Snake45

After putting it off in dread for a week or more, I finally got the lower body chrome trim foil work done on that '67 GTO glue bomb I'm rescuing. Very little reason to put off finishing up the evil beast now.

I did eventually take pics of the red interior shot with white as described above. Here's a couple of them.

I'm still waiting for someone to tell me the name of the chemical that will bleed color out of styrene (without actually dissolving the styrene itself), or show me a painted body that supposedly "bled" that was lighter in color after paint stripping. Perhaps Rufus here will be The One to lead us all out of ignorance.

Some of us might find this thread educational. If you're paying attention, you might learn how to avoid some kinds of problems, and/or how to fix them. Valuable advice might be offered by members here for fixes for various screw-ups. Someone once told me, "A wise man learns from his mistakes. A really wise man learns from other people's mistakes."

Yes, Model Master is a "sub line" and apparently it's going away. But the MM silver is exactly the same stuff that's been available in the Testor little bottles for years, so you should still be able to get it.

Interesting. Thanks, Tom! I did find one other source that said my state wasn't going to consider unemployment taxable for 2020, but that's just for my state. However it all works out, I don't think I made enough money last year to have TOO big a tax problem. But first the stupid state needs to send me my 1099-G so I can get started.

A "What Did You Screw Up Today?" thread might be a good idea. You can go back and change the title of this thread and we can start it here, if you don't wait too long. Sorry to hear of your bad luck with Rustoleum clear lacquer. I've recently had two successes with it but in both cases I started with two light, "mist" coats to seal the underlying mystery paint before laying it on wet. You might be able to easily strip the lacquer off--and the underlying craft paint--with 92% rubbing alcohol. Give it a try, and good luck with your fix. I haven't screwed anything up today, probably because I haven't done any modeling yet.

Not a problem on mine, the body and chassis are about the same width at the rockers.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! Model on!

They might well be exactly the same thing--the Testor one for the racks that have only Testor, not Model Master. Or the Testor one might be replacing the MM. I used this MM lacquer on a build recently. It performed okay--jut barely--but I wasn't impressed with it. I've learned to prefer a $4 can of Rustoleum High Lustre Clear Lacquer from Walmart. BTW, the $4 can is 11 oz vs 3 oz for the Testor stuff. No competition, AFAIC.

Wiki says last year for the DB4 was 1963.

That makes sense, because I think some of these wheels were "melted on" in similar fashion.

I think that might be right. Looks like a Pontiac engine to me, too.

Well, you've stumped me. Looks like an early MPC funny but I can't nail down which one. Every time I think I've got it, some part in your pics doesn't fit. Is there a chance there are parts from more than one kit here? Mark?

Good idea, thanks! The local post office used to have them, but they haven't done that for years, either.

Dunno about your particular truck, but I've taken the bodies off dozens of diecasts (to detail them) and put them back on with no problems whatsoever. Only problem I've ever had with diecast disassembly is getting some of the wheels off the axles. I've had to actually cut the metal axle in half on a couple. Oh, and once in a while the windows are held in place by a rivet that's hard to grind out, but so far I've been able to overcome.

Huh. I think it was on one of the MANY state sites I visited. Was a complete surprise to me, as I hadn't heard of it before.

Getting time to start thinking about taxes. I only worked one month in 2020, and I got the W-2 for that, and the one for Social Security, which I was on by the end of the year, but not the 1099-G from state unemployment. Spent over an hour trying to find a number to call to request one, finally found an email that seems to be good, so I've emailed the request. Now I need the tax forms. Remember when the G and the state used to send these to you? No more, not for a few years now. Last few years I downloaded and printed them at work, but I'm not working this year and I don't have a working printer. Spent more time trying to figure out how to request the forms. Never did find either a number or an email for either, and both local offices are closed due to COVID. I wonder if H&R Block would give me the forms if I walked in and asked nicely? On the bright side, I might not even have to pay any tax. Apparently unemployment is not counted for income last year, and there may be some favorable rules about SS too. Between that and the Senior Citizen tax rate, we might not have made enough money last year to have to pay any income tax at all.

