Jdurg

Nice pick-up with the photo-etch kit. I love mine, and the more I use it, the better I get. The most difficult part is developing the plate after you've exposed it to the sun. (And use noontime sun to expose it. It takes mere seconds for it to turn the dark blue color indicating that it has hardened). I messed up countless times by using too strong a lye solution, or leaving it in there too long. If you can master that part, the act of ensuring the front and back are registered with each other is pretty simple (It's amazing what a tiny hole on opposite corners can do to help you line things up). The etching itself is the easiest part. I could not have finished my 1/16 '88 Corvette without it. Also, as an update to the automotivetouchup.com paint that I got, the primer did not eat the plastic, and today I put the first coat of Admiral Blue Metallic on the hardtop. (My test piece). It went on very easily and covered great without using a ton of paint. It also dries to a dull, pretty much flat, finish which lets you see that it has cured. No damage to the plastic. I'll smooth it out with some rubbing compound, if that's even needed, and hopefully get the clear coat on this weekend. If the decals can survive the clear coat, I'll be in great shape with this model. (Going to test the decals on this hard top as I'll be using a convertible top I'll either scratch-build, or swipe from a different 1/24 scale Corvette Convertible, as the Grand Sport Corvette pretty much only had a White Convertible top for it).

Last night, after getting home from work, I saw a nice package from UPS on my doorstep. Three 12 ounce aerosol cans, a bag of tack cloths, and a gun handle for the spray paint can to give my forearms some rest. The items were all bought from www.automotivetouchup.com. I found that site when doing a quick search on google for some brand of paint that closest matched the Admiral Blue Metallic paint of the 1996 Grand Sport. I did my first test run today, and the primer adhered to the paint and did not eat up the plastic. Looking at the ingredients in the paint, there are some pretty "hot" solvents in there. So thin coats will be a MUST! The primer also went on fairly thick, but that was okay for me as it covers up minor imperfections and shrinks up a bit as it dries. I sprayed the parts a few hours ago, and the odor of solvent on them is just about gone. The odor is STRONG on these things though. They are lacquer paints, and I don't have the cans next to me right now so I can't check, but I believe one of them is an acrylic lacquer and one is a non-catalyzed urethane lacquer. So I'm not even risking spraying these in the little booth in the room I have where there is ventilation. I am doing all spraying outside. They then sit out there for a bit until i bring them into the ventilated room right near an open window. These are where the parts are sitting right now. I'm going to go and let these sit for a few days before I apply the basecoat. Although the cans are a typical 12 ounce size, the paint comes out pretty quickly so in spraying over all the parts with a few primer coats, the can is just about empty. If this works out as I'm thinking it should, it opens up a whole new resource for factory matched colors. The three cans of paint, the tack cloths, and the gun handle cost me about $50 total. So it's not fully cheap, but thus far it's looking like it's worth it.

I've got me a 2009 Civic Hybrid Coupe. My first car ever was a 2003 Honda Civic Coupe, and due to smart money saving I was able to get it with only a very small loan. About 3 years after buying it brand new from the dealership, I had it fully paid off. Felt great getting the deed in my hands and not having to pay the monthly payments on it. Then, sadly, a year or so after paying it off I got in a car accident. It was a no-fault accident so I couldn't get the other party to pay for it. The worst part is that where the damage was, the repair cost was more than the value of the car in the eyes of my insurance company, so they totaled it. I ended up getting a newer Civic, and a few years after that I traded it in for my Hybrid. I would LOVE to be able to find a kit of my current Civic Hybrid or the 2003 that my first car was, but I don't think any of those exist.

