microwheel

I was up pretty late last night working on the camaro interior. I got alot done and its gonna take a few posts to update you all on everything. This first post is just finishing up some basics. If some of the pics are a little dark, it's because it's still dark out here this morning, and without the daylight, my room lighting is not the best. To start with I gave the interior floor pan a couple coats of model masters medium flat green. While the paint was still wet I dusted it with white embossing powder from hobby lobby. Once that was dry, I gave it a couple of more coats of the flat medium green. This gave me the in scale carpet look I wanted. I set this aside to cure. Next was to get the steering wheel done. I masked off the center spokes, and gave the rim a couple coats of model masters acrylic wood. In the pic you can see the 3 different colors I use to do my wood look on interiors. The little plastic medicine cup has the black wash I mix up with a little flat black acrylic thinned way down with water. My wife got me a bunch of those cups from where she works in a nursing home, and boy do they come in handy for mixing paint. Once the wood color dried, I gave it a couple of quick light brush coats of the black wash. Then gave it about 30 minutes to dry. It may not look like it in this pic, but there is black wash on it. Next I mixed up a little bit of clear acrylic orange thinned with denatured alcohol, about a 50-50 ratio . This will get poured into my air brush feed cup and mist sprayed fron about a foot away from the steering wheel, at 18psi. It will get about 3 coats done this way, It will look wet once the 3rd coat goes on, but it will dry down to almost a varnish look, which is what I'm after. And the longer you let it dry, the more of a varnished look it will achieve. If you put the clear orange on too heavy and too close, it will never really dull down and it will give too much of a orange or red glossy look when it dries. And here is how it should look right after the 3rd coat of clear orange has been misted on. It will dry down nicely as you will see later when the assembly of the column and steering wheel go onto the dash. While the steering wheel was drying, I went ahead and assembled all the interior stuff I worked on yesterday. I cut the seat belts to size and installed the ones for the rear seat and then assembled the rear seat onto the floor pan. The gear shift was detailed painted and attached into place on the center console and then the center console was fixed into place on the floor pan. Once that had been completed, the front inner seat belts were attached to either side of the trans tunnel, then the front seats were attached and the inner seat belts were tucked down in-between the front seats and the center console like you would find on these cars. Lastly a set of sunglasses from detail masters interior junk set was paint detailed and tucked into the cubby hole in the center console. LOL Continued on next post in a few minutes.

Thanks alot guys. I will be posting several posts this morning of the interior progress so keep checking, because it's gonna take more than one post to list all the work on the interior.

Next I sorted out the seat belt parts to be used with the front seats during the interior assembly and set them aside. Sorry some of these pics are a little dark, and some may even be a little blurry, my camera doesn't seem to like the throw away batteries that are in it, while my good ones are charging. Anyways, I cut the rear seat belts to size and tacked them into place. While I was at it I added some after market speaker grills to the rear deck. I know they are not factory correct, but I wanted to dress that area up a bit. These got painted the same color as the deck and then a light black wash over them. Next I decided to do a little more work to the front center console. Originally I had painted the area just in front of the gear shift area, silver. I didnt like how it looked since that area is supposed to be a cubby hole. So I drilled some holes in it with my pin vise and then trimmed it out square with my exacto knife. Then added a small piece of evergreen plastic strip to the underside of it. I then painted the newly created cubby hole area flat black. Maybe I'll even add some sunglasses to dress it up before I assemble it into the interior lol. Next it was back to work on the window cranks I had shaved off and saved from the door panels earlier. I had painted these testors gloss black enamel a little over a week ago and set them aside to dry. Today they got a dusting of Alclad Chrome paint. Once they were dry, they were reattached to the door panels where they came from. And that's pretty much it for today. It wraps things up that needed to be done to assemble the interior, all but a few last things that will get done either late this evening or tomorrow morning. That would be, detailing the steering wheel and column, and getting the floor pan painted and flocked. Once that is done then all this stuff can finally be assembled.

I spent this morning working on and trying to finish up some odds and ends work on the interior so I can get it ready for final assembly. got most of it done except for the steering column and steering wheel. I work on those tomorrow morning and try to get the interior assembled in the morning also. For now here is what I got done today. It will take a couple of posts on here, so bare with me. Started with getting the seat belts made. I dug out my seat belt hardware from the model car garage, as well as some seat belt material. The material I had on had for green was a olive green, so this will have to get a light coating of testers medium flat green to get them the color I want. (no big deal though) Next was to assemble the seat belt hardware and material, and mask off the hardware and paint the material. While those where drying, I cut some front seat outer seat, seat belt hardware blocks out of evergreen strip plastic. These got a coat of medium flat green as well. Once they were dry seat belt hardware ends were added to them. The other seat belts where dry by then and unmasked To be continued..................

