Scale-Master

I made a dirt wash for the glass. It’s not uniform, but then often dew dripping down dusty glass isn’t. I installed the side view mirror too.

Thanks guys! Looks like it is about ready for glass and final assembly… The underhood blanket needs some fine tuning, but I need to let it dry more first.

Thanks Kevin. I continued to “spot sand” some areas to distress them more. I also started to add some wear and grime with paints.

I figured since I was going to tone down the chrome anyway I’d just hand paint the window trim instead of using BMF. Sure took a lot less time…

Thanks guys. Yes is it fun John. Although some parts are taking longer than I expected. I don't want to sand through the paint too fast and make it look like a hack job. It took 16 years of washing, sun damage, (maybe some neglect) to get the real car to the patina I'm aiming for. I sanded the entire body with 2000 in a very similar way I’d polish out a “good” paint job, but with no worries of accidentally sanding through an edge. In this case I purposely sanded through the metallic blue to the light blue in some places (on the hood, front fender side peaks and rear quarter panels mostly so far) to make the paint look worn through. I’ll add some metal shades and rust once I get the paint worn appropriately. It bears keeping in mind the Testors enamel metallic blue paint was only applied 28 hours before these photos were shot.

Those front springs and shocks are a huge improvement over the stock lumps I used in mine. Nice work on the grille too.

I started to grub up the bumpers and grille. If the plate TSN 662 seems at all familiar it is because it was included in the R/M ’67 Corvette Coupe kit. I chose to use the plates off my Nova when I drew the decal art for that kit. These plates are only a little different from what came in the Corvette and the annual tags are for 1983, not ’67.

Thanks Chris. It is a fun project amidst all the cleaner cars I'm doing along side of it. The interior is done as is the engine & bay. I made decals (including the Super Sport script) for the dash and the Hurst shifter. The steering wheel is from the Revell ’69 Camaro and matches what was in my car.

You know Kevin, there is some truth to that. I started knocking down the shine and removing some of the depth with wet 2000 grit sandpaper. (Yes, only a few hours after painting it with Testors enamel.) The hood is how shiny the paint was before sanding for comparison. It also shows how the blue looks lighter after sanding.

I used a light blue for the undercoat. Then I did a quickie Testors enamel airbrush job knowing it did not have to look great since it will get a weather beaten finish. Typical; don’t care about the paint job and it comes out nice without even any dirt.

Yes, I painted the cap and line and then gave the raw white plastic a wash of light earth. And thanks!

I cut apart the dual air clear that came in the kit to make the little Pep Boys style one the car had. Unless I decide to make it dirtier I think the engine bay is done. I also added the Hurst T-handle using a resin piece I made for the ’68 and ‘73 Camaros. Ironically it is the exact same T-handle I had in my ’73 Vega. By cementing the interior to the firewall I was able to tweak the warp in the chassis so all four tires touch the ground now.

Thanks Skip. It's too far off and looks close enough with the wheels under it for me to try to mess anymore with it. I'm looking at it as part of a collection more than a stand alone special model. I originally planned in going all out, full detail, dual Webers and all the goodies I added. But I just have enough love for it to do it all out. I shot the final clear, added the side marker lights and emblems/trim/badging. The flake looks a bit heavy now and the real car was pretty glittery too.

I just realized that technically this Nova I my fourth car, not third. After the 73 Kammback (that Im making the model of) got totaled I bought this 72 and transferred everything I could off the 73 to it. It was purely a mode of transportation, with a quart of 60 weight oil a day habit. I had it until after I got the 73 Camaro, but it was either towed or stolen since I had to park it on the street (I had the Nova and Camaro in the garage). Lost my good Huntmaster racing seat and those SuperLites, but it was such a POS I never tried to get it back.

Thanks Guys! The top of the driver’s door had the paint worn through (from resting an arm on it I’m sure) and was rusting a bit too. The bottoms of doors had red and black furry carpet glued to them. The kit comes with a bench seat and two custom buckets. I used resin copies I cast for the ’68 Camaro and cut the headrests off.

For you Steve... sure. But this hood is already finished. I do have the mold to make more Corvette scoops, and it isn't that big of a deal to graft a scoop onto a Camaro hood then reshape the stinger portion. Maybe give me a call and we figure something out?

Actually, the car was full of trash and junk when I got it. We took everything out that wasn't fastened down. I put the spare and jack in the trunk. The rest that wasn't trash was stuffed into a corner of the garage. I am having a lot of fun with it now, and no worries about speeding tickets... Since the back seat had been removed from the real car I made a panel to represent the stamped steel detail of the rear bulkhead.

Thank you John. The real car had some nasty worn out and stinky carpet. I used black flocking for the carpet, but tinted it with dirt. I purposely did not go for a nice uniform texture since a lot of the padding was gone, and there were cracks all over the carpet. The interior that “junkyard smell”. (I don’t recall ever vacuuming it.)

Jon, 95% of the weathering on this is done by brush as washes using rust, light earth and flat black acrylics. Build and paint like you would if it were going to be clean and shiny. Then grunge it up. Thanks Carl! The front suspension is installed and I added the muffler hangers to the cross-member. The radiator and core support are installed too. I test fitted the body and I can see Ill have some minor adjustments to do to get the front wheels aligned a bit better. I primed the body along the mold seams and will use that as a guide when I prep the body.

Thanks Carl. It is getting close to the final stretch... The final clear is done and once it cures I’ll cut, buff and wax it.

I installed the fiberglass mono leaf front spring.

Thanks guys. I actually started cleaning up the body first, but once I started assembling and painting the dirty bits I got caught up in it. The engine is in. Still more fine-tuning of the sheen is required. And the exhaust has been installed. The exhaust on the real car was cheesy. Original and rusty pipes ran from the manifolds and were cut off mid-car and metallic blue glass packs were sloppily welded on. No muffler hangers were used. (I think there were some welding rods or coat hangers wrapped around the cross-member; Ill add them later.) The car smoked a bit so I figured there was probably some soot around the outlets. I made the glass packs from brass and aluminum. The pipes are from the kit cut short.

The rear suspension has been installed. And the engine bay is ready for the motor. I added an upper bracket for the alternator, made out of aluminum.

Thanks guys. I used the kit provided steel wheels but I used the tires from the Revell ’67 Camaro since they looked closer to what was on the car.

Thanks guys. The engine was filthy. The Chevy Orange was barely visible under the grunge. I still need to work the weathering and grime as I build more on the engine. The wiring was special too. (This is how I got it.) There were “insulators” made of foil tape to protect the #2 and #4 wires from the (rusty) exhaust manifolds. It had stock ignition wires, and I think the ones on the model are in a lot better condition… It had nice aluminum valve covers, I sourced them for the model from the AMT ’70 Z/28.