Dr. Cranky

Everything fits nicely after all of that mocking along the way, no surprises . . . I have to connect a few wires, and then this one will be ready for final detailing . . .

I like the way the weathering makes the rear fender look . . .

One of the beauties of working with Floquil and Tamiya acrylics is that a few days after you apply them, the paint itself dries well and smooth . . . and the combination of the salting process bring out the texture . . . and variety of colors . . . I applied a general dusting all around the build to help tone down the chrome but also fog a little bit of the glass to make the glass seem original to the vehicle, and of course to hide a couple of mistakes I made with the visor . . . if this had been a shiny build it would have been ruined by the trouble I had with the visor . . . I still have quite a bit of detailing left to do on this one . . .

Although I always heistate at all the parts a chassis and engine requires, I end up enjoying the process . . .

Here comes some pics of the chassis coming together . . . The beauty of working with the airbrush is that you can touch up along the way and change the color in case you make a mistake . . . or if a part looks too new you can tone it down . . . I still have to apply an good wash to gunk up the engine some, make it look a bit more oily!

Speaking of painting, I don't think I've ever taken of my set up, the way I go about the painting of parts, etc . . . I use a stool from Walmart and piece of board and I usually hold the parts on fancy chopstix with double-sided tape. It's the system that has worked for me all these years . . .

Pretty good, Harry . . . I'm working on the paint chapter . . . which is why I have not stopped building and taking pics since I came back from vacation . . . I hope to have the book done by next summer!!! Book? What book? What's Cranky talking about?

Sometimes a build takes a turn for the worse, like the placement and hardware on this visor . . . the fact that it is riding too high . . . and this sucker almost made it into the trashcan . . . I am working at resolving the problem . . . Stay tuned in for more pics . . . and I am keeping my fingers crossed . . .

Got the interior ready with some simple details . . . and fabric to match and contrast with the paint of the exterior . . .

Everytime I think I got the paint and weathering right, I add a little bit more . . . just because I am OCD!!!

A little bit of dirt will make this bed look lived in as a finishing touch . . . After the bed, I turned my attention to the firewall and the fender wells . . . I've always loved this kit's firewall . . . all those details . . .

All you need for this type of bed is next time you are in at Starbucks, just take a handful of stirring sticks, cut them to size, using your Xacto knife, you score the wood to give it texture, then you stain it with some india ink and alcohol, and using a sponge you paint it here and there . . . I guess the owner of this vehicle just took his nail gun and nailed these suckers in . . . some people!!! Gee, I guess the nails didn't come through on the other side.

The fenders are on . . . and my advice is to get them on there to say you have to strip the chrome off the pins on the back so that they get glued on for good . . . I've added a little bit more MIG rust powders here and there to get it more rusty! I didn't like the bed, so I made one from real wood . . .

LOL, Harry, Ken would get a big kick out that!!!

Continuing on with the rusting and weathering . . . getting the underneath of the hood to look right . . .. I prepped a hole for an antenna, and opened up the gas tank . . . You could barely see it in this picture, but the weathering on the chrome is getting better . . .

Thanks, everyone . . . I am making some progress even though it's raining cats and dogs here . . . The chrome trim on this build is weathered, but it is hard to see it in the pics because too much light is reflecting off the paint on the chrome . . . perhaps, I will add a bit more, dull is somewhat . . . Stay tuned in for more progress . . ..

Mocking up sure is a heck of a lot fun, and it helps keep one excited about a build . . .

Here's a better shot of what I am talking about:

More progress on the chassis . . . One of the great effects of using salt is that after a few repetitions, it creats this sort of mapping of the paint, and when it works well it looks very realistic . . .

Oh, yeah, when it comes to rust and great weathering, Ken is about the very best . . . as you can see from his latest project . . . He is truly one of our very best builders . . .

That would be very cool, buddy, or you can just send it to me when you are finished and I will photograph them together . . . Yeah, yeah, I'll send it back to you . . . ahem . . . ahem . . . what model are you talking about? Nah, man, you never sent me a model to photograph . . . you must be crazy.

Sometimes those place you don't really pay any attention to when you are painting and doing this kind of rusty/cruddy model turn out to be pleasant surprises . . . This is why I believe this kind of build is so SO stress free and so much fun . . .

This next pic really shows the results of several layers of salting and then the sponging . . . It is also showing me that the hood is returning to it's ill-fitting form . . . but we'll fix that later . . . Here's a progress pic of the main body parts . . . Although, I could stop here, I want to make this vehicle a bit more red-orange in appearance . . . which will require some washes, and some MIG PIGMENTS . . .

I have described and shown my salt weathering method in several other threads on this forum and elsewhere, so I am going to skip right along to some of the progress on the paint . . . This is a slow, but fun process . . . the spattering of color you see here and there on the body were applied at the end of the process with a sponge and acrylic paint . . . just enough to stay on the subtle side, if that is possible! The process is to create texture and the right cruddy look. I have seen many such vehicles at car shows . . . daily drivers, people having fun with their jalopys. That's the spirit I am trying to capture here . . .

The last major component of this kit is the bed, and it is a BEAUTY. It's one of the prettiest beds of any pickup, at least in my opinion, and the one in this kits goes together clean, smooth, and very well . . . so asembling it is quick and hassle free . . . The bed lid should work and it adds another dimension to the bed . . .