StevenGuthmiller

1961 Buick Invicta interior. Steve

If I recall correctly, the '58 Plymouth kit had textured seat inserts molded in. There are techniques that you can use to detail this type of upholstery with nothing more than paint. Using the first photo as my goal, I think that I would paint the insert with a lacquer paint, starting with a light tan. Next I would use a slightly thinned flat black enamel to go over the tan. With this technique you can now go back after it has dried and carefully wipe the flat black off of the high points with a Tamiya conical swab dipped in a little bit of mineral spirits. This will remove the black from the high points without removing the underlying tan background color. Then you can mask off the inserts and shoot the overall vinyl seat color. This might not give you an exact match to the correct upholstery pattern, but it will give you a nice contrast and some texture. I have used this technique occasionally along with another that entails just using the white plastic as a background, painting a contrasting color over it, and scratching a random pattern into the contrasting color with a dental tool to expose the plastic underneath. Not optimal, but it will add some texture. You can also do some pretty far out stuff with just some patience and a lot of masking! Steve

Hey, now that's a good looking Chevy! It's too bad that AMT never took that next step with the '67 and gave us a '68. That's some great work Roger! Steve

Can't argue with that! I'm really glad that I have already found most of the Johan stuff that I really wanted. They get more expensive and tougher to find every day! Steve

If it's really thrills that you seek Vince, you could try foiling a '58 Impala! Nothing is scarier than that! Steve

I think one will put a big enough dent in the wallet Bill! Steve

Are you serious? Wow, someone has a little bit of a chip on his shoulder! You don't know me, and I don't know you, nor do I want to. Sorry, but I know garbage when I see it, as everyone else who has commented on this thread. You're not going to single them out? Oh well, I guess if I'm taking the fun out of it for you, maybe you should quit. I'm not going to. Not going anywhere my friend. Steve

Very fair Craig. I guess I really don't care what people use to paint their models, but suggestions never hurt. People ask frequently about metallic rattle can paints, and I give them my opinion. I do have to make one remark about your statement about "looking like it was painted with solid gray paint with no metal flake effect to it". Nothing having to do with the model itself, but because that is precisely the root of this discussion. A "metallic" paint job should not have a "metal flake effect". A "metal flake" paint job should have a "metal flake effect", and even then, most metal flake paint jobs would never look as obvious as a good portion of metal flake hobby paints Metallic paint should have a metal like "sheen" without the flakes being evident, especially in this small scale. Someone please tell me if they can see any metallic flakes in any of these 1:1 "metallic" paint jobs. No, it's not possible from even a few feet away, and with 1/25th scale being 1/25th actual size, it would be utterly impossible to see any flakes no matter how close you are to the model. These are just examples, but you can Google automotive metallic paint photographs for days and days and you will see virtually zero metallic paint particles in any of the photographs. That is my only argument on this subject. I don't wish to suggest that everyone should do exactly as I do, but it is quite evident that what I am saying is absolutely factual. Even in the case of most far out customs, these flakes are not visible unless you're nose is touching the paint. Again, I really don't care what paint other people use, but if we're throwing these questions out there, these are my answers. Steve

Oh, we're not even discussing the bad overall technique under those wires. If we were, we could discuss the red engine block, the chrome intake, carbs and valve covers and the silver paint all worn off of the other surfaces from him fumbling around on those ridiculous plug wires with his big old hams! Steve

Been using windows 8 for the past 10 years? No issues to this point. Steve

Sure.......for spray paints. I don't think that you can make this statement about after market air brush paints though. And then there's the color availability factor. Tamiya has a pretty wide range of colors available, but it's still utterly dwarfed by what you can get from MCW or Scale Finishes. Steve

Possibly not, but in most cases they are still too large to be in scale. Most might work quite well for 1/12th or 1/8th scale. Steve

I still use rattle cans as well. Actually quite a few. All of my primer, clear coats, some chassis and engine stuff and occasionally a "solid" body color are shot from a can. As with nearly all of us, I used cans for a large majority of my modeling career and that's what I was used to. But as with all things, when there's a better way, why not use it? After getting a taste of being able to choose any color that I can imagine from MCW and Scale Finishes and getting scale metallics to boot, why would I ever go back to searching endlessly for a usable can of a color that I desire. Let's face it, there is a tendency for the creative juices to be quelled a bit when you are limited to whatever color someone decides to put into a spray can. One of my greatest joys when contemplating my next build is being able to look at a color chip sheet for a particular make and year and knowing instantly that I can choose and obtain any color from that chart that grabs my fancy. It has been one of the greatest advancements to the hobby in my opinion. Steve

About the same as Purple Power. They are basically the same stuff but Super Clean contains more of the active ingredients making it much more efficient for stripping. You can pick it up at many auto parts stores, (I get mine at O-Reilly's auto parts) but I believe Walmart carries it, or you can always get it on line. Steve

