Project510

Build quality on my brothers 750 was great, just like the two CB550's I owned. I enjoyed riding it, but enjoyed my 550's more and my XS650 even more. I relate that mostly due to the fact that my brothers 750 was 100% factory and I had changed many things on my bikes. I cant imagine paying 15k for one unless I was absolutely in love with it and never planned on selling. My XS This 750 on CL in my area looks great! https://sacramento.craigslist.org/mcy/d/sacramento-1973-honda-cb750-scrambler/7734801062.html

I have already started this one so the the first post is going to be long and full of updates to get us caught up. With the C7R finished and my group build responsibilities done (for now) I think I will jump into this one. Did a little more work getting the wide body kit attached. It doesn't fit as great as I initially thought. Not bad though. Kit also came with a nice set of wheels. Appear to be Work Meister S1 Used the Dremel to trim away and clean up inside the fender. Spent quite a bit of time sanding as well to help the transition. More work still to be done but in general this was for sure the right way to go. Should clean up nice and look great once paint is applied. Not super happy with the vents yet. Again, once cleaned up it will look fine after paint. It was so fragile it broke away as soon as I started drilling it out. This caused me to make a bigger hole than I wanted to clean it up.  I was going to post up the two wheel sets and ask for opinions on what looked better but once I saw the photos I am set on the Works.  Kit supplied wheels Aftermarket wheels that came with the Pandem kit from Fugu Garage Getting the chassis painted up. 1st step was to paint it all black then tape off the first section. After the tape session, came LP-36  After that was to remove some tape and paint the UCA's and heat shield After that dried for a day came another tape session. Then more black.... this is starting to get annoying haha And for the reveal... Looks good. I made a few mistakes. Ill let it dry for 24 hours and then fix a few small things if I can. Ok that gets me caught up. My progress is usually slow. I only get a few hours a week at the work bench. So see ya around and thanks for looking.

Thanks!

Vette is done. I was pleasantly surprised with the fit and finish of the kit being Revell. Until, that is until I got to the body. I cant get it on fully, so it looks like the ride height is bad. Also the windows do not fit great. Bummed, but my goodness the paint looks great haha.

I used evans design leds. Red, orange and ... flickering fire. Which will be perfect for your furnace.

Have not posted in here in a while. I guess I should update progress. I finished the CRX for my sons bedroom shelf as he requested. Granted this was the 2nd kit I had built in almost 2 decades its not that great. My sons next request as mentioned in previous posts was a Saturn V rocket. He also wanted it to look like it was blasting off and I did the best I could with some LEDs. That is also done. I have not finished the 64 Chevy pickup. I am debating making it into a little diorama to display. I have also started this kit as part of a 6 month Group Build on the MSC forum. I am about to cross the finish line, just laid down clear. need to attach a few pieces and then final assembly. I decided to build the car as a street version if GM ever sold one. Sort of like a Porsche GT3RS. Basically the race car minus a few bits made for the street. Last and final update is that I also entered into a multi-year group build ( also on MSC forums) with this Ok that mostly catches me up. Ive started on the bus, only trying to lower it with major changes. Ill post those later.

Keep me posted on both! The Avex kit is the one I'm looking for but also interesting haha.

Looking for some kits. Shipping would be to Hayward, Ca so If you have them I would prefer you also be in the US. Thanks for looking.

I couldnt just leave it alone haha. I wasnt super satisfied. Gave Youtube and Google a search for alternative ways to find the look I was going for. What a rabbit hole that was... I do think I found a way to get it done once and for all. So that was started yesterday. First, was to sand off as much of the teal as I could. Then paint it all a rust ish brown. I added some orange and red to the brown I had on hand. works for me. Then I tried to look for a factory color from 64 and I settled on Dark Blue (63 was Balboa Blue) and this was the closest I could get without purchasing paint. Finally. Im pretty sure this is the one. I think its more realistic. Still have the heavy rust spots to add as well as sanding the bed. I'm super happy with this. Also trying to figure out the wheel situation..

Wasnt happy with the CRX sooooo.. I started over. Also, I got the filters in from MicroMark. Happy to have them, and they work... but they are easily 1/3 the same thickness. So while they are cheaper, I would assume they will last a no where near the original. Good thing I bought more than 1. Because I had the CRX almost done (so I thought) I brought another kit I have had half built in a box for over a decade not knowing I would restart the paint on the CRX. I painted it a looooong time ago, and it was nice, but wanted to use this kit as a practice dummy. I've sanded down and repainted it twice in the last few weeks. I was the Good Guys show here in Ca and saw a truck that had some really nice patina on it and got inspired so I started practicing some weathering. Generally I would had done this from the start, so as you sand down you get the right colors but its a good excuse to practice adding rust, and weathering etc. Its been fun. I think I will leave it like this.

Same here, my old car Ill never get over selling. Not a lot of updates this week. Some good and bad news. Bad news first. I did not like how the window trim came out, was at first going to leave it because it felt more difficult to correct but I couldn't just leave stuff alone so I tried to fix it and cracked the body above the windshield. So I will be working on that this week. I pivoted to painting the Saturn V, but noticed clouds of paint spray in the booth so I knew something was wrong. Apparently I have neglected the 3 layer filter for too long and its badly clogged. My Artograph 1530 is discontinued, but thankfully MicroMark still sells the filters so I purchased a couple of them to last a long time So some good news... My brother finished 3D printing all my requested pieces to add some organization to the workbench. I was able to get a lot of stuff off the table to have more space to work. I'm pretty excited. 3D printed parts include 4 cylinder type containers for q-tips tooth pics etc. 2 tall cases to hold tools, 2 nipper/plier holders, 1 flat tray to hold tweezers and pin vise. He also printed this wire holder bracket I added a 3/8 dowel to. And lastly the l brackets for the shelves. Black walnut is a bit much to hold $5 jars of paint but it was scrap wood from my pile and it looks cool haha. The baskets were $12 from Home Depot. Also, the tamiya tape holder is great. I added some tool box tray liner to the bottom to prevent it from sliding around. Works pretty good!

