Mister 4x4

Just finished up some paint work on the Civic. I was pleased to find that most of my paints hadn't dried out (lost a bottle of flat black, but still had another one). So, today I was able to get pretty much all of the black trim and weatherstripping done - I used a fine point Sharpie to outline it all, but had to fill it in with the flat black (Testors "0" fine tip brush) since the standard Sharpies didn't like writing on the flat white enamel. Turned out OK, I guess. Also, got the headlights, taillights, and the mirrors I'd forgotten to paint taken care of. I think the light's too bright or something - those edges look a LOT cleaner in person. Still gotta figure out what to do with those A-pillars - probably trim about a millimeter out and hope for the best. OK, so that edge didn't work out as well. The real car didn't have that trim piece, anyway - I guess I should've left it white. So tomorrow, hopefully, I'll get the JDM driving lights finished and slam it all together.

Uh-oh - I guess I'll be on sketchy ground for awhile then, since my 1:1 garage queen is a '71 Mach 1 (gotta few kits planned for it, actually - various stages of the restoration... should be fun). Lasagna turned out good - made way too much, had to freeze a whole pan for next month's Anniversary (she apparently, loves it when I make lasagna). OK - time to get crackin`!

Oh. My. Gawd. That's gorgeous! AWESOME work!

Love the Lakewoods - I have a set on my 1:1 '71 Mach 1 (I painted mine black, though). Nice job!

Nice! Are those stripes on the side decals, or did you mask & paint, or what? The car looks awesome!

OK - I was a bit discouraged when the clear lacquer went to BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH, so I wound up boxing up the car and putting it aside... for WAY too long. My bench piled up with other non-model-related stuff, and I didn't think twice about it until last weekend when my Facebook feed pulled up one of those 'Memories from 2 years ago' thingies, with that last pic of the kit. I felt horrible, knowing it's been 2 years (or more) since I'd worked on it. I decided to clean up the work space, swap the yellow CCFL bulb in the el-cheapo light on the right with a white LED bulb, and rubbed off the remaining clear lacquer with some Isopropyl Alcohol. Worked for the most part. I also had to re-glue the passenger front wheel hub, since it literally popped off as I took the kit out of the box to get started again. I also started scratch-building the JDM driving light bracket/trim panels on the 1:1, using one of those plastic bread-tie thingies my wife's been saving for me (Hey - why wreck a whole sheet of styrene for something so small?). I also ran a fine-point Sharpie down the roof seam trim to simulate the plastic pieces on the real car. Worked pretty well, I think. Oh yeah, I also got a new camera since then as well (still figuring out the settings). I gotta make dinner here in a few (promised her lasagna for V-Day, but we decided to defer to the weekend instead). But I figured I'd hit this thread for an update, and also fix the broken picture links (from Facebook - now linked to my website page for the build). Tomorrow, I'm planning on working on the black out trim, lights, and all-around just getting it done, hopefully, this weekend. Thanks for your patience and not throwing me away.

OK - two steps forward and five steps back. So, I clear-coated something like [geez] almost a month ago with Testors Spray Lacquer over Testors Flat White Spray Enamel and Testors Gray Primer Enamel. I let the enamel primer dry for a week, then the white enamel dry for 2 weeks, wet-sanded with 1000 grit, then sprayed the clear. It's been sitting all this time undisturbed and I finally had a chance to wet-sand and polish today. All I had was 1000 grit, so I knocked the high spots down and got a nice satin sheen. Then (and here's where I believe made my mistake) used some 3M Perfect-It II polishing compound and started on the hood. Well, all it did was soften up the lacquer clear coat and strip it off. The more I rubbed, the more it turned into a mushy sticky substance not unlike that adhesive that's left over after peeling a price tag off of something shiny - it's not touching the enamel though. I've spent the past 3 hours effectively stripping off the lacquer clear coat and by no small grace, haven't totally messed up the body with my rubbing and polishing. Since the clear coat is pretty much ruined anyway, I also grabbed some fairly dried out Eagle One Mag & Wheel polish, which made cleaning up the sticky mess the Perfect-It created... but it softens up the clear coat as well. Some questions: Can anybody recommend something I can use to quickly remove the rest of the lacquer clear coat without messing up the enamel? What kind of rattle can clear coat should I respray once I get this mess cleaned up? What should I use as a polishing compound after I wet-sand the clear coat - since I obviously have the wrong stuff? I admit that in addition to trying to be patient and let the paint cure that I'm kind of losing enthusiasm for this project because just like when I got my Mustang, the Honda's just not that cool to me anymore. But I need to get it finished so I can move on to something more interesting. Thanks in advance!

OK - so while I'm searching ebay for "junkyard lots" or "parts," I came across this which made me laugh: 1:25 1:24 G scale model resin police car box of donuts doughnuts http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-25-1-24-G-scale-model-resin-police-car-box-of-donuts-doughnuts-/181342038071?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a38d3e837 What other funny (modeling-related, of course) things did you see on the 'net today?

