MarkJ

Mike, your story reminds me of the time my dad's friend Bob Mungle showed up from Florida with a brand new 1965 Shelby Mustang GT 350. They had just finished Nasa Road 1 and he took me on a mind-blowing ride from Seabrook to Webster and back again at 10 at night when absolutely no one was on the road but us. I doubt if we got below 80 on the whole trip, and back then the only cops were probably at home asleep. They had to pry my fingers off the dash to ger me out of the car. After that trip my dream car was a Mustang Shelby GT 350 but I could never find or afford one. My dad did buy a 67 plain jane Mustang with a 289 and 3 on the floor transmission that I could drive after I got my license, when I turned 16. That was a fun car but nothing like that Shelby Bob had. I did end up getting a 1968 427 Corvette convertible for $1995.00 in 1972. It had a lot of things wrong with it and it was brute of a car to drive. It too was mind blowing fast but you could hardly stop the thing.

Looking good, Mike. Thats the car everybody in the early 70's wanted, but none of us could afford it. It was supposed to be the affordable Porsche. $8600 back then was still a pretty hefty price. I bought a brand new 1973 Dodge Charger SE and it was $3995.00. That was with the 400 2barrel, but you could get a 440 for $4500.00. I couldn't come up with the extra cash to get one of those.

Sounds good. I will see if I can find it.

Thanks, Mike. I appreciate your interest in the build. Have you got anything going on or have you recently posted anything?

Thanks, Pierre. I think you will really like the belted sanding stick. The pointed end works really good with tight spots where a regular sanding stick does no good. You will find out the first time you use it. You can buy different grit belts for it too. Micro Mark sells them if you can't find one from your favorite suppliers, but really everyone should offer them. I need to do the rear taillight panel. That's going to take a little detail work. One of those ref pictures I sent you has a pretty good view of it.

Yes, Ricky it did. On both sides. I made short work of it with my trusty belted sanding stick. Those mold lines look awful if not removed. This is just like the kit I used a few years ago to do the Tom Pistone 64 Ford. I think they just reboxed it with a smaller box. Thanks for your input.

Thanks, Stephen . I appreciate your interest in the build.

Got the other side done and removed the wiper blades. This car is good because the wiper blades don't extend over the vent grille. The tools shown are what I've been talking about to remove the moldings and other things. The one picture of the back glass area is to show where the hardest molding to remove is. At the base of the roof where it meets the panel in front of the trunk. The scribe tool is necessary to reinstall the door opening lines when you remove the moldings that go across the door to the front fender and quarter panel.

No, I used a belted sanding stick and a flat sanding oval looking thing. I am no good with a dremel and if it gets away from you, you get a gouge you have to repair with putty, and that's extra work I don't need, and would not look that good anyway. i only use a dremel for big jobs that I can't mess up anything if I slip up. This is one job you don't need to rush. And it's necessary. Have you ever seen a nice model with excellent paint and great decals that the guy was too lazy to remove the trim unless it's supposed to be there like some emblems and moldings are left on some race cars. Really not a good thing at all. The early 64 Fords at the beginning of the season had full tailights and the chrome moldings around them. this car was campaigned in June and by then, all the trim and the taillights had been removed.

Thanks, Gerald. I appreciate your interest in the build.

Started removing the mouldings. Its pain staking work because most of it is done with a belted sanding stick as to not remove too much material and have to go back and repair the damage with putty. Thats what a dremel tool can do to you. The hardest moulding to remove was where the roof meets the panel in front of the trunk. Very tricky.

Thanks, Jason and Pierre. This is going to be the most basic build I can come up with trying to stay away from any unnecessary detail work.

The decal sheets and sizing the decals to see if they were right before the final printing. I'm using ink jet decals for the color decals this time. They appear to be crisper on the sheet then the laser decals were. The all-white decals have to stay laser.

The kit.

Thanks, Randy. I really appreciate your input.

Well, you never know. I change my mind quite often, so I might be wipping again. The next build will be much easier. The hood is molded shut and the exhaust is molded into the chassis, so the only detail work will be removing the trim and do a race car tub, which means roll cage. I might try decal shoulder harness hardware. making those little buckles and tensioners is a pain.

Wow, Pierre. what a stunning outcome of a fabulous build. The best I've ever seen of this model in paint, chassis, engine, stance. I could go on and on. I believe this is your best results ever. the photography with the shots of the real car is also very ingenious. Let's the viewer know what the actual car looked like. Almost seems like you took the 1:1 car and shrunk it down to 1/24 scale. Again, congrats on such a wonderful achievement.

Thanks, Mike. Next one will not be detailed. More of a test bed for no brush marks and ink jet decals, mixed in with the laser white decal backgrounds.

Thanks, Mike. It's under 1966 Darlington Southern 500 winner. click the link below

Wow, Pierre. She looks perfect. Can't wait for all the other final shots from every angle. If you had not mentioned brush painting, nobody, I mean nobody would have a clue it was brush painted. You keep giving me inspiration that I can finally get a paint job like this one. I'm never giving up on the quest.

Tim, you have the airbrush, rattle can mastered, so there is no need for you to use anything else. Your paint work is always excellent

Thanks, Tim, I have never had good success with airbrush or rattle cans and the toxicity issues forces me outside to deal with the heat and humidity and junk falling out of the trees on my builds. not to mention orange peel issues, run issues, dulling out paint issues, mostly caused by humidity and the cleanup of the airbrush after the paint session. The cleanup with brush painting is in my kitchen sink with dawn dishwashing detergent. Can't get any easier than that. I just need to figure out how to get the paint to flow better to completely eliminate the brush marks, so I don't have to polish as much. Pierre has found the secret, but I'm still working on it.

Thank you so much, Stephen. I really appreciate your interest in the build and your kind words as well. I think I might forego the wip process next build and just take a few wip pictures to post along with the finished pictures. Kind of like what Henrik does when he posts his finished photos. Just a thought right now.

Thanks, guys. The brush painting is still a work in progress. I need to figure out a way to get the paint to flow easier, so it has time to flatten out the brush strokes before they dry. Maybe more thinner or maybe add some retarder. If I could get it to act like future, that I also put on with a brush, I would be where I would want to be. More experimenting on the next build. I have decided that I need to print the color decals as ink jet. the small contingency laser decals are just not crisp looking at all with this laser printer. The white underlay decals work just fine. Sometimes you have to double up on them like I did on the quarter panels and doors. the hood 405 decals looked about the same doubled or not. Sure, am glad they came out with the Ghost White toner cartridge.

Here is the best ref picture I found of the real Southern 500 car.