DJMar

There was an announcement on IG: https://www.instagram.com/kaucher_kustoms/reel/DCP1XAAtFkN/

Insane build! I love all the details in the engine bay. Very, very well done. ?

Just curious. Same can or few cans? Above you said you painted two out of the three models white, so I'm assuming that white was from the same batch. Could it be a bad batch of paint? Re: temp & humidity. Below is a AMT Dodge Challenger that I sprayed with TS-24 Purple on a very hot day in August. It dried very quickly, as those paints do, but the high temps didn't help and I probably didn't lay down enough paint for the conditions.

She's a beauty!! ??Always nice to see another Olds finished up. I haven't built one of these in a while (probably since original release) and I had forgotten it came with an auto transmission.

The square headlights were part of the V22 Deluxe Appearance package for the '80 model year. It was standard on the Silverado, but could be had as an extra cost option for lower trim levels IIRC.

I think we're going to see the '81-up trucks become very popular after the (eventual) release of Revell's Stranger Things Blazer. I'm sure the aftermarket is going to have a ball making stuff for that kit. Perhaps Revell will follow up with a K10 short bed, or...? Personally, I think the early '73-'80 bodystyle deserve a new tool. The Monogram offerings border on ancient, they're not that detailed, and they've got assembly and proportion issues. It would be good to see a modern, well-engineered kit of any of the '73-'79 trucks (leaving out the 1980 b/c of those awful headlights).

The '71 442 kit has the exact same options, TH400 or 4 speed.

The original post is a decade old, and the photos were probably hosted off-site.

That looks good, really good! Subtle & cool. ??

And it's a separate piece!

I would love to share it, but it was a model I built for someone as a gift. I don't think I took any pictures that I still might have. It was a commission build, so I'm not even sure of where it ended up!

I'm digging that red! ?

Nice work! It's a little late for this tip now, but I'll share it anyway. I did a similar conversion around 2008 or so, for a friend who was a volunteer at a rural FD. Their battalion chief's truck was a Tahoe with barn doors. To get around the handle problem, I made a mold of the tailgate handle out of silicone and cast it in regular 5 minute epoxy. The mold was regular black Permatex, and I applied it directly to the bare plastic. I made two, just to be sure there weren't any air bubbles. After I cast a few pieces from the epoxy, I picked the best one. It was a bit tricky because of the handle "undercut", but I managed to get a nice piece to work on. The kit handle was simply sanded away and the new one glued into the proper position. I've seen folks make similar things by using tinfoil to press around the shape they want to duplicate, filling it with epoxy or sprue goo, and trimming/sanding the piece to shape after drying. It's not high tech at all, but good for one-off stuff when you can't find what you need in resin or photoetch from the aftermarket. As a visual, here are some molds that I made sometime in the late 1990s. They are instruments from the dash of the Monogram Owens Corning Corvette kit. Permatex silicone, and they've survived 20+ years. Definitely on the crude side, but they worked for me at the time.

Revell/Monogram's 1970 Buick GSX has a 455 mated to a TH400 in 1:24.

I've been using Tamiya clear acrylics for years. They're readily available, which is one thing keeps them on my workbench. I think a lot of complaints about these paints come from using jars that are not thoroughly mixed. When I buy a new bottle, I drop in one or two BBs (actually slingshot ammo) to act as an agitator. When I need to use them, I will shake them for a minute or so, let them settle for a few more minutes, and then gently stir the paint with a small stir stick. Yes, you do need to build up the color with multiple coats, especially if you want a deep red. But they're my first choice. I still have a few of the old Testor's clear red sprays laying about, and I have used that paint, decanted and sprayed through my airbrush. It works. It's also a lot of work to spray small parts like that. MCW does have a few enamel transparent paints in their line. Years ago, I used their transparent red as a topcoat over a silver base and I liked it a lot. I'm not sure how it would work on clear or chrome parts - I didn't use it that way - but the paint certainly had nice coverage and good depth when sprayed on a car body.

When I was in high school, I worked a part time job at $4/hr. Model kits at the time were around $4.25 at my LHS. I thought I was living large! Gas was also only .93/gal. ?

What are you looking for to trade, parts wise?

Federal minimum was $1.40/hr. That's around $13.20/hr in 2024 dollars (almost double the current federal minimum!) Plus, you could get deals like this...

Awesome project and an awesome story! It's a bittersweet reminder of a simpler time when even the shop gofer could afford a new car.

I don't think you can ever go wrong with black, but honestly, the Arden Green is a really cool color. I'm not sure you can put an Aston martin color on a Lotus without causing some sort of rip in the fabric of the car universe, though. ?

The paint looks great, laid down smooth indeed! I've found Tamiya's Dark Mica Blue to be a dark color, yes, but much more on the blue end of the spectrum than your Olds, which looks almost...gray or gunmetal? Maybe it's just my monitor settings with my old eyes. Either way, I dig it.

That blue with a white vinyl top looks awesome! ??

Love this! That's a great color. All that black trim is so clean, too. ?

I'm digging this! This was the very first Tamiya kit I ever built, around 1983. The red looks really, really good.