Olle F

You mean he's looking for his "special purpose"? :wink:

Very nice, indeed! 8) Would you mind sharing where the parts came from?

Brought it back to Walmart yesterday, and the lady behind the counter didn't argue at all, she just gave me a gift card and that was it. I asked her if they re-wrap any merchandise, but she said that they don't. I seriously doubt that, so I made clear to her that the kit is defective and to make sure that it doesn't end up on the shelf again. I wanted to get another one just like it, but they didn't have any. I might go back today now that I know that they don't have any in stock. If I find a nicely re-wrapped '68 Corvette on the shelf I'll probably raise a huge stink... :wink:

Thank you, I have been wondering about this for quite a while too!

Found these pictures on another forum. Sure doesn't look good, but I wouldn't call it a total loss until it's cleaned up:

Very much so! I didn't want to figure it out by trial and error, and I was a bit worried about the effects it would have on the styrene as I have had some... eh, interesting experiences with brake fluid. Seems like I don't have to worry about that then. Thanks!

Ok, I know that this must have been asked many times before, but I got 792 matches for "Castrol Super Clean" when I searched... :shock: I hope that someone will be kind enough to reply anyway so I don't have to stay up all night and read all the threads. So here goes: 1: How long do I need to soak enamel paint to get it off? What about other types of paint, like laquer and acrylics? 2: Does it hurt the styrene if I soak stubborn parts for, let's say a couple of days or more? 3: Can it be reused, or does it lose it's magic after it's used or stored in an open container for a while? 4: Is there anything you can add to it to make it more efficient? 5: Does it make the styrene more sensitive to scratches, or is it safe to just scrub away with a toothbrush or something similar while stripping the parts? 6: Do the stripped parts need any special treatment, like washing, neutralizing etc. before painting them again? Any tips will be appreciated!

I also read somewhere that the plastic was supposed to last 1,500 year. Hope they saved the receipt for the warranty claim.

Cool! I didn't know that they would do that so I actually bought a jug of Super Clean today. I have got several things I need to strip and was planning a big session this weekend but I will sure take that kit back to Walmart now. Got an old Chevy SB I need to degrease and disassemble, so that Super Clean will be put to good use anyway. Thanks for the tip!

Can't find the $%#@&^% receipt, so I guess it's going in the bath. Barnacles! Well, I sure learned a lesson here, for myself and the rest of you guys: No more kits from Wallyworld. :evil:

Funny, I have just been in the basement going through some boxes with old model junk, and happened to find this: I made it many years ago, when I was trying to come up with a way to make air intake ducts for an old pro stock. What I was trying to achieve was something like you would see on, for example, a Thunderbolt. It's a copper wire (maybe 1/16" or so), bent to shape and wrapped in thin wire, and then covered with shrink tubing. The overall diameter is about 3/16". I finally gave up on this as the wire didn't show well enough through the shrink tubing, and I have been looking for thinner shrink tubing ever since. Another way would be to dip the whole thing in thick paint, thinned Plasti-Dip or something else that would show enough detail.

Sorry, it is indeed a Revell kit. :oops: And even if I have seen a lot of crappy pre-painted kits, I would hate to think that this is one of them. The paint is just too bad, and it looks more like it was started, returned and re-wrapped. I didn't know that they could do that in the store though, and it looked just like the factory wrap to me. Well, I guess I'll have to dig up the receipt and take it back to the store. I sure don't want to start a new model by stripping paint. :roll:

My son just bought an AMT '68 Corvette at Wallyworld, and we got a real surprise when we opened it. All the body parts were painted some kind of purple, and the paint job was the worst I have seen in a long time. The paint is too thin, with the white plastic shining through everywhere, there are dustspecks, scratches and scuff marks all over and the sheen varies between gloss and semi-gloss. In short: It looks like a one-minute rattle can job, without even shaking the can. It looks like some kid started to paint it, changed his mind after the lousy paint job and brought it back to Walmart. The strange thing is that it was still wrapped. So what gives? Is this some kind of pre-painted kit, or did someone really paint it, put it back in the box, wrap it and put it on Walmart's shelf? Looks like I need to get some oven cleaner next time I go shopping...

