TonyW

Very nice work. The first thing I thought when I saw the pictures was how much they reminded me of the pictures of Michael Paul Smith. Reading that you also admired his work made me smile. Tony.

Ah, the hood. Revell don't exactly make it easy do they? The decal sheet black stripes at top left in the picture shows what we are talking about. Revell would have you apply the stripes with the outer pinstripe to the hood and then fill the centre with black paint. Possibly easier than a one piece decal, but the chosen method gives problems of its own. The decals are very thin and get right down onto the paint surface, looking good. My way of filling in the centre part was to use some really old Humbrol Enamel Gloss Black. The tin probably came from the fifties. I brush painted it on and it flowed out pretty much perfectly. It's really good paint. I then very carefully flatted off the finish with micro polishing pads, down to around 3000 grit. That left a soft sheen. I then buffed that finish with a bit of Mothers car wax until it looked right. I very nearly left it high gloss, it looked good like that. I went for a more stock look in the end. I hope that helps, Tony.

That's a beautiful looking car. The detailing is first class.

Thanks for all your kind comments Guys, much appreciated. Tony.

Hi Stan, All the shots are with natural daylight. My hobby shed has a full length roof window., about 3ft x 12. It's out of direct sunlight as the shed is set against a bigger shed so I don't get full on sunlight in there, just nice even daylight. The phone camera seems to sort out its own exposures and pumps up the colours a bit. Here's an early version of the shed, It's changed quite a bit over the years as I dialled it in to suit me. It's a good place to unwind. The available light makes easy work of taking pictures. This Road Runner is sat on a piece of art paper... Once cropped, this results... Change the paper to orange and you get this... I've made up all kinds of backgrounds and bases to give me a load of different options for picture taking, it's a part of my modelling I really enjoy.

Here's my take on the Revell Boss 302. I opened out the grill by scraping and filing away the backing plastic, added fender bolt heads and other detailing to the engine bay, fitted hood pins and screen wipers, made a new screen. I also added door buttons and outside handles along with keyhole. Only one side got it's handle added as the other one flew off into my hobby shed while I was fitting it. I'll add it if it ever turns up. Paint is Tamiya yellow and Tamiya clear from spray bombs, nice paint to use but a bit soft. Here's how I take my pictures. I use the camera in my mobile phone, it takes better pictures than my old Canon SLR! The background is a printed picture of El Mirage, downloaded from the internet. The base is just white card in the first picture, it gives a shot like this... Adding a sheet of glass with the underside painted black really jazzes up the shot... Changing the background to printed bricks gives this effect... Simple stuff, but it works for me. Tony. .

Superb. Just superb. Tony.

One of mine... And although it's not one of my builds, this 1967 Airfix catalog shot of the MPC Woodie with Hot Curl and his bike and board needs including. Can anyone recreate the shot with a built model? That really would be cool. Airfix and MPC had a deal going on in the sixties to release each others kits. Although the Woodie appeared in two catalogues it's never yet been seen in an Airfix box.

I've got a few old cans. I use them as photo props...

Revell Willys Coupe. Rattle can red, rattle can clear over the decals. No Brand paints, bought from a pile 'em high cheapo store. Painted on a warm summers day about a year ago. The Gods were smiling at me that day.

A couple of mine... The Airfix release of the MPC Monkeemobile. The Monogram ZZ Topp '34 Coupe. Tony.

Very creative modelling there. Both look outstanding. Tony.

That's a Car Craft, circa 1976, cover car! You nailed the look perfectly.

Spot on! That one looks good from every angle. Well done indeed. Tony.

The paint was a happy accident Mike. I bought a few rattle cans from a cheapo pile 'em high store near me, just to try them out. Big cans were £2.00, smaller ones 99p! They were no brand generic gold and black. The paints were a bit hot if the strong smell was any indication but the Tamiya white primer survived the first thin coat of black. I left that a day before hitting the body with a couple of wet coats of the same black and that went on really well. I make a ball of tape, sticky side out and put that on top of a spray can, then wedge it inside the roof of the body so I can turn the body about while the paint takes a set. After another day or so I used Tamiya masking tape for the gold areas and gave that a couple of thin coats. There's no buffing out on the model anywhere, the gloss just came straight out the can! The gold is more a mid shine rather than a full gloss but it seems to look better somehow that way. You are right about the gold being pretty close to the Hurst color. If I built another I would be tempted to add a coat of clear yellow over it to get a bit closer to the box top version. I like my box stock builds to look like the box top! The decals went on just fine. The gloss surface probably helped here. There's no clear coat on the model, I thought it looked good as it was and didn't want to take a chance of wrecking what I had. Less is more and all that. I wish all my models turned out like this one. Tony.

That one pushes all the right buttons for me, a rescued glue bomb finished to a very high standard and beautifully photographed. Tony.

Nostalgic building at its best. Clean construction, smooth paintwork and enough detailing for the period. Congratulations.

Very, very clean and tidy modelling going on there. Congratulations on a really fine build. Tony.

That's a beautiful paint job. The side view is a real stunner as well, the Chargers lines just jump off the screen here. The Fireball carbs look outstanding, I've yet to order any but I can see me getting a few in the future. I'm waiting for a Fireball Tire Decal order to get here, that will be my first try out of the companies products. Tony.

Very nice indeed. It looks like we used the same shade of Gold! After I painted and decaled mine, I realised that a coat or two of Tamiya clear yellow would have probably got the color closer to the box version. Tony.

Thanks Guys, much appreciated. Here's the kit progression from the first big box through the Mattel years version and the travesty the car turned into, the Olds 442 Street Freak. It was good to see the kit reissued not too long ago, it gave me the chance to add a built version to my collection. Happy days! Tony.

Here's my take on the Monogram Classic, the 1967 Hurst Hairy Oldsmobile. Box stock, built from a recent re-issue kit. Rattle can gold, tape masked and rattle can black over that for the stripes. The decals went on well although they are a bit thin and prone to a wrinkle here and there if you don't watch out. The redlines were added with an art pen, not strictly authentic, but I like the look. The redline breaks up the great big sidewalls on the slicks rather nicely in my book. The base was made from a sheet of white card sprayed yellow. The lines are Tamiya masking tape and all the script and pictures were cut from the box the kit came in. It all folds flat for storage. A black background card was added after I took the picture above as I liked the contrast between the yellow and the black of the baseboard I used. And last, but not least, a burnout prior to another Banzai run! The tire smoke is the stuffing from a cushion. Tony.

A fine build. Apparently things didn't go completely smoothly on the race. At one point Jenks gave the OK for a flat out stretch of road that in fact had a hump in it. While the car was airborne Moss glanced over at Jenks, who returned a glance of his own. Having made his point, and Jenks giving the correct reply, Moss rescued the flying car on landing and they got back on with the race. Classic Brit cool.

Now that's just made my day! I built one of these way back in the seventies, it was one of my favourite builds at the time. All that remains now are the rear wheels and tires and the clear hood scoop. Your stunning build has brought memories flooding back. Thanks for posting. Tony.

Great looking Mopar. The green bodywork sure makes the redlines pop!