too. I am pretty sure my crazing issue was that I did not wait long enough between coats. This would be the same as putting it on too heavy, I’m guessing. Personally, my biggest issue has been with Zero’s Jet Black. It seems hotter than any other colors I’ve shot so far. I will say that I haven’t shot a ton of different colors yet. I have painted a Hasegawa Porsche 962C in their Pure Brilliant White with no problems whatsoever.

Greg, UpScale Hobbies and Hobbyworld-USA are both suppliers of Zero. What they have on hand can vary. Zero Paints, generally speaking, are "hot" meaning they may craze the plastic. I have shot a number of colors and there are some that went down beautifully with no crazing and others that did. The trick, in my experience, is to shoot light coats and wait the recommended time between coats.

I did one of those "poll the audience" stunts and asked guys which wheel set looked better. I was leaning towards the one in the first picture and that was what won out in the poll. Time to lay down those big 'ol decals. I couldn't help myself and added this little guy to the back door. Pretty cool seeing him when you roll up at a stop light. After the decals dried I laid down some clear. In the following pictures it looks decent but I had some issues. I'll share that on the next update.

Yes, Steve, this one has been something else. I haven't even tried to clean up and/or fill all of the ejector marks and flash. I am mostly concentrating on the body. I have seen your work for quite a few years now and I know you will knock this one out of the park.

In between body work, priming and painting, I worked on the chassis and interior. To reiterate, this is going to be a shelf queen and I have a timeline to keep. There is a ton of raised ejector pin marks and flash. There are a number of very random "bumps" on my model. I did remove the most obvious ones. After a good bit of time spent cleaning up the parts I shot them in primer. Everything fit together just like I expected...? I did minimal detailing on the chassis, interior and engine.

Thanks, Steve! I'm not a big fan of people hijacking other's posts. This is a bigger issue on FB than here. It is a timely build for me as it is being built for a Halloween themed group build. Regarding the raised ejector pin marks, you are right, this has to be one of the worst examples. I primarily build road coarse style race cars and these tend to be from the Japanese kit manufacturers. I joked with some of my buddies, "why do I do this to myself?" meaning why do I build these old kits when I have so many quality kits...?

I agree, Kool Kat. I recently finished up a pretty detailed Tamiya Porsche 956 racecar, (posted here on MCM). I have over 200 hours in it. It is nice to knock out a couple of quick, low stress models in between these longer projects. You are absolutely spot on, Mario! I love their products. Thank you, Zippi! Yes, David, everything laid down nice and smooth. I have to be honest, I noticed some sanding marks after the primer had dried. Because of the time constraints and because this is just a shelf model, I decided not to go back and fix them.

Because I am shooting this in Tamiya rattle can gloss black I used Tamiya oxide red primer. The primer laid down nicely with just a few dust bunnies finding their way onto the body. I removed them and shot the Tamiya Gloss Black straight from the can. This stuff is amazing!

I have already apologized to Can-Con, Steve, for starting a build thread of the same kit he is building. Mine will be a quick build without much in the way of detailing. It is being built for a Halloween themed FB group. I started it around the end of Sept. and need to have it finished by Oct. 31st. It is not intended to be anything more than a shelf model. It is not intended to be a contest quality build. I have cut a lot of corners on this one...lol. It is refreshing to build a model and not sweat the little details. Here is what I am starting with. Here are the kit contents. I started with cleaning up the body. I removed most of the molded on features. This includes FORD and Econoline emblems, door locks, etc. The drip rail on my copy was horrible. It was uneven and dented. There was no way to paint and polish this area. It had to go. First step in removing the drip rail. Wanting to keep damage to a minimum in case I slipped with the chisel, I taped off the body. Progress! Check out the mold lines down the corner and the flash in the windows! I use a chisel made by Trumpeter. These things are amazing. It is easy to remove too much plastic and to gouge the surrounding area. You really have to be careful. I decided early that I was not going to detail the engine so I also decided to glue the hood on. At this point the body is pretty much ready to go. I rescribed the panel lines and I scribed around the windshield. This gives a nice little trough for the scalpel blade to follow when applying BMF.

Very cool, Steve! I'm going to apologize to you now because I am going to start a build thread of this one too. Mine is the Phantom. I'm building it for a Halloween themed FB group build. I started mine around the end of September and need to have it done by October 31st. I have no doubt that yours will be a whole lot nicer than mine. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress!

Well this explains a lot for me. Like many of you I have specific saved searches for certain model kits and some other oddball items. I get emails for all of these searches every morning. For the last few days I have been getting emails with no name, I.E. Aurora, but way, way more listings. Something for trucks I think. I will now just delete that search as it does nothing for me.

Wow, Scott, this is really nice! Someday I will build my kit and I will use yours as a reference. I am looking forward to seeing yours when it is complete. Thanks for sharing!

I would always make sure to make time to visit with Rich and his lovely wife at both yearly Pittsburg model shows. What a nice guy. And man, his models were truly great pieces. I remember one particular show, Rich cleaned up. He had a smile from ear to ear. I noticed he had not attended since his procedure. I, like many others, will miss him.

This has happened to me and my coworkers on more than one occasion. Things that were never Googled or otherwise looked at online, only discussed with my coworkers, showed up as advertisements on our Facebook pages. One of our coworkers left his phone on his workbench and stepped out of the shop for a minute. We all stood around his workbench and repeated "Viagra" in our "conversation" ???. I have no idea if anything became of it!

One of the things I use them for is cleaning the business end of my airbrush. I found that all the fuzzies were gone when doing this…lol. Lacquer thinners for sure seem to dissolve them. They are fine for other things.

Just a heads up. I read about these some time ago and ordered some from Amazon. I will say that I don’t remember the exact brand. Mine “dissolved” in some of my airbrush thinner and cleaners. I have not had that problem with the Microbrush ones posted in the first picture. They are good for other applications but be aware when using harsher solvents.

Stunning!!!

Beautiful!!