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Today I worked on various tidbits, including painting the rubber seals around the windows. I've never liked doing this as it requires precision and I'm too much of a perfectionist. I tried one of the new AK Real Color Paint markers in rubber black and I loved it. The paint flows beautifully and I was able to wipe off excess paint with small triangular cotton swabs. I also used this same method for the door handles. I then made quick work of the third brake light. First I applied some bare metal foil: I then brush painted with Tamiya X-27 Clear Red: As I was beginning final assembly, I realized that the one-piece chassis only contains molded-in inner fenders for the front wheels. The back inner fenders are molded into the interior tub. I quickly brush painted some Vallejo black to make sure that they looked right: I made up my own "ghetto" stand to hold the side mirrors to the body while the glue dried: As of this post, the Tahoe is what I would call 95% done. The hood mishap definitely set me back. Tomorrow I will go through the paint process on it again and then let it dry for a week before I sand and polish it. For now, here's a sneak peek of the nearly final result:

Thank you. A bit more progress today. A lot of masking was done to paint small but important features. Tamiya TS-29 Semi Gloss Black was used to paint the black molding trim around the D pillars and rear hatch: Tamiya TS-4 German Grey was used to depict the plastic molding between the grill and front bumper. Since it is supposed to match the color of the grill, I sanded down the black paint a bit with 1000 grit, hit the area with the same grey primer I used on the grill, and then laid on the German Grey.

I think the Ford truck generation brings most of the appeal. Moebius has been covering the 1960s - 1970s pretty well, and AMT has the mid-late 70's version that's been floating around for years. The Revell Monogram "bricknose" 1987-1991 models are still easily found, with various re-releases through the years. And AMT also has the 1992-1996 generation covered. The 1980-1986 generation never got much love. It's pretty much just this and the 1980 Ranger Flareside. I don't love either, but this gives modelers more options if they want to replicate this generation of trucks.

I pretty much set this project aside for the last month and a half due to the baby. But my wife and boy just left on a trip, so I have a week to myself to (hopefully) get this one done. I spent last night and this morning polishing the body. For the first time, I used a dremel rotary tool with polishing attachments I bought on amazon to do this. After reading horror stories about rotary tool polishing, I made sure to set the tool to its lowest speed and to move rapidly to not burn through the paint. I used my trusted Meguiar's products: ScratchX, Ultimate Compound, and Ultimate Polish. I was satisfied with the results, and the multiple coats of clear definitely helped. Still, this is my least favorite part of model building. The ribs on the roof made it particularly hard to remove all of the orange peel. Unfortunately, this photo doesn't give the finishing shine justice. Since the tailgate is a separate piece, I went ahead and finished it. I taped off the rear latch and spray painted it with Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 black primer. I then used a toothpick to apply chrome paint to the keyhole. And finally, I applied the decals: The Tahoe name badge came with the kit's decal sheet. AMT kits of this era have a lot of extra decal film around the individual decal pieces. You can clearly see the white around each piece. I used a ruler and xacto knife to cut the excess pieces away. This small step will go a long way. As is typical with me, I ran into a paint issue. Once I started to cut and polish the hood, a small defect came through on the right side. Based on my past experience, this is from surface contamination. Since it was on the hood, I figured I would just strip the whole thing with some 91% isopropyl alcohol and start over. A setback for sure, but I was happy that it didn't appear on the main body. Up next, I will prep and repaint the hood and start detail painting on the main body. Stay tuned, this should be a productive week.

Meh. Years ago, I might have bought one to use as a chassis cab project, sort of like AJ's fire truck. But this recent 3D-printed option looks better if one wants an accurate F-350 Dually bed: https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-print-models/hobby-diy/automotive/pickup-truck-f-350-dually-1980

Their ebay site is only listing some overstock items they find from time to time in their old storage areas. No replenished stocks.

I agree, especially for Custom Squads. A lot of what Policecarmodels had is either readily available through other websites or was old stock that was probably running low anyhow. Still sad to see them gone.

Both online stores shut down last year for good. Policecarmodels was due to the owner retiring from the business and Custom Squads was due to health issues. Your best bet for police parts are 3D-printed pieces being offered on ebay or through various facebook groups.

Looks great! Can't wait to see more progress.

If they don't fit, I hope Wylde at Canuck can modify his designs to fit this kit. Revell already announced a 1985 Jimmy, so I wonder how many more grill variants we will get as the years go by.

That looks to be the 1983-1984 GMC Deserter kit, with what I imagine will be some new decals. Meh. The Deserter is still easy to find (especially at HL). I'm all for new decals and a refresh, but I was hoping for something updated with new parts. Like what they did with the Sodbuster kit. As far as the larger conversation about Round2, I think they're playing it smart with their high-low mix of reissues and new tooling. As a 34 year-old, I wish they would lean a little more towards my era (1990s and up), but I get the appeal behind the nostalgia factor. If re-releasing a kit for the 100th time will lead to a new tooling of a modern/modern-ish subject, I'm good with that. I just hope that doing so isn't at the detriment of having more modern subjects. Which at this point for Round2, is anything from the 1990s and above.

He has them re-listed on the ebay page.

