charlie8575

Now that some of the manufacturing companies are starting to wake up, it could very well happen. And possibly before the next redesign. Charlie Larkin

I like the brown one, and I especially like the interior. Do you have any extra detail shots of it? Charlie Larkin

How to make decals and go goofy while doing it. Let's be honest, the bright, colorful dry transfers aren't exactly aimed at adults. So I'm making my own decals, which will actually be printed on photo paper at CVS or Walgreens tomorrow and then cut/glued. The photo paper will also provide the correct thickness. I started at Licenseplates.tv and, using the old green plate, because that's the most recent one they had (and many of them are still in use, including mine,) I made a plate. As the build of this little Cruiser is, in its own small way, a mark of determination, and because I think it's a cool one, I decided to use the lettering scheme from the license plates shown in Chrysler's recent ad campaigns- 313 IFD (Detroit's area code and the initials of their "Imported From Detroit" tag line,) a mark that Chrysler is, indeed, making its comeback. New England, and the Greater Boston area, in which I live on the cusp of, is also marking the one year anniversary (roughly) of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon finish line, I also found a "Boston Strong" ribbon and copied that out. Many non-profits are selling these, too, to help raise money for the ongoing medical expenses of those injured. If you can spare a few bucks, please find those organizations and support them. Look for ones affiliated or donating to The One Fund. I also added a couple of Masonic emblems- a York Rite roundel and DeMolay- also known as the best thing I ever did when I was a kid. Copy, and pasting isn't too tough. Getting the re-sizing isn't too tough. It was the gymnastics with the Masonic emblems that made things interesting. As both were photographed on backgrounds, I had to edit them out as best as I could. At first, I attempted to use Open Office Draw. Generally, not a bad program, except it doesn't save in any conventional picture format and none of the drug stores can open .pdfs. Oh well, the sizing tool works well. Use it for that. So, I downloaded GIMP- a free graphics software that's supposed to be comparable to Photoshop. While it did work at editing out most of the undesired picture, it was maddeningly difficult to use and master. If anyone has any other ideas, I'm willing to listen to them. After editing, I returned to OO Draw to size the objects as needed. That worked reasonably well. I found Paint to be completely useless for this exercise, so I didn't use it. With the pictures ready, I experimented with MS Word, in an attempt to use its basic, but decent picture editor to save everything as a .jpg on a 4x6 sheet. I saved exactly one image, and the rest couldn't be saved on a single sheet. I then tried GIMP. The ribbon un-sized itself and because GIMP seems to insist on keeping everything highlighted, with no way (I found) to turn it off, when I resized the ribbon, it resized the entire sheet to tiny, including the other already small images I placed on it. Not being one to give up easily, I queried the search engines for a way to make .jpgs out of Open Office Draw files. I found this site called Convert Files. http://www.convertfiles.com Wait a couple of minutes, and you're sent a .zip file with your file in it. Simply open and save as you wish to. The results might be a bit small to see here, but this is it. I may have to touch up the plate a little. I'll have to color in a registration sticker, anyway. No biggie. Charlie Larkin

Exactly. Charlie Larkin

More pictures. The interior is together! The PT Cruiser script on the dash is courtesy of a toothpick and Tamiya chrome silver. The gauges...well, not quite "stock," so we'll say it's an owner customization, which are very popular with these cars. The kit did in fact include a gear-shift, but it's the auto selector for a clutch car. A straight pin with a white head was found on the cork-board, bent to size and position, and the cheap thin plastic worked to my advantage, as it melted the pin in place under the floor. As you can also see, the chassis is ready. The headlight chrome backer-plate thing has correct turn signals, thanks to Tamiya Clear Orange and a toothpick. The body came out of Lac au Violette (it does sound a little more classy, and slightly less toxic than "Purple Pond,") and the body...well, it's stripped except for one small spot that I can work around. What really disturbs me, though, is the condition of the plastic. We all know Revell reads these boards- guys, PLEASE get a better grade of plastic for your snappers. The Super Clean actually leached some of the colorant out, and the soft plastic did not like the experience of having paint removed. Nothing will sour the adult hobbyists who like to use your otherwise nicely-done snap kits because of the cheesy materials. Similarly, if a kid is trying to paint and build skills, nothing will upset him more than a problem that could be easily avoided. Tomorrow, therefore, is do or do not. The paint must be correct, or I'm in trouble. Right now, I have the body in some soapy water to clean off the residue and hopefully get it to the point where it will paint correctly. Charlie Larkin

Very nice, Steve. Nordic Blue, I'm guessing, was a late '60s-early '70s color? I don't remember having run across it before. Charlie Larkin

One of my favorite car designs. Charlie Larkin

Picture time! I love Testors flat black. It covers well and dries nice and fast. With Tamiya semi-gloss black to pick out details, and Testors Aluminum and Steel for engine and exhaust components, we have this. The turn signal lenses on real PTs look almost like the orange for the turn signals are frosted under the red. The color isn't quite as intense as the camera would have you believe. The red reflectors are painted. Once this dries, I'll apply white to the backup light portions of the light/reflector assembly. Next will be detailing the interior as needed, mostly the interior door handles. Charlie Larkin

