StevenGuthmiller

Yes, acrylic is the way to go. In most cases, I just buy aftermarket white wall tires. It's a lot easier and I prefer to focus my attention on other aspects of the model rather than things that I consider "busy work" such as wiring distributors and painting tires, when there are fantastic options available that are generally better and will save me a bunch of work. But on occasion, I have painted my own tires with water based acrylic. These red lines on my '68 Coronet as an example. Steve

My ‘69 Grand Prix.

My only point with the “bad modeler” thing is that with persistence and an attitude of success, even a tough subject can turn out to be a thing of beauty if you’re willing to put in the effort. Nothing pisses me off more than people that put forth a half hearted attempt into a project and then spend all of their effort on moaning about how terrible the kit was. Steve

This is another reason why clear coats are your friend. Something like this is an easy fix with a little extra polishing. Steve

Steve Magnante is interested as much in the history of things as he is in cars. If you ever watched him on the Barrett Jackson auctions, he was great at describing the history behind everything related to classic cars. Steve

This is part of the reason why I don’t waste my time watching videos. Most of us on this forum know way more about these kits and how to build them then a lot of these goofs on YouTube. As I’ve said before, they’re way better at producing videos than they are at building. Steve

Absolutely! The more you try something, the more confident you get. It’s just common sense to do as much as possible to check and correct fit if necessary, before it becomes too late. There’s nothing worse than finding that something doesn’t work once you’re done painting. It can be difficult, if not impossible to fix at that point. Steve

The most beneficial attitude for you to have in order for you to minimize fit issues, whether or not you should decide to buy a kit that is badly reviewed, ( a lot of good kits have fit issues on occasion) is to take the time to address any problems immediately after opening the kit, before you start throwing paint on everything and gluing stuff together. Most of the time when I see people losing their patience and their temper and throwing the kit against the wall out of fit frustrations, it could have been completely avoided if the time was taken to test fit, mock-up and correct. I’ve said it before, and yes, I’ve gotten flack for it, but my opinion still remains that there are no bad kits. Just bad modelers. It’s only plastic. Every issue can be overcome. Steve

The question needs to be equated with kits from comparable eras. Of course Revell has a number of exceptional newer kits produced within the past couple of decades, but MPC hasn’t produced a new kit since probably at least the mid 80s. Since they were absorbed into ERTL, all of MPC’s offerings have been re-pops of earlier kits, so if comparisons are going to be made, they need to be made with AMT and Revell kits from the same time period. As a rule, I think that you’ll find that they’re no better or no worse than anything else from the same time frame. Steve

I used to use one of the clear UV glues for mockups. I haven’t for a while, but it does work quite well for that purpose. There’s very little strength, so it works pretty good for quick and easy assembly as well as disassembly. steve

I’m in west central Minnesota. About 25 miles east of Fargo North Dakota. Steve

Which is why so many find these type of kits at Ollies and Michael’s, and all of the other cut rate, over stock type stores. You certainly get what you pay for. Steve

Tonight I had some fresh catfish and tilapia that I had to find a use for, so I dreamed up a sauce consisting of garlic, capers, lime zest, lime juice, chicken stock, chicken base, parsley, butter and fresh cherry tomatoes. Sauteed the fish and then concocted the sauce. Introduced the fish to the sauce and then popped it in a hot oven for a few minutes. I was pleasantly surprised at how flavorful it was. Accompanied by some garlic Parmesan roasted fresh beans, and some Parmesan mashed potatoes. It was all quite delicious!! Steve

I’ve had them before, and yes, they are pretty good. A local frozen pizza that you can get in my area, called “Pizza Corner” pizza is even better! Steve

Agreed. If you polish your paint jobs anyway, you’ll just polish the trim by association. A smooth glossy base is the order of the day when it comes to BMF. Take your time, do the trim in sections, (and in several pieces if necessary) start in the middle of a particular molding and work your way towards the ends to prevent wrinkles. If you’re doing a body length molding, do each section separately, (ie, front fender, door, rear quarter) Do windshield frames in several pieces with the realization that there are molding seams on the real vehicle, and place your overlaps as such. Do difficult areas such as vent windows in several pieces. On a triangular vent window, I usually do the bottom, A pillar, and vent post separately. To take that even farther, I’ll often do the front vent window section separate from the drip molding and windshield A pillar molding. Any time that you have a natural separation between moldings is a good place to break to prevent tears, wrinkles, etc. Once applied, burnish the edges well and then polish vigorously for a chrome like shine. Just like anything else that’s worth learning, it takes a little bit of time to get the hang of, and plenty of patience, but it’s absolutely worth the effort. As I often tell people that don’t want to take the time to learn, or put forth the effort, go to a model car show sometime and you’ll quickly learn that in the vast number of cases, the winners are using foil for their trim. Likewise, with few exceptions, the best builders on the planet are all using foil as well. All of that said, don’t let people tell you that foiling is somehow exceedingly difficult, it’s not really all that tough. You’ll learn as you go. Several decades ago when I first started using it, it probably took me no more than a few builds before I began to understand the properties of the material, and started to get good at it. I won’t say that it’s my favorite thing to do, but it is without a doubt one of the most transformational operations that you can do on a model car. Steve