Amazing show this week (no spoilers). Three of what I'd consider the top cars in the Winners bracket got knocked off (four if you count Lizzy Musi), two of them by relative no-names/unknowns, which were real jaw-droppers. I really enjoyed the interactions between JJ and Ryan Martin. There's a lot of mutual respect and professionalism going on there, and it shows. Really sorry to see Tricia beat herself. But she always cuts such a fine light, it had to happen sooner or later. I watched it back and didn't see it, so it must have been one of those "one frame" things. And again, I'm impressed by the way the quiet and unassuming Dennis Bailey just goes out there and gets it done. I think I've only seen him beat once, maybe twice, in all the seasons of MSO. Interesting new format on the 405 show this week, too.

This fairly cleanly built Fireball 500 caught my eye at the local toy show last month. I've often said that if I can improve a glue bomb into looking like something I might have built in 1968, I'm happy. This one was pretty much already there, but I saw a few improvements that could be made. The most obvious eyesores on the model were, of course, the glue boogers on the wraparound windscreens. I have an unbuilt Fireball 500 in the Snakepit that I plan to build into a custom of my own design, so I didn't feel bad about robbing parts out of it. After disassembly, first thing I did was file the underside of the interior tub and the topside of the chassis transmission tunnel so the body would properly sit down over the frame. This lowered the front end and made a big difference in the look of the whole thing. It might not show up too well in the Before pics, but the USA banner decal on the left quarter is too long. If correctly applied behind the (missing) gas filler cap, as the OP did, it crosses the depressed crease line in the fender and then comes up on the flush part again, if you follow what I'm saying, and it looks terrible. I scraped the rear quarter or so of the decal off, cut the red and white portion from a new decal to a shorter length, and applied it right over the old one. Looks much better now. I also sliced the door decals through the door lines and snuggled them down into the gap with Solvaset. The paint needed a little red touchup with a brush here and there. The overall finish wasn't horrible, but had a LOT of pebbling and orange peel. In the Before pics, you can see a lot of white “specks” on the red. SOME of these are actual tiny paint specks, but mainly these are reflections from the high spots of the pebbling/orange peel. Next step was to even out and gloss up the paint with Rustoleum High Lustre Clear Lacquer. Since I had no idea what the original paint was (probably Testor enamel, but who knows?), I used the same careful routine as on my recent Projekt Junknova—two light mist coats to seal the underlying paint from the lacquer, then four wet coats. When dry, this was polished out with my standard Wright's Silver Cream. The model had originally been built without the radiator wall with its Ciebe headlights behind the grille; I added these from the unbuilt kit. I tried to re-use the original windscreens, but the glue boogers were just too bad and I had to pirate them from the new kit. I painted the body areas under the windscreens with semigloss black, and hit the bottom edge of the windscreens with a black Permanent Sharpie. Glued on with Tacky Glue (white glue), the edge just vanishes for a 100% improvement in appearance. All that was left was to sand the tire treads and paint the Radir wheel spokes with flat aluminum. (The real one might have full-chrome Radirs, but IMHO these look too toylike on a model.) I forgot to attach the new outside mirror and gas filler cap before taking the pics. I'm pretty pleased with the finished product. I have maybe 10-12 hours in it, much of that in the paint rubout. Not as good as I could do “from scratch,” but then I only have about one fourth as much work in it. Looks good on my shelf, especially next to my restored original Monkeemobile. Thanks for looking, and as always, comments welcome.

Well, just since you asked.... That B-pillar (the door posts and between them) slants backward at too sharp an angle. If I were building this, I'd have to cut that out and reposition it more correctly. But it's your model, and if you don't see it or it doesn't bother you, by all means, drive on!

Thanks so much, Frank. The PM system here won't work for me for some reason, but you can email me at SnakeACP45 at AOL dot com ...and we can arrange something. Thanks!

That is a cool old survivor! I'd have done the same thing. Well preserved and model on!

Nice color and finish on the Caddy! My favorite of this batch is the Corvair. Drive on!

Here's the Deco Color marker: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Marvy-Uchida-DecoColor-Premium-Metallic-Paint-Marker-Chisel-Tip-Silver-028617350691/43472202 Here's the Krylon Foil Silver: https://www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-Hobbies/Stencils-Craft-Paints/Spray-Paint/Silver-Krylon-Foil-Metallic-Spray-Paint/p/1397