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Exotics_Builder

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    1970 Pontiac Trans Am - Box Stock - Update 12/26/2022

    in WIP: Model Cars

    Posted

    I received my new paint just before we got “swiped” by the big cold snap.  We had sleet and freezing rain that made travel difficult, but we had prepared for it and just hunkered down.

    I’ve got the major sub-assemblies almost complete.  The chassis is painted except for the overspray of the base color.  Then I’ll assemble it completely.  Everything you see in the photo is either hand or spray painted aided by a liberal use of Tamiya Masking tape.

    As I previously said, in this issue of the kit, Revell provides a very comprehensive decal sheet.  Included are body decals for both the White and Lucerne Blue body color options.  Interior decals include seat belts and door “hardware”.  Not very realistic, but since I’m building this box stock it will have to do.

    Got the base color on today.  Will clear tomorrow.  An advantage of MCW lacquers is their quick dry time.  The paints in the photo are what have been used, including the different primers depending on final color of parts.  Body is in Tamiya White and most parts Tamiya Light Gray primers.  Chassis, suspension, and interior parts were primed with Mr. Hobby Black Surfacer 1500. 

    The engine is almost complete, needing the cold air cleaner component to be added.  A test fit of the air cleaner indicates I might have to shave the top of the distributor to get hood clearance.  We’ll see. I used Testors Pontiac Engine Blue thinned and airbrushed and then detailed with various paints.  On the decal sheet, Revell provides lettering for the fan belts.  What you see is OOB detailed only with paint and kit supplied decals.

    Revell provides Tampo printed Firestone Wide Ovals in this kit version, and I set about to detail the wheels with paint plus the kit supplied decals for the center cap.  I also lightly sanded the tread to get a used look.  Even though more detail would really pop on this, I stayed box stock.

    The front grill was hand painted flat black with Gloss Flat Clear sides.  Still need to do a little touch on the grill area.

    Finally, a shot of the interior with all the decals and paint effects applied.  An odd thing is Revell gives all these decals for the interior, but neglect to include a turn signal level on the steering column.

    Hope to finish by the weekend. 

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    • Like 4

    1970 Pontiac Trans Am - Box Stock - Update 12/26/2022

    in WIP: Model Cars

    Posted · Edited by Exotics_Builder

    I won the model at a raffle a while back and it has been sitting on the shelf.  I decided to “enter” it in this year’s Poncho Perfection build off that Tim Sickle has been doing the last few years.  The deadline is done by January 1.  As I have a few other projects (modeling and non-modeling) in the works, I elected to do this as Box Stock. 

    I will not tell you how difficult it is for me to do Box Stock (something I have not done in decades).  This is especially true when you get to the engine/engine and chassis areas.  But I am going at it. 

    To this point, I have cleaned up the body and parts; applied base coat (Lucerne Blue from Gravity Paints) and readied the interior and chassis for detail painting.  The engine was painted using some Testors Pontiac Engine Blue that I thinned and shot through my airbrush.  I have enough of that paint left for perhaps one to two more engines of the 66-69 era.  I did pour some for a good friend so he could use on his 69 Firebird 400 that is replicating his son-in-law’s real car.

    This issue of the Revell kit has a lot of decals that will help detailing, including seat belts.  So, a good choice for a detail fanatic such as me.  Don’t expect massive build reports on this one.  The one thing I have noticed is the base coat seems darker than it should be.  And I used a lighter primer than suggested.

     

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    • Like 5

    1959 El Camino Custom

    in Model Trucks: Pickups, Vans, SUVs, Light Commercial

    Posted

    I’ve taken this as far as I think practical although I may go back and visit the hood some.  It just did not fit well from the get-go.  I’ve shaved the edges to the point where the hood is touching the radiator shroud and other parts of the engine bay.  No impact from the air cleaner, so I will probably chew on it a bit more or just leave it be.

    Although better than some older AMT releases, the reissue I have has some major shortcomings.  Besides the aforementioned hood fit, the parts of the pickup bed did not join well and had gaps requiring a lot of putty work in an area with detail that would be quite hard to retain.  The tailgate did not fit well, and I decided to glue in place positioning as best I could.  The passenger side body detail is “softer” than the driver’s side.  The firewall does not reflect any El Camino photos I’ve used for reference plus there is no brake master cylinder there.  The engine squeezes into the engine bay requiring the headers to touch the frame.  Not really visible but not what I like to see.  There is no starter included even though shown in the instructions.  With the fit into the body, the headers would have “collided” with one anyways (I tried with a parts box piece).  So, I simulated one with a piece of Evergreen Rod cut to about the right length.  Again, it is buried from view, but not to my liking. 

    Summarizing the work.

    ·        3-inch chop

    ·        Modified pickup bed

    ·        Highly modified and detailed interior

    ·        Shaved off door handles and trim and added custom side trim

    ·        Added rear fender skirts

    ·        “Built up” the chrome trim on the fins and pickup bed surround as they were soft

    ·        Modified the front end using the kit custom pieces and “eyebrow” fillers from the Revell 59 Impala

    ·        Upgraded the dashboard as it was lacking a lot of detail

    ·        Seats and door cards from Revell 59 Impala

    ·        Detailed the 348 engine and added air cleaner from parts box

    ·        Painted Bob’s Paint Crème Brulé and cleared with Tamiya TS13 Clear.

