gman

I have been on the fence about getting one of those for many years. As for modelling aids on-hand, have water, have pot, but as of yet, no food dehydrator. On our cross border travels, I came across a number of dehydrators at a good price, but sadly never pulled the trigger. One day. It's a great tip.

Love it (so far). I have one of the base kits in the stash that I was going to do somewhat custom (no chop, keep the wood, lowered ride height), and love the touches you've done on this resin body. I'll stay tuned for more.

I have yet to be chased by squirrels, but will keep my eyes open next painting session ?

Very true- they are attracted by a sweet smell in the solvent. I have been chased by bees, wasps trying to get a taste of drying paint on something I just sprayed.

If you want to better nail down how long a mist coat should dry before spraying another, if you use a paint stand you can see if those mist coats that are drying on the stand (off the model body) are dry to the touch, or are at best slightly tacky- if so, more mist coats are probably OK at this time.

You want your mist coats to "tack up" and become sticky before continuing with more coats, to provide some tooth (so your heavier coats don't run). On a hot day, that may be a few minutes. On a colder day, you'll want to allow some more time between coats. One good thing with lacquers is that solvents in subsequent coats form a chemical bond with your previous coats, as the solvents in the paint bite into what has already been sprayed on your model. With enamels, should you be more familiar with them, the surface of your paint coat forms a skin. Coats applied with the re-coat window will skin on top of the final coat, while coats applied long after previous coats have cured will form an additional skin on top of the final coat. Enamels cure from the outside in, while lacquers behave differently, drying on the outside while melting coats underneath. With hobby lacquers (Tamiya, Testors lacquer series) that isn't much of a problem, but with automotive grade lacquers, too heavy a coat can have the solvent melt through primer and affect the plastic. With hobby lacquers, warming the cans allows the paint coat to flash much like it would on a warmer day, rather than run and drip in your paint surface. I have stolen that technique no matter what I am spraying, and find it works much better and gets you a finer aerosol spray than using a cold can as well.

Bring a pot full of hot water out to your painting area to keep the spray cans warm during your painting session- place can back in warm water between coats, shake and carry on as needed. You may see less texture on your painted parts when sprayed in a cooler environment compared to spraying the same paint on a hot day, where the paint will gas out quicker before it flashes. Build up coats slowly- my first couple of experiences with Tamiya TS spray was painting in a cold garage, and I found it runs pretty easily when cool and you hose the paint on in wet coats. I used to have luck with enamels hosing on a thick final coat, but Tamiya lacquers are thinner and respond best to light coats built up in layers. They also polish out nicely, should you end up with some texture.

That is a pretty rare piece. Nice job on this one.

Having seen your work, I know you'll nail this one and add some period flavor. Looking forward to see where this build takes you.

Great job. I love this kit, and appreciate what you have done with yours.

As always, paint turned out beautiful. Love it. Nice job.

Sounds like it was within the recommended window for recoating then. Sorry it turned out that way for you, hope the stripping goes well.

What was the interval between coats? Enamel often has a re-coat window, and can do some strange things if successive coats are done too close together. My guess is it wasn't a reaction with your base coat, but with previously applied coats of clear.

That is an impressive, reflective finish on your scoop. I like it. Link to the paint you used?

I am looking forward to seeing this iconic vehicle get "the Guthmiller treatment." I always learn something from these builds, and staying tuned for more.

Thanks for sharing- clear reference photos are a valuable thing (especially if you are going to reduce and print your own instrument panels).

I am good, thanks. I have a couple of tins should the need arise- one good thing about Humbrol paints, is that if they are closed up with a good seal on the cap, they seem to mix up beautifully and last a long time. The Metalcote version may need to have some thinner added, as they seem to flash off quicker than the standard enamels, so you can see some evaporative losses quicker than you might expect with them.

Don't know what the availability looks like in the US. I got the Metalcote in Canada many years ago- I painted up a fender in steel, then worked it with sandpaper. It did a pretty good job of representing sanding and grinding marks on a bare steel fender. It has been a lot of years since I saw that Metalcote on local hobby shop shelves.

If you could stretch to include airbrush options, Alclad II has several different aluminum finishes. I would go with their polished aluminum, and either give it a brushed finish or seal it.

There are a few schools of thought on a bare aluminum Cobra body- 1) finish with your favourite chrome paint 2) finish with your favourite aluminum paint 3) send the body out to be plated Options 1& 2 can be brushed with fine sandpaper to represent a brushed metal finish, hit with a semi-gloss clear appropriate to the base coat metal finish to simulate a polished but oxidizing finish. Option 3 would best represent a highly polished bare aluminum finish. I wouldn't go the Bare Metal Foil route for the whole body, as the wrinkles and joints would be an issue affecting realism. Vacuum metalizing isn't actually chrome, but vacuum deposited aluminum.

Good to know. I used to buy up the Monogram Li'l Coffin kits to rob their big & little wide whites. Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland used to offer some white wall tire and drag slicks as well, and while I never ordered any, if the products are anything like their other resin offerings, quality will be top tier.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I believe https://www.modelhaustires.com/ is indeed still in business. The link for the "contact" portion of the web page is bad, otherwise I would suggest dropping them a line. I believe one of the Holthaus' sons are keeping a portion of their wheel & tire inventory alive after the closing of the main business. That closure still makes me sad, but if they have a long & happy retirement, they deserve it after serving the scale modelling community so well for so long.

You did a great job on this one, worth the (short) wait for it to cross the finish line.

...and even if the test works out well, consider using a primer that will shield the base plastic of your model from the solvents in your chosen paint ☺️

Tamiya makes aqueous acrylics, and acrylic lacquers. Some of their acrylic lacquers have hotter solvents and elasticizers to keep the paint flexible, and are meant to be used on the inside of Lexan RC bodies (the "PS" line of paints), while their "TS" line of spray paints and their "LP" line of bottle paints are meant to be used on styrene model car plastic. Testors is primarily enamels and aqueous acrylics, with some exceptions- they have some acrylic lacquer spray cans that are made with a similar formulation to Tamiya's TS lacquers. As for Krylon, I tend not to use them for model cars. When in doubt, read the fine print on the label, and use compatible solvents for clean up and thinning.