Horseradish mustard....hmm, sounds good. The Surf Turquoise looks pretty, even if the color registration is off a little. I'm looking forward to seeing it. Charlie Larkin

I stand corrected. That does look very nice. Like horseradish with prime rib- the right accent. I really can't wait to see this, John. Charlie Larkin

You've never seen what four days can look like for me, Tom, and one of them is completely shot. If worst comes to worst, I bring it Friday and finish up in the afternoon before dinner. Carl, I'll take your word for it. In that case, back to Michael's tomorrow to take advantage of the 40% coupon I couldn't because the dark red spray wasn't even stocked. They did, however, have the Revving Red lacquer on hand. I checked the progress of the stripping. Looks like the body will be ready for Round 2 tomorrow. Tonight, I'll be doing the chassis detail painting. The flat black sprayed right on with no trouble. I'm also quite pleased with the performance of that primer. It does seem to be a happy accident after all. I think this'll happen. Gotta keep believing it. Charlie Larkin

Now, that's really neat. Great job, Felix. Charlie Larkin

I remember being told that the final assembly on the '51 Chevys can be a bit fiddly. I'm sorry to see it strike again, and on a well-celebrated (and deservedly so) piece of work. If I start getting ay PB flak...I dunno. I never found any of the other services I like. I really don't care for Fotki. I know a couple of people that use that Shutterfly service, I might take a look at that. Charlie Larkin

John, have you attempted to apply those over bare plastic? I've been told they're plastic-safe, but don't want to experiment too much. I was actually toying with using those, but where I'm on a bit of a budget right now, I'm trying to use what's on-hand. Charlie Larkin

One minor setback. The good news: the Testors Dark Red I sprayed on the red plastic was almost exactly the tone I wanted for the undercoat for the Garnet Red. The bad news: The can puked all over itself and the body, resulting in, to parahrase Johnny Bench's old Krylon ad, "runs, drips, and errors." And a lot of bubbles, too! Good news, with the paint still pretty soft, I suspect the Purple Pond will make quick work of it. I'm probably going to get a newer (Heaven knows how old that can of paint was) can of dark red, and some Testors thinner, as this is near bare plastic, and I don't want to risk anything too hot. If this is going to be what I can expect, I'm seriously considering de-canting the Garnet Red and airbrushing it. The chassis is painted flat black, and will be detailed after that dries. The nice thing about Testors flat black is it dries almost immediately (usually an hour or two, and with 65-ish degrees, low humidity and mild sun in the back yard, it should be pretty quick.) Pictutres will be coming later today. Charlie Larkin

Honestly, John, I wouldn't clear/Future that at all. It looks very authentic as it is, and is such a nice paint job that to do anything else would almost be tragic. Like putting ketchup on prime rib. Charlie Larkin

I actually like the concept- a rolling work in progress. Are you considering bringing that to NNL-East? Charlie Larkin

When I have the money, I'm buying one, ugly or not. This effort deserves the support. Charlie Larkin

Fantastic, Tom. I'm really enjoying what I'm seeing come along here. Charlie Larkin

As slow as work has been this week, and where tomorrow is a state holiday (Patriot's Day- the commemoration of the Battles of Concord and Lexington,) I'm up painting! I used Tamiya Smoke for the window tinting, and Testors Stop Light Red Metallic for the high-mount break light. The Smoke, I think, would've worked better either with a very wide brush or airbrushing. Lesson learned for next time. At least NNL-East isn't judged. I also used the Stop Light Red for the inserts on the I/P. The flash makes it look much brighter than reality. Note for next time: use a white or silver under-coat, or solid red, as it turns out the Stop Light Red is semi-transparent. Using the lesson learned, I painted the reflector/back-up light area on the rear bumper with Chrome Silver. The front/rear bumper and side-mirrors were painted with Tamiya S/G black to make them look a little closer to reality, as the real car accessories are far more black than charcoal. As I also intend to make a nicely-maintained car, regular treatments of Armor All would be pretty regular. Tomorrow...well, after dawn, I'll be painting some more of the details, and priming/painting the chassis plate. This is happening.... Charlie Larkin

Thanks for the tip, Michael. Unfortunately, the bandwidth excess warning was still there. I'll try again later. Charlie Larkin

Very nice, Art. Charlie Larkin

Sick! I love it. Hope all enjoyed their Easter, Passover, or whatever else you may celebrate. Charlie Larkin

Ugh....I was looking forward to seeing what you had done. I don't have PB problems, but I don't upload everything in the world, either. I wonder if that's part of the reason? That said, I've toyed with buying the extra bandwidth. It's not that expensive. Charlie Larkin

Very nice color choice on that. Charlie Larkin