StevenGuthmiller

I usually will scribe all of my panel lines a bit more to insure that they are all deep enough & uniform & then just paint it. After all of my paint work, foil, etc, usually one of the very last things that I will do is use some Ceramcoat acrylic craft paint, slightly thinned and flowed into the panel lines & then after drying to the touch I wipe over the body with a slightly dampened cloth to remove any excess. This helps get it cleaned at least a bit down into the groove & helps to keep it looking less stark. I also will use a darker shade of the body color on lighter colors to help with lessening the starkness. Black works fine on dark colors. This '58 Buick was done in this manner, probably with dark green, but I think it still looks pretty much black, & I also think it looks pretty realistic. Steve

To this day, this is still a subject of contention to me. I agree that black does not look good for panel lines on a model, but I still feel that this has much more to do with the width of the panel lines on a model versus a real car. If your panel lines are narrow enough & are done deep enough, ( if you still have plenty of the panel edge exposed) I think it would look just fine. I'm sorry, but I have a hard time seeing anything but pure black here. Steve

That's why I've never tried this technique. I have very little trust that there will not be a reaction between the paint in the panel lines & the overlying lacquer. Besides that, after seeing that the above photo has the black applied to the bare plastic, I have less confidence that it would show through in the end at all with my painting technique. I don't think that it would hold up to 5 or 6 coats of primer & another 3-5 color coats. I suppose I could try something on top of the primer, but I doubt that it would work for me as pictured. Steve

It usually requires some thinning, but being as I use it almost exclusively for detailing this sort of thing, When I get a new bottle, I will pour off a little paint & add some water & then just keep it that way. There are several very nice qualities about this paint that I won't bore you with here, but one of the best is that a bottle will last you forever if you keep it well. I have bottles of Ceramcoat craft paint that I'm sure that I have had for more than 20 years, & they will most likely last me for 20 more! Steve

Ceramcoat acrylic craft paint. I use it a lot for detailing & washes, especially grilles & panel lines. Steve

Any kind of glue or resin is not going to give you the "rib" detail on the lens so I would suggest casting some lenses. But either way, get yourself some "Laser Bond" or "Bondic" glue. These are UV setting glues that will dry clear & will set in seconds with a zap of UV light. One word of warning about filling a headlight bucket with it though. If the glue is too thick, it will set on the surface with the UV light, but it will never solidify underneath. That's another reason why it would be better to cast a thinner lens & glue it in. Steve

I do get what I can from the only LHS that I know of around me, but it's a very small store & they don't carry a lot. I will also get some items from Hobby Lobby. But they are both about a half hour drive for me, so I don't frequent them often. I also buy items such as Super Clean, primers & some spray paints from some local auto parts stores, so if I can manage to get things well coordinated as to what I need, I can check out all three places in the same trip. Otherwise, it doesn't really pay if I just need a sheet of BMF. In a situation like that, I'll just order on line. Steve

I do both, depending greatly on urgency & availability. If I need something yesterday, & I can get it locally, I will. But I lean towards buying on line. There are many items that I either can't get locally, or I would have to run to several different places to get what I need. I refuse to spend an entire afternoon running from place to place only to find that they are out of the important Item that I needed most! I can place an order on line & know that it will be on my doorstep in a few days. But, I'm like you Bill. Outside of a few supplies like foil & some paint, I don't buy a lot of new kits, or PE and resin parts, etc. 95% of what I buy on line is either vintage parts & kits on ebay & paint from MCW. Steve

Love the truck! Every time I see one of these finished, & done so well, it makes me want to get started on one! It is obviously a very nice kit! Steve

Looks much better the second time. Steve

Looks great Rick! But what's with the photos? I feel like I'm looking at the car in a steamy shower! Steve

Thanks for the clarification guys. I was pretty sure of this as well. The only real reason that I brought the subject up is that I found it a little deceiving of Round 2 to use this packaging. I wouldn't want anybody to think that Round 2 has suddenly resurrected the '62 Bonneville kit. It made me do a double take the first time that I saw this new box. I have one of the original '62 Bonneville kits in the annual box, not the Polyglas Gasser one, so I wasn't completely sure of the history of it. By the way, I love your Bonneville Mike! Steve

