Snake45

That might be coming up soon, maybe.

I like that flat silver/aluminum paint. What is it?

I solved this problem for Tom down in the Bring Out Your Dead Build thread. (Shameless plug!)

“We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty.” --Sgt. Malcom “Mal” Reynolds, Independent Army (“Browncoats”) Now I know exactly what Captain Tightpants meant. Almost 30 years ago, at a club meeting, I bought a baggie filled with pieces of what had once been a poorly built Revell EMPI Imp. I think I paid an entire US Dollar for it. Maybe it was two. Whatever, it was a semi-rare kit worth saving to me, so it followed me home. It disappeared into the Snakepit for decades. A bit over a year ago, I was finally hit by the urge to see what could be done with the wretched mess. It took me about a week to figure out the chassis pieces, and what went where, when, and carefully glue everything back together. Oh, and I couldn't find a set of instructions for the thing, which might have been a big help. I figgered it all out. During the chassis reconstruction process, I stripped the body, which came out pretty well. When I got it back up on its wheels, I felt like I could probably put a dinosaur skeleton back together from a basket of bones. You can revel in my anguish and triumph in the Workbench thread here: After finishing the chassis, I lost interest again and the thing served another year on the Shelf of Doom. I decided to drag it, kicking and screaming, across the finish line for Round 6 of the now-notorious Bring Out Your Dead Group Completion Build. First job was paint. To me, the iconic Imp was the bright metalflake blue one on the cover of Hot Rod about 1970, so metalflake blue was always the plan. I had a giant can of Krylon Shimmer Blue that looked like it would be perfect. But first, I primed the back seat area of the flake-red molded body with black, then gray, then flat white, then shot a couple coats of Testor White Lightning for a metalflake/pearl upholstery look. The seats were carefully masked off, the body got an overall coat of light gray primer, and then two coats of the Krylon Shimmer blue. This went on easily and smoothly, but wasn't as bright, as shiny, or as “flaky” as I was going for. (More on this later.) I polished it out with Wright's Silver Cream, which helped a little. Forgot to mention that before the first coat of primer, I foiled the hood EMPI Imp emblem with household foil, then masked it off with Elmer's Glue for the foil-under-paint technique, which DID work out pretty well. When I unmasked the back seats, I thought they looked too thin, so I sprayed some white vinyl tape with the White Lightning, cut thin strips, and laid them along the edges of the seats to widen them a little. Not perfect, but they look better now. The final big hurdle was an engine. The original engine was not only glue-bombed in its own right, but one carburetor and the entire exhaust system were missing. I could try to scratchbuild these and restore the rest of the engine, or I could “borrow” the parts from an AMT Manx or TeeVee buggy, or just take the whole engine from the latter. Instead, I went with an AMT Parts Pack Corvair. This was from an early '90s Blueprinter Exclusive issue, unplated and molded in a dark metallic gray that I thought was kind of attractive. I glued the fidgety thing together and highlighted just enough areas on it with Silver Sharpie and Molotow to give the impression of proper busy-ness at the rear end of the car. That done it should have all been downhill from there, although final detailing and assembly took me most of a full day (4 or 5 hours). The windshield frame was the extra (unused) Manx unit from a TeeVee kit; the TeeVee kit doesn't include the Manx windshield, so I superglued it to some clear plastic from an M2 diecast package and trimmed the excess with a sharp Xacto. This went amazingly well (for a change) and probably didn't take 10 minutes start to finish, including finding the M2 box. The TeeVee kit also gave up its headlights and VW taillights. The front bucket seats also got squirted with the White Lightning Pearl. Looking at the finished pics, I think I mounted the windshield with a little too much rake angle. No big deal, it's only on with Tacky Glue and I can remove it and try again any time the mood strikes me. So I GOTTER DONE for Round 6 of the BOYD build, which makes me very happy. It ain't perfect, but it's DONE and I'm pretty proud of it. By the way, here's a pic of the finished model with the cap of the Krylon Shimmer Blue, which was what I was expecting and hoping for. As you can see, the paint looks a good bit different. It looks more like '69 Ford Acapulco Blue, or maybe a slightly light '64 Guardsman blue, except just a bit too flaky/sparkly to be a factory color, but not nearly as “bass boat” flaky as I wanted for this job. Oh well, it is what it is. Thanks for looking, and as always, comments welcome.

