av405

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/pickup-truck-towing-mirrors-pack-1

Hello all. I'm looking for this sheet, specifically the security decals.

Looks great! I'll be watching this one.

It does appear to have the Nite stripes, but none of the corresponding name decals.

Very sparse on the vehicle front, but I'm in for some F-150s.

From a fellow SoCal modeler, welcome!

Thanks, Ulf!

I've dealt with him before, both through ebay and facebook. Very professional guy and the quality of his work is good. He sells a lot of Andrey Bezrodny's 3D designs that a lot of other 3D printers do. The best part about Diolex is that he includes clear "glass" for the windows and headlights/tail lights at a very good price.

Thank you all for the kind words! This weekend was all about the paint. I painted over the grey primer with Mr. Surfacer 1500 white primer. Remember folks, bright colors like yellow need a white undercoat. Mr. Surfacer 1500 lays on so smooth that no wet sanding is necessary after to get a smooth finish. Unfortunately, my Tamiya Camel Yellow can started to run low as I was getting to the cab. Typically, a can of Tamiya is plenty enough to paint an entire kit. However, I expended some paint running my spoon tests. I just ordered another can, so the cab will be finished as soon as that arrives. Until then, this project is officially on hold.

With the addition of some Mr. Surfacer 1500 black primer to the bottom, the front bumper is done. I just noticed that there is a tiny black debris speck in the middle of the bumper which must have attached itself when I first painted it with the Silver Leaf. I will leave it alone as it will eventually get covered up with a license plate. Now onto the front window. When painting the black surround on these windows, I like to use the contours/edges typically found on a lot of kit windows to mask off sections that won't be painted. The window on this kit doesn't have edges so this is what I did. First I taped the window to the cab. I then used white tamiya masking tape (the flexible kind intended for curves) and created paint edges along the inside of the window, going slow to make sure that everything was even: Once I was satisfied, I used a sharp knife and removed any excess tape. I then brush painted the desired areas with Vallejo flat black. Since it is such a small area and I painted the inside of the window, I didn't have to worry about any paint brush streaks being visible from the outside:

Thanks! Thanks! Glad its worked out for you as well. It's definitely one of the best tips I've learned on this forum. Now for some more progress. The chassis and engine bay are done. It was my first time detailing up a chassis and engine bay, and I'm happy with the outcome all things considered. I still prefer building curbside, but I'm always happy to try out new things and further my modeling skills: I painted the bumpers today. I followed the same paint method as the wheels - Tamiya Silver Leaf cleared with Tamiya Flat Clear: Some imperfections showed through at the bottom of the front bumper. Luckily, I have to paint that portion flat black so that should be an easy fix.

Thank you! Yes, you're right about that. I should have specified in my earlier posts that the interior door panels are correct for power windows but not for cranks. I thought about re-doing the upholstery pattern on the seats with putty. But like you said, its good to know when to stop, especially when it comes to interior stuff that won't be too visible. The windows had some fine scratches and blemishes from having bounced around unprotected inside the box for decades. A little Novus 2 and some polishing pads took care of most of it: I spent the last few days working on the stance of the truck. These AMT Ford kits sit a bit too low to the ground for my liking. I added some thin Evergreen pieces to give the truck a slight lift. I could have probably gone just a bit higher, but I didn't want to push my luck. Here's how the truck looks as of today, with the corrected stance and main components mocked up:

I did everything with an Xacto knife. This is the second AMT kit in a row that I work on where the wheels come this way. Both are early 90's kits, so this must have been standard back then. Each time I've taken a bit too much off at least one tire. Good point. I do have some silver paints, but they were all too bright. The real Ford wheels are more of a "subdued argent.' Somewhere between flat grey and silver. The bumpers are the same color so I'm going to paint them the same as well.

Now onto one of the other challenges of this build: the wheels. Excluding the Lightning kits, all other versions of the AMT F-150 come with the Forged Aluminum style wheels featured in the middle of this brochure picture. It's a beautiful design, but they were not options on the XL models. Oddly enough, they were options on the Custom model, which was marketed as a step below the XLs. For a long time, this project stalled due to the lack of appropriate wheels until the aftermarket came through for me. Zforce Modelworx features this design for sale on cults: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/ford-f150-90s-15-oem-fans It's a very flexible design as they are appropriate for XL and XLT model trucks, depending on how they are painted. Best of all, the hubcaps are separate pieces from the wheels: The advertised Ford color for these wheels is argent. Unfortunately, I do not have any argent paints or anything that comes close to the right look, so I had to experiment a bit. Here's the final result: The wheels were painted with Tamiya TS-30 Silver Leaf and then clear coated with TS-80 Flat Clear. TS-30 is a very argent-like color, but has too much shine. The center caps were painted with Revell Chrom(e) spray. I cannot recommend this product enough. I let it dry for 2 weeks and it was rock solid after. This spray does not need primer or a base. I still have to paint the center of the caps, but I will do that at a later stage. If anybody has recommendations for a good argent spray color, I'm all ears. Also, I'm going to end this post by saying how much I hate having to remove this:

You have a point on the cleanliness aspect, especially when the base trucks have vinyl seats. They're not great if its hot, but boy are they easy to clean. Thanks for the kind words! I did that freehand. It's very easy to do with a Sharpie. The trick is to run the side of the marker tip along the edges, not the tip itself. Glad to help! This was my first time removing the moldings off of an entire kit and I managed to do it all in one night. I actually found it to be much easier than I thought it would be and now I'm not so "scared" to do it again. As for the fender emblems, those will be covered up by "XL" decals. Thanks!

