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When I opened this kit I realized it's not such a bad model. In fact it's more like a glue kit than a snap kit. It has opening hoods and an engine which a lot of snap kits don't have. It does have a few things that I wanted to fix. IMG_8254 Small by Michael Scarola, on Flickr The door hinges are too large. They are about twice as wide as they should be. IMG_8257 Small by Michael Scarola, on Flickr A friend who has a 1:1 Beetle and also a Tamiya 1/24 Beetle measured the hinges for me. They come out to approximately 1mm wide in 1/24 scale. I removed the kit's door hinges and replaced them with some 1mm half round on top of 1m x .75 mm strips. I also filled in the holes on the roof that the rag top snaps into. I did leave the 2 round holes in the center of the roof for the rag tops guide pins. IMG_8276 Small by Michael Scarola, on Flickr The next thing that I wanted to modify is the brake lights. They are way to wide out of box. In this kit the rear engine cover(hood) is for a 1964 or later year Beetle. The license plate light cover is the wide type. Herbie is a 1963 which the body of this kit represents well except for the engine cover. IMG_8261 Small by Michael Scarola, on Flickr IMG_8258 Small by Michael Scarola, on Flickr I cut the brake light housings in half with a razor saw and filed then down a bit. I glued them back together and re-drilled the lens mount holes. .4mm round rods were used around the edge. I removed the license plate light cover and added some detailing with .010" styrene. I glued 2 pieces of 2.5mm quarter round rods together since I didn't have half round in this size on hand and shaped it for the license plate light cover. The light cover also has .4mm rod around the edge. IMG_8292 Small by Michael Scarola, on Flickr I removed the storage bag from the passenger door panel and added an arm rest. The arm rest is the license plate light cover that I removed with some strip styrene around the perimeter as the chrome strip. I looked at screen shots from The Love Bug as well as pictures of 1963 VW Beetles and most seem to only have the storage bag on the driver door panel and an arm rest on the passenger door panel. This kit has the storage bags on both door panels and no arm rest. IMG_8298 Small by Michael Scarola, on Flickr I scratch built a roll bar using screen shots as reference. As soon as Herbie appears with his stripes and numbers he has a roll bar. For some reason there is a space between the door panels and the kick panels so I added 1mm styrene strips to fill it in. IMG_8293 Small by Michael Scarola, on Flickr IMG_8296 Small by Michael Scarola, on Flickr In the movie Herbie has a radio and doesn't have the square gauge to the right of the speedometer. I removed that gauge and added some details to represent the radio. IMG_8280 Small by Michael Scarola, on Flickr IMG_8296 Small by Michael Scarola, on Flickr IMG_8310 Small by Michael Scarola, on Flickr The steering wheel doesn't have the horn loop. I have a spare wheel from a Polar Lights Ecto 1 that had the horn loop so I cut it to fit the VW wheel. IMG_8284 Small by Michael Scarola, on Flickr All the kit's wheels require the chrome hub caps to be installed to complete them. A Beetle's spare tire in the trunk wouldn't have a hub cap. I drilled out the center of the wheel and added 5 pieced of 2mm half round which I drilled out to represent where the studs go. IMG_8314 Small by Michael Scarola, on Flickr I wasn't crazy about the molded in windshield wipers. Surprisingly the picture of the model on the box doesn't have these. IMG_8273 Small by Michael Scarola, on Flickr I removed the 'wipers' and added some 2mm half round rod for mounts for new wipers. I also added the raised round piece where the VW emblem would go on the hood. Herbie didn't have any VW emblems in The Love Bug so I won't have to worry about finding one. IMG_8315 Small by Michael Scarola, on Flickr Here are windshield wipers I scratch built. They aren't perfect but should get the job done. IMG_8304 Small by Michael Scarola, on Flickr I'm prepping it all now for paint and should have an update in a few days. Thanks for looking in. Mike.

Outstanding build Jim! The Cuda hood grafted into the Hemi hood looks perfect. It looks like it was made that way. The interior details look real and the chassis and engine compartment do as well. The Sublime Green is a great choice and looks perfect. I like the first picture with the hood pins hanging. You hit a home run with this one.

Very nice build! It looks like the real thing.

Does anyone have a direct e-mail address for Black Gold? I used their contact form but never got a response. Maybe their contact form isn't working. http://shop.blackgoldweb.com/

Very nice job Randy! The detailing on the dash board and the paint look great! BTW how durable is the liquid chrome in the Molotow Chrome pen? Can clear coat be applied over the liquid chrome or will that dull the effect?

