Bainford

If I were to be brutally honest, it looks to me like a Cougar upon which someone with a baseball bat unleashed their anger and frustration.

Very nice TR7, Steve. Looks very well preserved.

How many kits have you seen with instructions on how to make your own glue pot?

I use the Tamiya bottled lacquers quite a bit lately. I find they airbrush very nicely. The paint covers well and lays down very well. I have much less experience spraying lacquers than enamels, though I shoot lacquer much more these days. I have been a life-long Testors (enamel) user, and still quite like them, but the new Tamiya bottled lacquers are much more user friendly once you make the adjustment to lacquers. I find I shoot them at less pressure, slower passes, and closer to the model. I am still a bit on the learning curve, but find them predictable and forgiving. I have thinned them with standard hardware store lacquer thinner, though now use Mr Colour Levelling Thinner almost exclusively (the same things I thin Testors with, actually). I have not experienced the dry tip and spitting that I found when spraying many decanted lacquers, but much of that problem is the result of shooting decanted paint. When it comes to brush painting Tamiya lacquers, I have done this very little, just some occasional small details. It covers as well as Testors, perhaps better. The quicker drying time can be useful for small detail painting, but will likely require an adjustment of technique when hand painting larger parts. You may find that they are sensitive to quick drying relative to the handling of Testors enamels. If Gunze Sangyo Mr Colour paints were available locally, I would definitely give them a try, too. And then there is Tamiya's new bottled enamel paints. I have bought a few to try, but have yet to give them a go.

Nice rebuilder. Curious fender damage.

Very cool old kits. Interesting stuff, thanks for sharing.

Welcome to the forum, Bryan. There will be a huge size disparity between the 1/25 truck and the 1/32 trailer. The truck will be almost 25% larger in scale than the trailer.

As Dave says, clean the bottle top and inside of lid after use to maintain the seal, keeping the paint fresh. If there is crusty paint already dried there, use lacquer thinner and a rag/tissue to do this.. If brushes are stiff after cleaning, then they are either not fully clean, or you are using the wrong cleaner. Give them a double cleaning, making sure to wick the cleaner out of the brush with a tissue. For enamel and lacquer paints, I clean with lacquer thinner. For Acrylic paints, I clean with 91 or 99% isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. Many builders use lacquer thinner for cleaning acrylic, too, with good success. I have brushes that have been in regular service for over 25 years without issue.

Welcome to the forum, David, and welcome back to the hobby. Looking forward to seeing your work. I am really digging the Stan Motts Cyclops. I loved that little thing when I was young, reading old (then current) issues of R&T. I hope we get to see your build of this amazing machine. Cheers. edit: I hadn't thought about Cyclops for many years. Inspired by your post, I just did some googling on Stan Mott. He was quite the fellow, and I found his cartoons as entertaining as I did in the 70s. Stan Mott’s Autobiography – Dean’s Garage (deansgarage.com)

Cool project. I just bought an original issue of this kit last week.

Andy Oldenburg has '57 Cadillac Brougham build going on in the WIP section where he has done a similar job.

Great colour for a '69 Shelby.

Looking good. Interesting conversion project.

Cool classic Caddy. Really digging the colours, Lee. Looking good so far.

Those are some swoopy lines. Very interesting project. I'm tuning in.

Steve's water spray idea would be fun to experiment with, even if just for giggles, but my first thought is similar to Brian's. Spray the surface with a close-knit pebbly surface, then knock it down with a firm, fine-grit pad, like a Micro Mesh 4000 pad. Get it close, then switch to 6000, get it where you want it with 8000, and finish it with 12,000. Then apply a dark green or black wash. Just spit-balling here. Tons of variables, would not expect to get this right on the first try. Getting the right pebbly surface will be tricky. Not sure how, but a number of techniques to try. It will be difficult to get the pebbly surface suitably even to produce the right effect when sanded. Using a firm sanding pad or even a sanding block will be crucial to maintain the fine edge of each of the polished-off bumps, which will be necessary to achieve the desired effect. It would take a lot of work and experimentation, but I think that's how I would approach it.

A lovely build, Rich. It exhibits all of the mean, purposeful looks that a period sports prototype should. Very nice work. Love it!

Good looking Firebird. Did you change the exhaust tips? They look different than the one I built in the 90s.

That one nice, clean Boss, Marcos. Good looking Mustang.

Welcome to the forum, Mike. Great memories. Nostalgia can be a very big part of model building, whether it's the kits, or the cars we are replicating. Looking forward to seeing some of your work.

Welcome to the forum, Tim.

I dig it! Very nicely done 4x4 conversion. It's not overdone with lift & tires. Cool rig. I'd go camping in that.

Super clean work as usual, Joe. This is looking really good.

That is cool! I have never seen anything like it. Does it produce actual thrust?

That looks like a very useful blade. Never saw these before. Cheers.