Chief Joseph

Okay, I've been wanting to experiment with a urethane clear but I can't find anything under about $55 for a quart of the stuff. That's too expensive for experimentation and too much to have onhand to go bad over time. I found Zero Paints over on the other side of the pond sells this nice little set: Of course it would cost an arm and a leg to get this stuff imported. Is anyone in the USA packaging something like this for model builders? TIA, Joseph

Hi John; what you're basically doing is a basecoat/clearcoat with acrylics instead of solvent paints. If you have any dust or trash in your color coat, you should lightly sand it out with fine sandpaper and then when it's nice and clean, shoot your Future clearcoat. I would not attempt to use any type of rubbing compound before applying the Future. Future will shine for the life of your model, and although it is not supposed to yellow, I would avoid placing the model where direct sunlight might affect it. Sunlight can do all kinds of funny things to paints and coatings over time. Regards, Joseph

Thanks Chuck I was able to stop by the Dodge dealership in Huntsville today and snapped a couple of pics for reference. They had a new 2012 R/T Plus in orange that was stunning!

Do you use epoxy putty? It can be flattened into a sheet, trimmed, textured, and placed into position before it hardens. You can better represent "scale weight" with the epoxy putty, since you can drape it and press it into place and it will hold that position.

Hello! Anybody here have access to a new Challenger? I'd like a good pic of the rear window defroster lines (anal, I know...). I have scoured car dealership pics on the 'net and haven't found anything clear enough to use as a good reference. I guess I could go to a local dealership and take a pic but I thought I'd ask here first. I want to draw up the grid lines to make a decal for the AMT kit. Thanks! Joseph

I built a lot of NASCAR models back in the early 90's and I got decent results from the hobby enamels that were prevalent at the time. I used a micro-mesh polishing kit and rubbed out the finish to what I felt was a nice shine. Since then I have been doing military and sci-fi almost exclusively where getting a perfect shiny finish isn't really necessary. Now that I am getting back into cars a little, I want to get better with the glossy finishes to replicate the look of factory paint from the 60's to today. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel, so I've been researching the paint topics on this forum for a while to learn as much as possible! I have several NASCAR bodies to use for testing when I get some time. I'm going to try some different products and see what system works best for me. I have a strong feeling I'll get my best results from basecoat/clearcoat with lacquer.

You're in England? I'll guess it's a Sparmax

Not to get off topic too much, but if you ever want to experience pure JOY when airbrushing an acrylic paint, use Medea Com-Art paint. No thinning needed, dries on the model almost instantly, won't cause tip-dry, and you can leave it in the airbrush cup overnight and come back the next day and pick it up and start spraying again. The downside is that It's expensive and the color selection is not that great, which means you have to custom-mix most colors. FWIW, I have the best luck spraying Testors Acryl paint with my old Aztek airbrush. As scalenut mentioned, a larger needle/nozzle will work better than a fine one.

If you're talking about Testors Acryl paint, then I find them to be a little hit-and-miss. Brush painting small items is usually trouble-free but airbrushing can get a little froggy. The Flats shoot through the airbrush easier than Glosses. I've almost always thinned them with distilled water and a drop or two of Liquitex airbrush medium. I use gravity-feed airbrushes, so I thin them a lot and shoot at low pressure. Tip-dry is a real problem with them, and you can go nuts with the paint flow stopping every few seconds. Thinning with the Acryl airbrush thinner is probably the most reliable solution. Some guys have good luck with cheap blue windshield washer fluid. I usually have the best results when I've used a good primer coat (an enamel or lacquer primer, not Acryl itself as a primer!). Hope this helps.

Post-curing is when you heat the green (fresh, new) mold for about 4 hours at 120 degrees to drive out the residual chemicals and strengthen the rubber. A burned-out mold is one that has been used up, i.e. the resin castings have burned it up so badly that it can no longer produce quality parts. A tin-cured rubber mold should be used up fairly quickly so that all the parts pulled from it are dimensionally consistent. How old is this Mold Max 30 you got for free, and has it ever been opened? This stuff goes bad fairly quickly after it has been opened, especially if the humidity is high. Maybe it was free for a reason

Mold Max 30 is a tin-cured silicone that is mixed 10:1 with its catalyst, so you should use a gram scale to get the proper ratio. It's very forgiving, though, and you can be off a little and still be okay. If it's under-catalyzed by a few percent, then it will take longer to harden. Has to be post-cured or the first casting or two will be ######. Shrinks a bit over time, so it's best to burn the mold out with castings soon after it's made and toss it. Can't pressure cast with it unless it was pressure-cured or vacuumed. The new Mold Star 30 is a platinum 1:1 mix that is a pure joy to work with. Costs quite a bit more than the tin silicone, but the speed and thin viscosity is great. It can be measured by volume or weight. No post-cure needed since there's no alcohol in the rubber. Actually shrinks just a tiny bit, which is unusual for platinum, but not nearly as bad as tin-cured rubber.

One of the other forums I visit, Starship Modeler, has several of the more active areas limited to about 45 days. When a thread hasn't had any new posts, it expires and goes bye-bye. This is mainly in the off-topic forums, but it does affect some of the model-related forums. The really useful stuff, like the construction & painting topics, are permanent. That's one way to keep the forum relevant but not too cluttered.

That's the one I saw! Not a shaker, but a T/A snorkel: Thanks much.

Is anyone making any resin parts for the new 2009/2010 Challengers from Revell & AMT? It seems like I saw a resin snorkel-type hood not too long ago but now can't find any reference to such a piece. Thanks in Advance, Joseph

Great job! Looks just like the ones I remember from way back when. A/C is cool, too-- I'll have to pick up this kit just to have those parts

Thanks gents! George: The only 1/24 scale decal I currently make is HA(L)-3 Seawolves for the 1/24 Monogram UH-1B. There aren't any other 1/24 scale helo models!! Mark: Not Bootsy, although he's always been my favorite funk bassist. It's DJ Lance Rock. Google him

My name is Joseph Osborn and I am a long-time modeler in Alabama. I actually took about a 10-year hiatus in the nineties due to marriage, kids, and all that kind of stuff... I also spent a few years dabbling in 1:1 scale model cars (1969 Pontiac GTO's) but, finding that it was indeed an expensive hobby, left it to return to the smaller scales. My main area of interest is helicopter modeling, and I have been selling resin and decal sets for helicopters since 2004 under the line Fireball Modelworks. I started Fireball Modelworks because I finally realized it was hopeless to wait for model companies to produce the models I wanted to make, and it was up to me to do it for myself. I've joined the Scale Cars forum because I bought an AMT 2010 Challenger R/T Classic and I needed some resources for that build. I've already found Scalefinishes.com, who has the paint I'm going to need soon. I have some other cars on my bucket list: a couple of '69 GTO's to build up as the cars I owned, an '87 Buick GN, and an '86 Buick Regal T-Type. I've had these kits hoarded for years but haven't gotten around to building them. I've started the Challenger, and although I had intended to build it out-of-the-box, I already see some things I have to replace in order to satisfy myself. I'll start a build thread before too long and post some pictures. Cheers and Happy Sunday, Joseph