papajohn97

Thanks Spike for the decal feedback. I agree with you on Indycals, they are great to work with and hand-cutting them is no longer as big an issue for me. I’ve got several black JPS Lotus kits still unbuilt and will order these black background IndyCals decals instead of risking use of old Tamiya/Hasegawa kit decals.

Lovely JPS Lotus, shiny black is the ultimate scale model painting test and this one is an A+. The decals look great as well, did these IndyCals come with a black background printed within the gold pin stripe areas as well as behind the gold/ biscuit printing? If so, it looks like it matches perfectly with the Tamiya TS-14 gloss black.

Your Nova look’s good in that yellow, looking forward to seeing this one come together. Best of luck to your wife for a smooth fast recovery, you’re a good (and smart!) man to defer scale modeling to care for your wife, the bench will wait for you! My Molotow pens seem to go dry/ funky pretty quickly and I’ve switched to applying it from a refill pin using a thin brush and am getting great results so far on small applications/ touch-up.

Oooo! Very very clean build and gorgeous paint and toning down of the kit chrome. I like to decal the emblems but not every kit comes with them and the after-market emblem decals are expensive and not available for every kit; I need to try this “BMF under the paint then sand” technique, I have a soft spot for shoe-box Chevies, my first two 1:1 cars (1,000 yrs ago) were a ‘56 210 followed by a ‘55 Bel Air. Both were wonderful cars and both less than $400. I recently picked up the Revell ‘56 210 kit at Michael’s for $25, after seeing your build now I want this Monogram ‘55 convertible as well.

Fabulous job on this gasser. I’m particularly impressed with the fuel line plumbing, the belts/pulleys, the use of paint metallizers on the wheels and engine area, the paint, the ghost-free decals, the smooth foil work that doesn’t look like foil. Pretty much a perfect build and one of the best Willys gassers I’ve seen posted anywhere. What Eduards PE set did you use? Is it one intended for one of the 1/24 Airfix or Trumpeter fighters? Great idea.

Nice job David on this max wedge Lawman. I particularly like the paint work in the interior and the mag spoke wheel paint detailing. Don’t beat yourself up over the paint lines, two-tones can be a challenge. I gave up doing them with lacquers due to paint bleed at the masking edges and have had much better luck using the matte base paints (Zero, Scale Finishes) and then clear coating. I highly recommend cataract surgery, it was a breeze and my eyesight is now 20-20 (I wore coke bottle lens eyeglasses and hard contacts most of my life). I had both eyes done for distance and just use stronger reading glasses for modeling (3X or stronger). Wish I could have had this surgery when I was younger, it’s a real life changer.

Amazing job on the interior and engine detailing. I had no idea that this old AMT kit came with the Webber carb option, makes it look like it has one of those 377 cu in +500 hp SBC engines that were used in the Grand Sports.

I’m impressed with your BMF trimming, particularly around those radiuses bends on the front fenders. I also like the paint detailing you did on the molded-in wiring on the firewall and inner fender wells and the panel highlighting on the doors and trunk. Overall very nice job on this Max Wedge street sleeper!

I’m building one of these right now too! (along with 4 other early 60’s super stock subjects). I’m painting mine as Hayden Proffitt’s black Yeakel Mopar Max Wedge super stocker and hope to post it soon. My first black paint job was a complete disaster (Zero Black Base + Tamiya TS-13 clear coat over Scalefinishes Super Grey Primer, big mistake!), just stripped it back to bare plastic and going back to good old Tamiya Gloss Black lacquer over Tamiya Fine lacquer primer. These Round 2 ‘64 Belvederes are fabulous kits, everything fits nice and looks right. Yours is coming out sweet so far, particularly that beautiful interior. Looking forward to seeing your Lawman come together!

What a gorgeous XKE! Love the color and the aluminum painted wires. More pics please of the interior, engine, under carriage!

Thanks guys for all the positive feedback. I have the Revell ‘49 Merc woodie wagon kit which I hope to also build a stock version of and post in the near future. The Revell kit unfortunately only comes with a tri-carb Cadillac V8 so I’ll need to replace it with a stock flat head, maybe an excuse to buy another one of these excellent AMT Mercs?