With all the local newsstands and book stores closed, until recently, Food Lion was the best magazine newsstand in town. Then they cut back, and it's back to Walmart, which carries about half of what I'd like to read.

Wrong thread. I think you meant to post in this one:

I'm a Chap-Stick addict. Gotta have it. The Cherry or Strawberry stuff. Several years ago, I developed a strategy for buying the stuff. When I ran out, I'd buy not one but TWO sticks, use one, and stash one in my sock drawer. Next time I ran out, same thing. I'll bet by now I've got a dozen or more "spare" sticks in the drawer. Good thing too because every now and then Walmart will be out of my favorite kind for a week or two or three at a time. I'm good. Lately I've started using the same plan on a lot more things. Need one, buy two. That way I have the next one on hand when I need it. Country Boy can survive!

If you have the hood, grille, bumpers, and taillights, I think it would be a great project to kitbash it with the guts of a Revell. I'm planning to convert an AMT Funny Hugger body back to stock and doing this with it, just because I think the old AMT Rally Sport front end is more accurate and better looking than Revell's.

Very nice! Improvise! Adapt! Overcome! Model on!

Bought this one on eBay in December for a reasonable price. I'd planned to strip and rebuild it completely, but after looking it over, I thought I could Snake-slap it into a “rescue” and stick it on the shelf until the mood struck me to do it real justice. It was missing a few things, but luckily, it included every single dedicated and required El Camino part needed: Body, interior tub, bed extension, rear bumper and taillights, and long-wheelbase chassis. I had to “borrow” the seats/console, dashboard, steering wheel, and windshield from a common reissue '69 Chevelle kit. I made the rear window from some clear plastic from some random blister-packed Walmart purchase. Evidently the hood had been stripped, or someone had tried to. My first instinct was to paint it matte black, then decided to see if currently available Model Master Nassau Blue might be close, keeping matte black as “Plan B.” I shot the hood with white primer, then a coat or two of the Nassau Blue. This was at least a full shade darker than the Elky's body. Remembering that many of the Model Master lacquers lighten up when polished, I gave it a light polish with Wright's Silver Cream. It worked, lightening the paint about half a shade. It's still about a half-shade darker than the body, but it's so close enough that it doesn't jump out at you as the FIRST thing you see on the finished model. (I didn't even try to polish out the bed extension, which I also had to paint. The color difference is much more pronounced there, but it doesn't really bother me.) I gave the rest of the body the same light polish (which didn't change its color—probably old AMT Blue Fog Metallic) but brought up a little bit of shine, about like a five or six year old factory paint job. Good enough! I re-did all the body chrome trim with my beloved Silver Sharpie, and painted the interior with Krylon Satin Black. The grille got black-washed and detailed, the wheels got detailed with black, and then the whole mess went back together. As I said, someday I'll strip and repaint it nicely in '69 LeMans blue. Until that day comes, it looks great sitting on my “Survivor Shelf.” Thanks for looking, and as always, comments welcome.

I'm not that worried about it. The stuff I usually buy is lower line stuff, at Walmart prices, and this is name-brand stuff (As Seen on TV! ) and a large part of the cost was shipping. As I said, the peace of mind was worth what I paid. I'm just thankful I was ABLE to pay the price.