Yes you can clear coat over the decals. however, just remember, the era stock car you are working on, on the real cars, the decals were apply after all painting, they didn't clear coat them. Just FYI if you want it to be authentic. Also, if you are using a set of decals that have some age to them, the glue backing on them tends to yellow over time and even though this isn't visible when you apply them, clear coating over fairly old decals will really make the glue yellowing show up. and if they are really bad, I've even had some curl on me along the edges when clear coated over. I'd show you a pic of a old monogram 70 boss 302 kit that I did a little while ago, if I get time to take one, where the decals did just that, needless to say I put the thing back in the box and set it aside, because I got so upset about it. I had just done a really nice paint job on it too. One day I'll strip it down, order some aftermarket decals, and redo it.

Looks like its going to be a great kit to build. Know wonder your drooling over it. We dont get access to very many import kits up in in my neck of the woods. To get to a hobby shop anywhere near me that would have any of them, is almost a 5 hour drive. I envy you lol.

Yes Testors makes a acrylic primer in their model masters acrylic line of paints. Most good hobby shops carry it. If your going to clear coat it, I would sand (be it wet or dry) after you clear coat. For stock cars, especially for the time period you are working on, the decals would be applied last. Now days Nascar owners print wrap their bodies instead of painting and decals, but back then they did paint and decal them. And some didn't do a very good job of the paint either, especially on the short track cars because they new they would get pretty beaten up.

Just a quick update for this evening. I didnt get a chance to work much on the camaro today. Had to take the wife for her chemotherapy treatment.When I did get home this evening, I came out to my hobby room and noticed I did a hap hazard job of the dash. In my hast to get it done. I forget to finish chrome foiling the trim on it. So I took care of that issue, now I can say in all honesty, that the dash is complete. Here is a couple of pics of it completed. Now maybe I can move on to assembling the interior and moving on to staring work on the engine.

Sorry I wasnt more precise with my wording. But in the very many years, (35 to be exact), that I have been modeling and with many types of paint.. And even working with my dad in his body shop painting real cars, white and shades of white, and yellows, tend to allow darker colors to shadow through them. Or is shadowing also the wrong choice of words?.. Either way, I would always paint lighter colors first when two toning. Unless the paint gods out there have changed the process.

Blue is one of those colors that has a habit of bleeding through white, especially when white is painted over it.. You'll want to use a white primer over the blue before you apply your white top coat. Even if you applied a clear coat over the blue, you will still probably get blue shadowing through the white. The other issue you will run into, if you applied a clear acrylic over your blue base coat, is finding a primer that wont hurt the clear coat. In the future, here is a good tip for you when doing two tone paint jobs, ALWAYS start with the lightest color first. Then mask off the areas that will be the next lightest color, and so on. Lighter colors dont work well over darker colors, but darker colors over lighter colors dont have very many issues.

Got the Dash painted and detailed this evening. Still got the steering wheel ans steering column to do yet, but the dash is pretty much done. To start with I painted the whole dash Model Master Dark Flat green Then I masked off everything but the dash padding and apply a coat of model masters semi-gloss clear. Once that had dried I masked the whole dash off again, all but the bottom edge of the dash, which I then painted Tamiya Semi-gloss black. Once that had dried, I got out the model car garage detail set, and apply the dash details, such as the radio face, heater controls, air ducts, and Camaro script, to the the dash. The Gauge insert for the dash was given the same treatment as the wood grain on the center console and the door panels. This was done by applying a couple coats of testors flat wood, followed by a couple light washes of flat black acrylic mixed with water, then when all that dried, it was over-coated with Tamiya's acrylic clear orange. Then all the dash gauge details from the model car garage detail kit was added. The pics below show the final results. Sorry if some are a little dark, my camera doesn't like the evening lighting in my hobby room. More to come as I get more done.

Hi Michael, well, when I fill small gaps. some times I use a medium grade CA glue called extreme power. It's a little thicker than the thin flowing grade, and because its a little thicker, it takes a little longer to dry. Once I apply the glue to the seem, or gap, I want to fill, I add a dusting of baking soda, (but even baking powder will work) over top of the glue, before it dries, and blow off the excess. This helps the glue dry faster and also works to help fill the gap more evenly and make it easier to sand smooth. It's a trick I learned many years ago before the days of hobby CA glues, when i was using superglue for the same things. But it still works great.

Next was to scribe and cut the area to be removed, with my xacto knife.(at this point I also sanded down and cleaned up the dash face as best I could, because I intend to use more of the model car garage's dash detail parts.) Next, using CA cement, I attached the new Model Car Garage dash top to the kit dash, then using a little bit of baking soda I fill what little bit of gaps I found along the seem, and carefully sanded it down. Next was to lay the dash gauge insert from the Model Car Garage into the dash face and gently bend it into shape. This was then removed as it will get painted separately. Notice that the gauge face opening are a little off centered.. No big deal as the gauge backings that Model Car Garage supplies with their kit will hide this Next was to primer the dash and set it aside to dry. what tiny few gaps may still be visible will get fixed before final paint Anyways I think the dash will look much better that what was supplied by the kit. Will post more as I get it done.

