Tcoat

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.

Every time I visit the Dollar Store I spend some quality time in the beauty/hygiene section looking for things to use for modeling. I do get some odd looks! Nail files, cuticle tools, cotton ball, nail polish and so on all get checked over. The best sprue cutter I have ever owned is a nail cutter that came for there. Looks like I have to add these burnishers to my list.

Well of course with the age of the truck it would have been John Lee Pettimore the 1st. Back of the truck need the barrel, a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line.

LOL I went to look for a good example and all the Weedman pictures online are nice shiny, spotlessly clean, brand new trucks with smiling people posing in front of them. Not one single dirty, chemical covered, grass clipping stained, rusty old truck with a minimum wage landscaper scowling at you to be found! None of these picture jive with my memory of when I had the service done!

Well this was supposed to be a nice simple out of the box build but since the only other thing for the engine bay (as above) from the kit is a battery I have some work to do!

Built that one as a kit. It was blown up by several firecrackers! Nice to see an Avenger done in the North Atlantic scheme as opposed to the Pacific one that 99.9% are painted.

It is beautiful. But since you asked it is TOO beautiful. At least the tank should be stained and discolored from the chemicals.

Truck owned by John Lee Pettimore?

Looks great. I am a big fan of building out of the box and the challenge that sometimes presents to make it look good with just paint and highlighting. I am here for you if you decide to come over to the dark side and do an aircraft! You could do the aircraft version of a muscle car!

Looks better in black anyway.

Well I wasn't the one that coined the term "powdery" and this isn't my build but I know what he meant. The flat paints used for military modeling (I counted once and I have 26 bottle of different shades of green) dry much much faster than the gloss paints usually used by car modelers. This really applies to any of the Tamiya flats. What happens is that it starts drying as soon as it leaves the spray nozzle. This ends up giving a powdery or "felt" finish as you termed it. Most can be wiped off with a cloth but slowing down the drying time usually avoids it altogether. It can also be fixed, as you said with an overcoat of the gloss level you wish. I am still struggling with glosses a bit. I had two success but failed miserably with my last attempt.

Being primarily a military modeler the vast majority of my painting is in flats. If you are getting a powder finish it usually means the paint is drying before it hits the surface. Thinning a bit more may help and retarder will help but as you said a semi gloss over the top will work perfectly. Just wipe the whole thing down with a flannel or cotton cloth to knock off the lose stuff and spray over it. Should be almost the perfect gloss for cars such as these.

Yep. If there was a spot oil could get out it usually did. They finally managed to beat it by the time they were rolling up production though.

Yes 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. 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 lump of plastic engine is actually not too bad since you can only see about 20% of it anyway.

It fits!

Probably wouldn't have been on my build list if I hadn't owned one in real life. Yes, I get that these are old molds and no model is perfect but this was such a mess that there is no excuse really. The molds just need some TLC. One of my last builds was the '64 Galaxy and even though those molds would be older they were pristine and crisp as new. Granted they probably have put out the thousands and thousands of kits these have.

Think it is more a concession to having the rolling play with me kits of the era it came from. At least that is the excuse I am giving them

While waiting for some stuff for the van I decided to get started on 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. It is the latest release from Round 2 and I was not really impressed. There was so much flash and massive mold lines it was just a vagally Corvair shaped chunk of styrene. I was so shocked that I didn't even think to take pictures but the mold seems on the rear of the body were so big it looked like a '59 caddy! It was disappointing but of course not insurmountable. As always I started on the engine. It required a great deal of cleanup as well but went together nicely. This will be another rather worn and well used build as mine was 14 years old and all original when I got it. Without flash With flash.

Hope the driver was OK!

So almost like the function of the real thing without the top rollers. Genius!

Looks excellent. Those Monogram aircraft kit decals can be hit and miss at the best of times so you succeeded well actually.

I have so so many cars that I had that I wish had 1:1 again! Ironically enough the next kit in my to build que is the '65. Was my dad's old truck and will be much closer to your rusty one than anything new so I will be taking ideas from YOUR old build!!

That looks really good!