Harry Joy

Vallejo is a simple acrylic paint, same with the wash. If you apply it to bare plastic, it will disappear under anything else you put over it. It's a final "window dressing" you apply late in the process, when the paint job is otherwise finished.

Anything an everything. Alligator clips, tape, toothpicks, paint brushes, sprue, anything. I always try to find the one place that doesn't show.

Thanks!

Nice. I'm working on the same thing myself. I was just trying to figure out if I should fill the sink marks on the trunk lid, but they are faint. Looking at your model, I cannot see them at all. Did you fill them, or was the paint enough to make them go away?

You have to plan things out a little. Once you've built a few, some things will make more sense. I paint many parts before gluing, but I plan it so it doesn't make a difference. Engines I tend to assemble, then paint. The chassis I'll paint then glue. You have to play around with it a bit. That's with cars, of course. Airplanes, I'll paint the cockpit, assemble that, then assemble the airframe and then paint - the reverse of what I do with cars. I use two glues primarily - a hot, welding glue (Tamiya Super Thin), and extra-thick CA glues.

That glue is designed to melt plastic parts and weld them together. So yeah, it's going to eat paint. If you are using a solvent glue, you definitely have to glue, then paint.

Shear brilliance. (Pun.) I've never tried that. I have tried the reverse though, using a debonder to separate one finger whilst using teeth and force to free the other.

CAs don't bond, whether you use an accelerator or not. They stick parts together. Accelerators speed that up. If you want a bond, use solvent glues. For what it's worth, I use CA and an accelerator for almost all purposes in every kit I build. The stock I have of solvents should last me the rest of my life. The long-term durability of the accelerated CA glues has not been a factor yet, as I don't toss around my models overmuch.

As an airplane modeler moving into car modeling, I still waffle about clear coats. In airplanes, I always paint the color coat, then do a Future coat for a high gloss finish suitable for decals, then follow with varying degrees of dull-coats, depending on what is proper for a given aircraft. In cars, since I'm not doing any dull or "lived in" finishes, everything should be some degree of shiny. No decals, no dull finishes, nothing yet requiring major decals. Seems like it should be easier, right? Nope. Of the nine (I think) cars I've done since moving away from airplanes, I do not have one rule for all models, even though I want them all shiny. Everything I choose makes a difference. For the most part I don't try for a hard, thick showroom shine any more. When I do, I end up ruining paint that looked passable before. I just want a nice reflection. Future is something I use on ALL builds at some point, whether windshields or instruments or seats, but I cannot get a good final gloss on bodies with it. Wax gives that, but it can bury itself in crevices and errors make things worse. Tamiya glosses are predictable, but often not very shiny. Some paints are glossy enough on their own that a simply buff with a tack-free cloth is enough. If that isn't good enough, I have to play around. Some paints like glosses, some don't. Using a can vs and airbrush affects things too. There is no one simple rule. If you try to find one, you'll go nuts. Almost everything I have built in cars is lacquered, but sometimes brands change the results. I used to hate it when folks told me this, but you just have to play around. See what works for what you are building. If you try to apply one rule to all models you will not be happy with the results all the time.

Almost everything I buy comes from my local hobby shop. Once in a rare while, I'll pick up some things online if the shop's supply line is running low. Recently, I had to pick up some AMT tire packs, and I went to Model Roundup. About three months ago, I needed some Bare Metal Foil, which I sourced from Sprue Brothers. Those are the only two online shops I do any business with. But like others have said, 90%+ of all my dollars go to the local shop. Typically, if they cannot get something I'll find that online stores are having the same issues. They use the same suppliers.

