Snake45

Working on the '57 Corvette. Last night I tried to get the AMT '62 Corvette chassis into the painted MPC body. Harder than I thought. I had to trim it front and rear, and then found out that it was too tall--I have to shave the top of the fenderwells off. Got about half the necessary work done already. Even when I get it up in there, the edges of the rear wheel wells might show through the radiused openings in the MPC body. I guess we'll see how that works out. Meanwhile I dug out that glue bomb "Great Street Machines" MPC '57 I bought for a couple bucks at a yard sale a decade or more ago. It seems to be complete, especially the chassis and engine. Comes already set up with a tube front axle and traction bars on the rear end, too. This might be the way to go. About all I'd have to do is pry the tunnel ram manifold off the engine and replace it with a 6-71. Since the hood/front end is glued down solid on the green body, the engine detailing isn't critical, as long as a good-looking blower is coming through. Still haven't decided whether it will be a vintage Gasser, a vintage streak freak, or a modern street freak. We'll see what happens.

I need to try that. I clean up foil residue with rubbing alcohol, but that can damage/remove Testor lacquers and many acrylics. I'll have to test WD-40 on them.

I've sometimes done the same thing. I've also put the guide strip on before the foil. You can still see and follow the edge, AND when you take the masking strip off, the excess foil adhesive residue comes up with it--nothing to clean up!

Well, it's got the rear spoiler, and the cowl induction hood, which was only available on COPO, SS, and Z/28, so a stock "low line" is out.

#4 is from the AMT '66 Corvette roadster, part of the "slot car conversion" parts.

Looks pretty darn good. How did you do the vinyl top? Well done an model on!

Yes.

That shallow grille is giving me pause, too. I might just paint it paint it all black, as was commonly done "back in the day."

I must own well over a dozen copies of the Revell '69 Camaros, but have only ever actually built/finished two. I found final assembly--getting the chassis into the body--to be the worst part. But I discovered something interesting/useful: DON'T glue the firewall to anything. Just stick it in place and then wrestle the chassis into the body. When you have it in place, the firewall will just sort of pop into the perfect position all by itself, and stay there, just like magic! I don't think I've ever seen anything like it in 50+ years of car modeling. Switching gears, this might be a good place to ask this question: When Model Car World paints first came out in the early '90s, I painted a Revell '69 Camaro in Hugger Orange, intending to build it as one of the first ZL-1s. Apparently I wasn't the only one with this idea, as over the years I've seen many, many renditions of this same car to that point that it's almost become a modeling cliche. So what else could I do with this nicely painted, polished-out body? I don't want to do it as a Z/28 with black stripes because I already have an M2 diecast in that exact color combo. Any other ideas for it, especially interesting ones?

That's what I do--#11 (old blade) backside, run black into the grooves BEFORE paint, then paint as normal and forget about them. No further attention need be paid until it's time to clean polishing compound out of the lines with a toothbrush under warm running water.

Dunno if TD had anything to do with BHE (it doesn't look TD-y enough to me, but I could be wrong), but it was definitely a real car before it was a kit.

Fabulous! I'll add you to the list. Wecome aboard!

Yeah, I think I saw it when I ran a search for them Under Glass. Nice job!

Stalled since April? Already painted and well along? You sound like a great candidate for the BRING OUT YOUR DEAD Completion Build, Round 2, now forming up. Completion deadline will be March 31, which should give you plenty of time to GITTER DONE! Come on in!

Excellent! Lordmodelbuilder and Bobthehobbyguy, you're now on my master list and will be added at the next next update. Now we've taken Round 2 to ELEVEN! GITTER DONE!

Very nice indeed! Well done and model on!

Ron, I'd be willing to bet that yours comes out twice as good.

That must be how they ended up in bankruptcy last year.

Welcome to Camaro World! Fathom Green or Rally Green? One tip for white stripes on this kit: Airbrush the cowl vent areas white first, then mask them off and paint everything else. If they even give you decals for the cowl vent area, they never fit very well. The rest of the striping can be done with the kit decals.

Got anything already painted you could drag across the finish line?

It was in the roadster kit, too, but for some reason was slightly different, as discussed elsewhere.

I suspect that some street racers painted their bare L88 heads to disguise the fact that that's what they were.

Okay, with 89AKurt and Mod3lbldr in, that's eight, so it's on! Straightliner59: Junior Fuel Dragster Dave Branson: '70 Chevelle Belugawrx: Castrol F1 Mod3lLover: Mustang Disconovaman: Several excellent candidates, “official” candidate not named yet Junkyard Jeff: '41 Chevy truck 89AKurt: '48 Chevy truck “Canopy Express” Modlbldr: '40 Ford “Starlet” Bobthehobbyguy seems to be serious about jumping in, but needs to pick his official candidate. And I'll jump in with this MPC '57 Corvette gasser. Started it in early 2000s (the primer photo is dated 2005), painted around 2006 or '07 or something, painted it with Pactra Odds N Ends Hunter Green thinned with naphtha, which was still sticky OVER A YEAR LATER. At some point it eventually got hard enough to polish out, which I think I did around 2010 or so, and haven't worked on it since. Original plan was to do it as a gasser dragster named "Mr. BAD EXAMPLE," but at this point I might finish it up as a '70s street freak, we'll see what happens. Sadly, I didn't paint the hard top at the same time and am not sure I can match the paint at this point. If I can't, I'll paint the roof either Sub Lime or Testor Lime Green Metalflake. The stall point on this one was, I didn't want to build the fiddly MPC chassis but last night I test-fit it on a one-piece AMT '62 Corvette chassis and it should work with some minor fitting, so I got THAT goin' for me. (I also have a built glue bomb MPC chassis that might work for this.) Strip or street, it will HAVE to have a 6-71 coming through the hood due to the cutout. Anyone else want in? Completion deadline will be March 31 so that's more than two months to drag something off your Shelf of Doom and GITTER DONE!

Isn't that still in the oft-reissued '72 GTO? Runs in my mind that it is.

That job can be a real PITA, what with repolishing on the inside and whatnot. I've found that if you hit the very end of the stem with white paint--not chrome, not silver, not foil, WHITE--in many cases it virtually disappears and and in the rest the googly-eyed appearance is greatly reduced. WAY easier than removal and polishing, and very effective!