Thanks guys for the nice words!

This car even looked nice in American Graffiti.

Very nicely done Dominik!

Excellent job on this Dominik! Mike.

Excellent job Matt! I assume that's just gray primer on the body?

I've read both good and bad about the Walmart primer. Some have said it is just white or gray paint but others swear by it. I use Tamiya Fine Surface primer but have been looking for another primer to try. The Black Gold is $12 a can for 12 ounces but the Tamiya is between $9 and $11 a can for 6 ounces. The Black Gold isn't $1 a can but it's still cheaper than the Tamiya by almost half. I was just wondering if anyone used the Black Gold spray can grey primer and if it's a thin primer.

Is it a thin primer?

Does anyone use Black Gold Spray Can Grey Primer? If so, is it a thin primer and is it any good? http://shop.blackgoldweb.com/product.sc;jsessionid=11BCD3DF7DCD801D597A2263B0F6BC35.p3plqscsfapp005?productId=393&categoryId=1

I'd like to get one of those spray guns but my compressor is a hobby compressor and only puts out 1.2 CFM@open flow. I have a good compressor, Iwata Power Jet Pro, but it's most likely not enough for this spray gun in the link.

I recently attempted to use Urethane 2K clear on a model body. I sprayed it over a synthetic lacquer color. I found that the urethane 2K clear seems to need to be sprayed on thick to get it to level out and it can attack decals if applying it over them. I wasn't happy with the results at all. It flowed too easily and filled in details and still had some orange peel unless I sprayed it on thick. I also have another project that I'll be using PPG Omni Acrylic Urethane for the base color coat. This particular paint is NOT activator(hardner) based and only requires thinner(reducer). I wanted a specific factory metallic color so I had some mixed at a local automotive paint supplier. I tested spraying some and it sprays beautifully and can be reduced down as thin as I need it. I sprayed Testors MM Ultra Gloss Clearcoat on top and it's compatible. I like that the Testors MM Ultra Gloss Clearcoat reduces down and goes on thinner than the urethane 2K clear. For a model I feel that urethane 2K is a bit over kill. It tends to look thick like syrup. This is just my opinion. I think the hobby clear lacquers are more in scale than urethane clears for model cars. Tamiya Fine Surface Primer is a nice thin primer that goes on very smooth. This might help.

I've used Testors MM Ultra Gloss Clearcoat and like it. It polished nice and is safe over decals. I've also read good things about Gunze Mr. Super Clear Gloss and some have said it's like Tamiya TS-13 Clear. Is Mr. Super Clear Gloss safe to use over decals? I know Tamiya is a bit 'hotter' than Testors Ultra Gloss Clearcoat so I'm wondering if Mr. Super Clear is a 'hot' lacquer like Tamiya or is OK over decals.

It seems 1/24 came from Military vehicles and aircraft models. Since 1/24 was a popular scale all the model companies should have used it for car kits as well to keep things more uniform. However for me both 1/24 and 1/25 are fine. The difference isn't that much so on a shelf 1/24 and 1/25 go together well.

Go into your 1st post and click the edit button. It will allow you to change the title of the thread.

Cool build and nice paint job!

Beautiful job! BTW, what paint did you use on the body?

Excellent Batmobile! The NATO Black and the gold pearl really make it pop. Nice subtle change with the paint.

Beautiful job on this Corvette! I like the color and the paint job looks great! This generation of Corvette(C3) is also my favorite.

Fortheloveofgassers(Ed) - Did you ever get this one done? I just read through this thread and found a lot of inspiration. Today I sprayed 2K Urethane Gloss clear on a body and had the decals wrinkle. I was under the impression that urethane clear was safer over decals but I found it isn't. This will be the 2nd time I'm stripping it and the 3rd paint/decals coming up. I seem to be on a mission to complete it. The decals took about 12 hours to apply and I'll be doing it a 3rd time. The first time the urethane clear had a lot of orange peel and when I was polishing it with the micromesh cloths I burned through a couple of spots. I tried touching it up and then it all went down hill. I seem to be having every problem with this build.

I had 2K Urethane clear coat wrinkle and ultimately destroy decals. On a previous build I had no problems with Testors Ultra Gloss Clear over ALPS decals. I applied a couple of light mist coats with my airbrush and then went heavier. I finished it with a coat or 2 right out of the can.

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