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Snake45

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Everything posted by Snake45

  1. Thanks for the WD-40 idea. I'm going to try that on the Micro Metal Foil adhesive that I use. If it works, it could change my entire building style!
  2. Started this one over 20 years ago and got it all finished, except the paint job went sideways in the polish-out (as so often happens). I stripped it and sentenced it to the Shelf of Doom until a couple years ago. This time I primed it with Floquil Reefer White (wonderful stuff) and then airbrushed pretty much an entire "little bottle" of Testor #3 red on it. THIS time I had enough on there for a proper rub-out! Completely stock out of the box except for the wheels from old AMT '70 Camaro. Thanks for looking.
  3. Thanks so much for posting this. I've seen this kit on the shelves and always wondered what was in it--but never enough to actually buy the thing. It looks like you did a nice job with it.
  4. Oh, I thought you meant model cars with wings. But I guess you meant stuff like this: Here's the cleverest "roadable airplane" I've ever seen.
  5. Pete J, I agree with all your points 100%. I had to figure these things out for myself starting about 30 or so years ago. I am looking for a good clear enamel that's affordable and commonly available here in Dickberg. All I ask of it, aside from its clarity, is that it stand up to rubbing alcohol (which is useful for foil adhesive cleanup and other cleanup) as well as that amber-colored Testor clear enamel topcoat does. I've got several different cans of wonderful, clear, shiny stuff (including Testor One-Coat Wet Look) but all of it is lacquer and therefore won't stand up to rubbing alcohol. Model Master Metalizer Sealer is the best stuff I've ever used but it's hard to find in my area. I'm sure I could buy a pint of this stuff at Home Depot or Lowe's for what Testor asks for a half-ounce, if I knew what it was, but the MSDS isn't a great deal of help.
  6. No, I can't tell from the picture, but however you did it, it looks darned good!
  7. If you have trouble with BMF sticking, it might very well be the fault of the BMF, not with the paint, the plastic, or your application method. Apparently (both from my own experience and reading the comments of others), they've let out a number of "bad batches" of the stuff over the years, and even the good batches seem to have a shelf life. Between the cost, the low availability in my area, and the problems I've had with it, I've pretty much given up on BMF. These days when I want to foil something, I just use common (generic, thin) kitchen foil, with Microscale Metal Foil Adhesive for the stickum. This works at least as well as BMF 90% or more of the time, though I concede there are certain cases where BMF would do a better job. I just foiled most of the emblems on a body this way Friday, no problems at all (at least none not caused by my own eyes and/or hands).
  8. Clear can get "ripply" and "pebbly" too, especially if applied over rough paint. Here's yet another advantage to foiling the bare plastic, masking it off, and proceeding with the rest of the paint and clear. (Let the record show that I don't do this every time, only on "special" builds. More often than not these days, I do chrome trim with a silver Sharpie, which gives a surprisingly satisfactory look for an absolute minimum of cost and effort.)
  9. For a very brief period about 20 or 25 years ago, I got the bright idea to do all my trim detailing (with silver paint, not foil) before the final clearcoat. Did a couple models that way and I thought they looked good and then one day I laid the clear on just a little heavy and it attacked the silver, which then promptly ran--under the clearcoat. That model went onto the Shelf of Doom and I never did it that way again. Oh, but the story gets even worse. Over time, the clearcoat yellowed on the "good" models I did that way. One in particular is painted lime green so the yellowing isn't apparent on the paint, but it now looks like all the chrome trim is gold-plated. Which might be kinda cool if it were a custom, but sadly, it's a factory stocker. Ah shucks oh well.
  10. Couple years ago, I found in my stuff a Ziploc bag with most--but not all--of the chassis pieces from an AMT Manx. Looks like I started it back in the '60s but never finished it. (I have a horrendous started-to-finished build ratio, truly shameful). Since it was missing some vital organs from the front suspension (including one shock and the steering column), it went back into the baggie and back on the Shelf of Doom (actually, in a Box of Doom--the stuff in the BOD wishes it can someday make it out onto the Shelf of Doom) until the Manx was reissued, when I realized that I could prolly pirate the front suspension stuff from a new Manx kit and still build the Manx as its lack wouldn't be readily apparent under the body. I'd been dreading solving the missing shock problem (those DO show, kinda, on a Manx so I need them in that kit), but this week I had a fit of industry and spent a couple mornings making a couple new shocks out of aluminum tubing, and then mounting the steering box and tie rod on the front suspension. What a nasty little bit of bidness that Manx front suspension is! There's no positive location for anything, and the fit and relationship of the various parts is casual to say the least. But I got everything kinda sorta in place and then welded it all good and proper with obscene amounts of superglue. It won't win any contests but it does now look satisfactorily "busy" and works toward the Prime Directive of this particular model, which is: Gitter Done. Should be all downhill, more or less, from here. I have to scratchbuild the pedals and a handbrake but that shouldn't be too bad. I haven't 100% decided on a color for the thing but I'm leaning toward Olive Drab, the idea being this poor little backbirth was built on a shoestring budget in somebody's back yard or garage and painted with paint from a Surplus Store, possibly even from rattlecans. Come to think of it, that's not too far from the story of this model, too.
  11. The stuff is water-soluble, no solvents or petrochemicals in it at all, no silicone. (Remember, it's made for eating utensils). There's always residue left in the door lines but that washes right out under warm running water and a toothbrush. It's a great paint polish, too. I've been polishing paint with the stuff for 30 years now. The name has changed but the package is the same. One thing of the stuff will easily polish out two or three dozen models. Such a deal!
