gman

That turned out beautiful. Great work, and excellent choice in colours.

Great work. Seatbelts weren't quite standard equipment back in 1957. I have owned a 1:1 vehicle (sadly not a '57 Chevy) for 41 years that my grandfather bought brand new in 1965. He ordered the optional front lap belts so it has them, but nothing for rear seat passengers. The US government mandated seatbelts be provided for new vehicles in 1968, and local laws required their use much later.

Kudos on a beautiful paint job.

Agreed- the dash is relatively symmetrical left right if the gauges and glove box were to be swapped left/right. Many imported vehicles from that era had dashes designed that way so that tooling costs could be minimized to market to North America as well as RHD markets- you could do what Toyota themselves did and reorganize the dash face with some styrene slicing and dicing..

I love them. Love them all. I suspect if they were posted in "Under Glass" there would be many similar comments.

What process did you use when laying the colour coat on? Heavier coats with fast coverage? Slowly building up mist coats over several passes around the body?

While it won't be exactly 100%, you can break down the air cleaner into simpler shapes to scratch build. Start with some thick flat styrene to form the bulk of the air cleaner body. Use some Evergreen boxcar siding cut and sanded to replicate the finned portion on top. Laminate together with liquid cement and let dry for a few weeks. Once dry, continue shaping with a razor saw and files. You can refine the shape with flexi-files and sandpaper. Carefully drill two holes for the bosses where the hold down nuts locate, and insert styrene rod that matches the size of your holes from the underside and secure with liquid cement underneath. Flatten the tops of the rods where they protrude above the box car siding, then drill the styrene rod for your choice of fasteners. You can use a panel scriber to deepen the ribs on the top of your air cleaner. A small ball cutter bit chucked in a Dremel will allow you to hollow out the air cleaner underneath to sit down on top of your carbs. Finish with your preferred primer- the primer will cover some of the work where your individual shapes were glued together before applying your preferred aluminum paint.

Is that Molotow? If not, what paint did you use? It might be a plan to try cleaning up the excess chrome paint with some mild thinner or 99% isopropyl alcohol on a fine paintbrush rather than put more orange down. You could also try some Novus plastic polish on a fine tipped hobby swab.

It does work very well on your Torino. It suits the lines of the car- a "day 2" car with an upgraded custom paint job.

Is the paint coming off of high spots and edges/seams on the body, or is it coming off in sheets where you are sanding? If it is coming off on high spots, edges and seams, you could be sanding through the colour coats. If it is coming off in sheets, there may not be enough bond between the primer and the colour coat. Ideally you would have good mechanical/chemical adhesion between primer and plastic, and between primer and colour coats. You'd lightly smooth any dust or fuzz out of the colour coats and then lay on enough clear coats to provide a layer you can then wet sand and polish. With that said, you have to go light with the wet sanding and polishing so as not to cut through clear coats into colour coats, and colour coats into primer. Are you using primer, colour and clear that is all Tamyia lacquer?

She's pretty. Heck, they all are- that is a great looking crop of '37's.

That is a very sharp build- your colour choices are great, paint job looks excellent. Nice work!

I am not surprised your model received that kind of positive attention at the show- your meticulous building style and your ability to turn each individual part into a model in and of itself is amazing. Combine that with the overall scale realism you achieve, and they just had to recognize your work. Beautiful build, and I am glad it got the attention it deserves. I am looking forward to your next creation.

I believe Model Car Garage did the photoetched grills for Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland (stock height or chopped '32 Ford style), who then included them with their resin grill surrounds. I don't believe they did a stock-style Model A grill. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/replicas-and-miniatures-company-maryland-rh-414-32-ford-chopped-grille--1291980 R&MoM's headers should work: https://public.fotki.com/IceMan555/resin-archives/replicas-miniatures/all/41-470808281128.html Bob's photoetch and Norm's resin parts are both first rate.

Thank you- I am going to have to try that.

Phenomenal build. I love every single part of it. Tell me about who makes that shade of red.

I believe it is supposed to be a generic MOPAR small block, simulating a 340.

Alclad II has a few colours that may be close. https://alclad2.com/finishes/regular/ You might get pretty close mixing these two, or overcoating one with the other: https://alclad2.com/finishes/regular/alc-113-jet-exhaust/ https://alclad2.com/finishes/regular/alc-123-exhaust-manifold/

Tamiya Racing White is closer to what you see in this example. If you have an airbrush and want to experiment, you can buy the bottled LP series Tamiya Lacquers (White, Racing White) and mix them together to tone down the brightness of the white and incorporate some of the ivory shades for a final colour more in between the two. Vintage reference paint chips can change colour over time, and lighting/camera will skew the colour of photographed subjects. https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/tamiya-color-lacquer-10ml/lacquer-lp-2-white/10ml-bottle/ https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/tamiya-color-lacquer-10ml/lacquer-lp-39-racing-white/10ml-bottle/

Wow- your candy red paint job really pops on the '57. Excellent job, it looks great.

I have a few of the Bare Metal scribers. One with quite a bit of wear on it plus a brand new one. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/bare-metal-foil-bmf003-panel-scriber--321399 I haven't tried the Tamiya scriber, but will give it a shot if I can locate one locally.

The majority of the time I scribe panel lines to deepen them, it raises the surrounding areas a bit. I like to use a sanding stick as a scale "long board" to true up panels on either side of the line that was scribed before paint. You won't be able to take care of this detail after paint, and depending on how much distortion you see in the plastic surrounding your scribed panel lines it may end up requiring some sanding and a repaint to look correct under subsequent coats.

Dry pearl pigments will show best in clear coats or in transparent paints like pure candy colours. They will show a little bit in translucent metallic paints, but the effects will be subdued. Opaque paints will cover up any pearl additives you might stir into them and be a waste of time. If you will be spraying a white lacquer base, a compatible lacquer clear will be the best medium to carry the pearl pigments over top of that.

I believe a .7 tip should do the job, as long as your clear is thinned properly to flow out without pooling/running and you don't overload it with flake (which can give a textured finish if you use too much). Some test sprays on a scrap body should help you dial in how much pearl is too much without using your model as a test bed.

If you have an air brush, you can add your own pearl powder to Tamiya clear. You can get different pearl powders from Michaels, Hobby Lobby or even Amazon in a variety of colours and flake sizes. My recommendation would be to start off with less powder per paint jar of clear than you think you will need, and build it up in coats rather than try to get the effect with one heavy pearl-laden coat. https://www.jacquardproducts.com/pearl-ex