Scale-Master

Thanks guys. It only uses pump gas and I leave the traction control on. At $500.00 per tire I don't want to roast 'em.

The rear suspension and exhaust were painted to match the photos… and then installed into the chassis.

I started working on the body. It is molded with a few seams and not difficult to clean up. But I went a little further and spent a few hours to scribe all the body and panel lines to more closely reflect the way the real cars are. I also reworked the rear license plate to look more like the style frame I have on my car by adding thin strips of styrene to the top and bottom edges.

A little more “color” was added to the chassis as well as dirt. The engine and front suspension were done with the same basic theme of “I don’t wash that part of my car”. But I do wipe off the top sides under the hood occasionally.

I'm not sure what you mean by "That's all?". It is just one part. Not a very good shot, but I had it handy...

I took a bunch of pictures when I had it on the rack so getting the colors for the underside was easy. While the kit is a ’97 and mine is a ’98 there should not be much difference. But for whatever reason there are some discrepancies between the molded part and the real car. So I painted it to match the real car as much as I could and didn’t worry about the differences in the molding. Instead of masking and spraying I freehand brush painted everything except the gray panels. It was easier than masking. I added a little dirt and grime as I went along too.

Thank you Jonathan. The brakes were the next parts I worked on. I painted the calipers on the real one red so these were done to match including the silver Corvette lettering on the fronts.

This is another in a series of models of real cars I’ve owned. Currently it is my daily driver. While it is pretty much bone stock, I do have C6 style rims on it. So the first step was to make a mold and cast resin copies of the rims in the Revell ’05 Corvette. The rims are engineered differently between the C5 and C6 kits so I had to machine off the outer part of the rim that goes inside the tires. They also mount to the two cars differently so I milled adapters from resin to allow the C6 wheels to press fit onto the C5 axle stubs with the proper spacing.

Excellent work (as usual) ! And thanks for sharing those reference photos too.

The sealer-clear coat was sanded out but not polished or waxed. Custom made stripe decals have been applied. On the real car I chose to paint the stripes with hard point corners on the inboard edges (like a Chevelle) instead of the factory stock round radiuses. I think it accents the pointy nose better. Still a few more decals to add before clearing it…

Thanks. But it is far from perfect, it's just a sealer so I can apply the stripes. First it will be color sanded, then decals and then it will get cleared.

Sort of... I cast copies and cut them apart then made fronts and rears with the proper offsets. The GTA kit wheels are the same on all four corners; they shouldn't be.

Shot the base color (Admiral/Cloisonné) blue from the original touch up paint I had for the real car, with a coat of intra-clear to seal it.

I don't think the Montana will ever be sold in North America. Not passing safety regulations aside, a front wheel drive 100HP "truck" doesn't seem like the most marketable vehicle up here.

Ah yes, the Euro-spec "22".

The "SS" is backwards on that "Chevelle". The one at the beginning of the thread is a well done Camaro based custom that has nothing to do with GM bringing back the El Camino.

1976 Follmer-Morton Vasek Polak car as it ran at Watkins Glen. 1/43rd scale resin kit. WIP Thread: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/112897-porsche-9345/

Into the final stretch. The body and chassis are together for (I hope) the final time. While it came with decals for the black soft trim for the front and the rear fender guards, they were incomplete and poor fitting, so I hand painted those areas black.

That won't change the coloring (in a positive way), but it will add a layer that makes it harder to see through. It does not conform to compound curves very well either.

The yellowing of those vac-u-form parts does not polish out. It's in the plastic and when the kits were new many were already that way. But since you went with red (a warm color) the yellowish tint will not be too obvious on the finished car. Especially with a black interior.

Even with all the pre-fitting of the windows the windshield was still a bit of a challenge to install. The taillights are PE items too and had to be formed to fit.

Time for final assembly.

The decals are done, I used the new Decal Magic from Scale Motorsport and it worked well with them.

Well, I don't breathe in the dust when I make it, but I don't wear a mask or gloves either. Most of debris from filing and drilling is not so fine as to become airborne. When I do sand I almost always wet sand, and that contains the dust very effectively. The smell has never bothered me. But then I love the smell of new tires too. This one is not too strong smelling. Starter and PM kits from several years ago are much more pungent.

The body is painted. I used some old stock (25+ years) Testors enamel.