Custom Mike

And here's where I bring this one up to speed with the WIP over on Scale Avenue, from here on out, it's current work! WE HAVE COLOR!!!!! I found it's going to take 9 color coats to get the shade I want, but they're thin, so it's all good! I've got enough Nail Polish to do it with ease, and so far, I'm looking good, 1 bottle down and 3 left unmixed. I can't wait to get some clear on this stuff and polish it up, it should pop like mad in the sun! I've got a bit of debris in the door panels I forgot to clean out, and a tiny speck on the front corner of the fender, but I should have no problem clearing those two little issues up!

OK, gather 'round, here's where the real fun comes in, body parts in colors!!!! I got nearly everything in Ultra Silver, I'll start with hood sides (They're still in White at this point), and then the front fender (The one that's not screwed up) and the body, all in Ultra Silver for your viewing pleasure!

Now some more Interior work, the first part of this kit to see a color that isn't a Primer or Base Coat! For the interior, I went with a simple White and Coral combo, and actually found some flocking at Michaels to match! I masked off my seat, floorboard and door panels, and started spraying away. 4 coats of Nail Polish later, and we have a nice looking start! I put 'em all in the Dehydrator for an hour, let them cool and masked off my floorboard for some flocking. I used Elmer's Craft Bond Spray Glue to keep the flocking in place, and it worked like a champ! The hardest part was laying that thin strip of Detail Master Krome Foil on the door panels, but it had to be done, there was no way I could have painted that tiny line by hand!

And now onto my freshly reprimed body. It's wearing a fine White primer from Dupli-Color. Lesson learned, White primer by ANY manufacturer does not like coming off, period. It took me until an hour ago to get this back in shape for primer, what a P.I.T.A. that was. I've got some debris in the door panels, but that will be easily taken care of. Next, we lay down some Ultra Silver for the base coat, then I'll get my hood sides, grille shell, fenders and trunk in Ultra Silver too, clearing the way (Hopefully) for some pretty colored top coats for everything!

I painted my freeze plugs up nice and pretty, got my hood all finalized with it's Ultra Silver base, detail-painted the rear end (Air bags and bolt heads), got my differential cover set up in it's Ultra Silver base, and the frame crossmember is cleared and bolt-heads for the tranny mount picked out. My fenders, well, I screwed up there. I made the mistake of putting them in the Dehydrator, a big no-no when you use Acrylic Filler. The good news is, it only ghosted in a few spots on each fender, right now my Driver's side front is perfect, but the other three will need a little more sanding tomorrow, but it's nothing earth shattering at least. Now, on with some new pics!

Thanks guys, I appreciate the compliments! As far as the lips on the new fender edges, I had to do something, they looked horrible just chopped off. So it was either very narrow running boards, or add the lips. I don't like running boards, so here we sit! Now on to some more progress for you to check out, a quick shot of my interior panels in White Primer, and the engine in Ford Light Blue. I need to mask off the interior and lay some Coral down, then get started on the flocking. The engine needs a little more curing, stinking Model Master Enamels take forever to dry, even with a Dehydrator!

The body has been recovered with Primer/Sealer, the trunk lid is stripping due to some bubbling, along with the grille shell, but not all went badly today. I got all four fenders tightened up, with a tiny bit more work before I pronounce them done. They're currently in the Dehydrator letting the final coats of Filler Primer cure so I can see if they're finally perfect. Here's some shots prior to the Filler Primer, we're looking pretty good, but I want perfection!

Now onto the second side of the hood, here's where I show how to make the mesh fit so nicely into the openings. I got a piece of Bass wood (A little tougher than Balsa, but still easy to shape) and made three "bucks" to fit in the openings with a little clearance all the way around each hole. Then I cut three pieces of mesh larger than the openings, and carefully placed them one at a time so the mesh was straight in the hole. I placed the corresponding "buck" over the hole, and tapped it with some scissors until I had the mesh seated fully flush with the outside of the hood. Once it was seated right, I took my panel scriber's handle and flattened the excess smooth on the inside of the hood. I removed it, trimmed the excess, and moved onto the next piece of mesh. Once they were all done, I used a piece of clear tape to hold them safely until they're ready for final installation!

