Chief Joseph

Justin, several posts ago I stated that photoetching is sort of like an algebra problem with a lot of steps to solve. If you have an error in any step, no matter how well the other steps are performed, will result in a wrong answer. You're seeing this action now! Each step-- from cleaning the metal, to applying the resist, to exposing the resist, to stripping the resist, to etching the metal, and finally to removing the resist-- has its own set of issues that have to be overcome to get a quality part in the end. And that's all assuming you have good artwork, which is another procedure all to itself. And it IS possible to get laser-cut accuracy! You are probably getting your metal cleaned well enough with the scuff pad and as long as you don't touch it with greasy fingers you should be okay. You are getting dust in the film because you are applying it dry, and that will attract dust out of the air. I recommend you apply the resist wet, which reduces the chance of dust and air bubbles trapped under the film. It's easy to wet-laminate: spritz some distilled water from a spray bottle onto the metal, lay the piece of resist over the metal and use a squeegee (an old credit card works fine) to press the film to the metal and push the water from beneath the film. After you apply the film this way, it is very important to let the film/metal sandwich dry thoroughly before you try to laminate it. I wipe the pieces with a paper towel to remove any excess water and then let them sit overnight to completely dry out. When you expose the resist to UV, consistency is very important. The Micro-Mark kit suggests using a 100-watt light bulb or the sun; of those two, the light bulb is more consistent, but it's a rubbish UV source. The sun is a really good UV source, but it hard to get consistent exposures from one day to the next, and sometimes you need to work at night! I use a 500-watt halogen work light as my UV source. It works better if the tempered glass protective cover is removed (tempered glass filters UV). By the way, I do not use NaOH (lye!) because it is far too harsh. I use Soda Ash, sodium carbonate Na2CO3, because it is much safer and works just as well. A 1% solution works as the developer (that is, 5mg of soda ash mixed with 500ml of distilled water) and a 2% solution as the stripper. Another benefit of soda ash is its price and availability. I got a container at Wal-Mart years ago (pool supplies) for about 6 bucks and I still have half of it. See, I need to write all this into a book...

Erik, have fun and above all, be patient while you work through your first few attempts. Make notes on what you do so that you can go back and see what works well and what doesn't.

That's bloody brilliant!

I made up some photoetched brass parts to help fix some of the kit's shortcomings. These are mainly parts for the top of the dash and alternate instrument clusters. The '85 will have the optional digital dash and the '87 will have the ASC dial gauges like a GNX, which was/is a popular upgrade to the standard GN. The kit instruments are a little wonky, and the steering column is not placed correctly in relation with the gauges. The gauge cluster from the Monogram GNX kit is a little better, but the dials are not laid out correctly. This is one of those things that I could have just ignored, but I like to obsess over little things I also put a bunch of replacement '87 grille emblems on this fret. I have already made the other replacement emblems on an earlier fret.

Yes. Check out this article: http://www.indy-amps.org/articles/soldering/soldering.html

What model are you working on, Bill?

That is a great model. Super finish and crispy attention to detail!

I like to mock-up or dry-fit my models as much as possible before I start painting to avoid any unpleasant surprises later in the assembly. That's probably a bad thing, because I have started many projects only to put them away after finding too many things that need fixing! I think a lot of modelers avoid this Grand National kit because of the black paint. I have test-painted various bodies in black around 6 or 7 times in the past few months and I'm just now almost comfortable with the idea of painting the GN bodies.

That's a great tip, Skip. The restoration parts catalogs from outfits like Year One and Original Parts Group are a great source of reference material on oem-type stuff, too. I

Not much progress, but I did fix that annoying left quarter window with Aves epoxy putty. I'm not even going to mention some of the other things I've found that are a little off-kilter. I also worked out a method to create the gentle curve in the door glass: The temporary door glass here is just tacked in place with white glue. When the real pieces go in much later in the build, I'll use clear epoxy to fix them in place with no gaps. Yeah, the windows will be rolled up on at least one of these cars, and probably both. Just a little pet peeve of mine that the US model companies automatically assume every car should have its windows rolled down!

Nah, that's nothing unusual. I have double that number of projects in one stage or another. If I tried to just do one model at a time and work on it from beginning to end, I'd probably get bored and look for another hobby.

Thanks for calling my attention to this area, Brian. It's hard to see the details on all this black plastic! The two quarter windows are different sizes, too; the left side it just a tad shorter than the right. I'll fix the angled area by adding some Aves Apoxie Sculpt putty in there to bring it back level with the body lines. Casey I didn't take any photos of the grille while I was assembling it. It was made by stacking individual plates of .010" brass together, alternating wide and short pieces to get the inset areas between each line. There are a total of 117 plates! Everything was held in alignment by two sections of 1/16' aluminum tubing; each plate had two 1/16" holes in it and they were all numbered, so the assembly was really easy. The finished piece is virtually solid brass and is very heavy. The final part that will go on the model will be a resin casting of this brass piece. I had a 1981 Regal that was really sharp but had this anemic little Pontiac V8 in it. I have often thought about building a replica of it from the GN kit, but there are a LOT of small things that are different. I almost traded that '81 for a new white 1986 T-Type but my dad talked me out of it. I had a friend back then who had an '85 GN and when the Monogram model came out, I had the foresight to take a bunch of pictures (actual, get-them-developed-at-the-drugstore photographs!) of his car to use as reference for the model. Little did I know it would be almost 25 YEARS later that I would actually get around to needing those photos