This one is built from one of the many recent re-issues of the old AMT kit (first tooled in '63?) and is still an amazingly good kit. I used a factory original color, "Lima Tan", as a base paint from Scalefinishes.com that I chose based on a beautiful car that was listed on bringatrailer (here). My model came out more of an olive greenish tan than the bringatrailer car which is metallic and more of a pinkish tan but I'm ok with the hue on my finished model - it look's like a period correct tan that I remember a lot of cars being when I was a kid. I sprayed Tamiya TS-13 rattle can lacquer clear coat over the base coat. The brightwork window frames and side trim were masked and airbrushed using Alclad Chrome over black gloss enamel with a little Molotow pen touch-up, all other colors used were Tamiya acrylics. I made a circular mask and sprayed the wide whitewalls onto the stock kit tires using Tamiya FX-2 flat white acrylic. The driver's side mirror was added from my parts box. I decided to glue the trunk lid shut after spending way too much time trying to get it to close properly with the rear off the body. Assembly was pretty easy except for the fit of the grill with the grill center piece and the bumper, I had to do a lot of tweaking to get it all to fit and it's far from perfect. I also managed to encounter some crazing on the bottom of the drivers wing window which only showed upon after assembly is a mystery to me - I used the Testor's "clear part cement and window maker" adhesive which is pretty mild stuff and did not apply it where the crazing occurred....oh well....always something.... I can see why these Mercs were/ are so popular to customizers, such clean classic well-proportioned styling. Love this kit! Cheers, John Here's an outdoor shot, amazing how different/ lighter this "Lima Tan" color look's under sunlight (could be my cell camera's bad exposure?):

I’m an amateur at figures but have had pretty good luck just painting them using a simple-minded “paint-by-numbers” technique (out-of-the-bottle flesh for face and hands, green shirt, blue pants, black shoes, etc…) and then applying a dark brown oil paint in white spirits thinner wash. Here is a German tank crew I did using this technique: I think figures don’t need to be perfect when they’re in a diorama setting, they give scale and context to the scene and most eyes are distracted by other details so it is more forgiving for imperfections. Just paint them and stick them in your scene, they’ll be better than you think!

Great job Mario on this famous and very expensive car. You really nailed the unusual “saffron” orange and polished aluminum. The Alclad paint work is also very nice - which specific metal shade(s) did you use and what did you spray it over (black lacquer? Enamel?). Italeri has kitted some interesting 1/24 classic auto subjects. I have the ‘33 Cadillac Fleetwood which I hope to do once I feel a little more competent painting gloss black bodies.

Oops, you are correct, it’s the Gx112 gloss that I should have recommended, thank you Mr. Thorne!

My favorite clear coat on car models for years was Tamiya TS-13 gloss lacquer but I never had much luck spraying it over decals (the solvents in the lacquer can sometimes attack decals when a heavy “wet coat” is applied). I switched over to Mr. Color “UV Cut GX” (GX113) clear lacquer thinned with Mr. Color self-leveling thinner, airbrushed. It seems to work as well as TS-13 without any decal damage, even when a heavy wet coat is applied. I haven’t tried polishing it wet so I don’t know if it will polish up as well as other lacquers or acrylic clear coats. The “2k” two-part urethane clear coats look fantastic and are decal-friendly but I’ve avoided using them due to the health hazard issues.

I can see this bad boy in the staging line at Lions in ‘65! Very nice job on the altered wheel base body and chassis mods and stance as well as that red&white two-tone paint and decal work. I grew up in Lakewood near Long Beach in the 50’s -60’s and have a soft spot for local sponsors like Reath and Cal Worthington. I’ve had a hankering to build a fantasy early to mid-60’s super stock drag car sponsored by a local no longer existing dealer (Mike Salta Pontiac? Parkwood Chevrolet? Mel Burns Ford?).

Correction, I've built nine of these 1/20 scale F1 kits to date and have ten more in my stash! Like some guys keep building Me109's, I seem to have an addiction to 1/20 F1's and 1/25 sixties super stocks. What a fun hobby!