This morning's update. One of the things about this kit I really didn't like was the dash. Good thing Model Car Garage makes a detail set for this kit with a corrected dash pad and dash detail. Sooooo here is a few pics of what my plan is for the dash. This is what I'm starting with Here is a few reference pics to give you an idea of how the dash should really look and what I'm attempting to do. Notice that the dash pad does not go all the way back to the windshield, and that there is defroster vents and speaker grill? Where the pad ends on the top of the dash there is usually a slight seem. You can see the contrast between the pad and the hard part of the top of the dash pretty well in this pic. And here is a good example of how the dash pad is a separate piece from the part of the dash back by the windshield. If you go back up and look at the first pic I posted with the kit dash in it, you will see it looks like a solid white blob with no detail, at least to me. So The first think I did was take the Model Car Garage dash top and lay it over the kit dash and mark a line where the two should meet. Next was to place masking tape along the line I mark so when I go to cut this back part of the dash off, I wouldn't accidentally slip and gouge the good part of the dash. Continued on next post..................................

Nice work Robert

In these pics you can see the before pic with the sink marks on one side of the front frame rail that I missed and forgot to fix before I painted it. And in this pic, I masked off and sanded down the crappy looking frame rail side, filled it with green squadron putty, sanded, primed and repainted it. Now I'm happy again. I hate when I miss stuff like that.

Repaired a few sink marks on the bottom of the drivers side front frame rail that I missed. Just waiting for the paint to dry. Should be all better now LOL.

Yes it sure is, I just cant believe I missed the sink marks on the one side of it before I painted it. I got em all filled in now I think though, just got done sanding and priming them.. We'll see how it looks once the primer dries and the semi gloss black goes back on lol

Those darn sink marks on the front frame are bothering me now that I see em.. Sooooooo, you know what I just did lol... Sanded the paint off the frame rail on that side and hit it with some green squadron putty, should be able to sand it down and repaint it in the morning.. I'll make short work of them dog gone sink marks.. Don't like missing stuff like that.. LOL

LOL I totally get what your saying, but I didn't seem to have those issues with this one.. I got the one molded in white. I don't know what Round 2 did to correct those issues, especially with any ghosting, but I never had a problem with it on this kit. I did use Tamiya's white ultra fine primer.. Don't know if that made a difference, or if Round 2 just did something different with the plastic they used in the injection mold process. But I didn't find any body sink mark issues with the kit or any high spots for that matter, and the only place I had any ghosting issues was on the package self on the back of the rear seat.. But I also didn't primer any of the interior parts before I painted them either.. So who knows lol.

Hi Fred, thanks, I never did buy any of the original kits, but if there were issues with the body on the originals, well round2 must of done some work to it, aside from a couple of mold lines on the body, there wasn't anything else I had to do to get it ready for paint.. Well I did crisp up the line on the front nose area where the grill sits to make it look more like the removable part it was. The kit does have a little bit of flashing and mold lines on alot of parts that have have to be cleaned up, but that was always typical with AMT kits anyways. You can see a couple of sink marks in the bottom of the front frame that I missed when I was working on it before paint, but then my eyes ain't what they used to be, even with a high powered magnifying glass.

Wow this is gonna really look good Fred. I like the stance and the wheels. I also like what you did with the procharger

This is coming along really nice Bob

Here is the front end suspension in it's default straight wheels position. In the next couple of pics you can get a idea of how the Tie Rod work I did, will function with turning both front wheels together. by the way, the pin heads will get painted semi-gloss black before the assembly is permanently installed on the chassis. Here is a couple of pics of the front suspension test fitted on the chassis. I still have some more detail work to do on the front end yet, before it gets set into place permanently. Things such as front brake lines and the front part of the fuel line running up to the engine. And wouldn't you just know it, my camera batteries ran down again, just as I finished up with these pics. Sooooooo, back in the charger they go again.. I guess its getting close to time to buy new ones. Anyways, next up, I think it will be time to get back to work on the interior and start some work on the engine.

Next up was to make a set of shock stalks to fit down into the center of the springs. For this I dug out a piece of evergreen round tube. The tubing was cut into two piece the same length as the kit spring. All the front end pieces where then detail painted and set aside to dry and to get ready for assembly. Assembly started by epoxy gluing the springs into the frame, and cementing the shock stalks onto the lower a frame assembly. Next the Tie Rod and Spindle Arms assembly was re-pinned to the upper and lower A Frames and the lower A frame assembly was glued into place. This completed the basic front suspension assembly. Continued on to next post.............