Tcoat

This is another one of my 'Cars I Used to Own' series. Mine was actually a '66 but since the '69 kit was readily available and cheap I evoked the "Meh close enough" rule. I bought this car in 1982. It was the 140HP with the four carbs. It also had the optional 4 speed stick so was pretty peppy. I only paid $150 for it in 1980 as the engine leaked oil so bad it would actually leave a trail as you went down the road and the valve seal and guides were so worn that she smoked like an old locomotive. New seals, guides and gaskets all around fixed it right up. Surprisingly it had a fully intact and not horribly rotted out floor which is rare for these things around here. Did some minor body work to rear quarters and rockers and sold it 4 months later for $1800. It was a fun little car while I had it though since the suspension upgrades in 1965 made a massive difference over the first gen cars. The dull faded paint is done by painting Testers dark gloss red then misting a very light coat coat of Tamiya flat red over it. The slight grunge is from digging out a really worn and dirty sanding stick and rubbing it down to take some of the flatness off and leave some spots behind. It was an experiment that I think worked out well because the resulting finish is exactly what I was after. The rather rough looking BMF doesn't look like that on the actual model of course. It is the magnifying effect of the camera. You can really see the existing yet subtle dirty sanding stick results on the quarter panel. The silver rear looks just like the brushed aluminum panel on the actual model. If you look really close you will see that the drivers side reverse light is missing the white lens. I never did find a replacement for the real thing back then but no doubt now they are all over Ebay. Well there it is. The real thing wasn't pretty but it was cheap and fun.

Looks so real I can already smell it!

Being Canadian I could only dream of picking up a kit for only $35 as that would be dirt cheap. This is pretty average for a rereleased kit. New ones go up from there. And before anybody says "Well in US $$s that is only..." I do not get paid in US dollars so any reduction in the cost would also have to be applied to my income making the reduction a wash. $60 here is $60. I also will frequent stores instead of online whenever humanly possible but there are not many left around here.

I was expecting a different "Van down by the river"

Oh either of those would work!

Like this? That would look REALLY good! What colour for upper?

Making sure it all fits before I got too far!

LOL I think the steering column need some tweaking. I do not recall ever having to drive the car with my legs shoved through the spokes!

Must be the kit of the year on here since yours will be #8 since Christmas. It is fun though as no two have even been close. Looking forward to your take on it!

I am at a loss for words!

When I built this kit as a paint practice I considered chopping it. The windshield looked workable but I had no clue how to deal with the misalignment that would result on that louvered trim behind the side windows so dropped the idea. I was rather surprised at how painting the upper cab lighter actually gave the optical impression that it was lower.

Lack of display space is why I am sort of backing off from aircraft. The last 3 I did were all folded wing Naval aircraft since they take up far less room on a shelf. They were all pretty large planes that I simply would not be able to display with wings out.

Not 100% accurate but busied it up. Will get dirtied up a bit more when body on. Proper fire wall made. Heater duct is a piece of a header with wire wrapped around it for "pleats" Shrouds all around so can see through. Rubber shroud gaskets are screen spline split into smaller strips. Long skinny stock 1966 battery swapped for normal one. Spare tire from spares box parts crammed in. Wires are... well wires.

If he is any good he does! That poor old Voodoo has sat beside my desk 99.8% done for about 6 years now.

I took a lot of flak (figurative not literal) on another forum because "The weathering is excessive". The explanation that they didn't have primer in the later years so paint just peeled off was lost on them. Even photo evidence meant nothing. These things are the perfect platform to beat up.

Even the colour reference can be way way off for museum ships. They tend to use modern paint colours which are usually far different than those used in the past. I have visited many museum ships and that off colour always stood way out to me.

Yep! Those motor shaft, gears and lines should all be oiled bare steel and the controls should be brass with black handles. There would be some rust in the structure but not a pile. Those pictures are obviously of a museum ship?

Dollar store bristle board cut to size. Let one side get grungy flip over and let other side build up. Throw out.