For me, it's the belt/pulley assemblies. In the vast majority of the cases, the belts are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to thick for the scale of the kit. I understand that for fragility reasons they can't make them to the proper scale, but would it really hurt them to perhaps mold the pulleys separate from the belt and make the belt a different piece that you fit the pulleys into? This way, if we want to just take some properly scaled belt material and put it into the proper form, we could do that. It's a pain having to go and cut the monsterly thick belts off of the pulleys, then go and sand/shape the pulleys due to the belts. On more modern cars, this is even more of a pain due to all the detail they've properly molded into the pulleys. If you do like I did with my 1988 Corvette build and forget to measure out a template for the belt before pulling it apart, you put yourself in a lot of extra work. And although this only affects certain kits, I also hate it when depressed lettering on a piece is molded as raised lettering. On the 1996 Monogram Grand Sport kit I'm building, the Corvette lettering and Emblem on the Injection Covers are incorrectly molded as raised parts. On the real thing, they are depressed on the Injection Covers. It become kind of a pain to paint them the proper red coloring since they aren't raised high enough to allow for proper dry brushing. If they were sunken, I could easily thin out some red paint, let capillary action draw it into the recesses and dry, then add as many coats as I would need to get the proper color and easily rub off the paint that gets onto the black portions. I was able to do an okay job on the covers, but it still doesn't look correct to me.

Yeah, I think a heat gun would actually be a better instrument to use since the heat gun disperses its heat over a much wider area, thus preventing too much of a hot spot in one area with cool spots in another. With a torch, you have to be careful as the nose of the torch flame is super hot, and the temperature quickly lowers as you move further away from the tip of the nose cone. I'm not sure if this would work, but to make the cutting away of the finished piece easier, you could take some really thin metal sheet and perhaps sharpen up an edge and place that where the edges of the finished glass would be. This way, when it droops and sags over your mold you'll have the sharp edge forming a thinner area in the glass. This would be easy to trim away. Great tutorial though. I may make use of this when creating headlight lenses, or other lenses where the kit parts don't look right.

Fantastic tutorials. What's amazing is that I read through his floor mat tutorial, and I built my floor mats almost the exact same way! I just didn't use wire for the trim which in retrospect, I probably should have as it would have made bending the sheets much easier. (I had bent my sheet, then had to cut angles in the trim which I also made out of styrene sheet). Here's a poor quality photo of the mats I made, as well as one of the seat belt buckles I made for the 1988 1/16 Corvette Convertible kit.

