Tommy124

Hi folks, I did another restoration... This is the 1/24 scale Monogram kit. Bought it some time ago from a modelling mate and it looked like this: The hardest part was getting rid of the white stripe decals that had practically "eaten" into the plastic, even after stripping the paint. I may show some WIP photos of that later on. The paint I used is Testors Plum Crazy to replicate the In Violet Plymouth purple. The first time in decades that I used enamel on a car body and I was quite annoyed by the 72 hours plus dry time so for the next step I used a food dehydrator which helped to save a lot of time and patience. I also did my very first tyre lettering on this kit. By the way, no clear coat on this one, just elbow grease...

You're welcome JC. I trust the Tamiya kit (hopefully) will be an uncomplicated build. It's a simple curbside kit after all. Paint the body in white, the wheels in red, maybe do some detailing in the interior. I gather the most work will be applying the decals with the use of lots of setting solution...

I built an AMG C-Class DTM Tamiya kit back in 1995/96 and that was exposed to pretty much sunlight over quite some time. I used Tamiya acrylics for basecoat AND clear coat back then. Yes, the white letters of the "Tabac" livery yellowed quite a bit (especially the one on the rear side of the roof) but it's mainly the non-cleared decals on the clear parts ("Philips" sticker on the windscreen and the "Schneider" sticker on the side) that took the most damage...

I thought they were one and the same kit for some time, but... the Tamiya kit is different and more realistic in some details, the main one being the air intake on the side of the car. It actually has an open structure while the Airfix only has some structure to replicate the air cooler that should actually be much deeper in the intake. As the Airfix would not properly have worked with the Alitalia details I already bought some time ago (https://www.spotmodel.com/product_info.php?products_id=18260), I decided to buy the Tamiya when it was re-released some months ago. The Tamiya kit has much better wheels also. Other than that, they are very similar kits.

I think that the extent of "damage" that can possibly happen to decals which have been properly applied to a scale model is a bit overrated. Of course, decals will probably change their color or bleach if exposed to direct sunlight for a long period and they are prone to physical damage if the completed model is not stored or handled properly. If one cannot make sure of avoiding these things, they probably should seal the decals with a clear coat anyway. I only do so for race car models which carry a lot of decals, or maybe models with larger decals like big bonnet stripes. But I won't generally clear coat a model because of some smaller stripes, emblems etc - unless I will clear coat the car anyway. @Ace: good point, a lot of livery decals were stickers on the original cars.

Nice kits, JC. I'm more a fan of the Turbo Stratos. So I only have the Hasegawa Stradale kit, and the re-released Italeri (formerly Esci) kit, I couldn't resist buying it because it came very cheap while carrying the rallye parts and Alitalia decals. And I have the Turbo Stratos kits from Airfix and the re-released Tamiya one. The latter being one of my next projects, in order to replicate the #539 car that hardly ever raced or finished but sure looked cool: https://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/1977/Giro_d_Italia-1977-06-16-539.jpg

Great result and certainly not a "typical" Charger for a change. I especially like what you did to the trunk. Does it only look like that on the photos, or did you not open the exhaust pipes?

I second that. I don't have access to the conversion stuff used in this build, but then again I wouldn't mind using the GSX kit as is, but I definitely wouldn't paint it yellow!

Long time ago... You looked pretty young on the picture back then too... @Jim: congrats! Soon it will be 20.000...

Thanks Randy. Btw., the Stratos may be the "forgotten" EM kit, but I am sure there is one most have never even heard of - as far as both, 1:1 and model kit are concerned: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/fujimi-082424-dome-zero--210116 Yeees, that is an EM series kit... But there is also a curbside version. I got hold of the EM kit some months ago on a slot car fair. Reasonably priced, and the kit in shrink-wrapped condition...

