Quick GMC

Looks very nice and clean. Did you take pics with your cell phone? It looks like the lens might be a little smudgy, the pictures are kind of hazy. Clean the lens with a soft cloth and I think the colors would pop a bit more. I got into the habit of wiping my phone lens on the inside of my shirt before I take pictures, it's helped a lot.

that's a good idea too. Metallizer is the best for dry brushing. Is says airbrush only, but the left over metallic residue is perfect.

without question that is photo shopped. Look at the headlights, there are two repeating patterns, Aso th sizes are staggered one after the other. The right headlight is bigger because of the perspective in the photo.

I tried it last night and it worked great This is how I did it 1. Load brush with metallizer 2. Wipe most of it off on a paper towel, but make sure there is still paint in the brush 3. Dip the brush ONCE in a bottle of lacquer thinner 4. Pat dry on a towel and let sit to dry That worked perfectly. Just letting the paint dry left a little too much. The way I described keeps the brush from getting hard.

Dry brushing is one of the first techniques I learned and it has been an absolute necessity of mine ever since. In case you are unfamiliar, dry brushing is when you apply paint to the brush, usually silver or metallic, then wipe the brush on a paper plate or cloth until there is no more paint being transferred. Then you scrape the paint brush as horizontally as you can across the high points of the piece. You want the paint lighter than what the piece is painted it. This will leave highlights across the high points, giving your part more dimension. I figured this one out by accident. Model Master Metalizer paints are usually my go-to for dry brushing. They dry quickly and transfer nicely. One day I had the Metalizer Aluminum color on a brush, wiped it off on a paper plate, then got distracted. I forgot about it, put it back in the cup and didn't pick it up for a few weeks. When i went to grab the brush, it was still soft, but had all the metallic aluminum color in it. It works incredibly for a long time. I used the completely dried out brush for dry brushing all sorts of stuff. I haven't reproduced this deliberately yet, but I will be soon. I want to get some cheap brushes and do this, and have ready to use colors for dry brushing, like gunmetal, aluminum, brass, etc.

I have the Heller Alpine Renault 1600. The same version Tamiya just Re-released. I haven't really gotten into it that much, but it looks to be a fairly decent kit.

Thank you. Same for Kevin. Painless transaction.

That looks killer. I was looking at a new STI in the showroom yesterday. So tempting.

It's definitely not fake. And Photoshop doesn't do this kind of stuff. There are programs that do, but it's not all Photoshop. Think about putting your flat hand out of a car window on the freeway, how touchy it is to any direction you move it in. Now imagine having webbed fingers. These guys just have to twitch their toes to change their course. After making hundreds of jumps, i don't doubt it's fairly easy to be able to accurately control their trajectory. I mean it's still absolutely insane, but I don't see why they'd fake this. I think a lot of these guys are pretty much ready to die every time they jump. This isn't a sport for people with 401k's and retirement in mind.

I have some really nice stretched tires k dont want. I got them in an aoshima wheel kit. Pucs are in my trade thread in the trade section

Some airbrush manufacturers dont recommend it others do.

That looks great. Almost identical to the Grigio Silverstone I used for my 328

Definitely covered easier. The clear coat is much smoother and less porous than the black paint. The black paint is very smooth, but there is a significant difference in shine and surface smoothness on the clear coat. I have not cleared Alclad, but I know that you cannot and maintain the effect. I have a theory that if you handle your Alclad parts with your bare hands, inevitably down the road somewhere, it will deteriorate and turn black. I think the oils from your skin stay on it and break it down. I say this because I have pieces that I haven't touched in over a year that were perfect when I put them in the box and I know I handled them with bare hands. The parts I know I handled with gloves, like my F40 exhaust parts are perfectly fine. So now I only use latex gloves to handle them. Another thing about Alclad is if it's done perfectly, there will be and extremely light dusting of dried paint on the surface. Use a Kleenex (without scents or lotions if possible) or a camera lens cleaning cloth and just lightly buff it down and it will give it a little more clarity. Not like normal polishing, just let the weight of the cloth fall on it and gently buff it a couple times.