So I recently completed the 1988 1/16 scale Corvette Convertible, and the itch to build another Corvette has already hit me. Going on E-Bay, I was able to find the kit that I enjoyed building the most when I was younger, and that is the Monogram 1/24 scale Corvette Grand Sport Convertible. The details on this kit are fantastic, and the build is generally quite easy and fun to put together. So I got the kit a few days ago and have already gone and gotten quite a few other items to help me out. I picked up the Detail Master nickel-silver photo-etch detail set for the 84-96 Corvettes which includes the Grand Sport emblems needed for the sides of the hood, as well as the nose and gas cap emblem. I also got some proper scale ignition wire so that I can wire the engine since the distributor is easily accessible on the front of the engine and very easy to attach wires to. I picked up some red seatbelt material to create the seatbelts for the interior, and also got some photo-etched pedals to create the proper pedals in the kit. (I'll go into why I need these later). I found an online retailer that sells automotive touch-up paints for every make and model car you can think of. (http://www.automotivetouchup.com/) They offer paints in larger cans, small touch-up bottles, and 12 oz spray cans. The colors are sold by the manufacturer's color codes and are specially made for each order. Wondering if they would work on the standard styrene plastic used in model cars, I e-mailed the company to ask. They responded very quickly and said that they aren't sure if the paints will cause any issues with the plastic. I told them that I was going to try and spray these over a Dupli-Color primer, and while they said that it shouldn't react with that primer, they couldn't guarantee it. They also wanted me to let them know if it did indeed work straight over the styrene, as well as over the Dupli-Color primer in case any other customer asked them with the same question. It was refreshing getting a company responding to a model building question without laughing it off. The paints are $20 each for the color coats, and only $8 for the same sized can of clear-coat and primer. Just to be safe, I picked up the primer to use since there shouldn't be issues with the same company's primer and color coat. The paints should arrive this week (hopefully tomorrow and not on Wednesday-Friday as I'll be in NYC on business travel). I'll let you guys know if it works as I saved some sprue and spare parts and will try it out on that. My initial goal when building this kit was to open up the doors and hinge them so they could open. After starting up on the kit, I decided not to do that. The kit is detailed very well, and I just don't think I have the skills I need at the moment to properly open up the doors. Perhaps I'll pick up another one of these kits and try it again in the future, but for now, I just want to build a details standard kit. Earlier I mentioned that I had to pick up some pedals for the kit, and here's why. For some reason, when Monogram made this kit, they used an automatic transmission on the engine assembly, and the interior only has brake and gas pedals. The stick-shift is properly represented, but the fact that the transmission is wrong (NO LT4 Grand Sport engines had auto trannies. They all had the 6 speed manual transmission) and the clutch pedal is missing is really frustrating. Thankfully, a very generous member here on the forums (TurboKitty) is sending me the engine/transmission combo from the 1995 Corvette ZR-1 kit from Monogram. On that kit, they included the correct 6-speed manual transmission. I'll be able to use that and with the photo-etched pedals be able to properly represent the transmission on this kit. I've already started some assembly/painting. Got the wheels and all other parts on the kit de-chromed and the wheels have been repainted with gloss black for the five-spoke center, and silver chrome paint for the rims. The tires and wheels on this kit were molded incredibly well. The only issues I've faced thus far is a TON of extra flashing on the kit and some poorly placed mold-release marks that have needed to be sanded and in some cases puttied up. But overall, it is going together quite well. I need to go and find myself another brand of red-paint to use on this kit. The gloss red Testors Acryl paint I have just isn't doing the job covering up the metallic-blue plastic the kit was molded in. The flat black has gone on PERFECTLY and covers everything, but the red is going on too thin and allowing the blue to show through. In addition, it does not cover any type of edge like the flat black does. I like using the acryl paint for the quick drying and easy clean-up, but it just isn't covering well. Perhaps if I go and get a flat-red acryl paint it will cover like the flat black does and I can then just put an acrylic clear coat over the top to get the semi-gloss or gloss sheen I want. For the center stripe on the kit, I'm still debating doing one of two things. One is to go and initially paint the body in the proper Arctic White Dupli-Color Perfect Match paint, then mask off the areas that need masking and put the Admiral Blue Metallic paint over the top. To do this, I would need the Admiral Blue Metallic I picked up from that website to not react with the Arctic White. The other idea I have, and one I am likely to go with, is to go and take the white decal film I have and cut out the proper sized strips for the center stripe and the pinstriping alongside it. For this to work, I'll need the white decal film to not react poorly with the clear coat I'll be spraying over everything. I have plenty of the decal paper so I'll be able to test this out before going gung-ho with it. Anyway, I'm going to be fairly busy this week and won't be able to make any updated with photos, but figured I'd get the thread going. Thanks for reading my little novel here, and I look forward to completing this build!

Thanks guys. Overall, I find it to be "satisfactory". Fit problems at the end caused me some headaches as parts that fit together perfectly when not painted suddenly were a bit tight or difficult to get in position once they were painted. For a kit made in the 1980's, however, I kind of expected that. Aside from the 1967 1/12 scale Corvette Coupe I built when I was a kid, and the 1963 split window 1/16th scale I put together when I got back into the hobby, this was only the third "big kit" that I have attempted. I REALLY like these big kits, and I wish the model companies would offer more of them as they are really fun to build, and really let you go crazy with the detailing. Sadly, it seems that the cost to produce these larger scale kits makes them very low on the totem pole for kit manufacturers, so you see very few of them each year. Add onto that the seemingly reduced number of Corvette kits period, it remains something that is more or less "not going to happen." Anyway, thanks for the comments and suggestions everyone. I've now started my next project and will be posting a new thread shortly.