Nice tip - but I'm looking to tint the windows. Same logic, I suppose?

I just got started [again] and set-up one of the 'wings' of my computer desk to work on some small kits. So far, so good. I'm really diggin' the roll-top desk - that's the perfect set-up to keep the cats out of the middle of things. I've been lucky so far, though (as far as I know, anyway). Nice work spaces, guys - let's see some more.

Nice "Butane Flames!" I got the Tru-Fire DVD from Mike Lavallee several years ago and flamed a few things. The technique isn't as hard as the finished product might suggest, but practice and having "the Eye" makes a world of difference. Your Tru-Fire looks awesome!! Well done!

Well, took a sick day today and figured since it was 80-something outside, it would be nice to get some clear-coat onto the body. Knocked down some high-spots with 1000-grit, then sprayed some Testors Spray Lacquer Glosscote - after 3 light coats and a nice final coat, I kind figured it would've been a bit shinier, but that's nothing final wet-sanding and polishing won't solve. I'm still playing with the setting on my camera (auto flash vs. non-auto flash) and trying to clean-up in PaintShop Pro... sorry it's a bit washed out. I also forgot to post a pic of the interior finished up from a few weekends ago. I also learned today that Rustoleum Tail Light Tint (smoke) will not work on polystyrene "glass." I sacrificed the windshield from a Jeep CJ kit (since it's easy enough to just cut a replacement from a clear plastic bottle or something). Bummer - it kind of made it tough to see anything through the piece unless it was within a quarter-inch. That's not gonna work, and too bad because that can would've done a ton of kits. Oh well.

This is cool! Good luck and have fun. Can't wait to see how it all comes out!

As someone who's seen that first-hand on many occasions, I think that looks just about perfect! Nice job!!

I agree I haven't seen much negativity at all here. The overwhelming majority of any kind of criticism I've seen has been constructive, and very acceptable, IMHO. So, you're critiquing my comments now? Talk about being a nit-picker. LOL (that's sarcastic irony, BTW - just joking... and this is my disclaimer) I guess I'm guilty of being too subtle in my over-generalization of the difference between mean people and constructive criticism. Like Michael mentioned, I've observed many different forums over the years, ranging from electronic techie-stuff, to Jeeps, to Dodge Rams, to airbrushing, to Vintage Mustangs, etc., and have witnessed first-hand 'the haters,' and how they will do nothing but pick-apart anything that anybody posts that they don't like or agree with. Again, I haven't seen any of that here, so I was just lending my agreement to his assessment of nit-pickers (aka 'haters' with non-constructive criticism) bringing nothing but negativity to the mix. I don't have the gift of 'brevity' when I comment (mostly because I work with a lot of people that don't always seem to get what I'm saying - my fault, probably... so I've learned to cover all bases as much as possible), but I usually finish up with the point I'm trying to make. Maybe in the future, you might learn to skip the unnecessary pejorative when you see my avatar and just read the last part.

Mixed feelings here. I'll be honest that I like hearing that I'm doing a good job - it's encouraging, and makes me feel good about what I'm doing. I don't mind seeing a comment about something that could be done better... especially from people who obviously have greater skills than I - which is obvious by the caliber of their builds and the nature of their comments. They also tend to throw in a compliment about 'something' going right with what they see, which turns the whole thing into constructive criticism. When it's all just negative, that's nit-picking and just being mean. I also agree that when criticism is all that's offered, it tends to come off as someone just being mean. There's an art to offering criticism without being mean, and not everybody has mastered it. There's also the same in being able to take it and recognize the difference between constructive criticism and nit-picking. Can't tell the difference? Might want to re-think posting in a public forum. Haters gonna hate, and I'm pretty sure everybody can tell when someone's being a D-bag just because they can - I think it's all how we choose to deal with it that's important. I'm not someone who believes in every kid gets a trophy just for showing up - but this is model building, people. There are no winners or losers at all, last I checked. After all, we're all just a bunch of people sharing the products of our hobby in a public forum. If someone posts up something they're proud of, find something nice to say about it, even if it's the biggest glue-bomb to date - that might be the best job they can muster up because maybe they can't see as well anymore, or maybe they've got early Parkinson's or only one usable hand... the point is they're doing something they enjoy and are sharing it with the world. It's OK to offer constructive criticism... just don't be mean about it, and it's all good.

OK, had a nice mid-60s day, so I wet-sanded the primer and shot some color (OK, white's not really a color...). I pretty much finished up the interior while the white was drying - I'm not really thrilled with that, since I used the wrong gray (too light), and the seats aren't "exactly" the right colors. That's OK though, since it's RH drive, it's not technically correct anyway - once I tint the windows, probably won't see much of it anyway. I'm really liking how the Duplicolor Chrome worked out, though - I'm thinking I'm going to need to paint the spokes to make the wheels look more like mine. I guess sometime this week, I'll get the body wet-sanded and ready for clear next weekend. Then hit all the trim and buff it out after that - then, put it together for real.