I have seen a lot of threads on the car forums about this, and sad to say, I'm not surprised to see that there is water in the vault. Bury something under ground for 50 years and expect it to be nice and dry when you dig it up again? I don't think so. :wink: Also heard that they will bring in the nation's leading engine expert Boyd Coddington to fire it up. :roll:

This is one of those "any modeler should already know" tips that were discussed in another thread recently, but I found this picture on my hard drive and thought I would share. I hope it will help someone who wasn't tried this technique yet. The parts in the picture were turned from aluminum rod in a cordless power drill, using files and sandpaper. The distributor cap is home cast resin, and there is also a vacuum can to go with it (not shown). The filler neck and the oil filter have been painted to check for scratches, but the distributor is still aluminum. I might paint it silver later on to make it less "blingy" though. It's not difficult at all, you can use it to replace ugly kit parts and it can save you from buying expensive aftermarket parts too. However, you might get some funny looks from your wife/GF if you're like me and like to sit in the couch and watch TV while doing it.

That's basically the way I do it. I use acrylic paint with the appropriate thinner, which makes it easy to wipe it off if I happen to goof up. Works great on chrome and enamels anyway. I use a small, shallow plastic container or dish of whatever kind I have at hand (I prefer tops from Planters cashews containers, 'cause then I have to eat cashews now and then), put a drop or two of black paint in it plus a fairly good amount of thinner, then I use the brush to mix small amounts of paint into the thinner and dab it on with a small paint brush. I usually thin the paint quite a bit, this will make the wash flow much better. You might have to let it dry and apply some more to build up the black as needed, but on the other hand you won't have much excess to worry about. And if you put too much on there, you can just wipe the brush dry and use it to wick up the excess while it's still wet. In some cases you might also have to wiggle the parts around while the wash is drying (for example on hub caps), to keep it from running to the low spots on the parts. Any paint that ends up in the wrong place can be wiped off easily, if the wash is thin enough it will only leave a slight haze on the high spots. On chrome, it can even be polished off with a dry cloth.

I use the distributor from the kit and drill it out. Sometimes the cap is too small to drill, but so far I have always had something else that I could use. I actually cast some copies of an especially nice one I found in a kit, think I still have a few left. I also cut the cap off and hollow it out by drilling a larger hole through the bottom. That way, I can loop the wires inside (i.e. stick a long piece of wire down through one hole and up through another to make two wires out of one piece). Then I put a small drop of epoxy inside the cap and attach a piece of plastic rod or aluminum tubing so I can mount it on the engine. It might be overkill, but it anchors the wires securely and prevents them from getting pulled out when you route them around the engine. Of course, the coil wire will be a single piece, but that's the last one I put in there so I don't have to handle the engine or the wires much after it's done. The wire I use is a type they use when making temporary connections on circuit boards. Can't remember what it's called, but it's very flexible, and keeps it's shape after you bend it, so it's very easy to manipulate it to make the routing look good. I bought a little tube of 6" pieces for cheap many years ago, and there's plenty left in it. I would think that Radio Shack would have it. BTW: The wire inside is a single strand made of some nice, shiny metal (silver?), and if you pull the insulation off, you'll have excellent material for antennas or small coil springs.

Hey... why didn't I think of that? One of the reasons why I don't like flocking is that I always make such a mess. I have used it on a few models, but ended up flocking the model, the workbench and myself. That trick should make nasty flocking much easier to work with. Thanks for the tip!

I use Squadron White Putty mixed with Tamiya liquid glue or Tenax when I have to fill small pinholes, scratches and minor repair in general. I discovered this trick when I had a problem getting small dabs of putty to spread and adhere. I'm sure you know what it's like when you try to spread a very small amout of putty, you're almost there, and all of a sudden it crumbles up and falls off. :evil: Some thinner in it makes it much easier to spread, it feathers great, it won't dry up on you, and because of the glue I mix in it, it will stick like... well, glue. Brushing some Tenax on the surface before you apply the putty seems to make it stick even better. I wouldn't use it for a thick coat though, because I'm sure it will shrink quite a bit, but it works great for small repairs.

