Custom Mike

Anthony, I opened up both the stock and RS grille for this kit using 80 grit sanding sticks. About 3 hours worth of work, but worth it. The RS grille gets very fragile once you open it up, so go slowly, otherwise you'll break it like I did! Opening kit grilles tutorial

Instead of trimming the tip, pull it off the marker (It pops right out with ease) and drop it in some Acetone, it'll clean the blockage out overnight. Pull it out and let it dry for a few hours, pop it back in the marker and you're good to go! And the 4mm is great for bumpers! This is from the Revell '66 GTO kit, the one the chrome is always rubbed off of. I stripped it, painted it with some House Of Kolors Black, and used the 4mm to re-chrome it!

Wow Eric, this is awesome! I love the idea, and using every tool available is pretty cool too, can I borrow your stuff for a few decades...

Thanks Dave, that's a brand we don't have here in the US....but I'm sure I can locate one just as bright if I search long enough around here!

Very bright! Who is the manufacturer of the nail polish, that's my kind of color, screamingly loud!

Now that looks nice, how much did it set you back?

No matter what color you decide, there are a few issues to handle if you want it to look good. The first is taking care of the bumpers, they have gigantic ejector pin pads on the mounting tabs that will cause the bumpers to droop downward severely if you don't remove them. The second big issue is the grilles, they need a bit of massaging to get them to fit properly. Nothing major, but I've rarely seen anyone take care of those two problems, and the builds always look bad because of them. BTW Harry, that's a beautiful example, i might build another one just to duplicate that car!

If it's the new-tool Revell kit, it comes with a very nice 327....or 283, or 350, or 400 small block, they're all the same engine!

The door panels look great Greg, and I have a fix for your non-sticky foil. Get yourself a bottle of Microscale Metal Foil Adhesive. paint the adhesive where you want the foil to stick, let it tack up for a few minutes, and apply the foil as normal. You can also use regular old Aluminum Foil instead of BMF. But the cheapest foil you can find (It's thinner) and you'll be set for a good long time!

Yeah, I love the fact that my last name is wrong (It happens all the time by the way!), but how he turned me into Ryan is beyond me! I got a good laugh out of it, it's not like 12th place is going to get me anything other than a couple of pics in the magazine. But in the Honorable Mention section he gets my name right for my other entry....go figure!

Hey Harry P, got an issue with the issue! I took 12th place...but my name isn't Michael Sargis...or Ryan! How do I get this corrected? PS...I would post a picture of the page, but I can't post pictures here again!

I watched the WIP all the way through, and the results you got with this old dog are spectacular!

Bill, that is the simplest solution I've ever seen! Yeah, there's going to be some bodywork involved, but it'll be much better looking than just swapping out the roof for sure!

Dave, I always use Testors Clear acrylic paint to get scripts to stay on the body. Paint the Clear on the back of the script, apply it to the body, and you're good to go! These were done back around 2004, and are still holding perfectly!

Michael, did you consider House Of Kolors Root Beer? I've used it, and it's a great color, but I'm not sure how close it is to what you're wanting, here's a couple of pics of it. This is over a Copper base, with Silver for the stripes and side coves.

Beautiful color Mike (What is it?), and a very clean build!

Nice looking kit other than the paint issues, I built one years ago, and it is not an easy kit to get together at the end! The paint issues you have are simple, HOK paints are true Lacquers, Tamiya is a Synthetic Lacquer. The HOK ate right through the Tamiya Primer, that's all. Next time you use HOK, use a barrier to protect the underlying plastic. I use Dupli-Color Primer-Sealer myself, others use Future, Plasti-Cote, etc, just find something that will save the model from the "hot" solvents in HOK paint.

Richard, the old AMT '72 Nova kit comes with separate fenders, if you could find one (The old issue had the "Old Pro" box art, the current release is the "Beverly Hills Cop" box art), the fender could be used, or you could take the cowl area from the AMT kit and put it on the Revell kit. I don't know how hard that kit is to locate in your area though....

Nice start Todd, the color you're using looks just like what I'm using on a '67 Nickey Camaro. It wouldn't happen to be Tamiya Racing Blue, would it?

Try using a Black base under the Chrome paint, see if it makes a difference. Alclad requires a Black base coat, it may help with your Chrome paint.

Gorgeous Dale, absolutely gorgeous! The color combo and your idea of where the chrome should be is just right!

Chrysler did Wind Tunnel testing of a '71 Daytona and Superbird, but they never went into production due to NASCAR changing the rules to outlaw them. I built one of these a long, long time ago, but went with a single wing, I didn't know the cars existed when I built mine, so I did it how I thought it would have been made, no NASCAR stuff, just a street car.

I dug around on their Japanese website and found this, it doesn't list as an Etching Primer, but it is designed for Metal. It's listed as unavailable here in the US, but you can apparently still get it from Japan. http://tamiyashop.jp/shop/g/g87061/

Ahmed, I'm not sure Tamiya makes an Etching primer myself, I don't use their paints often enough because I have Dupli-Color readily available. I'm sure someone here can say yes or no on that. Here's the link to Tamiya's site, and a link to their online catalog page. http://www.tamiya.com/ http://www.tamiya.com/english/products/archive.htm

Or you really want to test your skills, either way, It should satisfy him a whole lot more than building it from a kit!