I dunno - I haven't actually finished a kit in over 30 years.

Yeah... I'm at the "just get it painted, put together, and done - not gonna worry about uber-detail since the plastic's thin and Honda engines aren't really all that awesome anyway when you own a '71 Mach 1" stage.

Oh wow, here's one that's tough - I love SO many cars. 1. A car of my own design or a McLaren F1 2. Ferrari 365 GTS Daytona Spyder (or F355, F40, 288 GTO, 308/328 GTSi, Testarossa, 512BB, 250 GTO, heck just about any Ferrari would make me smile) 3. Late '80s Porsche 911 turbo (OK, just about any 911, 928, or 944) 4. Coyote X 5. Lamborghini Countach LP 500S 6. Lotus Turbo or V8 Esprit 7. 1970-75 Challenger or 1971-74 Roadrunner 8. Any Corvette from 1963-1996 9. Any Trans Am, Firebird, or Camaro 10. 1979-1986 Mustang, hatch, 'vert, or SVO Honorable Mention: 1971 Mach 1 Mustang. Money was no object, I've wanted one since I was 14, and now I have it. Like I said, 10 is too few for me to choose from. What I do know is: I will have a kit for everything I've listed, and then some. :D

I think I'm going to build it, James. I'll let you know first if I decide not to. So we finally got a good day to paint, and I was able to prime the body, dull-coat the interior pieces (still drying), and shot some Duplicolor Chrome on the rims. So far, so good. Hopefully, I'll be able to get the primer sanded smooth for paint next weekend (which is supposed to be nice as well)

Like bbowser said, I'm rebuilding some of the kits I did as a kid, mostly so I can do 'em better and have them back again (most got "lost" when I joined the Air Force and my room got re-purposed). Also, I like the idea of building cars I can't have as I would have them. I've bought and modified, and flat-out built from scratch several full size cars, and I think honestly that I'm done with that for awhile (at least). Building in small scale is fun, relaxing, challenging, and satisfying all in one package... and a helluva lot cheaper than full scale.

I have all of those kits, actually. The Vanishing Mach 1 isn't actually not too bad, but the NACA ducts are too far foward (in the kit), the mirrors aren't even close, and the tail lights are the wrong shape. The Testors and AMT kits have issues with the overall shape around the quarter windows in the quarter panels themselves, tail lights are wrong, NACA ducts are too far apart, too big and too square... and the grille has headlight surrounds from the '73 ('71 and '72 had no headlight surrounds, actually). They also have '73 bumpers (which is significant, since that's when the bumpers got bigger because of 5mph crash laws). The Testors die-cast kit has the same issues as their plastic kits. It's like they re-tooled from the '73 kit, and overlooked the differences in the grilles altogether. Hey, I'll admit that I am glad there are several kits to choose from, considering everybody pretty much gave up on the Mustangs in '71 (claiming they're too big, or too fat, or too heavy - which is only by a factor of maybe 1-2% in all cases).... but everything I mentioned with each kit is not something that can be fixed without a LOT of work, and probably not even worth it in most views... unless you're a '71-'73 owner. That Lindberg kit looks like an absolute abortion, though. A guy posted his build on FB, and while he did a VERY nice job building it (and I complimented him on that, of course), the kit looks nothing like the box art (thank God) and only slightly more like a '71 than the box art as well.

I have mixed feelings on box art. If the box has pictures of the real car (plane, whatever), I look for pics of the assembled model or parts on the side. If it's passable and looks good, I'll get it. If the box has pictures of the assembled model, it must look awesome. If a professional builder can't make a kit look good, I know I will certainly have issues. If the box has pictures of graphic representations of the car, they better look professionally done - if the manufacturer can't be bothered to put up a nice illustration, they're kit's probably junk. If I'm intimately familiar with a particular car, and the pics of the kit assembled have too many issues, I'll pass as well. For instance, this is a horrible representation of a 1971 Mustang, I have no idea how Lindberg got an Official Ford License seal on this turd: This is my very own 1:1 version - the difference should be obvious: So, yeah - Box Art is important to me.

OK, so the XS wheels showed up earlier this week, and during initial test-fitting, I noticed the post axles are too deep... meaning they would stick out quite far. Can't have that. So, after some trimming of the kit's disc brakes (the ones that came with the wheels were all wrong for a factory build) and drilling some holes through the hubs (which will never be seen), I managed to get 'em on there just right. This is the color the kit came as, but we haven't had a day worthy of painting to get the body sprayed, or even primered. Hopefully, tomorrow it'll be in the mid-60s as promised.