StevenGuthmiller

Bill's got it pretty much down. Polishing is a PITA, but in my opinion, it's the only way that you are going to get as close to a flawless paint job as possible. In my opinion, in most cases, you will get a much more realistic looking finish on a model by polishing rather than not. I see a lot of very nice shiny paint jobs on kits that don't have a realistic look because the builder relied on a finish clear coat to do the work for them. To me, more often than not, an unpolished paint job looks "toy like" or almost like a piece of hard candy......too shiny. If you look at any 1:1 car that's been around for any period of time there will be minor swirl marks, etc, that give a very slight "hazy" appearance. To my eye, this is what you will accomplish with polishing. I start with as smooth of a paint job as I can get, with as many clear coats as I possibly can without hiding detail. This will help prevent any burn through during the polishing process. Then, starting with the finest grit that I can get away with, usually around 3600, I remove all of the orange peel. Then I work my way up to 12000 grit. It takes a lot of elbow grease and time to do it properly, but I guess if you're not willing to put forth the effort, you're probably not real serious about achieving the best results possible. In my opinion, there are no short cuts. Then I work my way through a few successively finer liquid polishes. I usually use some Novus "Heavy Scratch Remover", but rather sparingly, because by this time there shouldn't be much left for heavy scratches. Then some Novus "Light Scratch Remover". This will pretty much give you a nice shine, but from there, I usually give it a good polishing with something like Turtle Wax "Scratch & Swirl Remover". This usually will give me a very nice reflective shine & will take out any leftover microscopic swirls & scratches. After assembly, a light once over with Novus "Clean & Shine" will remove any finger prints & smudges & give you a very nice finish. Steve

Looks pretty good to me as it sits. Paint the interior, polish the plastic, add a little foil & some detail paint & you'd have a nice model. Steve

I think we all know why the kit companies keep producing endless variations of the same kits. We don't need to keep hashing that one out. But while we all may disagree on kits that we would like to see, we can probably agree that there have been a lot, & I mean a lot of missed opportunities to maximize toolings & therefore profits. While I would love to see some more unusual kits from the 50s & somebody else would like to see a '74 Plymouth station wagon, & yet another a Dodge neon, instead of endless T-buckets & '69 Camaros, why not a few of these easy segues? AMT 1967 Chevy Impala - 1968 Chevy Impala. Monogram '55 Chevy Belair convertible/hardtop - '56 Belair Convertible/hardtop. Monogram '59 Cadillac Eldorado - '60 Cadillac Eldorado. Any of the '57 Ford kits - '58 Ford. The AMT 1957 Chrysler 300 could have taken on the many faces of any other Chrysler or Desoto model from 1957 to 1959. And one I'm still hoping for, taking the next step on the Moebius '55/'56 Chrysler 300s & moving on to either other Chrysler models or Desotos. This is not my ultimate wish list. They just seem like obvious "next steps" that never seem to materialize in lieu of another early Ford roadster. Steve

She looks like a good one Bill! Steve

Looks nice Tom. But the wheels sticking out so far past the tires could use a little work. Steve

That pretty much sums it up for me. Steve

I would say that there's not much hope for seeing much from the last couple of decades. That would take us back to around the mid 90s. I don't believe that there are many modelers that are interested in cars from that era. Most of us consider the 80s through the 2000s the low point of automotive design. Nobody is dragging 90s cars out of the junk yards for restorations, for good reason in my opinion. Steve

It would be interesting if someone did a complete compilation of exactly how many different '57 Chevy models have been produced over the years. I think we might all be surprised! Take half of them, & turn them into other makes from the same era, & you would likely hear less complaining on this subject. Well.........maybe not. Steve

I believe it is supposed to illustrate how the model companies, since the end of the "annual era", have changed their business model. They've gone from producing models of every day "mom & pop" vehicles, to making basically nothing but hot rods & muscle cars that are popular with the street rodders. Nothing wrong with hot rods & muscle cars, but the variety of different types of cars has gone out the window in favor of "what sells". Can't blame them I guess. They have to make a buck. If there were more modelers demanding '57 Buicks, & fewer wanting Corvettes & '32 Fords, there would be more of them. It has always kind of puzzled me. You would think that most guys our age would want to reminisce about the kinds of cars that we saw every day when we were young. I didn't know a single person when I was a kid, who had a Corvette or a Ford street rod, but I remember lots of full sized family type cars. I guess it's more about what kinds of cars a lot of guys dreamed of having, & less about what they had. All a matter of taste really. I personally have never had the desire to own a Corvette. Don't even have a built example of one. Steve

Too many of all of them as far as I'm concerned! Steve

Here's one for the Buick Riviera fans. Steve http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTy4AoF40-Y

You're not imagining it. I had about a dozen cans of the old Duplicolor touch up paint, in the old skinny cans from probably 20 years ago, left in my stash when I moved. I checked a few, & while some seemed fine, others were completely messed up. From spraying a stream of snot, to chunks in the paint. Those of course, were the ones that hadn't lost all of their propellant. Steve

I would love to Bill, but it took me about 40 years to finally get a '62 Chrysler built! I don't think I've got another 40 years to spare. Steve

Nice! One of these days, after I've built everything else, (yeah, right!) I'm going to start adding the Imperials from the 60s to my pile. Looks like you found a good one! Steve

My guess would be that you got some bad paint. There are a lot of different Duplicolor reds. I've used a couple of bright reds with no issues. My '62 Chrysler 300 was shot with Duplicolor "BGM0398" "Bright Red" & everything went fine. Steve

Here's one. "Buick 59" by the Medallions. Steve http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shyPdliUSAA

Anybody have anymore ideas? Here's one where you can let your imagination run wild. One of my all time favorite songs. War's "Low Rider" Steve

I love it too! One of my favorite Rush songs. Steve

Must be more than just Mercedes going on on the sides. Looks to be some almost Ford like tail fins rising up just behind the front door & then ending about half way back, followed by another duplicate fin running all the way to the rear. What a Frankenstein! Steve

True, but you need to be careful that your primer base is sufficient to handle heavy coats of lacquer. The heavier the coat, the more likely that it will penetrate through the primer to the plastic & then it's "craze city"! Excellent tip! I do this when using any paint in an aerosol can. Steve

There were a lot of those cheap "swill" beers years ago. My beer of choice when I was 19 was "Pfeiffer's" or "Wisconsin Premium". About $3.00 a case for long necks. Steve

Um......I would call that slightly over done. Not sure what's actually under there, but the front end appears to be from an early '60s Imperial. Steve

On top of the "hot" factor, many times the metallic particles in the paint can be far too large for 1/25th scale. But a lot of guys like it. I use plenty of Duplicolor paints on my builds, but I usually refrain from using metallics. Solid colors, primers & clears all work very well for me. You are almost guaranteed some orange peel with lacquer paints, but that's where polishing comes in. This '60 Merc was painted using Duplicolor products almost exclusively & polished. Steve

Had to. Some people will drink anything! I've seen empties in antiques shops, so somebody must have. Either that or they just poured it on the ground. Steve

Are there any "serious Palmer model builders"? Steve