Thank you, Eli. Sounds like a fun project. Since I still haven't had time to sit down and wet sand/polish, I decided to start looking at my decal options. Over the years, I have collected a large collection of police decals for future projects. I've done this especially with LASD decals. LASD markings are trademarked and the department has taken legal action against many decal makers (no matter how small the operation) to have them cease their sales. All of my decals are out of production pieces. For those of you familiar with police decals, Chimneyville also made an LASD set back in the day. That one was the worst of the bunch and I sold it a long time ago. There is also a decal maker on ebay that sells LASD decals under a generic name, but those have inaccurate fonts/colors. So that leaves me with the four sets below. Between them, I have everything I need minus license plates. Looking at the few photos I have found of LASD Tahoes of this era, they all have "1010xxx" series plates. These will be custom made by a friend as a personal favor.

I've been googling behind the scenes filming images for Season 5 and so far have only found the following 3 vehicles: It definitely won't be this truck that's the surprise, but I would love for this to be a future spinoff of the Blazer kit: This radio station van looks like it'll play a big role, but the dimensions don't match what Revell is advertising. This can also be a potential future variant of Revell's Chevy Van. Steve's BMW will be making a return as it's been seen in behind-the-scenes photos. I still think this might be a strong contender to be the new kit.

This was my first thought as well. We all called it: Revell is going to milk this new mold for all it's worth, and rightfully so. I just hope the High Roller kit has options to build a stock ride version.

I'll probably pick one up. I never bought any of the previous releases and this fits right into my love of everyday vehicles. The 1:1s seemed to be everywhere for about 10 years after the initial release.

Thanks! Thank you! Baby is doing well. He's approaching 5 months now and already weighs 18 lbs. Just trying to keep him away from the bad air quality we've been having in So Cal due to the fires. Thanks! I always thought that the barn doors looked better than the tail gate rear door.

I finished detail painting the interior glass piece. The piece has well-defined ridges for the black borders around the front and black windows, so I just brushed Vallejo black acrylic paint on the inside and wiped away any excess with a pointed cotton swab. Since I scribed the rear window to convert it into 2 barn door windows, I had to paint the black border down the middle. The horizontal lines along the back window are raised ridges along the interior, so I had a hard time taping the area to paint it. I used an old roll of flexible black pactra tape and placed it down the middle. I then blended it with Vallejo black. The rear side windows have no ridges, so I placed the glass inside the cab and used Tamiya tape to eyeball and create my own borders. I then brush painted with Vallejo acrylic black again. I love Vallejo black as it is very easy to brush on. Since the area is so small and I'm painting along the interior of the glass piece, there are no brush marks visible from the outside. After completing the black borders, I brush painted the roof with Testors Flat Gray enamel. It's a bit darker than the gray I used for the interior tub, but the contrast shouldn't really be visible from the outside and I just want it too look close. I find Testors enamel to be very easy to brush on once it's been thoroughly mixed. I'll use the same Testors paint on the inside of the body, particularly the interior pillars. I'd say it looks pretty good: After this, I addressed one final issue with the grill. The 3D printed aftermarket grill I'm using has open vents, meaning that the obliterated front end of the body will be visible: My initial solution was to glue black styrene sheets to the back of the grill, but I did not leave any clearance between the grill and the mounting holes/pillars that I left on the front end. I opted to use Hasegawa flat black finish tape along the back: And here's the result: With this done, all that is left is to wet sand/polish the body and then final assembly. The body is now dry, but I will have to find the time to sit down and go through the tedious wet sand and polishing stage.

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/80s-ford-f250 https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/ford-f-series-base-wheels-with-integrated-hub-caps

Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 White Primer.

I cleared the body today with 4 progressively heavier coats of my favorite spray clear - Mr. Super Clear UV Cut Gloss: I think it's a bit hard to tell from the pictures, but the clear definitely gave the flat white primer the pop I was looking for. Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't seem as glossy as spraying white gloss paint with clear coat. It's fine for this build since it's a police vehicle, but I may not use this method for something "nicer." I'll see how it continues to dry. I'll give everything 1-2 weeks to dry before wet sanding and polish. Over the weekend, I also dealt with the side mirrors. For some reason, AMT gave the Tahoe and the old and new versions of the C-3500 dually kit side view mirrors from the S-10. PPV models used the "aero" style mirrors. Thankfully, the most recent issue AMT 1992 Silverado kit has the mirrors that I need. This is the second time I rob the mirrors from one of these kits for another build. I snipped away the mounting pegs, applied primer, and then Tamiya TS-14 Black: While the clear dries, I will finish painting the black border portions of the kit-supplied plastic "glass." Stay tuned.

i would support this.

Thank you, Carl. While the body is drying, I worked on the rear arrow stick. Here is the real thing for reference: I grabbed a spare arrow stick from the Lindberg Crown Victoria Ohio State Patrol kit. The design isn't exactly the same and it had a blemish. I decided to use the blemish as an excuse to strip the chrome off and make it look closer to what I needed. Here it is before: And here it is after stripping: I used a piece of evergreen stock to fill in the rear of the arrow stick. This is not filled as the arrow stick is meant to attach to the Lindberg kit's Vector light bar. I painted the entire piece with Tamiya AS-12 Bare Metal Silver. I then cut out a piece of clear plastic, painted it with Tamiya TS-73 Clear Orange, and glued it on top of the arrow stick. Some flat black was applied to the sides of the arrow stick to match the real thing. And here it is: Not perfect but it looks closer to the real thing.

Here's some photos, straight from Revell's website. And a video: https://revell.de/en/shop/product/077249090-stranger-things-1985-chevrolet-k5-blazer All I can say is that I'm still trying to recover my jaw from off the floor.