Snake45

Your tanks shrank, not shrunk.

Very, VERY nice! Even as we speak I'm working on an AMT Get Smart Alpine that will be painted Testor Italian Red. Thanks for the preview and inspiration! Well done and model on!

Mine is quieter that the little desktop "hobby" compressor I used before, which had to run all the time! It's not THAT loud (about comparable to a home vacuum cleaner or so) and doesn't have to run that much.

Very nice! The metal came out pretty well, too. Well done and model on!

Welly, $10 at Ride Aid (though I haven't seen another one), and thanks!

No, I didn't weather them, that's the AMT tan plastic showing through. It looks worse in flash photography than it does in real life, or I'd have touched them up with Molotow, but glad to hear you like the look!

Very nice, especially the Dart. Well done and model on!

I just realized how rare it is to see a pic of the original MM without the ugly top on it!

Here's the MSDS for it so you can see the ingredients: http://clearshineclean.com/pdfs/LAs-Awesome-Multi-purpose-MSDS.pdf And here it is for the Fairy Power Spray: https://www.espocatalogue.org/eSupply/COSHH/144142.pdf

Yet another refugee from the local toy show, which was allowed to follow me home due to its completeness, fairly clean (and easy to match!) black paint, and—especially—its sit and “attitude.” Riding high on Cragars and slicks like a late '60s-early '70s street boss? What's not to like? Dusty as a barn find, it cleaned up well, and the paint took a nice light polish (Wright's Silver Cream on a damp cloth). I polished the glass, but did nothing with the interior except break out the bucket seats and switch them (they're left and right-handed on a '65 Goat, and had been installed wrong). Original Builder had for some reason hit the spokes of the nice Cragar wheels with some kind of black paint, possibly acrylic. I discovered that rubbing alcohol would soften it, so I let the wheels soak in that for a few minutes and then took the black off with a toothbrush. This worked well but also took some of the chrome off the spokes as well. I re-chromed them with a Molotow pen and they came out suprisingly well. (Plan B would have been to paint the spokes dark gray.) I think the tires and slicks are JoHans. They were “waxy” and really didn't want to be sanded, but I eventually wrestled them to the ground. So I was able to re-use all the original rolling stock. Spent quite a bit of time on the rear end of this one. The resissue kit taillights just don't look right, so I put some effort into building them up and reshaping them, and then I filed and sanded the ends of the rear quarters to the proper '65 shape (the kit looks more like a '64 in this area). Touched up the paint with a black “Professional” Sharpie, which seems to have real gloss black paint in it instead of dark purple ink. I didn't get it perfect, but I did get it looking a LOT better, and learned a lot for when I get around to building a “good” one of these from a new kit. You can see details of what I did with the rear end (and comparisons with a nice Welly diecast) here: From there it was just Snake-Fu 101: Silver Sharpie-ing the trim, detailing the grille, and so forth. I originally planned to replace the front bumper and headlights with the Modelhaus piece reproed from the '65 promo, which is much more accurate and better looking, but got lazy and didn't feel like looking for it. Maybe that will come in a Phase II, in which I'll also sili-clone a hood scoop intake piece from an unbuilt kit. Someday. Meanwhile, here's what it looks like. Since I used 100% of the model's original parts and didn't add or substitute anything (although I did improve a couple things), this one comes close to qualifiying for my definition of a “restoration.” I think the OB would be please with what I did with it. And here it is compared to the nice (after considerable reworking of the roof) if very slightly undersized Welly '65 GTO diecast. As always, comments welcome.

And since y'all like pretty pictures, here they are:

I have one of these, bought at Walmart in 2002. Hasn't given me a minute's trouble, and I'd gladly buy another. It's not silent, but it only takes a couple minutes to fill the tank to 125 psi and then you can turn it off and airbrush silently for 20 minutes or more at 30 psi, which is more than I usually need. You will have to buy your own water trap, but they're only about $10. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Campbell-Hausfeld-3-Gallon-Inflation-and-Fastening-Compressor-with-Accessory-Kit-DC030098/785722491

Get a kit molded in good color and learn to polish plastic. I have several plastic-polishing projects lined up for the winter.

Agreed. I went on an Evergreen Bender in a local model railroad shop about a decade ago, and bought about a dozen packages of various sizes of strips and rods. They are constantly coming in handy. Used one of the rods just the other day. It was exactly what I needed.

Interesting! I see from the MSDS that Mr. Clean is "alcohol ethoxylates (nonionic surfactant)." Never heard of it. What else will it do? Will it remove paint? Will it take off BMF residue without removing, say, Testor or Tamiya lacquers? Can it be used as a thinner for acrylics? I might have to get a bottle for some experiments.

Only rarely in my life have I bothered to strip the chrome before gluing a part on, and in nearly all of those cases it was a fit issue. Don't believe I've ever lost a chrome part due to it falling off from not being de-chromed. In deconstructing glue bombs, I've noticed in some cases that deliberate disassembly of chrome parts is easier in some but not all cases. Sometimes they're just as stuck together as anything else. Nowadays I'm more likely to attach chrome parts with superglue, epoxy, or Tacky Glue, none of which cares a bit if the part is chromed or not. Or BOTH parts, for that matter.

Looking at these, I'm thinking of Eustace Conway of History Channel's Mountain Men.

One will cost you $25.18. The other one will cost you $29.40. Take your pick.

Dunno about 20% off at Rite Aid, but last Saturday mine had a sign on the Welly rack, Buy One Get One 50% Off. Too bad I couldn't find two I wanted even for just $15.

Here's the '69 Road Runner I built in 1969. Looks pretty barn find-y today, don't it? I think it's about due for a "survivor restoration." It's too nice to leave dirty.

Different and therefore interesting! Well done and model on!

The bad part about this is, they won't give you the 40% off on kits while the sale is going on. Understandable that they won't give you 40% off what's already 20% off, but they won't even give you the 40% off the regular price, because now everything is keyed into the system at the sale price. Thanks for the warning. I know not to waste my time going this week.

The Funny Farmer AWB reissues don't go for NEAR that. You could probably score one for under $25.

The taillight bezels don't fit the openings in the body all that well, either. The whole taillight thing on this kit is just a hot mess. Here's what I did on a recent glue bomb I rescued. I filled in the lenses with several applications of Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Glue until they were flush, then just painted the lenses red. Nowhere close to perfect but still a huge improvement over what comes in the reissued kit.

Very nice! I too was going to ask about the paint as it looks very very much like the old AMT Candy Oriental Blue on an old Mako Shark survivor I'm trying to restore. Drive on!