Here's a project that I have been kicking around for years and years and I finally decided I better do it now or I may never get it done. I am building two Monogram 1/24 Buick GN kits at the same time; one will be an '85 model and the other an '87. So far I've done a lot of planning and not a lot of building, but here are the mock-up photos; the '85 up first: The grille is made from photoetched brass and the tires are resin castings of my scratchbuilt Eagle GT. There are several differences between the kit (which is an '87) and a 1985 GN, so the "backgrade" requires a bit of work: different front chin spoiler, different wheels (I have some poor resin 1/24 scale Vectors from an Ebay vendor which I will attempt to make better), no intercooler, no 3rd brakelight (and the defroster lines are molded into the rear glass with the 3rd brakelight pattern!), and finally, the different grille. Since there is no intercooler on the pre-'86 GN, the whole turbocharger arrangement is different from the kit, but to save myself a lot of time and aggravation I'm just fastening the hood down and won't bother with detailing to top of the engine. Since this is a "hot-air" turbo (i.e. no intercooler), I've made up an appropriate vanity plate for it that reads "HOTMESS." The plate is photoetched brass with embossed letters. I'll print a decal to go over the top but I haven't decided on exactly what style of plate just yet: The 1987 GN will be somewhat easier to build since the kit depicts an '87: Same tires were used for both mock-ups. I've decided to make the job harder by adding LED's to represent the parking lights. That's a total of 8 red, 6 orange, and one white for the exterior lights. I'll also need to light up the instruments to be authentic. Overall, the stance of the stock kit looks decent to me, but I'll do some slight trimming to drop them just a little bit. Probably the most disappointing flaw in the kit is mismatched wheel openings: the openings on the right side are about 1mm forward compared to the left side. That means the wheels are centered properly in the openings on the left, but appear too far to the rear on the right side. I can fix this problem by adjusting the suspension on the right, but I don't like screwing up one thing to fix another. Also, several of the parts were marred in the boxes by having the vinyl tires loose in the box. I hate vinyl tires . I have FIVE of these kits to pull parts from, so I should have plenty of spares. Over the years I would buy them whenever I found a good price. The molding quality on the original kits from the late '80's is much better than the kits from the '90's and later, too. Thanks for looking. I'm not a fast builder, so don't be surprised if I don't show much progress

That's a neat site! They have some great basic tutorials with PDF downloads, too.

An epoxy putty like the ones Pat mentioned will do the job. Aves Apoxie Sculpt is my personal favorite. To remove the piece you make from your model is easy; first brush some vaseline onto the model where you will be applying the putty and then after you've made your part and it has hardened, just pop it off.

All of these Monte Carlo SS's are classy. That was such a classy design and it was from an era when NASCAR still had its innocence, for lack of a better phrase. I just can't identify with today's NASCAR.

This model is very old; at least 15 years and probably closer to 20. Can't even remember what year I did it! Click thumbnails for bigger pics: I actually built two of these AMT kits at the same time. I gave the other one to my nephew; I have no idea if it ever survived him

It's a fair assumption that whoever is willing to spend over $100 based on these poor photos has intentions of making their money back by selling copies. That person is not me, by the way

Patrick, if you add black use just a tiny amount because a little goes a long way! You can also darken your green by adding a little bit of red; but be careful because too much red will yield a ruddy brown color instead of a darker green.

I'm kind of surprised no one brought this up, but "master modeler" is/was a level of achievement within IPMS/USA. Basically if you won some awards at shows, participated in some activities, and showed up for meetings you got a certificate stating you were a "Master Modeler." Didn't mean a whole lot then and still doesn't. Just like anybody who self-publishes an ebook is now a "writer," anyone who completes a model can call themselves a "master modeler."

When this model is finished, there is going to be a Kansas mom very proud of her sons Mike and Charlie!

Great Warthog, Robiwon! The Tamiya kit is a classic. I built one around 87 or 88 and airbrushed the Europe-1 lizard scheme; really proud of the way it turned out. Then glossed it, decaled it, and sprayed Testors Dullcoat on it and the surface textured up and looked like moon craters. Haven't bought a can of Testors Dullcoat since, and never will again!

AH-1S(Mod) Cobra, heavily modified from 1/32 Revell AH-1G 1/350 AMT Klingon Bird of Prey 1/32 Revell Colonial Viper 1/1000 Polar Lights Klingon D7 Battle Cruiser Thanks for looking!

Hey Robiwon, great to see you over here and that's a sweet-looking Batmobile. Those inside fin seams on that kit are a PITA to fill!! There are a couple of other SSM regulars who post here, too. I think a Spinner would get a lot of attention on this site... do you have one of those in the works?

Well, it certainly looks nicer than my cardboard box with a 60W light bulb and 12V muffin fan. The one thing I think it needs for car drying (or for drying oil paints) is a source of gentle heat to get the temp up to 100-110F. The circulating air on its own will not make that much of a difference in cure times. Dust is not so much a concern for me since I let my stuff dry tack-free in the paint booth, then transfer it to the drying box.