    The chop was easier than I anticipated, at least in the front curved A-pillar.  The B-pillar needed some attention as it is quite thin and needed a bit of stiffening.  This was also my first use of Bob’s Paint and needed a little practice to thin appropriately. 

    Reasonably satisfied with the result. 324161229_59Elky(22).JPG.c27b0fb0b8a285da16bedd9e54481461.JPG928088292_59Elky(23).JPG.c75270d86d4b06b08e09f3d06bca74af.JPG1912644683_59Elky(24).JPG.57b4c9448f07b089046f8be060af9722.JPG31397998_59Elky(25).JPG.778856a7a3262f33e82ba6e91a6e8afa.JPG1102072392_59Elky(26).JPG.1b9bd53dc4adce64035337ac42133bf1.JPG1527550415_59Elky(27).JPG.a2f56b4ff330eed67b8dffdb6d2c3f88.JPG1143333024_59Elky(28).JPG.9093a94e4992b40c6382f7f91991cf3e.JPG

    • Like 1

    1959 El Camino Custom - Update 12/05/2022 - Calling it Done

    in WIP: Model Trucks: Pickups, Vans, SUVs, Light Commercial

    Posted

    I’ve taken this as far as I think practical although I may go back and visit the hood some.  It just did not fit well from the get-go.  I’ve shaved the edges to the point where the hood is touching the radiator shroud and other parts of the engine bay.  No impact from the air cleaner, so I will probably chew on it a bit more or just leave it be.

    Although better than some older AMT releases, the reissue I have has some major shortcomings.  Besides the aforementioned hood fit, the parts of the pickup bed did not join well and had gaps requiring a lot of putty work in an area with detail that would be quite hard to retain.  The tailgate did not fit well, and I decided to glue in place positioning as best I could.  The passenger side body detail is “softer” than the driver’s side.  The firewall does not reflect any El Camino photos I’ve used for reference plus there is no brake master cylinder there.  The engine squeezes into the engine bay requiring the headers to touch the frame.  Not really visible but not what I like to see.  There is no starter included even though shown in the instructions.  With the fit into the body, the headers would have “collided” with one anyways (I tried with a parts box piece).  So, I simulated one with a piece of Evergreen Rod cut to about the right length.  Again, it is buried from view, but not to my liking. 

    Summarizing the work.

    ·        3-inch chop

    ·        Modified pickup bed

    ·        Highly modified and detailed interior

    ·        Shaved off door handles and trim and added custom side trim

    ·        Added rear fender skirts

    ·        “Built up” the chrome trim on the fins and pickup bed surround as they were soft

    ·        Modified the front end using the kit custom pieces and “eyebrow” fillers from the Revell 59 Impala

    ·        Upgraded the dashboard as it was lacking a lot of detail

    ·        Seats and door cards from Revell 59 Impala

    ·        Detailed the 348 engine and added air cleaner from parts box

    ·        Painted Bob’s Paint Crème Brulé and cleared with Tamiya TS13 Clear.

     

    The chop was easier than I anticipated, at least in the front curved A-pillar.  The B-pillar needed some attention as it is quite thin and needed a bit of stiffening.  This was also my first use of Bob’s Paint and needed a little practice to thin appropriately. 

    Reasonably satisfied with the result. 

     

     

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    • Like 4

    1959 El Camino Custom - Update 12/05/2022 - Calling it Done

    in WIP: Model Trucks: Pickups, Vans, SUVs, Light Commercial

    Posted

    Had to do a little more adjustment of the floor of the interior to get the chassis to finally lay in.  The engine has pieces from the parts box to improve.  I did add a dip stick and some Detail Master PE to “hang” the generator.  The engine bay does not seem to match any of the reference photos I have nor the Revell 59 Impala, but it will do.

    The 348 was a very tight fit (it is a wide engine in 1:1, but the headers from the kit are touching the frame to get it to fit right.  Not visible, but not a happy camper.  Also, the hood sticks up a bit even with some shaving I had to do to improve it.  There is no interference with the air cleaner or engine parts as the problem manifested itself in test fitting with no engine in place.  Even initial test fitting of the kit out of the box showed that was going to be a problem.

    Remaining, I need to finish off the engine bay including touch up; finish the hood; add the front wheels; add the last chrome bits; and call it done.

    59 Elky (20).JPG

    59 Elky (21).JPG

    MCW semi-gloss interior light grey....weird phenomenon

    in Model Building Questions and Answers

    Posted

    28 minutes ago, Dpate said:

    I spray it the same way i do all there other interior colors bout 2 inches away around 18-20 PSI, and there already pre-thinned doubt he sent a bottle with not enough thinner lol.  But after mixing it even better and straining it the effect stopped same pressure same distance etc.  It's not cobweb in the paint, but it's actually on the surface like the cotton candy pic. But just think of like how dust webs can get in a corner of a wall and you touch it.  That's this effect going on not actual spider webbing in the paint. Thank you for the suggestions though.

    I had that happen when using Bob's paints Creme Brulee color.  I followed the thinning guideline, and my test shots got the webbing until I thinned it much more.  I use an Iwata Eclipse at about 20 PSI.  I think this effect was due to the pearl material in the paint.  At least that is my guess.  

     

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