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Norm was set up at our ACME show on the 28th, I saw a video from the vendor area and he did have at least one set of this interior on the table for sale.

Congrats buddy for winning "Best Corvette" theme this Saturday at the ACME Southern Nationals! Spectacular build, as usual! Sorry I wasn't too talkative Sunday morning before checking out of the hotel, I went straight home and slept for most of the day after my "fun" night of food poisoning LOL. I felt fine by 9 PM and back to normal today. What a blast we had at the show!

Salvino's may not be using vacuum metallizing if the normal chrome strippers won't work. Trumpeter model car kits had plating that didn't respond to the traditional products used to strip kit chrome.

The Jo-Han entity at the show yesterday is completely different than Okey's.

This is a completely different entity than Okey's adventure. If you're ever in Dayton, OH the Atomic City shop is a very cool place to visit.

It's astounding how often Revell does stuff like this. I have to wonder if there are any functional eyeballs present in the room when reviewing CAD files and test shots, etc. I hadn't noticed the elongated front wheel opening because my eyes cannot unsee those sad/saggy drip rails. That's not that hard to fix, but c'mon, it shouldn't have happened in the first place.

There is no argument you have absolutely mastered the use of this paint. You probably are of the roughly 1% that don't really need some of the hobby products I suggest for builders that are not able to get your results and end up frustrated with the whole process. I'm trying to help them get into a mindset of trying products made for hobbyists that have a track record of excellent results. Your models are absolutely outstanding, carry on! Your approach to modeling is admirable, you slowly, methodically tackle each issue along the way. Most modelers don't have that level of patience. They often fail to realize how much mileage under one's belt is required to get to where you consistently get great results.

Base white has more pigment than the white fine surface primer for rapid coverage of multiple (any) colors of plastic. It also dries smoother with a bit of gloss. My best example of the base white usage was on this build; the body was molded in white. The separate engine compartment was molded in black. It needed to be body color, and I was painting the body in a metallic blue. I primed the engine compartment in base white and was able to then paint it along with the body panels in blue with no mismatch. Base white was the way to go.

It's quite good, but IMHO Tamiya's base white is even better. Hardly anyone even knows it exists.

Tamiya has a new Base White in a small rattle can. It's amazing. Very pigment-dense, covers multiple colors of plastic with ease, has a light sheen, it dries so incredibly smooth. I wish they sold it in a larger size can.

Mr. Hobby Mr. Black Surfacer 1500 in a rattle can...or jar for airbrushing. It's amazing.

Good tip ? FYI an inside radius is commonly referred to as a fillet radius or more commonly a fillet. Car designers/clay modelers/engineers etc. just say fillet. Easier to type as well. Not the same spelling as a filet mignon or a Filet-O-Fish ?

Can't answer your question directly because I don't use that product. How obsessive are you about your final finishes on your models? How many do you build over the course of a year? It's hard for me to wrap my mind around builders insistent on using ginormous "inexpensive" cans of various automotive primer/colors when there are amazing products out there for hobbyists to use. They save $$ in the end because they don't cause issues with plastic crazing and they tend to lay down so smooth you don't need to do all that much sanding, if any. If you follow directions you're far more likely to get a really nice finish (from average to show-winning) w/o multiple rounds of stripping/re-finishing. I've seen countless examples of this scenario play out. I joke about model car guys doing this repeatedly so they can brag about how many dates they have had with a stripper in the past month ? I may be known as the airbrush guy but I love Tamiya and Mr. Hobby rattle can primers/surfacers and nearly every project I work on I use them. They do their respective jobs admirably, making life easier in the long run. You spend less time on the paint finish leaving more time for detailing work.

Great stuff.

I'd like to do the same, but since the grille insert is quite different on those I'm patient enough to wait and see if it's offered in 3D. It could be marketed as at Tempest conversion as well.

Nice color scheme and upgrades! I've built two, one OOB in my own LP paint mix of flambeau burgundy, but w/vinyl top, the other w/3D printed open headlight grille and Fireball's first generation (since modified/made even better) Rally II's with AMT parts pack redlines. Lots of fun from a simple kit.

Steve, the hobby shop I mentioned in my post above may have some things useful to your endeavors. If you get a chance to visit, I highly recommend it. Do you still have any of those Charger pursuit test shot wheels remaining? If so I'd still love to get a set.