With my '88 Vette build now complete, I decided to go back to the "standard" scale kits and picked up the Monogram 1996 Grand Sport kit. I remember building this one as a kid and being amazed at how well the parts fit together, and how detailed the parts were. Now that I have more skill and more patience, I am going to open up the doors on the kit. The kit is designed with the interior door panels separated in a such a way that making these door functional should be pretty simple. Also having had a good night playing cards this past week, I had the funds to pick up some detail parts and the correct paint color. With help from Michelle (TurboKitty), I was also able to get the correct engine/transmission combo for this kit. (Monogram messed up and gave the kit an automatic transmission for the LT4 engine which is completely wrong. All LT4s in the Grand Sport package had a 6-speed manual transmission. Monogram's ZR-1 kit has the proper transmission, and Michelle was kind enough to send along the correct parts so that my engine will be the proper 6-speed. THANK YOU MICHELLE!!!!! ). I found a website (http://www.automotivetouchup.com/) that can provide every factory stock color out there. They offer small bottles, large bottles, and most importantly for me, 12 oz. spray cans. So I picked up the gray primer, the WA128 color code for the '96 Grand Sport Vette, and a bottle of clear. To make spraying easier, I also picked up this spray gun handle for the cans of paint. This will allow me better control when spraying, and reduce the stress put on my forearms and hands/fingers from pressing the spray button down. For proper cleanliness, I also picked up some tack rags. I figured since I had already placed a large order, this wasn't going to hurt me. Although I have my own photo-etch making kit, since the parts I would create already exist in a well done nickel-silver set, I saved myself some time and effort by picking this up. Finally, I need some red flocking for the interior and I already have some black flocking. In my stash of parts, I have some pedals for the interior (as mentioned earlier, the wrong transmission on the GS was further "wronged" by Monogram only including molded in brake and gas pedals in the interior so I need to add in a clutch pedal), and some wire looms for the engine. The GS kit has a clear plastic part for the distributor part on the engine, and it has 8 easy to attach-to connections for the ignition wire which I already have in the proper scale and proper color. I should get the paint from the touch-up paint place sometime next week. I'll let you guys know if this stuff is compatible with the styrene plastic. If it is, then this store will be a GREAT resource for matching colors on production automobiles.