For things like black trims on modern cars, you can use black 3M ElectroCut foil. This is some kind of self-adhesive plotter foil, available in many colors, pretty flexible and easy to cut. The black foil has a semi-gloss look about it so it'll look good for this purpose. ScaleProduction has it on sale, but you can buy this (or probably similar products) from other sources without problems. https://www.scaleproduction.de/product_info.php?info=p805_3m-electrocut-foil-a4-210x290mm.html

Guess it goes to show, that even with mother nature on your side, you will get punished for being sloppy... (Sorry, Randy!).

This has been the first/ "intermediate" clear coat to make an even surface for the decals. And I assume it would have effected the (Tamiya LP color) basecoast just the same. The final clear coat for sealing the decals will be a 2k. Speaking of which, I don't suppose any kind of setting solution would harm a 2k clear coat...

I did the Fujimi EM 911 turbo Cabriolet back in the mid-90's. One of the few finished ones of the many started kits I did back then. Still looking okay to me, but I am considering to do a resto on it one day. The paint (done with Testors enamel clearcoat back then if I'm not mistaken) is not up to the required standard and the interior has bleached out during all these years. In my stash I have 17 more EM kits to go... BMW 635, Countach, 356, 911, Daytona...

Some setting solutions will melt your paint aswell... I have a variety of products aswell and (obviously) did not do enough testing on them in the first place. I used the strongest of my solutions (German product) in order to make a decal lay down nicely in the panel lines of a race car model and it "burned" some not-so nice spots into the clear coat layer. Tamiya LP colors had been used for that. By now, in "normal cases", I mostly use Tamiya Mark Fit or Mark Fit Strong. They have a nice balance between a good performance and not doing any damage.

You surely have a point there, Bill. The first kit I dried some days ago (the only one so far) is an old Monogram one from 1984, the thick stuff I like to call "panzer plastic"... Surely needn't worry about anything warping in that, but with modern kits, Tamiya, Hasegawa etc. - they certainly have softer plastic. And I agree on keeping an eye on the process every once in a while, better to be safe than sorry...

I see, thanks... So the complaint is about the wide stripes not being the '68 (SS) stock stripes. However, there are lots of '68 Chevelles to be found with those stripes, so in a way they are "custom stripes", right?

Would anybody mind telling me what the difference between the '68 and '69 stripes is and where the boxart is wrong? I can't seem to find any difference...

I second your opinion. AFAIK "UV-colors" (in the sense of colors requiring UV-light for curing) contain special UV-activators which I doubt are part of modelling paints. That kind of UV-stuff is, for instance, used in paper printing production in order to make sure for the ink to dry instantly without "splashing" - which allows to go for a higher production speed. As to my own experiences... I have used Testors enamels for the first time since the 90's on my current project and was a bit shocked that the curing process actually took around 72 hours. Although the Testors website told me that this is within the usual range for their enamels. As I needed to go for some additionals paint layers and will consider to further use Testors enamels on other projects, I decided to get me a "reasonably priced" food hydrator with a timer. The first test went very well. I left the painted body in the hydrator for around 6 hours at 110 °F and it was touch-dry to such a degree that it could be handled for further working on. So I'm really glad I went for it .

The other lesson was that a shop-owner selling model kits and paints wants people to use paints on their model kits. And I agree to build to please yourself.

Can't go wrong with Tamiya tape, but to me the problem shown above looks like the surface to the white paint was not smooth enough to allow for proper masking. It also helps to apply light coats in the beginning which will help to further "tighten" the masked edge. And I recommend to warm up the tape a little using a hairdryer at medium temperature setting before/ while removing it. Makes it much easier...

Like it, well done!

Well done! This is the first time I notice that this kit's rims have the same "depth" in the front and rear. It should be a little less in the front but why bother, looks great...

Your color choice is "daring" but this combo sure looks good, especially with the customs wheels. I agree with you that this kit is great indeed. I think you did good on the BMF too, and I certainly know what a pain-in-the-BLAH the fender parts are. I ended up making pre-cut BMF stripes. Worked out fine for me. If you don't mind me showing:

Beautiful Vette! Gotta remember that Titanium Gold color. On first sight, that would appear to be a color rather for a more "elegant" car. But it looks extremely good on a sports car, too!