Bill J

Scalefinishes has two main types of paint, one is lacquer that dries dull and the other is an acrylic enamel that dries glossy. Some colors are offered in both paint choices, some are only in one or the other. Both the paints are full size automotive paints. Naturally the enamel takes longer to cure, although usually not at all like the model enamel paints, which cure very slowly. There are some factors to all paints and that is age, amount of thinner mixed in and of course, the paint itself. I prefer not to clear coat, in my experience it gives you one more chance to ruin the paint job. I am sure we have all had this happen on occasion. My first hand experience with a common clear coat over a Scalefinishes enamel is not as drastic as the OP's Charger but I did get some weird cracking in the clear. The Scalefinishes enamel had been left alone for at least 3 weeks and then polished with Novus polishes. All was fine. I applied some laser printed decals and felt the need to clear coat over them, both to protect and to add a glossy finish. The clear went on fine and only developed a cracked look after about a day. The car was a 2-tone, one paint was Tamiya lacquer and the other was the Scalefinishes acrylic enamel. There was no reaction to the Tamiya paint and a cracking above the Scalefinishes paint. I have to add that I really like the Scalefinishes paint, the acrylic enamel. I rarely apply any clear coats to any paint job and usually test using a plastic spoon or some spare plastic. I have had trouble with every clear coating and I have had good results with clear coating. Hit or miss, pretty much. I had a fine spider webbing all over a car that was painted with Testor's enamel and cured for 5+ YEARS, then cleared with Tamiya TS-13 and it spider webbed. Testing is the answer to avoid problems. Always expect enamel to cure slowly and try not to use clears that are 'hotter" than the paint below. I also suggest asking the vender that makes the paint what the best cleat coat would be.

Speaking of the Future.Pledge Floor Care product, the last car I sprayed that on now has weird lines in part of the paint. They look like cracks and I am sure they are a reaction between the automotive acrylic enamel (fully cured for weeks) and the floor acrylic clear. Same car was a two-tone, red on the sides and black on the top. I had used Tamiya TS lacquer on the black and automotive 1:1 acrylic enamel for the red. Both colors were left alone for several weeks before polishing with Novus polish and then decaled. It was not the decals causing any problems. When I first applied the Pledge Floor Care everything was smooth and glossy. A few days later the red area had lines in random directions, pretty much all over. Both on the decaled areas and aside from the decals not even near the decal films. This is one of the few times I cleared after the decals. I avoid clear coating because it just adds one more potential opportunity to ruin the paint work. I do not use automotive lacquers, paint like Gravity or Zero because I do not like flat lacquers that require the extra steps of clear coating. I also would never use the super-duper 2-part urethane clears that some use, they are unrealistic on a model and the shelf life of the paint is nonexistent. You may do as you please, just not for me. The other aspect is that race cars today either use a vinyl printed "wrap" or computer cut vinyl applications. Neither are super glossy. I will add that I live where it is warm and dry and decals and paints hold up well indoors and I have not had problems with decals that have not been clear coated, many well over 20 years old.

The Charger 500 looks perfect! Nicely done.

Nice work on the Daytona. Looks like it should.

Sorry to see the super fine model smashed. Wishing you all the best getting it repaired.

Super nice build and detailing.

Yep, a darker than normal red. That is also what Ford candy apple red looks like. You would get about the same result with a number of paints. Pretty car for it's simplicity.

The real car was painted with Ford candy apple red. It is NOT a candy paint, it is just called candy apple red and is a plain, non metallic, none candy Ford color used in the 60's. A good close match would be Tamiya Italian red over Tamiya grey primer. The For4d color is still a little darker but the Tamiya Italian red over grey is close. NOT Testor's Italian red, it is not even close.

I did not see anything that I needed at the swap either. I missed finding Kurt's Coke cooler and never saw a kit that I wanted at a price I could pay. I did visit with a few friends and said hi to a few others and went home with my wallet intact.

Thanks for the great pictures. Congratulations to John Teresi and his amazing radial pickup, very imaginative! Congrats to all that won or participated, some very fine models. I am afraid I bailed before the first entry went on the tables, so I missed the whole point. Old age, I miss a lot of stuff

Went over first thing in the morning. I did not find any little Coke coolers, in fact I did not find one thing I was wanting. I left right after 9 AM. Hope everyone had a more productive time than I did.

I like that little Coke cooler. It would look good with my little Coke car I plan on going to the swap tables tomorrow, if I get up and around early enough url=https://imgur.com/u6z1Lj2][/url]

I still have a set somewhere in the plastic box they came in. Pretty cool.

