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Tim, That looks really good! I did order a bottle of the Green Stuff World chrome today. Did you brush this on like paint, or dab it on? In the video link from an above post, the host was not in favor of brushing and showed a plastic spoon that was brushed on to. Thanks, Bart

I have masked and sprayed Tamiya silver in the past and that has worked well. The model I am working on is a 71 Mustang Mach 1. There is a small chrome strip that runs above the black areas on the lower parts of the side. I had painted these strips by masking the area and brushing on Testor's chrome silver enamel. It looked great. I later applied the Mach 1 decal and stripes to one of the sides, and noticed that the silver had worn off in a few spots as my fingers had been in contact with these areas while I was positioning the decals and handling the model. I would be worried about applying any masking around the Mach 1 decals for fear that they would get damaged. Would several coats of Tamiya clear over the decals protect them from being pulled off by masking tape? (FYI: I use the Tamiya masking tapes) If the clear would protect the decals from being pulled off, then I could consider masking/reapplying the silver. If I had to brush paint the area under the Mach 1 decals without the use of masking tape, it's such a small area under that decal that I could probably free-hand the painting. My hands are very steady and I have a very fine brush and a lot of patience to use! In retrospect, I think I probably should have used a different approach and done the following sequence. Does this make sense? Mask and spray paint/brush paint the chrome. Put several clear coats on to protect the chrome. Apply the decals Put some more clear coat on to protect the decals. If we can learn from our mistakes, that's a good thing! Bart

The Green Stuff looks interesting. I may need to give this a try. I watched the video and saw that you dab it on as opposed to brushing it on. That might work for what I need to do. Is there a US source to order this from? Does it need a black undercoat, or could you dab it over other colors and still get a chrome look? My concern with Molotow is that it doesn't seem to like to be handled or touched. It seems to lose its shine when this happens. Since I will be painting on the exterior of the car body, it would be prone to being touched (during or after assembly). Not sure if a clear coat over Molotow helps or not. The Testor's Chrome Silver never seems like it thoroughly dries and hardens up. I had painted some of the side trim already (quite a few days ago), but while handing the car to apply decals I saw that the chrome was getting rubbed away. Thanks for the ideas, Bart

I've got a car that was painted with Tamiya Lacquer spray paint. Since BMF has its issues right now, I will be hand painting the chrome trim around the windows, body side moldings, etc. Masking around these areas and spraying the chrome silver is not an option at this point (the tape would have to go over some decals that have been applied and I am worried about damaging them). What's the best chrome silver that I can brush on. Please note that I am not looking to use Molotow Chrome, so I'd appreciate other suggestions. I will be applying Tamiya Clear Coat (from a spray can), also. Is there a suggested sequence for painting the chrome? Before the first clear coat, between some of the clear coats, or after all clear has been added? If done last, will the chrome paint stand up when the kit is handled/touched? Many thanks, Bart

I have also had good results using Vallejo Model Wash (76.518 Black). Like people had mentioned with the Tamiya product, sometimes additional applications may be needed in some areas. This is a recent kit done with the Vallejo wash. Thanks, Bart

The little Thunderbird looks really great! ... and also the Comet!

It's been pretty cold down here in Texas lately, so I have been staying indoors where it is warm! Decided to have some fun with a couple of my Star Trek ships by photoshopping in some star backgrounds. These are the small Polar Lights kits. The Bird of Prey is about 4" long, and the Defiant is about 6" long. Thanks for looking! Bart

Looks good!

That looks really good!

Here is my latest completion - AMT's 1/25 scale 1963 Studebaker Avanti. The exterior is Tamiya's Dark Yellow with a Clear Pearl and Clear Gloss over it. All in all, this was a nice kit. However, it did take quite a bit of work to get the doors to shut as well as they do now! All chrome trim and scripts are hand-painted. Thanks for looking, Bart

That came out very nice! I followed your Work-in=Progress thread and enjoyed seeing it come together. The coloring that they have added to their kits really improves the overall look. The pure metal ones are nice, too - but the shuttle kit wouldn't look as good if it were all shiny metal. Bart

Glad to hear that you picked up the train kit! Take your time and be patient with it. I would suggest building one of the freight cars first to get the feel of building these things first. That will help you refine your building techniques before you tackle the rest of the kit. Pick whichever freight car is your "least favorite" - so, if you screw it up, you won't be that disappointed! Save the locomotive and caboose for the last 2 you do. Find a variety of different sized tools to use to form the rounded shapes (axles, locomotive fans, etc.). Anything that has a round shape on it somewhere will work - paintbrush handles, screwdrivers, handles on small needles files, pencils, etc. Just look around the house and you'll be amazed at all the "tools" you will find! Post some pics when you get it done! Bart

Thanks - I'll hit the chassis and other parts with a hair dryer. If I wanted to use a primer under acrylic paints, what primers would you recommend? Airbrushed or sprayed from aerosol can? Would one of the Tamiya Fine Surface aerosol primers work under acrylic paint? Thanks, Bart

I am just starting to work with my Paasche dual-action airbrush and decided to try painting a chassis, the engine and some other engine compartment items using Createx Opaque Black. The paint looked like it went on well, but after a few days it still has a tacky (or rubbery) feel to it. As I was attaching parts to the engine block, I noticed that the paint was rubbing off the sharp edges and raised areas (like the bolt heads on the transmission). Any ideas on what I have done wrong, or does it just take a long time for the Createx paint to fully dry before you can start to handle it? Do you need to apply any sort of clear coat to the paint? Some info on my process: Thinned using Createx 4011 Thinner at about 10% ratio. Sprayed at around 30 psi Paint was applied directly to plastic parts. I did not use any primer (I usually don't prime anything except the body when I use spray cans and have never had any issues) Did not wash parts in dish soap and water (I usually do this for bodies, but not other parts - have not had any issues doing it this way) Sprayed in garage. Outside temp was in the 70's-80's. with less than 10% humidity. Any ideas or suggestions will be appreciated! Thanks, Bart

The guitar was my first Metal Earth kit. Yes, it was fun (in a way). I loved trying to form all of the little knobs on it! Bart

The kit only has the locomotive and the rolling stock. Since it is so close to N Gauge in size, I used a piece of N Gauge cork roadbed and painted it light gray to represent some ballast. The track is actually a photo of some Kato N Gauge Unitrack I had laying around; I did stretch the image slightly in order to widen the distance between the rails to match the wheels on the train (either in Photoshop or Powerpoint - but I can't remember which one). The grass is an internet image I found and printed. The case is from Hobby Lobby (SKU: 242917) and was reasonably priced at around $12. If you use that case, you 'll be able to fit the whole train - except for one of the freight cars. Thanks, Bart

Here are some of my tips: I found a number of videos on YouTube that were either directly related to the kit I was building or just general tips on building any Metal Earth kit. You'd probably want to search on something like "building a Metal Earth kit" to find some of these. These gave me a lot of good tips and let me see the building processes used by different people. Important tools: Some kind of shear/cutter designed for metal to cut the parts off the sheets. (I used the Xuron cutter that I use to cut model railroad track). Flat blade tweezer (to bend or twist the tabs that hold everything together, and to bend parts along a defined straight lines on the part - such as the caboose cupola. You can see the cupola before it has been formed in the top right corner of the photo of the parts sheet) To form curved/rounded pieces (like the axles on the train or the round fan housings on top of the diesel) - I used the ends of paint brushes or the end of my needle files to gently work the part into the desired shape. Basically, anything you find around the house that is round and the right diameter could be used. A needle nose pliers (I used the tip of this to bend over some of the tabs that would be folded over flat. Also used it to form some of the rounded parts) Read the instructions carefully. They will indicate where the "engraved" side should be facing for the parts. They will also indicate whether the tabs are twisted or folded (I sometimes folded the tabs rather than twisting them when it seemed to make more sense to me). The instructions are a cross between Lego instructions and IKEA instructions - lots of pictures and very few words! Don't try to rush your work! Good luck! Bart

That came out very well. The Metal Earth kits can be an enjoyable change of pace from building plastic models. Bart

Here is a Metal Earth train that I built and presented to a friend who had worked at the BNSF railway. I did not include the gondola car that came with the kit, since I couldn't find an affordable display case that was wide enough to let me include it. The locomotive and cars are very close to N Gauge in size. The kit was interesting and challenging to build, but my skills improved with each car that I built. The locomotive was the last component that I tackled. Clear caulk was used to attach the loco and cars to the display. I think it came out pretty well, and my friend was glad to receive it. Here is one other Metal Earth kit that I built for a friend (but have not presented it to him yet). He was my car pool partner for a few years and is an accomplished guitarist. The display case is an inverted kitchen counter container used for flour, sugar, etc. Clear caulk was used again to secure everything in the display. Thanks for looking, Bart

Thanks to everyone who responded! As most people indicated, it's hard to capture the effect accurately in photos. I picked up a can of Pearl Clear yesterday and will be doing some spoon tests to see what it looks like in real life! Bart

I am building a kit and will be using Tamiya's TS3 Dark Yellow as the body color. I was wondering what the difference is between Tamiya's TS13 Clear and TS65 Pearl Clear? What would the Pearl Clear look like over the body color? I've painted cars with Tamiya's Pearl Blue and Pearl Green before - and to my eyes, they have a slightly metallic feel to them. Would the Pearl Clear provide some of this slight metallic feel to it? It's may be hard to describe in words what the Pearl Clear would look like, but I'd appreciate everyone's opinions. A real bonus would be if someone had some photos that show models with Pearl Clear over Dark Yellow! Thanks, Bart

Very nice work! Looks really good! Bart

It looks really great! I built this kit way back in 1981 when it first came out. It still looks good, although over the years after being moved to a number of new homes a few of the small parts have popped off. I still have them resting on the track under the locomotive. I downloaded the instruction sheet and have plans to figure out where these little parts belong so I can reattach them. Bart

That's a nice looking model. Good job! Bart

I worked in the corporate offices of State Farm for several years before retirement. Two of the guys that were on my team went off to start their own State Farm agencies. One of them is still an active agent, and the other has since gone back to the corporate offices. These are models I made of their agency vehicles for them. The Jeep is not an exact match to the real car; I was unable to find a model of his Cherokee (which was named "Jake"), so I built the smaller Revell Wrangler Rubicon kit and named it "Jake Jr." I also tweaked a paper model of a Mini Cooper to add State Fame markings and also made that for my friend. Boy, paper models can be a challenge to make! Thanks for looking! Bart