Alright. I think I can consider this one "done." Overall, I'd rate my build as a 6/10. It overall looks pretty good, but issues with parts and me gluing some things on too early led to a less than perfect quality. I think after this post, I'll post it in either the "under glass" section, or the "Big Boyz" section. I am a fan of the larger scale Corvettes, and would really love to see a C5 or C6 era 'Vette in a large scale. The issues I ran across with this kit were some fit problems at the end, and myself making a mistake and putting sub-assemblies together which led to fit problems later on. (By putting the driveshaft in too early, it made it next to impossible to get the Torque Arm to fit in the transmission tunnel area. As a result, the cross-beam on the chassis didn't sit properly. If not for the Elmer's Quick Setting Epoxy and some tape to hold it in place, the cross-beam would have never sat in place. In addition, by putting the nose portion that the instructions said to glue in place after the hood has been attached made it impossible for me to go and put the hood in. In my attempt, the parts of the underside of the hood that allow it to open and close broke. So the hood now just sits in place instead of functioning. Overall, not a big deal but it does annoy me). So I did learn a lot from this: 1: ALWAYS pay attention to the instructions. While it may look like you can fit something together ahead of time, it might make it difficult/impossible to put together other parts later on. 2: With older kits, fit problems that don't appear to be there when the parts are not painted will likely show up once you've gotten some coats of primer and end color on. This makes things a royal pain. 3: If you are replacing molded parts (e.g. belts), measure everything out before you cut the plastic apart. I got it to work in the end, but it was a royal pain. 4: In relation to item #2, apply some tape to parts when dry fitting so the thickness of the tape can simulate paint. 5: DON'T RUSH! There were parts where I rushed to get things done, and resulting issues with paint/glue blobs resulted. Still, I think this came out okay. I got to try out making my own photo-etch parts (which turned out GREAT for the hood/gas-cap emblems, as well as the TPI plate on the engine), and I did some good scratch building for the seat belt buckles and other seatbelt assemblies. I feel that the interior turned out to be fantastic. Flocking seems to be the perfect scale on 1/12 or 1/16 cars, and the detail work on the gauges on the dashboard look amazing. I'm a perfectionist so I can't even be completely happy with a project, but considering that this kit is over ten years old, I am content. Below are some of the final pictures of the build. I think for my next project I'll go back to 1/24 or 1/25 scale Corvettes. Possibly a 1996 Corvette Grand Sport convertible where I'll work on opening doors and convertible top lid. (The door assembly on this '88 kit was a &%#$@!!!! When I went to put the interior and chassis onto the body, I had to spread the sides of the body apart a little bit. This caused the glued in hinge assembly to break off. The only good thing is that part of the assembly remained in place so the doors remain in place, but you can tell they aren't fully secured when you open/close the doors). Front of the chassis assembly with the Tuned Port Injection plate attached. Was nice photo-etching that part, putting black paint on it, then being able to take some sandpaper and sand the paint off of the high parts that weren't etched. Looks even better in person. Here's the photo-etch created emblem on the gas cap. It's a bit off-center here, but not enough for me to want to pull it off of the body and reset it. I think it came out GREAT and was easy to detail with some paint and a fine tipped marker. It was then coated with a flat clear coat to seal everything up. With this, and the nose emblem being focal points on the car, I was very happy with this. And here's a top view of the car. The silver/black exterior with the tan interior looks really sharp. The seatbelt equipment looks great, and you can somewhat see that same emblem on the nose up front. The windshield and framing isn't on yet, but you'll see that soon. And here's the completed model. I REALLY need to dust my house as the dust on the speaker really shows up. (In my living room, I have my cable box and PS3 connected to my Onkyo receiver which feeds into my TV. To the receiver, I have a set of 5.1 speakers that I built from kits. The subwoofer was built by me and my roommate, at that time, from individual parts and wood. The front and rear surrounds were built from kits, and the center speaker I built after designing a crossover, buying the proper parts, and some soldering and wood construction. I spent a total of around $1000 on the set, but they put out sound of a quantity and quality that rivals setups five times that cost). When I post this in the under glass or big boyz forums, I'll take more pictures with greater detail. I'll show off the engine bay with the fully wired engine, the chassis (which is really my least favorite part of this), and the interior which looks immaculate. The wheels on this came out really nice after putting a black wash on there, and after carefully painting the Corvette Emblem on the wheels. Looking forward to my next build now.

And here we are. Took this photo just after letting the sheet soak in some lye to remove the exposed laminate. The picture is of poor quality as it's really difficult to photograph stainless steel. But you can see the gist of it. The parts are still a bit fuzzy in parts due to "gunk" left on the sheet, and once I briefly apply some polishing compound it will turn out okay. I think I could have left this in the etchant for a few more seconds to finish up some of the fuzzy areas, but I was starting to get worried that I was eating into the detail on the other parts so I took it out. I also see that my registration wasn't nearly as good as I thought it was, so my parts aren't super perfect. Still, I think they are good enough to go and once some paint is applied and some smoothing out is done, it will look just as I want it to. I'll update this again, as well as my '88 Vette build in the Workbench area once I've cleaned up the fret and applied the paint.