This is built from the re-issued orange box kit to which I added the Tamiya photo-etch set and after-market cigarette sponsor decals from MSM Creation. The exterior was airbrushed using red and white McLaren colors Zero base paints. All of the kit chromed parts were oven cleaner stripped and re-metallized using Alclad over black lacquer. The remaining parts were painted using airbrushed Tamiya acrylics per the instruction call-outs. This is the first kit that I have clear coated using airbrushed Mr Color “Super Clear UV Cut” lacquer and self-leveling thinner (50/50) which, unlike Tamiya TS-13 clear coat that I’ve used on past builds, had no effect on the decals - I’m sold! I added MFH fuel lines and additional black shrink tubing oil cooler lines and fittings and seat belt material from Tuner Model Manufactory (unfortunately I only had black, they should be blue). This kit went together seamlessly until I installed the roll bar and support after which the cockpit and engine cover location pins refused to fit into the mating holes on the lower body shell. I was able to fix this by removing plastic from the rear white crossmember on the cockpit cover which was interfering with the front of the roll bar. Otherwise typical Tamiya smooth going. I like building classic race cars that I actually saw race in the period - this one with James Hunt and Jochen Mass driving in Long Beach in ‘77. Between these 1/20 Tamiya seventies F1 kits and the 60’s -70’s 1/20 kits from Ebbro and Hasegawa, I have built seven thus far and have another 8 - 9 in my stash. Even built OOTB, I find this 1/20 scale ideal for creating detailed models of these classic racing machines without taking up a lot of shelf space (or box space in the closet in my case!). Hope you like this one. Cheers, John

Came out beautiful Pierre! The lowering job you did as well as substituting the kit tires with the GT40 tires has really cranked up the realism on this GS. Much better than OOB! I am in awe of your brush painting skills. Normally I encourage my adult friends who are new to scale modeling to invest in an airbrush but, it in your case, it look’s like it would be an unnecessary expenditure! This Corvette has got to be the best looking brush-painted car model I’ve ever seen posted here. Bravo!

Thanks for reminding me about that option, great idea! Thought about doing a long hood AWB body using the Revell kit but it’s 1/24. An AMT re-pop of the 1/25 ‘66 FB will also be useful for building the H-M A/FX cars using the Moebius SOHC. Can’t wait!

Very nice rendition of one of the early non-flipper Mustang FC’s. This early transition period from the ‘65 A/FX cars to the steel/ fiberglass AWB “door slammer” funny cars is particularly interesting to me. The evolution of all the SWC cars and how they kept recycling chassis’s and engines is also fascinating. Sad to think that Doug Cook ended his driving career in this car after suffering major back injuries in a match racing crash in Ill. I’ve wanted to parts bash the Gas Ronda stretched front end injected FC Mustang for some time but the resin body and parts from Speed City have been unavailable for a few years now. I’ll have to take a look at the Fremont as an option. Joe Curtis’s decals are wonderful. Thanks Mike for posting yet another beautiful B-T-C drag car build!

Just walked into the theater on this WIP and so glad I did. I built one of these a few years back and I recall it being a humbling scale modeling experience. I remember multiple fit struggles particularly in the front end, engine mounting, exhausts/ chassis interference and getting that hood to close all the way! Lots of “unconstrained design ambiguity” in this AM kit! This very well documented WIP that you have been posting will be tremendously helpful to me if I ever tackle the second one of these GS’s I have in my stash - thank you Pierre! A side note on the subject of “clear-coat” sealing of decals. Future should work great and I only wanted to throw out a second option that I recently had a good experience with. My CC of choice has always been Tamiya TS-13 rattle can but it tends to attack decals when the final wet coat is applied. I read on another modeling forum about “Mr. Color UV Cut GX Super Clear Coat” lacquer-based bottle paint being decal-friendly (I believe it’s tolulene-free). I tried it thinned 1:1 with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner and airbrushed over some very thin/fragile IndyCals (applied over a TS-13CC) and it worked fantastic even with heavy wet coats.

Great job Ryan on an amazingly detailed but not-easy-to-assemble kit. Your ride height adjustment look’s spot-on. I have built two of these Fujimi 356 kits, a coupe and a roadster, and all four tires struggle to simultaneously touch the ground on both of my builds! Despite my errors, both were a joy to build and look very realistic when finished. Best wheels of any car kit out there IMO. I particularly like the job you did on that dash. Did you use a Molotow pen for the radio and trim? Try to find and build a roadster if you can, they’re a little easier than a coupe and that fabulous interior is even more visible.

Mike, on the Lotus 33 headers, leave the bond joints between headers and block to the very end, after you’ve aligned the header extensions and wire support thingy that’s attached to the rear of the chassis. If you follow the instructions and pre-bond the headers to the block earlier on, you’ll regret it. Almost took a hammer to one I built after following the instructions!