Bainford

The most common cause of silvering is applying decals over a surface that is not smooth or has texture, such as flat paint. It appears there is some texture to the finish on your model, which could be the problem. Is it a base coat/clear coat type of paint? If so, you will need to clear it before applying decals. Another potential cause is leaving decals in the water too long, allowing some of the adhesive to dissolve away.

Good looking Ferrari, Dave. Your perseverance has paid off. The wheels look particularly good. Are they kit wheels?

Cheers Pete. I would like to, but I don't have internet at home. I access the forum from a work computer, but can't upload photos to it. When I finish it (in about a couple weeks) I'll see if I can manage to get it posted.

Cool! I'm just finishing up a build of this kit. As mentioned, it is a basic kit, but well done. The body is very well represented. There are interior issues if you are fastidious, but most won't notice. I'm watching this one.

I have long lamented the fact that MCW doesn't ship to Canada. Reading above of Steve's preference for Scale Finishes, I had a look at their web site. I was happy to see they sell to Canadian customers through Elm City Hobbies. Good news!

And this one benefits from actual engineering.

Very cool build. I know the 1:1 quite well, and your rendition is excellent. Great work on the significant mods. Excellent work!

Thanks Mr. AFX. I do appreciate the info. I am, though, aware of how to properly measure the diameter of a 1:1 wheel and how to scale a kit wheel. I am also a keen proponent of scale fidelity. If it's in scale, it's right. If it's not, it's not. Cheers, sir.

One of the biggest problems I've seen lately are wheels that are too big. Several of my most recent builds have had wheels with excessive diameter, and they were stock builds. My current build, the recently tooled Fujimi Lotus Esprit is a perfect example. The Esprit should have 14" wheels, but the otherwise excellent kit wheels measure over 15.5" diameter. The kit tires have the correct profile for the wheel, but that makes the combination much too large in diameter for a stock ride height. The thing sits on its tippy toes, and no amount of lowering will stuff those big tires/wheels far enough up into the wheel well to give a proper ride height. The only solution was to fit low profile tires, but the final appearance is not stock. I recently built the Aoshima/Airfix MGB, which has the same problem; 14" wheels that scale out to almost 16" diameter, and give an unavoidable tippy toe look. I lowered it some to improve the look, but a wheel/tire that is too big, looks too big. Both of these kits are not inexpensive, and modern-era tooled by fastidious Japanese kit makers.

The Tamiya (yellow) is my 'go to' tape. If a clean separation line is critical, I lightly apply the tape to a piece of clean glass, and use a straight edge and a fresh Exacto blade to cut a nice, clean edge.

Awesome, been wanting the W196.

Cool Cougar! That’s about the neatest build I’ve seen of this kit. Nicely done.

Cool build. Nice work on the body. Very tidy.

Cool concept. I like where this is going. Way to sweat the details. Nice work.

Those wheels look as though they could have some Lotus applications as well.

Awesome model! Very nice weathering.

Awesome model! Really digging that excavator. Great weathering too. All round cool looking combo. Nice work.

Yes, tires melting wheels is a well documented problem with that kit. I don’t know why this kit is particularly bad. l have heard that some barrier remedies work. The most successful seems to be a layer of BMF between the tire and wheel. Other barriers such as Bin may be helpful as well. The good news is that a nice alternative exists aftermarket. Check out Ukrainian Scale Car Production at uscp-ua.com for a resin Dunlop replacement wheel.

I have an old Wen Hobby Centre like the one pictured. The PTO coming out of the end is intended for a cable driven rotary tool. But you can remove that and fit an aluminium disc about 2.5 inches dia to the end of the exposed shaft. Glue 320 grit sand paper to the disc. The fuzzy line drawing below shows an adjustable table that fits to the side via the two screw holes shown in the photograph. This little table, set 90* to the sanding disc, makes the perfect device for flat spotting tires.

This is my primary reason for gluing the wheels solid. Flat spotting the contact patch gives the model the appearance of weight and substance, and greatly improves realism. Gluing the wheels solid also provides the opportunity to get the wheels on nice and straight..., or create a little (intentional) negative camber, if it's appropriate. With the exception of wire axels, I have yet to see a model kit on which the rolling wheels were perfectly square. For me, shelf appearance is much more important than rolling wheels. To each their own, of course. Some guys like to build exactly as the kit was intended by the designer, which includes rolling wheels, and that's cool. A nice thing about this hobby is that there are very few real rules.

Cheers! Much appreciated. Thank you too, peteski. I’ll check the lexan as well.

My Dremel is variable speed from 0 - 30,000. It’s model 395 Type 5, though must be at least 25 years old now, so I don’t know if it’s a current model. For some reason it says 8000-30,000 on it, but the fully variable control definitely starts at 0 on up. It’s a very good tool. Always in use. I have a flex shaft installed on mine, a very useful accessory.

Has anyone found a source for PETG in thicknesses less than .020"? That seems to be the thinnest readily available online, but would like to find .010", or even .015".

Yup, or from the '56 Ford Vicky. They would be my first choices.

Interference between model components is not uncommon, and a hood that doesn't fit well due to interference with the induction system is perhaps one of the more common fit issues. The close fit of these parts on the 1:1 car mean that on a scale model they will be practically touching. Because the engine is installed in the chassis and the hood is part of the body, the relationship between the body, the interior bucket, and the chassis determines the fit between the hood and the engine, and that relationship has a lot of wiggle room. Throw in some variables such as the cleanliness and diligence of the work by the original builder, tolerance stack of the various components, and the difficulties of scaling thick plastic parts to represent thin metal ones, and interference issues will be common. Good model building is about finding and correcting these fit issues during the build process.