Okay. For anyone who is thinking about getting this kit, the one key thing that from my own experience I can attest to is that you MUST have PATIENCE! I'm getting ready to etch my second attempt at this and what has been stopping me in the past has been rushing too quickly. Joseph had preached patience to me, and now I'm re-preaching it. The first part is patience in ensuring the metal is completely clean. Once you've cut the sheet out and sanded it to give it a rough surface for the laminate to adhere to, DO NOT EVER TOUCH THE METAL WITHOUT WEARING GLOVES! I went and, with my gloves on, then submerged the sheet in a moderately strong lye solution in order to dissolve any grease that is on there. A dunk into a bath of distilled water to clean off the lye, and then I just shook it dry. If cleaned properly, there should be no beading on areas of the sheet. Beading indicates there is oils or particulates on the sheet and if those exist, the laminate won't adhere. The second part of patience is applying the laminate. Make sure you have squeegeed out ANY air bubbles in there. I apply the laminate while dry as I had too many issues when trying it wet, but I must preach again to get every last bubble out. You are working under UV free light so take your time. I used an old credit card like Joseph recommended to get every last bubble out before putting it through the laminator. When done, and sadly I didn't take a photo, the sheet will look perfectly smooth. Artwork was applied on each side, after spending time to ensure proper registration, and then I went and exposed it the noon-day sun for about 25 seconds each side, and the semi-transparent light blue laminate quickly turned a deep, dark blue indicating it was exposed. Back into a UV free room and you could clearly see sharp, defined lines on the piece. Success! With a solution of 1/4 ounce concentrated lye solution to three full measuring cups of distilled water, I dunked the sheet into there for a few seconds for each side. The sheet was quickly dunked into another vat of distilled water, and with a spare paintbrush I lightly brushed over the unexposed areas. They quickly washed away and bare metal now shines through. The sheet is etching as we speak, but before dunking I went and took this photo of the sheet. I had to take this at an angle in order for the metal to not reflect too much light and drown out the lines. The angle of the photo causes the dark blue exposed laminate to wash over the photo, but trust me, the metal is shining through very brightly. The lines, which admittedly look thin in the photo, are thicker than it appears so there are no worries there. For some reason, it's very difficult to accurately photograph the sheet, but hopefully in 20 minutes or so, you'll see an image of a finished piece.

I agree. I do not see the winning bidder actually paying. While it gets into an ethical situation that I don't want to delve into, I think e-bay should require that a credit-card get filed in order to sign-up, and this way if someone doesn't pay, they get charged on their credit card anyway. To do this, however, would require agreements between e-bay and the credit-card companies regarding chargebacks, and a good "review" committee to review any cases where someone says they didn't mean to bid like that and shouldn't have to pay. Sadly, I don't think e-bay has the ability to have a committee of that sort which could fairly judge those cases.

When I was a teenager, I used to be able to get model kits at Wal-Mart, Target, Toys 'R Us, and any other store that carried "toys". When I recently got back into the hobby, I found out that none of those places carry model cars anymore. When I questioned this at a Target store, I was told that they stopped carrying model cars because teenagers were buying the paints and model glue to huff, and to prevent that from happening, the stores stopped carrying the kits. Another example of the actions of a few ruining the overall lives of the majority.

I've been using the Stainless since I figure, if you're going to master something, start out on the harder difficulties. This, and the fact that I have some parts that I really want to have a steel/silvery look to them and if I use brass, I'll need to paint the part after it's where I need it to go, and I'd rather not do that. I'd rather the part be able to be handled without fear of the paint just rubbing off. So as of right now, It's been stainless. I went and decided to re-print my artwork and make some small corrections so that the parts aren't so close together, and thicken up the lines in the parts that seemed to need it. I went and applied some laminate to a sheet of stainless, and had the same issues with spots and bubbles when doing it "wet". It seemed that the edges would dry up first and seal shut, so no matter what I did with the squeegee process, it would leave massive bubbles. So I had to strip off some poorly applied laminate and try again. This time, I decided that instead of putting the laminate on wet, I would try it dry again. Did it dry and this time applied the laminate like I would if I was putting wallpaper on. I only exposed the top 2mm or so of the laminate and then applied that, burnishing it on strongly as I slowly went down. This left me with a GREAT laminate job that only resulted in a few bubbles and marks showing up once it went through the laminator. After printing out artwork and registering the artwork, I was able to see that the flaws aren't near my parts. Sadly, the sun has set too far for the day so no UV exposure on this day. Perhaps later this week when I'm working from home I'll be able to step outside for a few seconds and expose it. At least the first difficult part is complete now.