And a little work on the remaining stock fender, it's been pie-cut, filled, and the new lip has been started. Then I went to work on the chassis, I didn't like the "neutral" rake the kit had out of the box, so I went for an easy fix. I cut the number tabs off of a parts tree, made them into shapes I could work with, glued them over the attachment points for the rear axle and shocks, then drilled out the holes so I could attach the parts when the time comes. It gives me a slight "nose-down" rake with minimum work, another easy fix for my arsenal!

I got a lot done on this day, let's start with the fenders. I cleaned up the bottom edges of the fronts, then added a bit to the rear so it snugs up to the frame at the front edge. I still have some clean-up on all of them, but we're getting there...

At this point in this build, I'm sick as a dog. A nasty case of Strep Throat and the Flu popped in and attacked me, but that meant I had 5 days to build when I wasn't freezing or burning up. Good for me! I added a lip to the bottom edge of the front and rear fenders to make them look like they were meant to be pinched in. I've got some more fine sanding to do on both fenders, and I need to reduce the width of the lip on the rear fender, but so far so good. I also painted my chassis White, along with the rear end. Not too bad for someone who feels like death warmed over, huh?

And now onto the rear fenders. I started out on the passenger side, making a pie-cut up to the top of the fender, then checked it's width against the front fender at the bottom. We have a perfect match. so some Ambroid was applied. Once it set, I put some tape inside the fender, then slopped on some Acrylic Filler to fill the gap. I'll be able to sand on it tomorrow, but here's a few mock-up shots for fun, enjoy!

OK, I got my wheel backs set up for the Pegasus rims, seems like I do this a different way every build. This time I added a strip of styrene around the outer edge of the wheel back so it fits snugly into the Pegasus rims. I also had to grind the mounting post on each rim down, but I'm used to doing that by now. I slapped some primer on 'em, then laid down some Dupli-Color Ultra Silver as the base. The part of the wheel back visible through the rim will be painted body color, which should look cool!

Of course, my original plan was much more than this, but time is a factor, so I scaled back considerably. A fully wired engine, fuel and brake lines are all planned still, so something had to give. Now here's my rim choice, I'm going to go with this set, and I'll have the aluminum sleeves on the rears to give me that killer Big/Little look that was meant for these cars!

If you've noticed, I'm really moving fast, it's only an illusion, I've been working on this for about a week and a half now, this is just the updates from over on Scale Avenue that I'm copying and pasting to make my life easier. I know, I'm lazy like that, but on with the copying and pasting I guess! I have parts in primer! My hood pieces, trunk, and body are all in primer! We'll see how well everything else goes before I start hacking on the rear fenders. Just pray for smooth progress and I should be able to fit that mod in!

Now onto the only body mod I have planned, I opened up the roof so I could add a piece of clear styrene as a sunroof, or possibly just leave it open, we'll see what time allows me to do. Then I started modifying the second side of the hood, here's the pics of it all roughed-in!

And now onto some of the other stuff I've done. I had already modified my passenger side fender, I wanted a Highboy, but my hood mods meant the fenders were needed to make it look right. So I removed the front & rear fenders from the running boards, then I took a section out of the front fenders so I could narrow them at the rear. Some trusty Acrylic Filler makes the whole thing solid and smooth, and they're ready to go! I did a quick mock-up on the chassis, I'm not sure if I should narrow the rear fenders or leave them as-is, we'll see what you guys think!

And now onto the sides of the hood. This kit comes with either a set of smooth sides, ones with louvers from top to bottom, or a set with 3 lines of louvers. I opted for the 3 louver set, then started my dastardly plans for them. I removed the louvers, leaving three holes in the hood side. Then I used some Bass wood to make a kind of "buck" to fit each hole. Why, you ask did I need a buck? To form the diamond mesh I picked up to fit flush in the holes of course! I'll show how I used the bucks to form the mesh when I make up the other side, so far only one is done. The mesh is for Armour models I believe, and it's gorgeous stuff! I made my new mesh pieces up, and taped them in place to see how they look. I may blacken them, I'm not sure if the brass color will work well with the color I selected for it. The nail polishes shown are what I'm using, the white and coral are for the interior, and the last color (The Sally Hansen HD) is for the body!