Another plane! Not a WIP so will post here but include the whole build as it as a journey full of unexpected twists. Long post warning! Last year I was working on a very ambitious project (more on this some day) that required a couple of standing Japanese pilots and after much searching decided that the best bang for my buck was to simply order the Tamiya Zero kit that included four standing pilots. then I had a Zero kit that I hadn’t planned on that could either languish in my stash for years or, since I would already have all the right paints loaded up, just get a quick build. Since the other project was complex a figured I may as well do the Zero as a simple wheels up, in flight, on a stand display. The kit: All the reviews rave about this kit as being one of the best of any aircraft ever so it should be a pretty straight forward event. In case anybody doesn't know what a new(ish) Tamiya kit looks like it is indeed beautiful even on the sprues. It is however also one of the few where there is no gear up optional parts so I am going to have to do some alterations to close it all up. The reviews that said this is the best Tamiya aircraft kit made were not kidding! The engineering and detail without having a massive number of small parts is truly amazing. A perfect stress free out of the box project. Even if you are not into Japanese WW2 aircraft this is worth picking up. Sort of sad I am going to close it all up and hide everything with a pilot. May pick up another to leave open. So enough with the sales pitch (I am in no way affiliated with Tamiya nor a distributer). Cockpit all done and ready to button up in one evening. Don't think I have ever done that before. Main internal assemblies assembled Base colour Detail painting and small parts added Black tinted acrylic floor finish for depth Testors Dullcoat to bring it back down. Gauges dotted with Testors clear parts cement for gloss Of course this will all be invisible once closed up and pilot in place. Almost ready to paint and since it will be an in flight display I had to do up the pilot. He isn't exactly in a great position to be flying (maybe he had an itch and had to let go of the stick mid bank) but he will do once the canopy is on. Base coat Detail paint Shading. Both detail paint and shading overstated so can stand out through closed canopy Flat coat to blend (no his nose is not a weird colour in real life) While digging through my spare parts bin I found a couple of tiny B-24s. Now how could they possibly be used with an in flight Zero? All masked up and ready for first paint. This is my first time using premarked masks and even though I had to cut then out all I can say is what a time saver. Looks like pre cuts are in my sights for future builds Although I always knew the Zero was a small aircraft I didn't truly realize just how small until I started this build. The whole thing pretty much fits within the wing area of a Voodoo Base of Modelmaster chrome silver and hairspray for later chipping. Ready to join my other project in the paint shop Exactly what I was after. Over top of some really nice smelling hairspray. And here is the beauty of the late war Japanese aircraft. Since they ran out of primer the paint didn't last long so you can beat the BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH outta the paint like no other operational equipment (well maybe some Soviet stuff). Not many reference pictures of underneath but from what i can see the grey paint stood up much better than the dark green. The condition these were operated in would have left some scars though Marking all on over a heavy coat of tinted floor polish. The effect will be greatly subdued once the flat coat goes on. And... Dullcoated (I warned you this was long) Since the wheels are up it needs to be in the air! That means a stand is in order. Remember those tiny B-24s? DONE! From start to finish this only took about 24 hours of actual working time. Congratulations on making it through this whole post! I am not know for being short winded.

OK since you said it planes are now OT for the thread! What ever you decide make sure you do some serious research on the kit you are looking at. Can't go wrong with most newer kits but some of the old ones my have you questioning the sanity of any aircraft modeler. The old school Monogram, Revell and Airfix kits are cheap even in their new reboxed issues but although they can be built up into a beautiful model they can try your resolve t finish. The one kit I recommend to all new aircraft builders is the Tamiya P-51B (the one I chopped up). It is a nice size, beautifully detailed without being fiddly, has a wonderful decal sheet for markings and the simple olive drab over grey camo let's you get used to spraying flat paints. Being an older mold but often rereleased it is inexpensive and easy to find. Of course mine is chopped up but you can get an idea of the detail from the interior of the cockpit.

The availability of 3d printed parts and photoetch for this kit brings it to a whole new level. I built this kit about 20 years ago and it was just a basically plane shaped lump of plastic. Really looking forward to this one! Oh and the catapult paint scheme is easy. Grey. Pick just about any grey. Show some brass around the wear areas on the handwheels but otherwise grey.

LOL If his first aircraft is a biplane he will either be really good at any that follow or he will never want to build a plane again! It takes a special kind of masochist to do biplanes. Believe me I know I have several.

"Why did I think this was a good idea?" "Why did I think this was a good idea?" "Why did I think this was a good idea?" "Why did I think this was a good idea?" "Why did I think this was a good idea?" "Why did I think this was a good idea?" "Why did I think this was a good idea?"

Unless you have your heart set on rolling wheels why not just cut the excess out of the middle and glue the round end back onto the wheel? After seeing yours that will be my plan when I build it.