Yeah, I've learned quite a bit from my first experience. I certainly didn't expect to get perfect results, however, what I did end up getting looks like it will work out just fine after I paint the pieces that need it. The tougher parts, the interior speaker grills I tried to make, are the most difficult due to the very fine lines I tried to get in there. The UV rays of the sun are perfect. Today, I went outside and could see the laminate turn a very deep shade of blue right before my eyes. Still, the developer and the lamination itself is the toughest part. I got the vast bulk of my sheet adhered properly, but it looks like some fingerprints did wind up in parts of it that I didn't thoroughly clean off. I have no issues using NaOH. Having a degree in forensic chemistry and having spent many, many hours of my life working with the stuff, I have no worries. I actually have a tub of NaOH pellets as it is the best stuff at degreasing things that need it, and having vast experience using it and being fully aware of its dangers, I don't worry. I don't have a photo of the end result, since with the design I have and the lighting conditions I have, it doesn't really show up properly. (A good deal of shadows on the piece itself due to the number of half-etches I have). I think the main Corvette emblems I made, the TPI logo on the engine, and the alternator bracket will work out fine. The seatbelt pieces and the speaker grills will likely be tossed. I'm thinking of trying to re-do this next weekend and do more preparatory work on the metal before laminating. I think a bath of NaOH prior to rinsing it off then leaving it in distilled water will provide a proper result. To be honest, the etching part itself wasn't tough at all. I heated up the ferric chloride and then dumped it into the tank with the aerator going, and it etched quite well. I also didn't even spill a droplet of the etchant so that was nice not having any messes to clean up. I was very happy that the registration of the front and back artwork came out perfect which is incredibly sweet. I already see where I need to spend more time on my next one, and there will be a next one. This kit is amazing and the things one can do with it, if you have enough time and patience, is limitless.

Yeah, I'm aware of the inability to have it be perfectly, laser-cut accurate. The metal I'm using is definitely not greasy. Once I have put it through the scuffing with the 3200 grit pad and rinsed in distilled water, I never touch it by the face areas. I only handle it with nitrile gloves that aren't powdered so that nothing is left on there. For the first run, it was certainly just a lack of bonding or very, very underexposed material as I have looked online and seen images from others who have done it, and while their "imprint" looked a nice dark blue, mine was very, very faintly blue. The sun should be out and shining nicely tomorrow, so I'll be able to ensure proper exposure and hopefully get a nice result. Any spots on the metal where the laminate didn't seem to apply perfectly, I ensured those areas were in the covered up spots so that they'll just be wiped away by the NaOH anyway. The exposed areas of the artwork all look good. Time for bed though. All this photo-etch excitement has got me wide awake. Hehe.

Funny that this post got brought up, as I just started working on my first photo-etching attempt. I went to Home Depot today to get a yellow bug light as I was told that wouldn't expose the photosensitive material, and it doesn't. The biggest problem I had with my first attempt was getting the danged sheet to laminate to the metal. I think I cleaned the metal too well as water doesn't "sheet" on it. It immediately rolls off. Still, the laminate itself seems to pick up dust like it's nothing and that left some, well bad spots on the laminate. With the sun having set long ago, I figured that the UV light from the CFL bulbs in my house would be able to expose the material. It really doesn't do that. I only got a very faint ghost image of the artwork on the metal, but with great resolution. When I went to wash the unexposed areas off with NaOH, the entire laminate came off. So it's pretty obvious to me that the UV light from the bulbs isn't strong enough. I've got my alarm clock set and will be outside at noon tomorrow to get some good UV rays from the sun to take care of the laminate. Any flaws in the lamination will be taken care of with a very fine sharpie marker to cover up exposed areas that shouldn't be. After a mother's day lunch with my mother, I'll head back home and get the etching started. Already have the tank built and tested using distilled water to ensure no leakage. This will hopefully work out great and once completed, allow me to finally finish that '88 Corvette 1/16 scale kit I've been working on. Will update my workbench thread with photos once this comes out alright.