That looks like a very serious project! 8) And that home made CNC-machine makes me very curious... How did you build that?

You can do a lot just by using paint, playing with the sheen and different shades of the same colors. One example is to make a slight mismatch in sheen and color between parts that were made of plastic, vinyl, leather, metal etc, and try to match the sheen of the original parts (there are many more sheens than glossy and dull...). As a matter of fact, dull or semi-gloss finishes look way better than glossy on any interior part, IMO. Also get reference pictures of the real car, study the finish and colors of everything, then try to pick them out with paint, BMF or whatever it takes to make them resemble the real deal. A lot of details are already there, it's just a matter of making them "pop out" a bit. Here are a couple of pictures of a '65 Impala I'm working on. I have only used paint, weathering powder and BMF on this, no hi-tech tricks at all. I have tried to duplicate everything as good as I can, for example: The large Impala emblem in the back seat will look like an unsightly chrome blob if you use it as is, but it will look much more realistic if you use silver paint in the panels behind the chrome strips, and highlight the impala with black. I also painted the emblem in the center of the steering wheel with black background, and transparent yellow on the impala. The dashboard was done in the same way, just paint, BMF and reference pictures laying on the workbench. The seats were intended to have a vinyl look, but after going a bit overboard with the weathering powder, I realized that it looked like leather instead. I liked that look much better, so I just sealed it and now I have got a nice leather interior instead of cheap vinyl. It takes some patience but it's not all that difficult to do, and it makes a big difference. I hope these pix will show what I'm talking about: BTW: I should have mentioned that I use an airbrush to paint pretty much everything except for the small details. It lays the paint very thin, so it won't obscure all those little itty-bitty details and it makes it way easier to pick them out with a paint brush later on. It also makes it easy to change the sheen on a part that is already painted: Just load it with clearcoat, and change the sheen by adding more or less thinner, spraying thin or heavy coats, dry spraying etc.

I had to open up the box and look again, and surely enough: There's holes for the wires! Another thing I didn't mention is how they added "sinks" to the parts to make sure that the styrene fills the whole mold. Seems like it controls the shrinkage too, I can't find any sink marks other than on those round little pieces that you'll cut off anyway. One can always hope that other manufacturers look at this and learn. Details like the sinks, the way the chrome is attached to the sprue etc. don't make a kit more expensive, it's just another and better way of doing the same thing.

Ok, got the Nova HT. "Nice" is certainly an understatement, this kit is one of the nicest and most detailed kits I have seen in a long time! I mean, when was the last time you saw working hood hinges in a 1:25 kit? I'm sure I'll have to post another thread when it's time to assemble them though... :roll: I love the way the parts are detailed and engineered, like how they attached the chrome parts to the tree from the back, so you don't end up with unsightly bare spots in the chrome. If everything fits as good as the design of the parts indicate, this can be a great build, for sure! My only major gripe is the working steering, that's definitely a feature you don't want to see in a nicely detailed engine bay like in this one, but that can be easily corrected. And the rear end is... well, I really don't know what it is, but it sure needs some help. Except from that, this kit is way better than I expected. I really regret that I only bought one, may have to go through Cape Girardeu on my way home to TN to get another one or three... might even pick up a Bonneville!

I bet it was the excitement. BTW: This thread reminds me that I haven't been to Big Lots in a while. You can sure strike gold now and then.

Thanks, guys! There was an open Bonneville kit in the store, so I was able to get a sneak peek. I could see that the roofline was a bit off, and the vent windows were a bit iffy too. I assume that the Bonneville convert has the same vent windows, so we'll see about that one. I don't feel like starting a kit that needs to be modified right now, I'm looking for a good kit that I can build without changing anything (yeah, right... as if that would ever happen. :roll: ). The one I'm interested in is the Nova HT, so it seems like I'm going to Hobby Lobby tomorrow. Might even open it up and check it right away, to see if I need two. :wink: