bh1701

Here's a sample of my foiling - using the tips and suggestions mentioned here. I think it looks pretty good! I appreciate the advice! I used a much lighter touch with the blade - and only experienced one or two places where I cut down through the paint. These were all around the rear window, especially at or near the rounded corners. A little hard to keep the blade pretty flat when you have to round a corner. I touched up these spots with some black and a very fine paint brush. But, much better results than I was getting before. The vent windows, letters on the hood and truck were hand painted. Thanks, Bart

I will be using Tamiya's TS-54 Light Blue Metallic on an upcoming kit. I usually use Tamiya's white or gray primer on my kits. Is this what I should use, or is there something different I should do with a metallic paint? Thanks, Bart

Thanks for everyone's ideas. I'll be heading out today to get some of the Tamiya Cotton Swabs that were suggested, and I will continue to work on applying as little pressure as needed from the blade! Bart

I have been using Bare Metal foil on my last 2 models. I have noticed an issue and wonder if anyone can help me figure out what I am doing wrong. Both kits were done with Tamiya spray paints ( a couple of coats of gray primer, a mist coat of body color and then 3 wet coats of body color, and 3 wet coats of clear). I did polish the kits before foiling. I am using a new #11 blade with each kit. The foil is applied, pushed down using my fingertip, and the edges are burnished using a toothpick prior to trimming, I have noticed that when I pull the excess foil off that sometimes there will be spots where I can see a fine line next to the trim where the original white body color (or maybe the primer) is showing. My thoughts are that I am burnishing too strongly, using too much pressure when cutting (although I feel like I am just dragging the blade lightly along the edges), or that Tamiya paint is just really thin (I like Tamiya for the range of colors and the smooth finish you can achieve, but have always felt that it can be easily chipped). Suggestions? Also wondering if there is a better clear coat (spray can variety) to use over Tamiya spray paint that creates a thicker and harder clear shell over the body color? Appreciate your help! Bart

Looks great! My first car was a 66 Mustang in Prairie Bronze - so this brings back lots of memories! Bart

An amazing restoration! Great work! Bart

Thanks. And yes, I did get the flux capacitor to work. ? If I made any mistakes while building, I just fired it up and went back a few minutes in time to stop myself! ? The flux capacitor, dashboard gauges, and the device that's used to set the destination time were all images I found on/printed from the internet. Cutting the tiny little circular gauges out of the printout was quite a challenge. Bart

Thanks, Glenn. I saw the BTTF DeLorean pics you posted recently. Your version looks great, too! The Polar Lights kit featured (in their words) "a new authentic looking brushed metal look that captures the brushed stainless steel of the real car". The finish looked very nice, but it was not a smooth surface and I noticed it collected dust and lint pretty easily. I sprayed some semi-gloss clear over the body after all the wires were painted. That gave me a much smoother surface and eliminated it grabbing any pieces of dust or lint that were anywhere near it! Bart

Beautiful build! Congratulations!

My latest completion - the 1/25 scale Back to the Future DeLorean from Polar Lights. Painting all of the colored wires on the exterior and interior was a lot of fun! I added a few more wires to the interior going from the dash back to the flux capacitor. Besides the painting of the wires, the hardest part was getting the chassis/interior assembly to snap into the body. The interior is much wider than the narrow lower part of the body, and getting the back of the "engine area" platform to go over a little lip by the rear of the car was not easy - probably spent 15-20 minutes and a bit of swearing to get this done! Thanks for looking! Bart

Steve, That is an outstanding build! I also read through your WIP post and was impressed with all of the work you put into this. I urge folks to look at that post, too, to see the incredible work you did on the interior (especially the dashboard). The shine on this model is amazing, so here is my one question for you. What's your process for polishing the model? What kind of polish do you use, what do you apply it with, and what's the technique? (Sorry, I guess that was more than one question!) Thanks, Bart

Thanks! The exterior color is Tamiya TS-15 Blue over Tamiya gray primer. The interior was sprayed with some metallic blue from an old can I had laying around - it was a big spray can that I probably got at a K-Mart or hardware store many, many years ago. Bart

A nice, clean build. I like it!

I like the custom plate, and the model, too!