Been a busy week, but not with modeling work. Too many birthdays, and baby showers, and kids sports practice and school. I did manage to get the black trim paint work done. Not 100% happy with it, but think it will harder to remove it and retry. Just need to do a better job taping off the car and probably a bit more patience painting. Also got time to put the stuffing on the cones for the rocket to see how it looks. It didnt come out how I thought it would, but the wife and kid saw it and they liked it so works for me! I did decide to trim that center cone so they are even. I will also add some orange and red paint so he gets the effect in both day and night. Night time will have the leds lighting it up.

Thanks David, I agree.

Chassis is done, has been done for a few days. Have just been waiting for paint in the mail. Was trying to locate paint that matched the OEM color from Honda Celestial blue. Found a pretty damn close option from Mr. Color and I think it turned out great. Its a bit too dark but out of the jar was the closest I could find. I'm happy with it. Once I get the black trim and window rubber areas painted should look pretty good.

Pretty much done with the underside. Tail lights came out pretty nice. Had some trouble with the Tamiya Smoke for the glass. Think my regulator might be bad, or at least not accurate. I kept turning it down to reduce psi finally got it to where it sprays nice and its reading 5 psi.

This was the very first model kit mom ever purchased for me as a kid! Wish I still had it! Good luck on the build!

Using the same approach but using polyfil (stuffing) and using spray adhesive to these clear cone shapes I made out of 3 mm thermal laminating pouches.

Man, I am terrible at updates. Despite the lack in updates I have finally found a decent groove of getting time to work on these kits. Not without some extra frustrations, but I am working through it. After having not built anything in SO long, I was disappointed in the results of this S13 kit. But what it did was get me in a rhythm of building every other day. This is probably the first kit in full I have finished in almost 18 or so years. At some point something was sprayed or spilled on the window plastic so it looks terrible. My hands are not steady at all but all in all, its ok looking. My son loves it and that's all that matters. Also, I didnt clear it because I figured once I get a bit more practice in I can respray the body and make it nicer. I've also continued work on the rocket. This was taking forever because I was thinking of a way to get LED lights and smoke on it. My boy wants it hanging from the ceiling so I had to figure out how to add a switch and mount the battery etc It was cold and raining here so instead of painting the Saturn V I also started some details on the CRX. I think I am slowly getting back into it. Skill level very slowly improving. Finding that I am getting better with the airbrush as well.

Clearly I am out of practice. Petty disappointed with my outcome on the paint. Ill remask the grey and and give it another coat of body color to cover it up but otherwise, I don't want to make it worse by trying to make too big of a correction. My son is thrilled the car is painted, and its being displayed in his room so if he likes it, I'm fine. Also, my dry brushing technique could use a little practice haha.

It felt like forever since I worked on this car! ANd I was right, 6 month went by in a snap. My sons current obsession (besides nissans) is now rockets. So I have spent the last 6 months building, coloring, painting and blasting rockets. Which leads to little to no time for my own stuff. I managed to get started on teh S13 again this past weekend and wow. I think this may be the best paint I have ever put down on a kit. Its not even close to perfect, but its easily MY best haha. Even mixed up my own paint to try to get the right Nissan OEM paint. The wet paint shows a lot of metallic but it softened up a bit once dry. Well see how it goes once clear is on. I still need to do the grey two-tone trim. I think I mentioned before but I also solved the bad primer issue. Pretty sure it was a mixture of multiple issues. Incorrect pressure, incorreclty thinned primer, and poor care for the airbrush. All of which has been solved and Im laying primer nice and smooth This is my current distraction from the car projects. A Revell Apollo Saturn V. Im not building the full kit though, im ading LEDs and polyfil for a smokey blast off effect to use it as a night light for my son. He absolutely LOVES the Saturn V rocket haha. The kit is not that great of a fit, and if I were doing it correctly, would take forever there is so much to fix, or fill. What a mess.

Thanks for the tip David, its just my low quality photo. The masking is on the inside, and I do play to spray the inside. I do appreciate the heads up!

Slow progress but slow is good I think. I learned a LOT this week. After taking a 2nd try at the primer I realized I have been airbrushing wrong the entire time. I always wondered why even with this expensive paint booth, and airbrush and compressor I was still getting clouds of paint, tons of over spray clogging up the filters. After the tips from Coolhand I realized my issues were heavy paint, and not knowing how to properly use the airbrush. Now after a bit of practice, I am seeing a much better application of the paint. Not only that but the booth is pulling the paint and fumes out as it should and thats great. Makes sense, I was always in such a rush to build I never stopped to properly learn good technique. I obviously still have so much to learn as far as technique and skill but at least Im pointed in the right direction haha. Painted the chassis and with this Aoshima kit there is a lot of areas that needed to be hand painted. A steady hand I do not have so its not so bad. Also having to make these window masks is tough!

Great work! Thats a great look for that 55!

Wow that looks great! It looks like a diecast model.

Wow, what a difference new paint properly thinned will make. Thanks for the tip CoolHand!