Thanks everyone. The brittle plastic was a pain, but NOT a showstopper. A few body parts cracked during the build, some fine parts didn't come off the trees intact, when sanding some parts it was like sanding butter, and all in all I was terrified of dropping it while I was building - BUT, I enjoyed the build very much and hope to find some more of these gems . At an affordable price! The most brittle kit I ever attempted was an ESCI Skyraider, that started coming apart in flakes as I handled it. Sort of like an antique 78 record that's sat in water a few years. Of course, this kit wasn't like that. There is going to be a dedicated car show in Memphis in a couple of months, and I'll be looking for some decently priced Jo-Han kits. Their 70s catalog seems to hit all the right notes for me. They did the land-yachts others wouldn't touch.

I learned this difference the hard way a few models back, which I had to strip and repaint.

Thanks everyone. I couldn't tell you how it was stored. I bought it online barely a month before I started building. As usual with my models, my wife picked the colors. This one was painted with Tamiya.

Can you be certain that the original pic is original? It could be retouched too. Move the arms a bit, change the stance, add facial hair and....

50 But I've never been certain how to factor my replacement parts. If they stack with my age, that makes me 66. If I average them out, I'm 22.

Oops. Sorry. Misread the thread title.

Thanks guys. Edited because I posted one picture twice, instead of inserting the third pic.

1976 Cadillac Eldorado. I've really been enjoying looking at pics of the classic 70s Jo-Han kits, so when I saw this one relatively cheap, I had to pick it up. It was an interesting build. This kit did not have the parts breakdown I've come to expect from kits of the era. However, the plastic was VERY brittle, leading to all sorts of issues. I finally decided it was at an acceptable point, and I'm leaving it there. The kit tires were unusable, and were replaced with AMTs.

Thank you sir.

Model Roundup has had the turbine car for a little while, at $69.90, and the 1964 issue at $99.

Anyone have an idea what year this Bonneville is?

I am a not a programmer, but I am an "advanced user" as some would consider it. My home PC is completely up to date at all times, and I use a good browser. But I cannot run PB with any sort of ad-blocking program otherwise it is impossible to get the necessary PB links to show. So I always feel like I'm going into PB "naked" as it were. And it is their ads and scripting that is the issue. Like I said, not a programmer, but I know a faulty, buggy site when I find myself on it. I've not looked for other sites over the years out of shear laziness and the fact that I've been on Photobucket almost from the week they opened shop. And really, until I joined up here my pic sharing had dwindled. But I am fed up enough I may spend some time looking. As for some comments along the lines of "it works fine for me", all I can say is look at the several posts in this thread and others saying essentially the same thing I am. P-bucket is on it's last legs with me. When PB went from the "hover your mouse over this blank space to make your link pop up", lots of users were confounded. I was not. I can figure out stuff like that. But when the basic process of loading pictures causes my browser to crash, and this is the only site to cause that, please don't blame ME because PB screwed the pooch.

I don't mind ads to make up for me using the site for free. But when the site because unusable because it LOCKS UP THE FREAKING COMPUTER, and forces me to either go to the task manager, or go make a sandwich and read a book while my PC overcomes it's conniption fit, your site has issues. If someone with decent computer skills finds your service difficult to manage and organize, you have issues. When you are a photo sharing site, and intentionally make it an obstacle course to post pictures hosted on your site, you have issues. Yeah, I'm really about done with P-bucket, and I was a very early adopter.

I'm not all that old, but when I was a kid there still weren't rear view mirrors on some cars, and no cars had seat belts. We weren't worried about the pointy bits.

I have friends who really tend to dominate in shows, and a few who really do well every year at the IPMS Nationals. The latter group tend to display their trophies and plaques prominently. My best friend is rather humble, and doesn't make a big deal out of his wins, but he keeps a hobby room, which has a few on the wall. I, on the other hand, have won precisely two awards before, both at local shows. I couldn't tell you what I did with the plaques. I think I tossed them. I have a couple of awards for feats outside modeling, and I have kept those awards (one for film-making, the other ones professional or political*), but I do not display them. They are in a box in a closet. * I am an honorary member of the Lieutenant Governor's staff in the State of TN. And the certificate has no expiration date!