The hobby shop is kind of like a grassroots campaign. Three guys combining talent/forces, learning as they go. Their FB page gets their feet wet. Give 'em a call to chat/ask questions or visit if you're ever in their area. What they have in their shop is pretty dang cool. From new/old kits, aftermarket stuff, parts kits, junk boxes, old built kits/promos, built models on display by Doug Horner who I think started it all, he'll let you hold his display models if you show interest, and I sure took advantage of that as he's had fun with some of the 3D kits offered by Too Many Projects. He's got a workbench in the big back room which is the loading dock and warehouse space. I bought $93 worth of goodies, from a vintage built '61 Continental to the reissued Space 1999 Moon Buggy. Wish we had a hobby shop like that in every town.

I learned while trying to replicate a buddy's mild-custom '66 Riviera the difference between Testors gloss black enamel and Tamiya TS black. For some reason I was having issues w/the kit plastic in smoothing out the faint sink lines on the hood. I sanded too deeply into the kit plastic, the Tamiya paint was etching the plastic. So I tried Testors gloss black enamel. It was brown compared to the Tamiya product. I finally got the issue ironed out, amused by the whole mess. Even more amusing? Seeing him rolling the Riv into a car show. Expletives were uttered...that Riviera is a deep, rich dark blue pearl that I had never noticed because apparently I only saw it on cloudy days. We still LOL over that. He has a killer shop in Lilburn building dream cars for his customers. You may know him, Mike Lewis.

I think what may have happened is we were a group of 4 going in one car, so that's when we had our visit. My buddy from Boston was visiting and IIRC it was he and I, Wayne, and Bob Cline. I think. LOL

A stock car model is a bit of a different animal. You're not after a show-quality high-gloss black. When they were painted they weren't painted to production car standards. They were covered with graphics, today they're all just wrapped in a mostly pre-printed design. So your best bet for a vintage stock car in gloss black (but not clear coated or meant to be a show car) may be to determine how and what you spray (airbrush, rattle can, what brand/type of paint) and choose the best product that you're familiar with. Personally I'd airbrush Tamiya LP1 (gloss) black lacquer, and on the last coat thin it out more and spray it from a bit of a distance to kill the ultra-shiny wet coat appearance, helping it get a more scale appropriate appearance, even if not exact to the 1:1. If your eyes are happy you'll be happy.

There's really no right or wrong answer here, some people's own eyes interpret color differently than other people's eyes. I'm in 100% agreement on gloss black on a model car, it never looks wrong or out of scale to me. Other colors however can benefit from scale effect. Many of us look at our models primarily inside under artificial light. A 1:1 color can look a lot darker inside (including model shows) than it does outside. Again, no right or wrong answer, the builder can decide what works best. I've built both ways, scale effect and perfect match. For the darkest non-black colors I like mixing them a little lighter for my eyes, not caring if someone else sees the color differently. I build for me, not strict IPMS kind of judging where they can go off the deep end sometimes...

To avoid confusion 1999 is Hobby Search, not Hobbylink Japan aka HLJ. I've ordered from Hobby Search twice, zero issues. They don't offer the shipping options that Hobbylink Japan offers.

Guys, there is more to the current state of Johan than most people realize. Some of it I will not mention publicly because I don't want to cause any kind of friction or forum war or whatever, because that's what sadly happens in our hobby way too often. Just ask any model company that posts on their Facebook pages. It's almost embarrassing to see the replies from "guys like us". As for Johan, there are more involved with it than you may expect. I'll link to their Facebook page, and please refrain from any "I don't do Facebook" stuff. It's the easiest way for some entities to get the word out and actually be in control of their page and in control who can post on their page. Check out Atomic City Rod & Custom Model Car Resource for more information. They have a really impressive new hobby shop in Dayton Ohio. One of the investors is Jack Higgins from way back in the day as a partner in J&J Hobbies. Super good guy. Jack's in Cincinnati now. Check out TimKustom's video of it on his Youtube channel. I'll link to Atomic City first, then Tim's Youtube link to the hobby shop. We were there in Ohio for Randy Derr's invitational model display at the Dayton Concours d'Elegance 2 weeks ago. That weekend included a Saturday morning cars & coffee, a visit to the hobby shop, a get together at Randy's on Saturday afternoon, the main car show on Sunday, and a raucous good time on Sunday late afternoon/early evening group dinner after the show. Tim has videos of all but not the dinner. We had an absolute blast. https://www.facebook.com/AtomicCityModelCars/

Nice job, great color. I lived thru the same issues building mine somewhere around 2001. Saw one at "The Quail" event in 2000 that inspired me because of the aftermarket wheels it had. I was able to replicate those and lived w/the incorrect interior and sort of fixed exterior stuff. If I did it today it would be even better but I'd still gripe about Fujimi doing such a slapdash update to the 348 and calling it a day. I have another coupe and convertible to build...maybe.