Mcpesq817

Love it! Great job!

Super cool! Nice job!

Amazing build! Can I ask what paint and color you used? Looks gorgeous!

Great builds of great subjects!

Love them! Nice job!

I have a couple of these on the shelf - love the color, nice job!

Fantastic model - love the color!

Awesome!! Brings back memories as a kid when I loved the show!

Awesome model and subject - love the color, nice job!

Thanks guys! And yeah, looks like a fun car to drive for sure!

In trying to wrap up various models I've been working on, I finished this old kit from Entex that I think is from the 1970s or maybe the 1980s. I tend to like quirky subjects, so this seemed to fit the bill. It went together fairly well, and I built it mostly out of the box except to add some engine wiring and replaced the radiator grill with a stainless mesh. I used Zero paints for the body and seat, Vallejo for the chrome, dash, wheel, etc., and oils and Tamiya clear orange for the wood portions and for the leather seat. The hood emblem decal disintegrated, so for the dashboard gauges, I used Microscale's liquid decal film to help firm up the decals. That helped a lot but there was some tearing still, so I just cut them out and glued them on with the paper backing still attached. Still have a long way to go in getting better at model cars (I mostly build model ships and planes), but this was a fun project! Just wanted to thank everyone who responded to my earlier topics about using Zero paints. Really appreciate it!

Oh, I'm so sorry Dave, did not realize that. My sincere condolences.

Thanks Dave! Really appreciate it! Hope all is well. Mike

Thanks Dave for posting your experience with those rattle cans. Can I ask - when you decant, what kind of thinner do you apply to it to shoot through the airbrush? And what ratio? I'm assuming you decant first, and then thin when you go to airbrush rather than decant and add thinner to the decanted container?

Hey guys, sorry to resurrect this thread, but wanted to report back on my second attempt at using Zero Paints. Part of the delay was i've been busy with family and kid stuff and other projects. Other part - and probably the bigger part - was I was a bit anxious to retry it. Happy to report that I had excellent results the second time around. After sanding down the car bodies to get them as smooth as I could after the crazing, I again primed with Mr. Surfacer 1200 from the rattle can. I actually did this step a couple of months ago, so the primer definitely had dried and cured. Next, I shook the bottles at least one minute, and probably closer to two minutes. That, along with using a pipette to transfer the paint to the cup rather than pour it from the bottle, probably were the two biggest improvements to the process as I think I was pouring more thinner into the cup than thinner + pigment. From there, I sprayed multiple light coats about 10 minutes apart. I probably sprayed a good 4-5 light coats, before going a little heavier at the end with a few more coats to even up the paint. No crazing of the plastic at all. I painted three Gunze Triumph bodies and the Entex Mog three wheeler with the Zero Paints using Dark British Racing Green, Midnight Blue, and Old English White (the red Triumph was painted using Mr. Color). They sprayed incredibly well, no spitting, no clogging, etc., and cleaned up very easily using their airbrush cleaner. I'm still very much an amateur when it comes to getting a flawless car body finish (I only have two cars under my belt at this point), but I'm getting there. The green and blue Triumphs still show a touch of where I had crazing problems, but otherwise, I think they came out pretty nicely. For what it's worth, I was really impressed with using Mr. Color as well. Generally I've been modeling plane and ship models, where I usually use Tamiya and Vallejo. I'll have to add Mr. Color to that rotation. Tip: The Zero airbrush cleaner runs very hot. I made the stupid mistake of thinking I needed to soak the nozzle on my Iwata eclipse in the solution for a bit, so dumped the nozzle into a plastic shot cup with a bit of solution. Well, I ruined the nozzle because the solution started melting the plastic which clogged up the nozzle. 🤬 Lesson learned I suppose. Thankfully I had bought a couple of spares as I lost one down the sink due to another rookie mistake a year ago 🤬 Next up, I'll attempt to clear coat them with Zero 2K (I forget the name). Hopefully that should go fairly smoothly. I just wanted to thank you all again for the help. I really appreciate it! I was despondent after the first attempt and thought about trashing all the bottles, but I'm glad I posted here and tried again. Like with most things, if you know the properties of what you're using, you can generally avoid bad results in this hobby. Thanks!

Got my decals from Steve today. They look absolutely fantastic, thanks Steve!

Hey neighbor, I can ask if I ever get a reply

Anyone heard anything on VRM? I placed an order over a month ago for a couple of decal sets and haven't received them. I sent an email a couple of weeks ago which went unreplied and then followed up by phone today but the voicemail box is full. Before starting a PayPal dispute, I figured I'd check around to see if maybe Steve was on vacation or otherwise busy. Thanks!

Yeah, the hobby paints are a lot more expensive. The Hpiguy on youtube seems to get good results, but I'm not sure how his models look closer up.

Sorry to resurrect this one. I have been finishing up some other builds before turning back to these. I was just looking at the youtube channel for hpiguy, and noticed that he predominantly uses Rustoleum and Krylon rattle cans to paint his cars. Made me thing - would Rustoleum primer be a better barrier for the Zero paints? I never thought about using the rattle cans you can get in Home Depot to paint model cars. I figured the paints and primers would be too coarse, but it looks like that hpiguy was able to get very nice results. Any downside to using those rattle cans? Makes me wonder what I'm doing spending the money I'm spending on Tamiya, Vallejo, Zero, etc. when a couple of bucks at Home Depot might do the trick and I don't have to worry about cleaning the airbrush. Aside from getting the particular colors one might want, do you guys see any issues using Rustoleum and Krylon?

Thanks guys. I read that link and came to the same understanding about the white box version - seems like there should be nothing worrisome about getting the white one? Also, I assume the MCG PE set should work on the white one? There were some comments in the various posts here that made it not particularly clear to me whether the PE set applies across all versions. I'm a little new to this PE thing for cars - much easier with planes and ships where the sets are typically marketed for a particular kit and you don't generally have multiple versions of the kit subject from the same manufacturer.

Hi everyone, I was on Model Car Garage the other day to pick up the PE set for the Accurate Miniatures M8 McLaren, and saw they had a PE set for AM's Corvette Grand Sport. So, did some quick picture shopping and picked up the PE set. Now that I had some time, I was looking the various boxes (the white and blue AM kits, and the Revell blue kit) and the builds on here, and was wondering if any of the three are better than the others? People mentioned fit issues, but I couldn't tell if that referred to any of the particular AM versions or whether Revell cleaned those up. For what it's worth, I was mostly thinking about getting the white version, though the blue one with the hood louvres is growing on me. Also, this might be a shot in the dark, but if anyone has an HRM transkit they are looking to part with, I'd be interested Thanks in advance!

Good to know, thank you very much!

Pipettes are ordered, thanks for the tip! Also asked my wife to pick up some plastic spoons while she was out shopping Dave, what kind of acrylic barrier coat are you using? So if I put down Mr. Surfacer as the primer, what would I put on as an acrylic coat next? I'm assuming you are saying primer, acrylic coat, and then Zero paint?

Bill, really appreciate you taking the time to help me on all this. You and others here have been incredible. Hope I can repay the favor in the future. After watching the videos, those pipettes were exactly what I thought I needed to get. I've been pouring from the paint container into the airbrush cup which can get messy and wasteful as you can imagine.