Absolutely perfect as I would expect from you Yuri! We really need some outdoor shots of this one though. That's where your builds cease to be a model and immediately become the real car!! Steve

You're probably going to have to rethink your material combinations. I doubt very highly that you are going to have any success spraying Rustoleum over Testors enamel. Not all enamels are created equally and if the Rustoleum is anything like most other "home improvement store" enamels, it's way too hot to go over Testors enamel. You also need to take into consideration that Testors enamel takes a month of Sundays to cure, so spraying anything over it without giving it a vast amount of time to cure will likely result in failure. Personally, I would dump the Rustoleum clear altogether. If I may make a suggestion, dump the Testors enamel and get some Testors "2 stage lacquer". They do carry Plum Crazy in lacquer form. It will cure in a fraction of the time and you can spray some Testors clear lacquer over it after a short period of time. For that matter, you will likely have much better luck spraying Testors clear lacquer over the enamel as well. Testora clear lacquers a very mild and they won't generally damage any paint that you spray them over. Just a couple more pointers. 1. Dump the Purple Power and get some Super Clean. I guarantee you it will remove this paint if you give it time to work 2. Never, and I mean NEVER soak styrene plastic in acetone! You will be left with a hand full of goo! I realize that you are joking about this, but we don't want any novices to get the impression that this is okay. Lacquer thinner?........not a good idea either! As a matter of fact, be warned that acetone is very hard on styrene plastic and it WILL make the plastic brittle and prone to basically falling apart, especially with this many applications. Steve

Absolutely! I plan on trying them out on my current project when I get to that point. Steve

Absolutely. "To each his own". But after seeing this subject come up again and again, I have the feeling that there is not a single modeler out there that would "prefer" the "bass boat" look. It all boils down to taking that next step and realizing that you will never really achieve a realistic finish with a large majority of rattle can paints available and taking the "great leap" into air brushing. I get the feeling that a lot of guys think that there is way too much involved with taking that leap, but there's really not. I'll go out on a limb and guess that most of us already have a compressor of some sort, but I realize that's not universal for various reasons. Other than that, all that is required is to find a nice wide coverage air brush for shooting bodies, get a cheap can of lacquer thinner to keep it clean and you're good to go. It's really no more expensive than spray cans in the long run aside from the initial investment of the equipment, and an airbrush should last a life time if properly cared for. You can probably shoot at least 2-4 bodies with one 2 oz. jar of paint from Scale Finishes and I have 60 different colors of paint in a 9x16x4 inch box, so storage is a huge plus. Virtually no issues with clogged nozzles, leaking cans or bad paint, and you have literally thousands of colors to choose from. In my opinion, the pros of owning an airbrush far out way the cons when it comes to the argument of spray cans versus airbrushes. Seriously people.....get one!! Steve

Certainly, I don't expect that everyone should be as particular as I am about the size of the metallic flakes in paint, but if it's realism that we are all striving for, (which I expect it is for any scale modeler) I can't understand why companies like Testors don't put forth a little effort to get the flakes at least somewhat closer to scale. This is one of the main reasons why I gave up on Testors metallic paints years ago, bought an air brush and started using after market model car paints. This issue, plus the huge array of available colors, was all of the excuse that I needed to dump them. Just as an example of what we should be able to expect, and demand it, from Testors, here is a photo of Craig's '58 Edsel wagon along with a similar color from MCW. It's nearly impossible to pick out any individual metallic flakes on the Ford, which is the way it should be. Personally, I'll never purchase a can of Testors metallic paint again until they make an attempt to correct this issue. Craig's Edsel is a terrific looking model. It deserves better paint. Just MHO. Steve

Just showed up today. I was a little surprised that it only took 12 days for delivery from Japan. Anxious to try them out. Steve

Just my 2 cents guys, but nearly all of the Testors metallics have far too large metallic flakes to come close to a factory stock color. If you're building customs it's not that big of an issue, but factory metallics should be barely visible to be somewhat accurate. Not singling anyone out here, but the examples below are way over the top for acceptable flake size in my opinion. This is what is often referred to as "the bass boat affect". Even most aftermarket paint purveyors use metallics that are generally a bit too large for 1/25th scale, but they are usually WAY better than the majority of rattle can paints. Steve

2 of my favorites. Steve

Just curious as to why you think that the vinyl top will be a challenge? Steve

It's pretty hard to beat embossing powder for carpet. I tried flocking years ago and never had any real luck with it. Since I started using embossing powder, I use it, and love it on every build. Steve

The ones in the Revell '57 Ford Del Rio wagon are really close. The center section is larger, but I think that if it was me, I would call them close enough. Steve