This one will (Hopefully) be my entry into the Revell/Gearz contest, if I can get it done in time. There's going to be a lot of things I've never tried before, and modifications I've never seen on a '32 Ford either, so wish me luck! We're starting out with some minor chassis mods, I wanted my exhaust to exit through the frame in front of the back wheels. So I drilled a couple of holes in the appropriate location, put some aluminum tubing in the holes, then made up some plates to go on the outside of the frame. I polished up the plates, then snagged some more aluminum tubing and a pair of turned aluminum mufflers I picked up years ago. A quick chop of the kit exhaust and a mock up show this will work out nicely!

Jose, I thin my Nail Polishes with regular Lacquer Thinner, a ratio of about 50/50. I start at 50/50 and add more thinner if needed. My airbrush is about the most basic setup you'll ever see, an old Testors (When Wal-Mart sold 'em for $15) single action, external mix hooked up to an Paasche compressor. Many years ago, I bought and tried both a Badger and a Paasche Dual Action/Internal mix airbrushes, but just couldn't get good results with them, so I gave them away. Years later I found this one, and have been extremely happy ever since. I've got an Aztec Dual Action/Internal mix that I won in a raffle last year, but I still can't use the stinking thing. So I'm extremely low tech, but it works great for me! Thanks Tim, I always try to find a way to make those little problems go away, sometimes they work, sometimes not, but I'm always gonna try something different at least. The "Bull-nose" will hopefully be helped by the decal I'm having made, we'll see once I get it on the hood. I've kind of gotten used to it now, it's grown on me! As far as my camera, I've got a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7, it's 7 mega-pixels, and depending on what I'm shooting, I'll dial up what I need. For the pictures in this thread, I set it on Simple (Or Macro if needed for the small stuff) and it does a wonderful job. If I'm taking shots outside of a completed model, I'll set it to Aperture Priority and set the aperture to 8.0 so I can get a nice sharp image of the entire model. I got this one at Circuit City while they were still around on clearance, and I am still amazed at how well it works, no matter what I'm taking pictures of! Here's a shot of a completed model taken with the aperture set on 8.0, with a little practice I found I could take pictures of models that will fool most people into believing the model is real!

Ron, I'll try to get the '32 posted later today or tonight over here, I've been working furiously on it since I stopped on this one!

Jeff, you'll love this kit, it goes together nicely with just a few minor flaws. One is the front spindles, the ride height will be nose-high if you don't modify them somehow. The other is getting the body to sit right over the front end, I still haven't figured out a good fix, but I think on my next one I'll trim the inner fenders, radiator support and firewall a bit to see if that helps. Great work on the engine and front suspension so far, I can't wait to see some more of this baby!

Isn't that when it's supposed to appear? What happened bud? Oh, and how come no one has said anything about the VW mud flaps yet? That's just the kind of "touch" I expect from your twisted mind!

Guys, this one is on hold for the next month, I forgot about the deadline for the Revell/Gearz model contest, so I've got to get to work on my '32 Ford. I'll get back to this one as soon as it's done, or the deadline passes, whichever comes first! Knowing me and my building speed, the deadline will hit first!

Thanks Andy, I'm glad you like it! If you haven't noticed by now, I like to challenge myself with stupid ideas. But if I can make idea work, I'll be some kind of evil genius, right? OK, so I started slicing chunks off of one of my "ice cubes" to shape it to fit from top to bottom in my spare body. With that part done, I now have to find a way to match the angle of the hatch, which will probably be done with the Dremel later today. I also got a rough shape on the back side of it, by slicing and sanding a bit. So far, it's looking more like a tail light (A very wide one!) than an ice cube!