Thanks! I have a soft spot for them as well. I really hate the bling on a lot of today's "luxury" trucks. Thanks Carl! I got the front grill done. The kit comes with separate clear headlight lenses. I brush painted the amber portions with Tamiya X-26 clear orange. Vallejo black paint was used to simulate the rubber(?) separation between the bottom turn signal lens and the top headlight lens. I then used a black sharpie to outline the entire piece. Thankfully, Ford used the same grill/front fascia for both their base XL models and higher trim models. The main difference was that the XL version was a dark grey as opposed to chrome. As such, I stripped the chrome from the kit's grill. The piece was then primed and painted with Tamiya TS-4 German Grey. I used Bare Metal Foil to simulate the backing for the headlights. I initially painted the grill inserts with Vallejo black to simulate the vents. For various reasons, I didn't like the look so I decided to open up the middle vents. I did this by filing away the back of the grill and sanding the edges to get as clean of a look as possible. I decided to not open the outer vents as I was more satisfied with the black paint on those and the shape would have made sanding/filing more difficult. Maybe I'll try to open up all the vents on the next project. I then re-sprayed the German Grey paint and here's the final outcome: The blue Ford oval decal is from a Lindberg Crown Victoria police car kit. The decal sheets on those contain numerous Ford oval decals and they have served me well on other Ford kits that don't contain blue oval decals. Once I get the body painted in the main color, I will paint the area behind the grill black to achieve the final look. Now onto the paint. This is more or less the color I'm going for: I did spoon tests of various Tamiya colors to see what I liked more. I'm going to proceed with the TS-34 Camel Yellow. It contains that mix of yellow and orange that I desire, as oppose to pure orange or yellow. I started off by painting the engine bay with the Camel Yellow. I then detail painted various parts of it with Vallejo Black. I'm not a huge fan of the result, but some of these details should be obscured when the engine bay is done. It's my first time assembling an engine on a kit, so this has been a learning experience for me.

I finished sanding the rubber molding from the front bumper. I started by stripping the chrome off and then working at it with various files and sanding boards, mostly consisting of 400 grit and then 600 to smooth things out. Here it is with primer. I spent most of today painting various small parts:

Got the toolbox done. It's a 3D-printed design that I found on cults3D. The design page describes it as intended for a Revell pickup, but the sample photos show it on an AMT F-150 and it fits like an absolute dream. The print required very minimal cleanup. I primed it with Mr. Surfacer 1500 and then painted it with Tamiya TS-17 Gloss Aluminum. Here's the link: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/saddle-box-for-revell-pickups-1-24-scale

Thank you both! I have about 7 of these kits, in all the different variants/releases. I bought so many because I used to drive a 1994 and it's my favorite truck body style. This is my first build of this kit and I am very happy with how well it's gone together so far. I don't have any complaints to share at this stage. I can't wait to see if AMT includes any new parts/options in the upcoming re-release of the 1992 Flareside.

I've always liked working on dashes. I taped off the appropriate areas and spray-painted the black portions with Tamiya TS-29 Semi Gloss Black: I then hand painted various other details with Vallejo acrylics: The dash has excellent detail, but the interior tub is lacking. I took some 3D printed window cranks from Iceman Collections and glued them on to provide more detail. Window cranks would have still been standard on XL trim trucks during this era. Here they are after painting and installation: Unfortunately, the interior door details are not accurately molded on the kit, so the location of the crank looks funny despite being in the right spot. Here's the completed interior tub: The only remnant of the kit's XLT trim origins are the upscale seat pattern. I did not feel like going through the effort of modifying it, so the bench seat will stay as-is. The bench seat comes with integrated cup holders, which are supposed to color match the seats/interior. Since this is an XL trim truck and it's not supposed to have integrated cup holders, I simply painted them black to resemble aftermarket cup holders that my dad and many of his co-workers used before they became standard on later generations of trucks.

Thanks, James. I painted the interior with Tamiya AS-10 Ocean Grey: It's a pretty close match to the Charcoal Grey interior option used up until 1993. For 1994, Ford transitioned to the lighter Opal Grey interior. I also painted the spare tire that will be mounted to the chassis. The tire came in two pieces, so I glued it together and was able to sand away much of the seam line. I primed the whole thing with Mr. Surfacer 1500 black. I then taped off the wheel portion and painted the tire portion with Tamiya TS-82 Rubber Black. I honestly didn't see a huge difference with the black primer, especially for a piece that will not be visible. But it was still nice to see how TS-82 looks since I hadn't used it before.

Ahh I should have known. I have a few of your products and am a big fan. Just know I'd buy more from you if you reopen for business.

Thanks, Carl. Anytime! Between working a lot of OT, I've been spending time mostly getting all of the parts washed and dried. I set aside some parts that will need a little more sanding to look just right. Most of them are the parts that I de-chromed. As you may be able to tell, I have started to remove the rubber trim on the front bumper to make it look like a base XL bumper. I also drilled out the exhaust tips: I primed most of the big parts in Mr. Surfacer 1500 black and grey since I'm done with the body work. I cannot say enough good things about this line of primers.

Great to hear. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about anything. It took some trial and error to get it to look right.

Great job! Can the tool box design be found/purchased anywhere?