Radretireddad

Here are my two oldest survivors dusted off and shined up a bit. The Revell Ford Escort XR3 was bought when new and built in my dorm room when I was in the Air Force. The Hasegawa Porsche 944 turbo with was bought and built just before my wife and I began dating. I was into sports and GT cars because I was crewing a formula Ford in the SCCA on weekends for my employer at the time. I blame the oddball color combo on the carpeting that came in the kit. These two now sit out among the rest of my current builds as a peek into my modeling roots.

Yes! Absolutely! Your results will depend on the quality of your equipment and how much time you spend refining your process. Things like thinning ratios, pressure settings and needle positions require fine tuning and may differ depending on the paint you’re using. Cleanup and maintenance does require more time and effort but the results are well worth the effort. Spraying gloss acrylic clear over matte colors will make them glossy but it takes a lot more coats than you may realize. I’ve gotten great results using Tamiya, Createx, Vallejo and a few other craft store brands. Avoiding the health risks of using enamels and lacquers is just one benefit of making the switch to acrylics exclusively.

Check for trans fluid leaks around the radiator area. I’m not sure if the earlier ones were built the same way but my 2007 developed a fluid leak in the trans cooler which was an integral part of the a/c condenser. The repair would have required replacing it which also requires draining and recharging the system.

Yikes!🫣

My 30 plus year old Badger 200 is on its second needle and nozzle tip and has already outlasted one compressor. If it ever wears out, I can’t imagine replacing it with anything else.

An AMT deuce tudor will complete the series in my stash. Even though I own all the Revell iterations, I still enjoy the simplicity and versatility of the AMT lineup.

For parts that are difficult or too risky to hold with tweezers like headlight lenses and the aforementioned ‘40 Ford door handles, a quick and readily available method I use is the flat end of a bamboo skewer dipped in liquid mask and allowed to dry. It will stay sticky long enough to glue a set of lenses in, but will eventually loose its stickiness and need to be reapplied. It works great as a quick always at hand method for small and unwieldy parts.

I’m interested to know how you capture the semi metallic look of the vinyl interiors of 60’s cars. I remember they weren’t really metallic per say but the weren’t solid either.

If it were some ridiculously large snorkel or teardrop bulge like the ones on the johan maverick and comet or the Revell T-bolt, I’d definitely be attempting to duplicate the stock hood or wait for an aftermarket alternative. Since the dual inlet style hood is era correct and very much identified with the high performance and racing versions of the car, it’s not a deal breaker for me. If the kit came with both hoods, I’d opt for the accessory part anyway.

You gotta love the hair helmet on the dude in the background. 😄👍

I had to finish something to get myself out of a slump so I spontaneously decided this once discarded Monogram 1992 Corvette convertible was what I needed. I started it when I bought it new but screwed up the paint job. Since there was nothing available to safely strip paint at the time, I shelved it and bought a second one to start over. Fast forward to 2025 and thanks to a nice long soak in the magic purple pool I was able to salvage it. This is actually the third paint job as the second one done in Tamiya metallic blue uncharacteristically didn’t cover evenly. Three coats of Createx pearl blue and three more Createx clear coat followed by a little Meguiars plastix got the job done. The build is 100% OTB. Now all I have to do is decide what to do with the extra unstarted kit I have. The two accompanying C4’s are builds I started back in the 90’s and finished last year. They’re not my best work but I’ll post more pics of them if anyone is interested. Thanks for stopping by.

The one in the AMT Z/28 kit is pretty good.

I took my father to see the new F1 movie starring Brad Pitt. It was a totally predictable cringe fest so don’t say you weren’t warned. The coolest thing in the whole movie was the 4x4 Econoline van Brad Pitt drove.

😀😃😄