Today I got notification that my company didn't even want to offer me an interview for the position that I applied for, and solidly met all posted requirements. So I have now decided to no longer look at any internal opportunities and enjoy the time off from that place. I've always had some concerns about the hiring/promotion policies, and with the information that I have received in conjunction with them not even given me an interview opportunity, I will take my talents elsewhere. I'll have the entire summer off and won't need to seek employment until February of next year if I so choose. Obviously, I'll have gone and gotten a job elsewhere by then, but I'm not in a major rush. I have opportunities to work for companies that my now former employer had to report to, and I think it would be great to come back one day as an inspector. Still, I'm pretty irked about all this. I guess if they at least gave me an opportunity for an interview I would at least be content, but just throwing my application out and saying "you don't meet the qualifications we want" when I met ALL of them EXTENSIVELY just seems fishy to me.

Awesome news! Always good to hear good news from somebody. For me, while it's still a bit tough right now, I know I'm talented and smart and that I'll be able to find another job. Whether with my current company, or with another one. This won't set me back. Just makes me more dedicated to succeed and prove the company wrong.

I got the news from work that was inevitable but still pretty depressing. My last day of work will be July 25th. Oddly, they are keeping me on the payroll until September 25th, so basically even though I'm being terminated they are giving me 60 days of vacation with pay before cutting my paycheck. At that point, I'll receive my severance package. So in a sense, I'm going to be on vacation from July 25th until the end of the year if I so choose. So on the bright side, I do have plenty of time to find another job and am not under too much pressure to find a new one. Being on the payroll until the 25th is a good thing because it means I'll still have my medical benefits through the 25th of September and for 20 weeks after that. Still, it wasn't a good day at work. Then, after coming home and needing to drive around for miles until my car's E light was blinking due to my entire town being without electricity for some reason, I got frustrated and really pulled hard on my parking brake............ which resulted in the entire assembly ripping off. Ugggh. Using a flashlight to see and tools and some super strong epoxy, I was able to get it back together and get the brake to disengage. Still need to take the car in for work now and I don't think this will be cheap.

:lol: :lol: Too funny. How'd the finish coat on the turtle come out?

I did a search and couldn't find a topic for this, so I decided to start a new one. I got some more work done on my '88 Corvette 1/16th scale build today (Got the doors attached to the body and now my next step is getting the photo-etch work done), and just did something really stupid. I don't know if this should be a PSA against drinking while building, but in the end it's kind of funny. Earlier tonight, I had put a glob of CA Glue on a piece of cardboard (as cardboard doesn't seem to make it insta-set) so I could use a toothpick to apply a small amount to where the door hinge pieces attach to the body. I did this so that I wouldn't get glue on the hinge and therefore didn't make the doors un-openable. This was done many hours ago, and coincidentally many beers ago. Well, I was in the kitchen getting a snack made, and saw the cardboard with the damp spot on there. If not an idiot at the time, , I would have done the waft-of-air odor test and realized it was CA glue. Instead, I put my middle finger on there. Feeling it was sticky, I suddenly remembered what it was. Thankfully, I didn't touch any other part of my body and instantly went to the sink to apply water. This instantly set the glue and I now do not have a fingerprint on my middle finger due to the glue that has firmly set. Lol. I will need to repeatedly wash the hand to allow the glue to separate naturally as the skin sheds. I'm just glad that I had some sort of memory about how this came to be, otherwise I may have gone to the bathroom and......... well........... given the ER docs a story to last a lifetime. So what "not so smart" things have you all done involving modeling?

Can't wait to see the progress. As almost a strictly Corvette only model builder, I love seeing Vette builds. Got me a large scale '88 Convertible in progress as well. (Though with that one I'm a bit irked that a line I had filled many times and can't physically feel, keeps showing up). Looking forward to this one!

Thanks to the super dry weather out there, I was able to go and get a couple of clear coats on the body. It's sitting there drying now. Sadly, I can still see a difference between the Rustoleum silver and the Duplicolor silver even though they are both supposed to be used for the same silver color car. Ah well. The amount of effort needed to disassemble, if that's even possible, the doors and hood is far too great to make it worth it. I'll just deal with the slight imperfections caused not by the color shade, but by the fineness of the particulate matter in the paint. By putting the clear coat on now, I'll let it dry until this weekend and then buff it out. My next big step is getting off my lazy butt and creating the photo-etch parts with the kit I have.