chepp

I regret not having photos of my childhood and early teen builds. My only one is a very blurry Instamatic print of my first good (cleanly painted and assembled with sewing thread wiring) model from about age ten. I read somewhere that people are more likely to regret what they didn't do instead of regretting what they did do.

I miss the higher quality appearance of the paint and parts fit of the older classic cars. Today, for example, a Lincoln and a Focus have the same level of orangepeeled paint and excessive/unequal panel gaps. On an older classic car the body would never, and I mean never, have many of the visible panel joints that a luxury car today has. The older ones had the panel joints leaded and smoothly finished.

1. Revell Dave Deal "Deal's Wheels" Trans-Um Tirebird -- in Japanese packaging. Not built. 2. [brand name not available] 1975 Indy 500 winner. Not built. Both were given to me by the former Revell R&D and sales manager whom I later worked for at Zee Toys in the 1980s.

I'll be there. Last year was my first time.

Cool! Could you post pix of the hinge attachments to the underside of the body? The visible hinges look fantastic.

Nice! Making those slight changes in the body location and the radiator shell really paid off when viewing the finished model.

Man, you're nailing it!

205 arrived to me in So Cal today. I'm a fan of the '20s & '30s so it was nice to have Harry's final segment on that time period. I'll miss seeing his work in print. My 1/25 car modeling, though, is usually of the '60s. It was great to see the GSL coverage -- the first one that I have attended. Gregg, you've overcome so much adversity to bring this fine magazine to us. Thank you. I'm sure that things will only get better for you (and for us in each future issue).

Looks beautiful. That paint job is really nice.

Beautiful body color! And that interior color combo really works, too.

Gee, I can understand losing a tiny part on a shag carpet. But what explains where one 1/25 slick went to on my wood floor a week ago?

Thanks all, for the comments. I tried it again today with retarder added (halfway between the recommended high and low ratios). I sprayed both the airbrushed acrylic and later the TS-13 clear gloss much heavier than I would normally do but there was no improvement. So, I'll conclude that the problem is with the X-11 chrome silver. The chrome silver starts settling out within an hour of stirring it up so I guess that it just doesn't want to mix with the X-13 blue. I like airbrushing Tamiya acrylics but I won't spend any more time on this mix.

Thanks, Michael. That sounds reasonable. All the spoons were sprayed at about 65 degrees F in the shade of a garage with the door open. I don't know what the humidity was — maybe 50%. I was probably being too careful to avoid runs. Although I don't have Mr. Leveling thinner, I do have some Golden brand retarder that is made for increasing the working time of acrylic paints. I'll try that before looking for Mr. Leveling.

Thanks, Matt. Your suggestions were good and helped a little. It may have been the chrome silver that caused the dulling. Here are two more spoon tests with the following changes: 1) pour off some of the thinner (it's separated in the bottle), 2) up the airbrush pressure to 30 psi and 3) spray several heavier coats letting each flash dry between. The top one is just the airbrushed Tamiya mix over Tamiya White (L) primer. The bottom one is the same plus two heavy coats (about 40 min. apart) of Tamiya TS-13 from a spray can. That gloss looks OK for the engine and frame I'm planning to use it on. I'll pay more attention to cleanliness when painting the model parts.

I'm starting to use mixes of Tamiya acrylic paint for airbrushing. What went wrong here? The surface: styrene spoon wetsanded with 400 then sprayed with white Tamiya Fine Surface Primer (L). The mix: Tamiya water clean-up acrylic in bottles 1 part X-13 (medium-dark metallic blue) 3 parts X-11 (chrome silver) 1 part X-22 (clear gloss) X-20A thinner (eyeball ratio to dilute for airbrushing) The spray: Iwata Eclipse at 20 psi For comparison, there is a spoon test of gloss black at the left of the photo shot under the same conditions. It's Model Master 1747 diluted with Testors Airbrush Thinner. The Tamiya makes a nice satin finish but I want it to be 1961-era glossy on an engine and frame. I could clear coat it but I'd rather figure out how to make the mix glossy.

That brings to mind the old poem: Spring has sprung, Fall has fell, Summer's here, and it's hotter than.... It's only 94 degrees F and 28% where I'm at in southern California -- and that's too hot for my liking.

Here's one of the earliest posts in this thread. It only received one response at the time. It's worth bringing it back to the top for all to enjoy. I like the clean and simple appearance.

The revised front bumper/grille, the hood scoop and the taillights all look really good. Ford should have styled it that way!

Nice! The gold engine parts look especially good with that body color.

That looks good -- it's great to see something different yet believable. Instead of the looped radiator hose, you might want to just make block-off plates to cover the "openings."

Gee, I've only got two: 1. Pontiac hot rod -- Club de Mer body narrowed, shortened and simplified (already done) put on a mostly scratchbuilt hod rod chassis with an exposed Pontiac V8 and rear axle. It would be as if it was commissioned by Pontiac in the early '60s as a show car to appeal to the youth market. 2. '66 Riviera radical custom -- Imagine the four fenders cut off, the remaining body narrowed about a foot (already done), then the four fenders "floating" in their original positions. It would be sort of like a car from the '30s but much lower and sleeker.

I never would have thought that those two interior colors would look good together but they do! The way they complement the body color and the very nice assembly and detailing really make it all come together.

Here's another "vote" for the '59 Chevy headlights and tube grille — it really makes it look good as well as different. I think that the seats are the first ones that I've seen that have backs that are shorter than the cushions. Some headrests will help that out. Keep us posted.

Nice save! It's rare, and good, to see a mild custom build of a late '60s car.

Yes, that blue color really works on this car. That, the really clean build and the beautiful wood appearance all come together.