Great looking Hudson, They are a fun build with little trouble. So far I have only made 2 coupes and one convertible. I love them but that foiling takes a ton of motivation to get going on. Incidentally, I had no problems with the decals but I built the ones I have done raight after the kits came out, so the decals were fresh. Sure reminds me of another time when Hudson's were a common site on the roads. Yep, I am old Here is my take on the 52 convertible. I used Hudson color called Texas Tan and my up top came from Motor City Resins. I used the wire wheels from the 54 Hudson kit.

Coming along nicely. Great subject too, hardly ever see a Charger 500.

No advise on saving your lettered tires. I have had this happen to me and I use Testor's acrylic flat clear out of an airbrush. It seems to happen if I apply the clear coat too wet. I think it re-wets the decal and causes the silvering. If I apply very light coats and allow some drying, I do not get the silvering. I had this happen on the same tires, same decals and the ones that silvered had been wet coated more than others that I did at the same time but gave them a few more lighter coats.

Not sure how this works in the automotive design world but in other fields rights expire after 50 years. Which is why you have old songs used in commercials and any record label can make records of 50+ year old artists music or publish books that were written over 50 years ago. However, since Cobra, Ford and Shelby are all still current brands, they would own the rights to their NAMES. So if you were to label a kit Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe, powered by Ford, you would be needing several licenses. If you called it Sports Car Race Car of 1964-65 you would be legit, most likely. A kit called a cobra is going to sell better than a kit called sports car race car, so one would probably want the name on the kit. Reality it that 1964-65 was a very long time ago and I would think that although there are people that remember the time period and the cars, it would not appeal as much to a younger builder that may want a kit of a Lamborghini as opposed to an antique race car that only raced a few seasons over 50 years ago. I would buy a bunch of them myself but I am thinking that from a marketing person's perspective, the Daytona Coupe and the Cheetah would both be light sellers. Who knows what goes through the marketing person's mind? Fortunately for us modeler's there are excellent kits of both the Cobra Daytona Coupe and the Cheetah made by Historic Racing Miniatures and MFH also makes a Daytona Coupe. A little pricey but great kits and quite well detailed. I have one of he Daytona coupe kits, I would not buy a Cheetah. The Cheetah is a cool looking car and good old American hot rodding at it's finest but it has not much of a track record beyond many DNF's. If you want one for it's cuteness or odd shape, it is available, just not at Hobby Lobby.

I guess I am missing a lot of drama with white paint. I have used MM white, it's alright. I have used the little Testor's bottle enamel, it's useable. I have used the acrylic Testor's white, one time and it came out great, the second color forced a strip and I went to a lacquer, didn't like it much. stripped again. I finally ended up with Tamiya TS Pure White and Racing White over Tamiya white primer. Used the can direct to the body, came out every time. I have lots of airbrushes and for body painting I have never decanted anything, always have better luck with just spraying from the can. Maybe I am lucky. I do use the airbrushes more than spray cans but for black and white and reds, I have good success with the TS spray cans. My favorite paint is Scalefinishes acrylic enamel, gloss coat paint. I have a cap that screws direct to the bottles and I airbrush away. Easy cleanup and no waste or mess pouring into bottles. I guess we all find what we like and what works for us. I try things until I find what works best for me. It took me a long time to try out the Tamiya spray cans but once I did, I really like them.

Excellent build. Always nice to see someone's methods of accomplishing the difficult. Keep up the great work

Historic Racing Miniatures makes a very nice resin kit of this car. While the car was interesting and cool looking in it's day, it was very unsuccessful as a road race car. Never much in control. I am with others here, I would much rather have a Cobra Daytona Coupe, it took the USA to it's first FIA Sports Car Championship, a very significant car in history. I have one of the HRM kits and a Gunze-Sanyo kit but a cheaper version sure would be nice. I will add, that if I had lots of money, I would love to have a kit car replica of a Daytona Coupe in 1:1 to drive. I doubt many could keep a Cheetah pointed in a safe direction, the race car drivers back in the day couldn't.

If you can find the AMT parts pack of Goodyear Polyglass tires, it comes with 4 of the F70-14's I seem to recall. The other 4 in the package are like G70-14's I think. Probably available on ebay.

I have one of the German issued Revell kits and I can say it looks very good. I have not done much with mine but I did look it over and it looks good. The US version will be the same, as far as I can tell. I may pick up another if the price is right on the US version.

Both the 64 Plymouth and the 64 Dodge were unibody cars. The chassis piece from the Linberg Plymouth would be the same basically as the Dodge and should fit although being different kit makers may need some adjustment.

Very nicely done. Looks like a fun kit too.

You can buy siphon lids that fit the MM bottles at Coast Airbrush. I find them super useful. When I paint Metalizers, I start with the lightest color I am going to use, say Aluminum and switch the lid to the next darker color until I have all my "metal" parts painted. I never clean the lid or the airbrush between colots. I spray until it stops shooting color and then plug in my next darker color. It makes getting parts painted a lot easier for me.