  12. This is a P-51D that participated in the post-WWII Thompson Trophy races. Kit is the '70s-era Otaki, which has also been sold in ARII, AMT, and Airfix boxings. When I built it, I had only B&W photos and a verbal description of the color as "metallic bronze," so I used Model Master Sable Brown. Later I found a couple color photos of the real thing and it's pretty close but not exact. Gun ports removed from wings and cuffs removed from the prop blades, otherwise box stock. The "Jay Dee" and the number 37 on the fuselage sides are hand-lettered decals. The other numbers and the SOHIO Oil decals were sourced from Microscale model railroad sheets (of all places). Thanks for looking. And just for grins, here's the real airplane:
  13. If you do things as I described, there won't be any clear over your foil. Or under it, either.
  14. One might want to foil before clear, for whatever reason (such as, detail or an emblem will be crisper if the bare plastic is foiled than if it's been covered with paint and clear, and so forth). But you can have your cake and eat it too in this case. Foil, trim, then cover the foil with a liquid mask (or tape, but liquid mask is easier to work with). Proceed with paint, clear, and rubout, then remove the masking. Looks fabulous! I've done this several times on special projects.
  15. I'm not going to "cut up" my original '69 Elky, other than to remove the incorrect chrome trim off the lower body. Now that you've brought it to my attention, I might add the window frames. The current "AMT" '72 Chevelle looks different from the '80s AMT '72 I recently built. (It might have even been from a Red Alert box, I don't remember--lost the box years ago.) The grille in the current one looks like the grille in the old MPC kits. Maybe Round 2 has retooled it again.
  16. I'm coming up on 30 years in a couple weeks.
  17. I don't care about General Lee, don't care one way or the other about the CSA flag, and have never seen an episode of Dukes of Hazard in my life. If this is a decent looking (accurate) model, I'll buy one or two just to get a '69 Charger on my shelf. I happen to like curbsides, especially for subjects I like okay but aren't my very favorites.
  18. This talk about a "Mercury '49" just reminded me of another great hot rod song: Springsteen's "Cadillac Ranch," from the oft-forgotten The River album. I especially like Warren Zevon's cover of it. (Much later, Zevon pretty much ripped off the song for his "Down in the Mall" on the Transverse City album. It's also a great song, but not about hot rods at all.)
  19. Funny you should bring that one up. I'd never heard that song in my life before, but about 6 months ago someone lent me a Steve Miller CD that has that on it. Fabulous song! Or maybe Steve Miller just did a fabulous version of it. Either way, it was an unexpected bright spot in that whole month.
  20. I recognized your handle immediately! Too bad Lefora screwed up the software on the Retro board, but it was fun while it lasted. And you're right, I am enjoying it here.
  21. They sure get their money's worth out of their airplane and tank molds over the decades, that's for sure.
  22. Huh. This says different. I don't doubt that Wangers takes credit for it, though. I don't believe he's the shy, retiring type. http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=18160
  23. Thanks CJ! Most helpful!
  24. Here's another refugee from my infamous Shelf of Doom. Started this five or six years ago as part of a Group Build elsewhere. Was making great progress and then the paint job went sideways and onto the SOD it went. The general concept is a low-buck Modified Production racer somewhere in the 1969-72 timeframe. In those days, when a 4-7 year old car was an OLD car, a Chevelle wagon would have been a cheap starting point. The idea is to build it as close to out of the box as I can stand, but there are a few changes I just have to make. Here's a set-together mockup just to check out rolling stock and stance. Looks about right. I'll be using the kit Cragars on the front (even though they're too deep for front wheels), not sure about Cragars or steel wheels for the rear but am leaning towards black steelies in keeping with the low-buck theme. The almost-finished interior. I need to find or make a nice Hurst T-handle shifter. Yeah, I know it's got automatic pedals but I don't care. The kit tranny is a 4-speed. I detailed the dash using a 1965 Chevelle showroom brochure. Engine in progress. I laminated some styrene to deep-sump the oil pan. Intake manifold was found hiding in the parts box. Dunno what it's from, but I had to do some filing to get it to fit the small-block. Basic engine painted. Finished engine. The air cleaners are to hide the flat, undetailed carb tops. I might find some better carbs if the mood strikes me at some point. Modified the kit headers with mounting flanges and tubing collectors. Yeah, they're not perfect but they look better than the kit parts. Had to do a certain amount of filing and finagling on the chassis to get the engine to drop in with the headers attached. Life is full of little tradeoffs. So that's basically where I am at the moment. The body is completely prepped and has been painted once but I didn't like it. I was going for the look of a $39.95 Earl Schieb paintjob, or perhaps maybe something painted in a 2-car garage using truck fleet colors, and thought a solid (not metallic) dark blue would look good for that. The primer looked great and then I shot it with either Walmart or Krylon solid dark blue and it looked horrible, even for a cheap paint job, but luckily the paint came RIGHT off with rubbing alcohol. Now I'm thinking of going a slightly different way with it, but still something that won't require rubbing out (which I do NOT want to do with all this body's lines and sharp edges). I'm hoping that posting these pics here will shame myself into actually kicking this hot mess through the goal posts in the foreseeable future. Thanks for looking, and stay tuned....
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