Custom Mike

Tom, I've gone through this entire thread...you owe me a keyboard! This is absolutely stunning work, the lighting is...I don't have the proper adjective, I grew up in the Chicago area, and remember all the Clark stations...you have nailed them perfectly! Congratulations on one beautiful build! I can't wait to see it completed!

This '66 GTO took a 1st place and I'm still stymied by it. I brought it simply to get more cars on the table at an IPMS contest, and it won the class over about 15 other builds, all of which looked much better than this! My first wired engine (Not very well either), a fully flocked interior (The entire door panels, dash pad, carpet, seats, and headliner), and an attempt at a ghost graphic that failed miserably. The darker part of the paint is brush painted, and it's very easy to see in person, trust me. Throw in a cracked and badly repaired A-pillar and you have a model that shouldn't have even sniffed last place, but it won somehow!

Yeah, just some kind of bright color to draw 'em in, then they can drool over the rest of the work on it!

Michael, that is killer! I love the color combo, and the modern HEMI really is a great touch, keep trying, it'll hit the right judges sooner or later! Rob, I've sat here and looked at that Cougar since this thread started, and if it was mine, I'd add a pinstripe down the sides following the body lines. A bright red, grabber blue, or sublime green would really set it off, getting it some more attention and possibly a win!

Yeah, those suicide doors and brass trunk are super boring Bill, can't you do something exciting once in a while?

I'd love to have your take on what I've done wrong also Mark, you're one of the guys out there that i really look up to in this hobby, and your opinion means a lot to me as I'm sure it does others here!

Casey, it looks great so far! Sometimes it's best to just do what you want and have fun with it, that's how I've gotten some of my best builds!

Gary, you've got skills, I've seen your stuff in person. Now I'm just gonna have to sweat you beating me every year in Fayetteville!

Tonio, how do you build those beautiful models without an inch of clear space? Of course, mine looks pretty much the same now, so i can't say much.....

Looks good for a quicky landon, now what' the next kit you've got your eye on?

John, I've had that same problem many. many times. When you make something look like that, people overlook it. I've got a pair of customs that haven't placed yet, the Firebird I can kind of understand (It's got a stubby nose), but the Ferrari gets moved out of the custom class almost every time. I've had to show judges the instructions to prove I modified the body! You'd think the Corvette engine under the hood would be a dead giveaway that it's not Enzo's idea of a Ferrari! I really don't understand these next two, the Talledega is fully detailed, complete braking system, everything you'd think it would take to win, but nothing so far. The Fairlane has pulled down a 3rd place, but nothing else.... And my last two. the Earnhardt Tribute hasn't picked up anything, and neither has the Porsche. But all of these (Except the Firebird, she's retired) will be going to a contest this weekend in Sumter SC, so I may have good news on Saturday night, we'll see!

Great job on the flames Mark, that should really look good under some purple!

Looks like a perfect paint job so far, and the chassis looks great too. I love this kit, AMT really did a beautiful job on it!

Nice choice of colors Oscar, and a pair of great kits too, this should be a good one!

I've never used 'em myself, but I'm sure someone has and they'll chime in sooner or later. And as far as the interior goes, I get it now, knock one out quick to get back on the horse, makes sense to me! And if you want to use Automotive paints, you can, I do it all the time. Get some Dupli-Color Primer/Sealer and get spraying! As long as you lay down a Primer/Sealer to act as a barrier against the hotter Automotive paints, you'll be fine!

Landon, first, welcome back to the hobby. The wide whites look great, and so does the engine, but the interior needs a second color to really bring it out, either detail painting of the door panels and dash, a different color carpet, just something to break up all the gold. Second, you say you let the Valspar dry for 6 hours, which is probably where you went wrong. Enamels take much longer to fully dry (Cure) than Acrylics, Lacquers or 2-Part Urethanes. So if you're spraying an Enamel, wait at least a week before you attempt any masking and spraying with a second color. A quick and easy way to tell if a paint job is fully cured is the sniff test. Sniff the paint, if you can still smell paint (Solvents), then it's not fully cured, give it another day or two. Or, you could buy a cheap dehydrator from somewhere like Harbor Freight, with a dehydrator, you can force a paint job to cure in a day or so depending on what type of paint you used. Third, what really did you in was the Pactra RC paint over Enamels. Pactra RC Paints are some of the "hottest" lacquer paints available, since they're designed for Lexan bodies, not polystyrene. If you're gonna attempt to use the Pactra paints, you need to do two things. First, use a good Primer/Sealer, or a base coat of Future to protect the body from getting burnt by the paint. Second, a Lacquer paint must go on FIRST, Enamels can go over Lacquers, but not the other way around!

Tony, Fred nailed it, this kit has the old metal axles, so that ugly groove is for the axle to run through. But now that I've been playing with the stance, I may have to eliminate that groove, because to get the nose lower, I'm going to have to cut the axle and mount it up higher than the kit will allow. So I may be popping the oil pan loose and fixing that old dog too...

Beautiful; save bro, what color/brand is that gorgeous nail polish?

I've got some cable ferrules I can use for the stacks, I just need to polish 'em up. Alyn made his own, I might hit him up and see how he did it....BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH you Alyn, you make me want to scratch build stuff now, you're ruining my kit-bashing skills!

Thanks for the link Dale, the intake shot looks mighty interesting...now to find an intake to use for that setup and see if I can pull that off!

Dale, that is a great color combo, and great execution! Chuck, are those finned valve covers available anywhere yet, I've got a Hudson that wants one bad! Roger, your Duster looks great, stop beating yourself up!

Jeremy, if I hadn't seen this from the beginning, I'd swear it was a kit, this is some insanely cool scratch-building!

Beautiful John, the white stripes really set it off!

This should be a cool build to watch, I'm in!

My all-time favorite car, desecrated by some yahoo with a 4X4 chassis and one too many beers...I'd slap this guy into the last century if I ever saw him!