StevenGuthmiller

I think I'll shoot one more coat of clear, and then I'll be ready to polish before tackling the vinyl top, rear panel, etc. Steve

He does send them out to a plater that I believe is located in Wisconsin or Michigan. Apparently, the same plater that used to do all of the chrome trees for many of the kit manufacturers years ago. (AMT, MPC?) The individual that took over for him when he got out sent them to the same place, so I'm sure that the chrome would have been of the same quality........if you could have relied on his service! I heard a story some time back about an individual who sent his parts out to be re-chromed with the "new" guy, and after a few months, when his parts hadn't returned and he was getting no responses to his inquiries, he finally received a package in the mail. When he inspected the parts, he found that his originals had been replaced with plated resin copies! Apparently the guy told him that if he was in "such a hurry", he figured that it would be okay to replace his originals with resin copies that I guess he had on hand? Originals, resin copies......same thing, right? Steve

Maybe I need to bug him again. He stopped doing chrome several years ago in favor of his "Bob's Paint" business, and the chroming operation was passed along to another individual, whom I won't name, who turned out to be pretty much completely unreliable. At least I had heard enough bad stories to keep me from sending him any of my treasured parts. When Bob ran the operation, everything was done with the utmost integrity. I really wish he would start taking parts on a larger scale again. The hobby needs people like him to run services such as this, and lord knows, there is a market for some good rechroming operations. I could easily throw together about 20 kits worth of parts in pretty short order that he could plate for me! Bob's a great guy! I've met him in person a couple of times at an NNL show, and when he was running the plating operation, he wouldn't hesitate to contact you if there were any issues. More of his kind of service please!! Steve

Tamiya tape is naturally lower tack than something like regular masking tape, but it's much more flexible and does a much better job than masking tape at leaving a super clean edge. Just make sure to burnish down the edges pretty well, and shoot the first couple of coats of paint lightly and you should be very happy. Remember, I used Tamiya tape on this little gem. Steve

How long ago did you have the chrome redone? As far as I know, Bob's been out of the re-chroming business for several years. I wish he wasn't! There are very limited options today, and Bob's service and product was absolutely top notch!! Steve

Part of the reason that I like Super Clean is that you don't have to think about it at all. It works better than most of it's competitors, (Purple Power, Simple Green, etc.) Oven cleaner is messy, the odor is horrible, and it's not reusable. I've never had very good results with brake fluid or alcohol for most applications, (just my personal experience) plus brake fluid is a pain to get rid of when the time comes. I've not used ELO, but if it will reduce your model to to a blob of jelly in some circumstances, I'm a little reluctant. With Super Clean, I'm assured that it will work every time, (at least it does for me) and I never have to worry at all about ruining a body. I just drop it in the tank and walk away. If I forget about the parts soaking in it for a month, it's no big deal. I've had parts soaking in it that were forgotten for a couple of months, with zero damage at all. Steve

The more that I look at these stripes in a "normal" 3/4 type view, rather than dead on, the more that I feel like I'm okay with them. I think they're good enough. I'm going to suck it up, add a couple more clear coats, and move on to the polishing stage. I am also happy with the affect that scribing the door and trunk lid lines more deeply has had on darkening the panel lines. From now on, I'm going to rely on this method rather than using paint to darken them. I think it looks more realistic. Steve

Very simply, with a steel ruler and a sharp #11 Exacto blade. If you read the above post, you'll see that I didn't have to cut much for extremely thin pieces. I worked it so that most of the tape cutting was just to clean up the edges. Only the piece that separated the wide stripes had to be measured and cut precisely. Steve

Well, it might not be easy to explain, but I'll try. I started by laying a piece of tape all the way across for what would be the farthest side of the pin stripe. I could have measured this, but it was close enough to the wide stripe to eye ball it. Then I laid the next piece of tape along what would be the inside edge of the pin stripe, using the other piece of tape, and the edge of the wide stripe, (which was visible through the tape) as a guide to get it as straight as I could. I'm sure that some might think that I went about these stripes strangely, and I guess the way that I did it might have contributed to it not coming out exactly as I would have wanted, but there was a method to my madness. Because of the way that I approached them, I didn't have to cut and try to handle and keep straight long and extremely thin pieces of tape. Only the piece of tape used between the two wide stripes needed to be cut thin, (in retrospect, it could have been a little thinner) and even that piece was difficult to wrangle and keep straight. I hate to think of trying to cut and lay out pieces of tape thin enough to separate the wide and thin stripes. This way, the rest of the pieces of tape were 6mm Tamiya tape that I just had to cut a clean edge on. Steve

I think the time may have come where it’s just time to ignore the OP, let him go through all of his goof ball gyrations, and see if he actually produces anything. He told me a couple of days ago, and I quote, “I beg your pardon? I can post photos of what I’ve done if you wish to see them.” To which I replied, “By all means, let’s see them.” What have I seen so far? Yes, you guessed it.......a whole lot of nothing. Par for the course. ? Steve

You know, the strangest part is that the spacing and positioning issues appear to be magnified in the photos that I have taken. When I look at it in person, it looks pretty good. Steve

Steve

Super Clean is better. Trust me. I've used them both. That's about 4 coats of color and 5 coats of clear, all automotive lacquers. As I said, with the right primer underneath, you can strip pretty much anything with Super Clean. Steve

I’ll bet it would work just fine on Tamiya lacquer if you used a different primer. Steve

I've had very good luck with Super Clean, but a lot depends on the primer that you use. I use Duplicolor primer, and as Daniel said, the primer will dissolve and the lacquer paint will come off in sheets. My understanding is that it doesn't work as well with Tamiya primer, but that has no affect on me. I don't use Tamiya primer. Steve

Stripes are finished. Probably a little further forward than I would have originally wanted, and spaced a little wider than I prefer, but I'm okay with it. Too late to change anything now anyway. Steve

That's the problem. Whether you asked for advice on this thread or not, you did on your other threads, and you've completely shrugged off any help that anyone has offered. You've burned all of your bridges of good intentions with your flippant attitude towards other members of this forum. We were all trying to help in the beginning, but you quickly lost the support of a lot of really great modelers with your glib attitude. I hope that you have it all figured out, because in the future, you're going to get the same reactions that you've been getting because you've squandered any good will that you might have been able to gain in the beginning. It's all on you dude. Steve

By all means, let's see them! Steve

Sorry. Double post.

That would have been too difficult. But I could have made the bird smaller with my 12 gauge............with reloaded shells of course. Steve

I agree. Nothing wrong with a rattle can. Too bad the OP has no interest in good advice. Both of these were shot entirely with Duplicolor rattle cans, primer, paint and clear, and then polished. Steve

I only sprayed a coat of clear prior to the stripes, just to help protect the paint from any damage while masking or unmasking. I'll do the same now by spraying another light clear coat to protect the stripes from any damage while I work on the next ones. I love the way that Duplicolor black primer sprays and looks, but it can get scuffed or scratched very easily, so if it's going to be a finished part of the model, I like to get some clear over it immediately. I've never used clear to protect from bleed under yet. I've been able to rely on Tamiya tape. Steve

I just plain hate decals anyway! Plus, with the paint I'm using, I don't think I'd want to spray any clear over a decal. I really like how the stripes turned out on my '68 Olds, so I had to do it on this one as well. A little tougher this time, but so far, so good. Steve

Laughing at us? Steve

It's a work in progress........or should I say, no progress! Steve