~Mark~

She's looking good.

Well after a few 14 hour days at work I felt I needed to unwind a bit. I got the clear on the body and am happy with the results. Once I got that as good as I can I moved to installing the engine and most of the suspension. I almost forgot to BMF the exhaust tips. Now I need to find a picture of where the break and fuel lines should go. After I got that done I put the body on just to get a shot for my laptop's background. I'm a bit nervous about doing the BMF on the trim. I'd like to get that done this Sunday. I have a lot to do in the engine compartment. I wish I would have waited to put the steering box in until after I glued up the firewall. I'm not sure if I'll be able to match it up once I get the firewall glued in, just one of the screw ups in this build.

This is straight up awesome!

I've been using a cheep $20.00 airbrush from Harbor Freight. http://www.harborfreight.com/deluxe-airbrush-kit-95810.html I've had it now for a year or so, and it's done me well. I don't do a whole lot of fancy work with it, but for spraying my kits it was a great choice. I also have a good regulator, and water filter. Here's a page of my builds. https://ussnorthcaroilna.shutterfly.com/ The first build I used the airbrush was my USS Independence. I used that kit as my learning build, and I think it came out good for the first time I used an airbrush. I also use Tamiya paints almost exclusively, but only because my LHS has it in stock and at a decent price.

Holy show room new is this build outstanding! your interior is fantastic, and your body paint is flawless. The trim came out great, even the black line in the center is perfect. Lots of skill went into this one, and the 66 was always my favorite year.

Awe, now you guys have gone and done it. You've made me want to build a big rig. Is there any car carrier kits out there, or do I need to find a score on E-overpay?

Try Future floor wax. I've used it on my ships, aircraft, and now my cars. It dries clear as a bell, and holds great.

I like both of them. Very VERY nice.

Cool build.

The split paint job is just a paint choice. I saw this in a dark maroon and silver at the car show, and liked it. I was going to do the whole top silver, but talked myself out of it trying to stay a little with the split paint of the kit box art. As for the rear end, I'm just using the kit parts, and since it had the rear cover I decided to work on my brush skills.

Got the engine wired. Not the best, but I think it looks good.

Very cool. How'd you do the window?

I spent today doing the fun stuff. Brush painting the little details. Dry brushing the springs for the hood hinges, the battery, horn, and all the other little details are so much fun to paint. I also decided to paint the rear end cover chrome to give it a little life. I also got the back seat fixed, and the door and window handles painted. I mocked up the tires and suspension, and am still undecided on what I'm going to use. Last thing before dinner was painting the spare tire hatch trim. Once I get the clear coat on the seats I'll BMF the front seat braces.

Wow an old wood board! Looks great. Nice job on the spare.

Nice. I'm getting nervous about doing that on my 56.

Just letting you know now, I'm going to be using that color combination sometime in the future. I'm looking forward to seeing more updates.

Very cool! I like the paint.

Modelwarships is the forum I'm part of. It's a good site if your into plastic, details, or good tips and tricks. It's kind of like this forum except for water. LOL

This is a cool build. My family hit Cherry Grove Beach every year. I'm going to keep an eye on this build.

Thanks for the kind words. I am glad I changed my mind on the color. I've had my hat handed to me with Future once. One thing you have to do when using it is (toughest part for me) wait about a week or even two before using it. The Tamiya paint needs to cure all the way. What happens is the Future cures first, then the Tamiya cures shrinking just enough to cause those cracks. I found this out on my build of the USS North Carolina. I was building her in sub assemblies, and when it was time to do a wash I Futured all of them the same time. After about a month I noticed that the parts I painted last were getting little cracks. It had to be the clear before the wash, so since then I just paint and let sit before I clear, it's worked good for me so far. I also use it to install my glass. I think it holds better than the Testors I was using on my jets.

Thanks for the kind words. Well I just couldn't wait till morning, I masked and shot the turquoise. Once I was done I didn't like the light with the silver, so I remixed the turquoise to a darker almost blue, and shot it again. I'm very happy with this. This will all darken up a bit when I hit it with Future. With that I moved on to the rest of the kit and shot everything that needed it. the white leather with the blue is perfect, but I missed masking the lower white on the back seat. That's going to be fun to get back to the bright white. This is going to look great once it's detailed. Tomorrow I'll be finishing the engine and maybe start putting some of this together.

Yesterday I sprayed the body and hood with Tamiya gray primer. I thought if I use a gray primer on the body and a white primer for the interior will give a slight color difference. Today I sprayed Tamiya X-11 Chrome Silver for the highlight color. I think this is going to look killer with the turquoise. I spent the rest of my time today masking the seats and spraying the suspension and exhaust. Now I have to be patient and let the silver harden up. I want to mask and paint tonight, but I'm going to be a big boy and let it dry till tomorrow I guess I'll spend the rest of the day looking for my next build.

I'm about done with the engine. I added a fuel line and vacuum line. Not sure why the alternator bracket showed up white, it's still chrome. Once I got frustrated with the fuel line I sprayed the frame. I've decided to go flat black on the frame and under-body. You can see an attempt at a spark plug wire. I think I'm going to just save some frustration and order them next time. After spraying the frame I got all my prepped parts ready for spray. I still have to sand and mask the seats, but I'm hoping for color on Friday night.

Thanks for the link. I think this one is going without wires, but my rod is going to get it all.

OK, I'm watching. Nice looking work so far. Like the color