I have a question for anyone who might know. I think that I already know the answer to this, but then again, I don't know everything! I know that Round 2 has gotten heavily into the retro style boxes recently, but the original "Polyglas Gasser" was a Bonneville kit, correct? I know that this version is the Catalina, but I'm relatively certain that there were no Catalina kits produced in '62. Steve

Thanks for the contact info George! I'm getting geared up to get a bunch more parts re-chromed for some vintage kits, & with a recent move, I wasn't sure anymore of how to contact you. Hopefully you will hear from me soon. Steve

I don't doubt Donn's prowess as a painter, but it surely must be that he is doing something to prevent this if he is using it as a primer. I've basically stopped using Metallizer unless the circumstance requires absolutely no work such as masking or over coating after the fact. I've found that it does a much better job of coating your fingers with silver dust when handled than anything else! It works great & looks fantastic as long as you basically don't have to touch it again after application. Steve

I'm very surprised that anyone would suggest Testors "Metallizer" as a primer! It has always been quite evident to me that Metallizer paints are very fragile to the point of being un-maskable. By that I mean that after spraying metallizer, masking any of the area that you have painted inevitably results in the paint lifting off with the tape. In other words, the adhesion properties of metallizer paint is very poor. Therefore, I would expect this kind of result from spraying paint over the top of it. If the underlying "primer" does not adhere well, it goes to follow that successive coats of paint will not adhere either. This would have been a perfect chance to try out a proverbial "spoon test". Spray some metallizer on a plastic spoon, let it dry & then place a piece of masking tape over the paint. When you pull it off, I guarantee you that you will find metallizer has pulled off onto the tape. I know that Donn Yost is supposedly a paint guru, but if he is suggesting metallizer as a primer there are no doubt some added techniques that he is using to prevent this. Regardless, I personally would never use it as a primer under any circumstance. Steve

I agree with both of the previous statements. If the wires are the correct size for the looms, they should slip right through. The main issue with looms is getting them fastened well enough so that they do not break loose while threading the wires through........at least for the ones that should be bolted down. It just takes time & patience & a good tweezers & magnifier. Steve

Yes, I use almost exclusively MCW paints. Partially because of the wide array of colors that they offer, but a large factor is the metallic flakes used in their paints. Some colors have larger flakes than others, or at least it appears that way, but one of the biggest examples that I like to use to illustrate this is the "Cay Coral" paint that I used on my Revell '58 Chevy. It is a metallic color, but even close up it is very difficult to pick out any individual metallic flakes. But the sheen makes it obvious that it is a metallic color, or probably more accurately, a pearl color. Steve

Very nice! I have one of the original Johan convertible kits to do some day. I really need to get back on the '65 that I started some time back. Maybe this is the push that I need to get it back on the bench! Steve

I really appreciate the compliment Bill, but unfortunately, neither of the colors on this '59 Dodge are metallic colors. But I understand your point completely & agree wholeheartedly. Steve

I believe that a model can absolutely be too glossy. To my eye, it manifests itself in a couple of different ways. First is the "dipped" look, where a body has been so heavily painted that it appears to have been dipped in paint. Second is a less noticeable phenomenon, but it always seems to catch my eye. When a model has been painted very well with a high level of gloss, but no polishing, many times it gives it that "toy like" or "candy" like appearance that detracts from it's realism. I think that the choice of paint color can make this even more noticeable. The genre of a particular build can determine what type of finish is acceptable as well. An all out custom show car looks at home in a super high gloss paint job. A factory stock build looks over done if it's too shiny. Steve

Ditto! Steve

Super Clean should do the same thing. It usually will dissolve enamel in a couple of hours. The nice thing about Super Clean is that it's biodegradable. Brake fluid is much harder to dispose of. Steve

I have almost never scraped painted surfaces for gluing in my entire 40+ years of modeling. If you're using glues other than regular model cement or any other glues that bond by melting the plastic, I find that it's rarely necessary. I've never had much of a problem with it. Steve

I've always loved the many different aquas & corals from the late '50s & early '60s. 1964 Pontiac "Sunfire Red" is one of my all time favorites. Steve