Yes, the kit did take some liberties with the actual car! When I got ready to put the chrome stars in the taillights, I was surprised to see that they were not like the real car. I had my painting notes that mentioned the backup light which was nowhere to be seen on the model. I think the actual cars also had the letters GALAXIE on the trunk lid. The model omitted this detail, too. However, I was OK with that since it eliminated hand painting 7 more letters on the model! You're in Sweden with a classic American car? Are there a lot of collectors with classic US cars over there? Bart

I recently completed this AMT 1/25th scale 1963 Ford Galaxie 500XL. It was an older kit (the box called it a "Prestige" kit). I had in my stash and finally decided to tackle it. This is also my 2nd attempt at using Bare Metal foil. My first attempt was on a model that was molded in color. This is my first try on a painted body. I ran into a few issues at the beginning, but managed to figure things out. All of the scripts and emblems are hand painted (still not ready to try doing these with BMF!). All of the silver trim on the interior was also hand painted. Not entirely pleased with the black wash on the grill - my usual approach was not working and I tried some other methods. Eventually I just gave up trying and figured this was as good as I was going to be able to do. Thanks for looking, Bart

Excellent work! I have a 60 Starliner waiting to be built - I hope mine comes close to what you have achieved!

Yes, I am here, too! N Gauge trains and Model Cars - 2 of my hobbies! I did some internet research on TX plates and discovered that my info was out of date. Back in 2015, the plates on my 2007 Mustang hit 7 years and I got new plates sent to me with a new number. This is what I found for the current process: As of November 1, 2016, the State of Texas will no longer automatically replace your General-Issued plates after 7 years. However, you may still apply at your county tax office for replacement plates if the license plate needs to be replaced for cosmetic or readability reasons. Specialty license plates (vanity plates) with personalized numbers are issued for a one, five, or ten year term. At the end of each term, prior to expiration, your annual registration renewal notice will remind you that it is time to renew. If your specialty plate selection is not renewed within 60 days of expiration, the TxDMV system will automatically cancel the specialty plate selection, making it available for anyone to order. Looks like vanity plates remain the same as long as you remember to renew them at the specified interval. The vanity plates are not cheap - otherwise I would have tried to get some for my Mustang! The rate for the 5 year subscription is $495. As far as the "replacement" plates for the general issued plates, I couldn't determine if the replacement has a new number on it or if it stays the same. Bart

Thanks, Peteski! I decided to go with a "vanity" plate in place of the actual plate that's on the car. In Texas, your plates are automatically replaced every 7 years and you will be assigned a new plate number. So the plate on the model would have eventually fallen out of synch with what was on the real car. ? Good to see you on this forum and the Railwire forum, too! Bart

I completed my Revell Mazda Miata kit. This is a replica of my neighbor's car. I presented them with this model the other day. I also worked on their life-size Miata recently since the paint was flaking off on the fenders and doors. The paint on the real one isn't perfect, but it's a great improvement over what it had looked like! The Revell kit has a lot of good detail, but it definitely took a lot of patience and some swearing to get this to go together. A lot of trimming and shaping of many parts to get them to fit cleanly. For example: front and rear bumpers, windshield wiper frames to get the hood to sit flat, radiator, mounting tabs on the bottom of the engine, trimming the dash and interior side panels to get the interior to fit flush (another option is to trim the bottom of the windshield and vent windows, but I had those glued in by the time I noticed the problem). Also a lot of clamping when gluing the chassis to get it to fit tight with the bottom of the engine compartment, and clamping on the front and rear bumpers to eliminate as much of the gaps between them and the body, too. Thanks for looking! Bart

Thanks! Yes, the largest one is probably the most "right" to me, too. On the kit I just finished with all of the decals, I think the gray on the aztec decals is way too dark for me. (Too much contrast between that gray and the lighter gray I used for the hull's base color). On the production model used on the show, the difference between the base color and the aztec panels was very slight. The largest one has aztec detail on it, too - each one of the thousands of panels were all hand painted. I created a custom color that was just slightly darker than the base color. It took me months to paint all of the panels. I could only do so much each session before I'd go crazy! In person, you have to look closely at the model to even notice the 2 colors, but they are there. A funny story about the larger kit is that I finished the painting, and then got busy with other stuff for a while before I finished building it. When I did finally start working on it, I noticed there was a section on the upper saucer that I had missed painting the aztec color on. I opened my old bottle of custom color and it had dried up. ☹️ I had no idea what colors I had used to make this color, so I did my best to match it. Not a perfect match, but I think it was pretty good since I have to look really hard to identify that section. Bart

I completed my Polar Lights USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D. Here are some shots of it, as well as my collection of other 1701-D's. This kit was previously released in the 1980's, but with far fewer decals to apply (photo provided). Thanks for looking! Bart The original release of this kit from the 80's.

Do you need to clean the brushes after use? If so, what do you use? Bart

I use Plastruct's Plastic Weld Solvent Cement. Can I get some recommendations on applicators (other than the brush in the cap) that can be used with this? If you can provide the manufacturers and any info on where to get these, that would be great! I think I'd be looking for something that has a fine tip that could dispense the solvent - both as a "stream" of solvent or as individual "drops". I've seen various tools online, but want to know what everyone uses and prefers. Thanks, Bart

Looks good! Congrats! Bart