gman

Thank you, very kind. With work and other obligations, it might be a while before the Chevy is on the bench. I agree- they are very nice kits.

Yes, thanks. They carry some. They also (sort of) stock some House of Kolor shades. Pre-pandemic, I used to head south of the border often, and had an address where I could receive US shipments pretty conveniently. It will be a while before that is possible again.

My thoughts as well- I may take a page out of your book when my Galaxie Chevy finds its way into the "to do" pile. In the meanwhile, I'll stay tuned and watch yours take shape

Great work so far- love the woodgraining. I have a couple of those Chevies in the stash, like the kits, but wasn't too keen on the chrome strips. Looking forward to seeing how your solution looks on the finished product.

That paint job just glows, as if lit from within. Beautiful build, and the paint showcases the lines of the car.

I too appreciated the Testor's Metalizers. When airbrushed, they had a habit of laying down really nicely. They did a great job on simulating metal finishes, and made a great base coat for semi-transparent color coats too. I'll miss the factory color lacquers and Xtreme lacquers as well, though I can't say I love the finishes right out of the can.

Correct. The driving light lenses I was replicating were the HID type, where the reflector pattern is not in the lens but in the reflector behind the bulb. If you look at the OP's post, he is using them over chromed headlights, which don't have a lens- the fluted pattern is already on the headlight, and when using the clear plastic portion of the eye over top of it, the clear lens adds realism.

2:1 is a starting point for thinning. As with any ratio, some of that will require adjustment based on your airbrush, the pressure you spray at etc. ^^here he thins the Tamyia LP paint 40% paint, 60% thinner and had a good amount left over after spraying 4 coats on the car body.

That is a very rich looking paint job- turning out great!

The concept of heated lye sort of explains why some of my paint stripping sessions using Easy Off went better than others. I had a grille shell that was dunked and left outside in a Rubbermaid container several times to strip during the winter months. It took a long time to soften Duplicolor lacquer/Plasticote primer, where the same paint combination practically fell right off in a shorter dunk (a few hours) earlier in the year. BTW, I like the work in your Corvette Factory thread.

I was decanting cans of spray I had around the house for airbrush use- sometimes because I already had them, and sometimes because I wanted to use them to mix up another color with them. At other times, it was because I didn't like the spray pattern right out of the can (I am talking to YOU, Testors lacquers). I was able to get some jars of Tamyia's new LP line, and am looking forward to spraying Tamiya lacquers through the airbrush and skipping the decanting step. The line of LP lacquers isn't as extensive as their TS line, and hopefully it expands in time. The biggest suppliers of OEM formula lacquers for hobby use (Scale Finishes, MCW) aren't as easy to get here north of the border and cost more if you do, otherwise I'd probably have a big supply of them. What makes them so attractive is that the size of the metallics has been scaled down for hobby use. I was looking to get some House of Kolor paint for a project, and the smallest quantity I can get locally is a pint. For car models, a pint of unthinned lacquer is a pretty big commitment to spraying a number of kits the same darn color

Your comment takes me back to chemistry class... Sodium Hydroxide will etch glass, and will weaken certain types of plastics. https://classicbells.com/soap/lyeStorage.asp

Definitely the clear, domed "bubble" part. I used some small ones for making some driving light lenses years ago. When you separate the bubble from the backing portion of one of those eyes with the right diameter, the lens portion is very useful.

The paint looks great- will stay tuned in on your build!

That resolution may be just fine. Try modifying some higher resolution images from the interwebz. Drop them into a blank Microsoft Word document, resize and do a test print on plain paper to see how things look. The trick will be how well the image looks on decal paper- some printers do better in this regard than others.

Is printing your own on white decal paper an option?

Thanks, will keep that in mind for the next time I break out the Alclad.

Knowing what year that filter was in use might narrow down some choices (if it is on a "stock" decal sheet). The interwebz suggests 1965-1991, but labels may have changed along the way.

Good to know. I'll have to look for some of that. ^^ is this the stuff?

Back when I drove an MGB and would comb wrecking yards for parts, I saw many that looked like this. The MGB was a great and fun little car, but like every vehicle, the MGB had an Achilles Heel- the rocker panels (which were an important structural component) were often a victim of rust, and rusty rockers would see an MGB try to fold in the middle once that rust got to a certain point. I like your build, and it brought back some memories for me ?.

I would bet that beyond packaging and parts layout in the box, the content would be the same. Revell of Germany often has superior decals however, but a higher price to go with that in North America as well.

Absolutely love it- a purposeful period "A" with all of the right touches. I agree with the other posters...very special.

Excellent job. The orange looks great on there, as does the interior color (and you've achieved a realistic sheen on those seats).

A very sanitary, tasteful rodded Willys- another great build from you.

For sure- resin and metal don't seem to react with "hot" primers. In fact, many kit styrenes used to work well with older formulations of "hot" primer. I used Duplicolor and Plasticote automotive lacquer primers on kit plastic for many years with good results. There have been a few eras where styrene kit manufacturers varied the make up of plastic used in their kits, and some are more prone to developing problems with lacquer primers and top coats (with recent kits coming from China being the worst, most likely to react, leaving you with crazed and etched plastic). Initial mist coats of primer shock the plastic, and if you lay it on too heavy, that shock turns the outer layer into a textured & softened surface, with the texture being visible through additional coats. That softened state lasts until those solvents fully gas out and cure. Lacquer paints adhere to previous coats by chemically bonding- the solvent melts the coats underneath, and subsequent coats need to be light enough to lay down with a smooth texture, but not be so heavy that the solvents melt through those mist coats into the underlying plastic. Lacquer top coats adhere to primer in the same way. As Steve and others have pointed out, knowing how to lay down those initial primer coats and allowing their solvents to gas off before laying down wetter coats is the key to avoiding the plastic crazing- in subsequent primer coats, and in lacquer top coats. The material being painted has a lot to do with how to approach laying down your primer and color coats...if it is something less impacted by solvents than styrene, you don't need to allow as much time to elapse before re-coating. The solvents don't affect the base material, so laying additional solvents down overtop of them won't impact the overall paint layers to the same degree as you'll see over styrene.