I appreciate everyone's' comments. I really wanted to paint the engine, but all I have is Chevy orange, and I know some of you would notice and I'd be in trouble. I ordered a bunch of paint from Scale Finishes yesterday, including a bottle of Hemi orange, so when that gets here, the engine pics will come. I don't know what the color of the car will be yet. I have ruled out orange, silver and black. I'm actually not a big Mopar fan, but this looked like a nice kit. So far I like it and the fit seems to be pretty good. it was easy to prep. I usually end up making mistakes on the final assembly and making more work for myself. We'll see how this goes.

On a serious note there are two other particular forums that cater to your interests. If you wold like to know what they are, PM me. They are fairly active

Its the tamiya paint stand. I think I ordered it online

It's clear now, middle school is closed today and you're getting bored.

No, you didn't Actually, your post history says otherwise. You posted a progress update today in your latest build thread, then 5 HOURS LATER, you bumped the thread. You're actually being kind of whiny.

Okay so it's always been Alclad over gloss black. BUT, the chrome looks dark sometimes. You can do Alcad over any surface as long as it's super smooth and glossy. Dark colors just give it more depth and actually change the finished hue. So I have been thinking about doing gloss over the black for months, but I have little time to build and I'm too lazy to spend time doing tests. I read Steve_L's thread and said screw it, I'll try it on this build, since the parts were already in black. The KEY is in the angle. I saw a Youtube video a long time ago, I have no idea what video or who made it, but what always stuck with me was the guy said to spray at a 45 degree angle. I took it further and sprayed directly across the surface, basically parallel to the surface. I couldn't do this on the wheels, or I wouldn't get the middle, so that's why the wheels are not quite as impressive as the exhaust pieces. Also, the pressure was up a bit. I couldn't tell what the PSI was because I use a thumb screw right at the handle of my airbrush, the gauge doesn't give the correct reading, but it felt like 20-25-ish PSI. The difference was I had the flow turned down to almost nothing. When I filled the opening of the airbrush WITHOUT THE CUP on and held the trigger down, it took over 20 seconds for it to empty, that's how little paint was coming out. I think I did about 20-30 passes of Alclad over each area, but they were so thin, the black showed through for most of it. So for this stuff I did higher pressure than recommended, but with very little paint flow, at the most extreme angle possible. Here is the same Stainless Steel directly over a plastic spoon, no primer, no base of any kind. You can see the reflection me taking the pictures Also the reflection of my fingers Now if you want to take it a step further, you can lightly sand and polish the clearcoat, and you should get the same results as you see on the spoon. I will be testing some Kosutte Ginsan on a spoon next. I will post the results when I am done.

I tried Steve's method. Here are the results http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=99418

Stainless Steel on the pipes too Polished Aluminum on the wheels

Haven't gotten too far on this yet. All the parts have been trimmed, cleaned up and primered. I filled the holes in the hood where the kit hood pins would go so I can use some photo etch ones I have, I think they will look much better. I had been thinking about doing this for a while, but user Steve_L started a thread in the tips and tricks forum. I had some parts already primered and painted with gloss black. So i followed after him and clearcoated the black parts with lacquer, then used Alclad. It works killer. More depth and reflection. The headers and pipes are Alclad Stainless Steel. The wheels are Alclad Polished Aluminum. I ran out of chrome, so when I get that in I will paint the bumpers. Clearcoated clearcoated over Alclad black base Stainless Steel over the clear coat

How is the quality on this stuff? I have been looking for jack stands and engine stands.

That's what I have been using lately, it's so easy to use and water thin. Sands and polishes nicely too. This stuff? http://i.imgur.com/dwMn8cY.jpg This is over a basecoat http://i.imgur.com/CKEiYSg.jpg?1

Racing white is pretty much a universal color. Scale Finishes, Tamiya, Zero and a bunch of other manufacturer's make a "Racing White". They are all closer to a bone white than an actual pure or bright white. This is Racing White from Zero Paints in the UK