Here's how we finished Round 6: ROUND 6: FINISH DATE MARCH 31, 2020 Dave Branson: Porsche 959 (at least one, maybe two!) Bobthehobbyguy: Ghost Rider Corvette Disconovaman: Chevy Stepside truck Straightliner59: SS/GT Firebird MAKING GREAT PROGRESS! Tom Geiger: Trabant 600 Panel Wagon Bernard Kron: Interested but specific project not declared Misha: ‘49 Ford SECOND COMPLETION! GOTTER DONE! Lghtngyello03: Chevy Cameo pickup SuperbirdMcMonte: '70 Dodge Coronet THIRD COMPLETION! GOTTER DONE! Moving on to '57 Corvette. FOURTH COMPLETION! GOTTER DONE! Snake45: EMPI Imp MAKING GREAT PROGRESS! FIFTH COMPLETION! GOTTER DONE! #1 Model Citizen: '49 Ford Tudor special exemption extended from Round #4-5; deadline is January 31 FIRST COMPLETION! GOTTER DONE 1/31! Eric Macleod: L-29 Cord So we had five completions, down one from Round 5 but not completely dead yet. BTW, if I'd had the presence of mind to declare it and post a BEFORE pic, I could have counted this '69 Firebird this round, as I started it over two years ago and last month got overcome with the urge to finish it off. But I didn't so I don't get to count it. Oh well. More pics and details on the evil thing here: So are we gonna have a Round 7? Completion date would be June 30. Sound off if you want to play. We need eight players to move on.

If you go to Walmart for groceries (still allowed!) go over to the auto parts section and check out putties. I've been having REAL good luck with something I bought there. I think it's 3M Red. Works well if used in THIN coats.

Hey, you did about as well as anyone could with that sad old train wreck of a kit. Hold your head high--not many of us would have had the guts to build it at all! Model on!

Yeah, I would try polishing off the paint drops first. I'd use Wright's Silver Cream, a silver polish available at Walmart. If that doesn't work for you or you go too far, you can always strip and repaint.

Sure could be!

What I like for what you're doing is to start with bottled Testor Dullcote, then add just a little tan and a little medium gray. Thin with lacquer thinner. Airbrush from about a foot out. When you get where you think you need just one more coat, STOP. Let it dry, take a look and see if you want any more. You probably won't. This makes a very convincing and EASY under-chassis weathering. I realize you're trying to do this with acrylics, but I have no experience with them. If you can airbrush lacquer, this will work for you.

I'm HOPING we have a Round 7. Participation was down this time, so were completions. Maybe with so many of us having to stay at home, more people will get interested this time. Hope so, anyway.

Mine hasn't carried that in over a year, but a while back I was able to lay in a good supply via their website. Now it's even gone from there. But I recently discovered Touch N Tone white, gray, and black primers, available at a couple local hardware stores. It's so similar to the Color Place it might be the same thing. Costs three times as much as at Walmart, but STILL well worth the price.

Every time I go to Walmart, except for toilet paper of course, they have everything I want/need except one random item. One week it was hot dogs. One week it was eggs. One week it was any kind of frozen pizza I like. Who knows what it will be this week?

The wheels are the prettiest thing about this pig. Repaint? Grille swap? Please. And I've never seen an Eleanor movie so I'm not a fanboy.

DNM, based on that pic you could declare that one DONE and get on the scoreboard this quarter, as far as I'm concerned. Looks DONE to me. It's as DONE as most of my "finished" models these days. Or you could roll it over into Round 7 if you want, since you didn't have this one in round 5 and so are eligible for your one extension on it. I'll leave it up to you.

Naw, it's strictly a Hank Junior joint. Although, come to think of it, I could hear Trace Adkins or Blake Shelton doing it.

No love, sorry. I have a blue one that I think is a Motormax. Since then I've seen other colors of it at Walmart (maybe red).

Got the EMPI Imp done! Only time for a couple quick POD (Proof Of DONE!) pics now; hope to have full glamour shots Under Glass in the next day or two. (Got a BUNCH of new build photos to take tomorrow.) Yay me!