Kit Basher

They all look great, and the shed is awesome. Nice mud!

Such a great kit to build. I did one a while back and enjoyed every minute of it. Yours looks fantastic! The weathering is perfect. Great job!

I have used the Chartpak tape and I like it. One warning, tho, it is not a perfectly consistent width, it varies a bit as you go thru the roll. You can usually get a piece long enough for what you are doing, but you have to pay attention. It might be a little thick too, but should work. I used it for the outlines on the wings of this B-52. This is the 1/32" width.

Most of my models are more or less stock, and don't have decals. The exception is my most recent build, a race car with lots of decals, but I didn't want it to be glossy, so no clear. That's just me, you can do it however you want. You might want to do some research on this forum, tho. I have seen some posts where the clear killed the decals.

You can. I usually don't clear over decals, but a lot of people do. So you can do whatever works best for you.

For water based paints, dry sanding is recommended. If decals cause a problem, you may have to use a non-water base clear.

Try stirring the bottle paint. Testors paints can separate a lot, especially if they have been sitting awhile. The pigments in some are pretty heavy, and shaking doesn't do much. Stir until the blob of pigment on the end of the stir stick is gone, then stir some more. I've had good luck brush painting with Testors on bare plastic, one coat covers well, as long as the paint is well mixed.

Excellent work! It looks amazing. Downright mean! Those decals must have been a real challenge, they look great.

Thanks, Larry!

Thanks, Mike! Thanks, John! Thanks, Garry!

Thanks, Bruce! Not really. It goes together really well. Obviously, the tricky part is the masking. It helps that Revell made a two part body. I masked the white stripe and the front air ducts, I didn't want to just depend on the decals. Then the decals cleaned up my masking. Give it a go, I really enjoyed it.

Thanks, Jim!

Finally finished this up. Challenging but fun to build. The paint is Tamiya "Pure White", MM "Blue Angel Blue", and Testors "Dark Red".

That looks amazing! Excellent work. I am almost finished the Revell 1/24 version. Now I am embarrassed to post it.

Finished the running gear for the Ford GT. Now all that's left is the easy part, painting the body. (Yeah right! Painting red, white, and blue on all those crazy shapes will be a piece of cake!)

Testors/ Heller Ferrari 512S. Still half finished in the box. A lot of the assemblies have no positive way of knowing if they are in the right place. So I had to do a lot of tweaking and adjusting. That may not be a problem for a better modeller than me, but the deal breaker was the back hatch. It doesn't even come close to fitting the rest of the body. I'm seriously considering removing the very nice Ferrari engine, gluing the hatch shut, and calling it a curbside.

Another source for vinyl similar to the Oracal is sign makers. They use a fairly heavy vinyl to cut out signs. Whatever is not part of the sign gets thrown away. Those scraps should be plenty big enough for your purpose. The adhesive should not be a problem, as this stuff is intended to last many years outside. I don't know how well paint would stick to it.

I've had one of those for several years, and it's held up well so far. (Hope I don't jinx it!) It's relatively stupid, which I consider an advantage. I don't bother to tell it what time it is.

Happy Birthday, Carl!

The Revell 69 Boss 302 has the decals with a wide section (maybe 3/16"), then a space, then the pinstripe. Kinda hard to explain, if you take a close look at the photo, maybe you will see what I mean. The wider section covers the transition from body color to the black, so masking doesn't have to be so precise, and it is easier to get the decal straight (although I didn't!). If you are going to cut the decal, maybe you can do something similar. I used Testors square bottle Semi Gloss black, not a perfect match, but OK. OOPS! i just re-read the previous posts and see that this is what you're trying to avoid. DOH! Sorry.

That is obvious from the quality of your models. Many thanks, gentlemen, for the advice. I will take your suggestions and do the best I can.

Thanks, Steve, I was hoping you'd chime in. Did you paint the body first, or the roof?

I thought about that and it may be the best option. It would require a steady hand and a fair amount of time, but I think it might work. Is that how you do your vinyl tops?

Specifically, I'm working on a Porsche 914. Once the top has been textured, how do you get smooth BMF on the trim. Or do you trim first, then texture the top? The trim on this kit is pretty faint to start with, and it goes around most of the "roll bar", and on part of the Targa top. Any help greatly appreciated!

Yeah, I am concerned about silvering. The tires are more of a flat color, not shiny like old AMT tires. The closest thing I have to Tamiya acrylic clear is Future, I may try some on the inside of a tire and see if it sticks. I can always get Tamiya clear if that would work better. I'm wondering if anyone has used something besides Dullcote. I have a bottle of Tamiya flat clear. Would that make any difference?