Snake45

That "55" Corvette seems to be identical to the '53 Snapper I recently built. I wonder if it came with actual whitewall tires? My '53 didn't, though they're shown on the box art.

Rut Roh.... And just for thought, not one of the features called out on this drawing is mandated for the "Gas Coupe and Sedan" class in the mid-'60s NHRA rulebooks. (And I don't believe C/G would be the proper classification for anything with a 6-71 on it.)

I knew the cans were old and elected to try to use them anyway. Knowing the exact date wouldn't have helped me, nor changed the result.

Speaking of "blushing," may I present The Paint Job from Hell: This was supposed to be a quick, easy paint job on a Revell '69 Camaro snapper, so I chose Testor One Coat Star Spangled Blue lacquer. I've had pretty good luck with these paints, some of them required no polishing at all for an acceptable result. Not this time, though. The torture proceeded as follows: One coat Walmart Color Place gray primer. Some sanding and fixing in small areas. 2nd coat of Walmart gray primer; some sanding (#800 wet) in some areas. First coat of One Coat Star Spangled Blue, almost wet. Some orange peel. 24 hours later, 2nd coat of SS Blue, wet. Full coverage but dried with notable orange peel. In all fairness, this can was at least 6 years old and didn't seem to be putting out full pressure (hadn't been used before). First coat of Wet Look Clear, from a can at least 5 years old. Some blushing and orange peel. 2nd coat of WLC, from a second can, "only" about 4 years old. More blushing and orange peel. There might have been a 3rd coat, I don't remember, but things weren't getting any better. At this point I decided to procure a new can of WLC. Before shooting the new WLC, I gave the whole model a "rough" polish with Wright's Silver Cream, just enough to remove the present blushing. Didn't worry about smoothness. One coat of new WLC. Blushing and orange peel. 2nd, wet coat of WLC 24 hours later. After drying for 48 hours, there was still considerable blushing. Due to the wetness/thickness of the final WLC coat, orange peel was somewhat reduced. Wet sanded with #1000 grit to remove all orange peel and reduce the surface to smoothness.This removed most the blushing from all the previous WLC. Wet sanded again with #2000 grit to remove sanding scratches from the #1000 and give the surface a uniform, even, polishable sheen. Polished with Wright's Silver Cream. Final polish with Wright's Silver Cream on a damp cloth, which reduces its grit. So it doesn't look half bad. It's shiny and smooth, with no blushing, and looks thinner than the 8 coats of paint on it. It'll do. Pic taken after washing with warm water and soft toothbrush. Please ignore the water spots and Wright's still in the cracks; those will all come out in a second washing (or however many it takes).

Exactly as I remember it.

This is looking REAL good! Very "period." Drive on!

I'm seriously thinking of it. I should wrap up the Vicky restoration tomorrow (or by the weekend at the latest); pretty much finished the chassis today and basically just have to polish out the body. Then I'll get serious about fitting this body to it as a "switcher," and might still come up with another chassis for it.

I'd leave that one alone as a clean survivor. Clean as necessary, maybe detail the wheel covers and sand the tire treads, black wash in the grille if needed, but otherwise I'd leave it alone. I've had a restorable '63 in my stash for over a decade, missing only a rear bumper (which I finally got from Modelhaus). It's painted dark red or maroon, with some flaws. I'm gonna TRY to work with the paint that's on it, but if I polish through or it's otherwise unfixable, I'll have no qualms about stripping it and repainting it. But man, that blue one...I'd leave it pretty much as-is. It's gorgeous.

I have one of those molded in a hot neon pink!

Not the whole state...but I wonder if he could make NASCAR run clockwise next year if the mood struck him.

Disagree. You shouldn't hardly see any panel lines in 1/144. Much less highlighted with black.

You're a one-man Group Build! Drive on!

Lacquer thinner or acetone would almost certainly melt the plastic. Some "paint thinners" (that covers a lot of territory) might as well.

Ah, that makes sense. Would make the guns not Ma Deuces, but the smaller .30-cal Brownings.

I have successfully polished out, WITHOUT clear coating: Model Master Arctic Blue (airbrushed), MM British Green (airbrushed), and MM Honduras Maroon (from a rattlecan). I FAILED to polish, without clearcoating: Model Master Stop Light Red (airbrushed), MM Burgundy (airbrushed) and Testor Mythic Maroon (from the can). These all came out blotchy and uneven and the paint had to be re-done, this time with clear. All eventually came out fine.

Had this exact thing happen to me the other day. After the final clear coat was applied, I discovered a fairly large dust (or something) booger somewhere in the finish, probably in the color coats. But after wet-sanding and polishing, you can't even see where it once was.

Nice job for such a small model! I've bought a couple 1/144s but have yet to actually build one.

Pretty creative!

No, but the engine fills the space between them, so there's really no room for a hood anyway. IMHO, a '32 grille looks better than a '33-'34 without a hood (or at least the top of one).

A Merlin and eight Ma Deuces? What kit is that from?

I just ordered the Welly '67 Firebird and '68 Olds 4-4-2 from Diecastmodelswholesale.com. They didn't have the Firebird in stock last time I checked, a couple weeks ago, but they have them today. Better yet, the 4-4-2 was marked down from $19.99 to $14.99, almost as cheap as Rite-Aid. Even better, they're having "cyber Monday" sale--put CYBERMONDAY in the coupon code at checkout and they knock 10% off the price of everything. $9.95 shipping flat rate for any quantity of anything. So I've got two nice diecasts coming for something like $41 total. Not bad--about what I'd expect to pay at Walmart IF they ever got these two cool things in, which of course they never do.

I looks like a catfish wearing a mask.

Still looking good! Drive on!

Or the springs and shocks.

It has to go for a '69 SS. It's accurate for a plain '69 Malibu (except for a COPO 9562 Malibu), and also for a '68 conversion, if you're doing such with Modelhaus or other resin '68 parts.