Ace-Garageguy

Because there's always the possibility there's an unmixed clump from one of the constituent colors used to mix real-car colors (paint today is very rarely "factory-pack", where the color is pre-mixed in a sealed can), and is almost always mixed in-shop from "mixing bases", and anywhere along the line, grit or lint or something else can easily be introduced. Paint on a real car can cost in the thousands of dollars these days as well. When material is that expensive, you don't want to risk getting a flaw on one panel, where the labor and material to fix it can cost hundreds of dollars. Repainting only one panel on a real car because there's a piece of fod in it can also result in a mis-match between panels. Careful cleaning of the spray gun prior to use, and careful handling of the materials, including filtering just prior to application, is simply intelligent insurance against money wasted in material, labor, time, and unhappy customers.

Thanks for your interest and comments, as always. My local club I almost never attend, ACME, has a big show coming up at the end of October, so I might try to finish something...at least enough to show a decent in-progress piece...in time. The Olds-powered wedge-channeled '32 is the closest, and it's just possible I can get the orange metalflake on this Corvette by then too. I'm sure this will be the last fall for me here, so...we'll see how motivated I get.

Very attractive and clean build of an ancient kit. Nice work.

Man, that's gorgeous. Sure would like to have it over here.

Paint looks great. Always good to see somebody reworking something until they get it right. Your results certainly look like they are worth the effort you put in. Cool little kit, too. I recall seeing a few real Beetles modded like this in the distant past, to fit on the 14"-shortened pan used under the Manx and all the clones of it. Most all of 'em were pretty rough, as getting a smooth curve on the heavily modded roof takes far more than average skills. The point was to build a short-wheelbase beach-buggy with full weather protection and easier ingress/egress than the climb-over high sills on a Manx. Seems like somebody would have made a full-scale f'glass body like this at some point, but I don't remember ever seeing one.

Nice period shots. I particularly like the high-hood early EMD GPs without dynamic brakes in the first two frames, and the heavily weathered EMD SW single-stack switcher in the main street crossing farther down. GM/EMD built the best diesel locomotives in the world for decades, and there are 40, 50, 60, and even 70 year old examples still in revenue service with short-lines all over the country...including at least one late '60s GP-38 that rumbles and growls past my house every day, operated by the local Patriot Rail affiliate, Georgia Northeastern. The GN retired their last high-hood early GP a few years ago, my understanding being because of the difficulty of finding replacement parts for the 567 prime mover. There was some concern that she'd be scrapped, but last I heard, she'd gone to a new home at a museum. I miss seeing the old high-hood GP run past the house, as a Lionel GP-7 was my first model locomotive.

Maybe these shots will help.

White glue in general has zero holding strength when it's wet. It's not the mockup / test fit glue to use if you're in a hurry. Rubber cement is a workable alternative, but I prefer tiny drops of liquid solvent cement. It holds almost instantly, and the joints can be easily broken, dressed, and final-cemented when you're happy with everything.

Here's an interesting and little known sequel to the 9/11 tragedy: a ship dating from the time of the Declaration of Independence was found while clearing the foundation site. https://futurism.com/mysterious-ship-found-under-911-world-trade-center-wreckage

I very rarely need them for model work, unless the material has settled and clumped (though I ALWAYS use them for real-car work). I usually have the 125-190 micron cone filters used by bodyshops in stock. They're cheap, available at any automotive paint store, 10 to 20 cents each. Otherwise, a very fine nylon cooking strainer works very well, as does nylon stocking material. There are several types of nylon cooking strainers, and they can be cleaned and re-used if you clean them before the paint dries. No bull...I've used all the above and they all work great.

303 is simply an alternative to Black 304/305 Base, intended to be used UNDER any of the Alclad "High Shine" series. It is also intended to be used OVER black base, UNDER the "Prismatic" color line. It is NOT a top-coat clear. https://alclad2.com/how-to/

I always thought these were good looking cars, if just a little bland, but it really comes alive with that big shot of testosterone.

Very nice. I never would have thought of yellow windows in a gold car, but they look great.

Yup...it took a while to find one I'd pop for. Not many available anyway these days. I got this one for about half the average BIN price, and figgered that was probably as cheap as I'd ever see one.

Absolutely beautiful. You consistently produce some of the most inspiring work I've ever seen.

More beautiful bits from Forward Resin, still some of the highest quality work available, easily in the same game as RepMin. 5-bolt Minilites, stock '32 Ford firewall, post-'39 Ford "juice brakes" backing plates, a few slushboxes, etc. Thanks Casey. And several kits I've been after for a long time, finally at "reasonable" prices... Testors / Italeri Ferrari Cali Spyder 250GT Another one... Testors / Fujimi BMW 635CSi But wait...there's more... Testors / Fujimi Porsche 930 ...and a sad little Revell Deal's Wheels "Stink Ray", that's going to be something really crazy.

WOW!!

This is one of those areas that doesn't really benefit from excessive overthinking. There's a lot to be said for the KISS concept. Try a mix of light sources, post photos on the board, look at the results, decide what looks good to you, and move on. I could be very wrong, but I seriously doubt the majority of posters here spend any time in post-processing of their photos, or even have the hardware and software and knowledge to do it. Unless you're a professional or a very capable and involved amateur, experimenting with cheap light sources will get the job done, as my photo above pretty much proves. PS: Though I DO have post-processing capability in my graphics suite, I almost NEVER use it for color tinkering on model shots, as it's just not necessary with the cheap and easy balanced light source I've come up with. EDIT: When I joined the board around 10 years back, my lighting was old-fashioned incandescent, and my photos indoors were always way too warm, toward the red-yellow. My more recent indoor model work is much better, quite natural looking colors, with the same camera and settings as back then, with no other changes than the cheap mixed LED bulbs. The majority of photos on the board would benefit more from paying attention to focus, removing extraneous clutter from backgrounds, and better composition than worrying about color balance anyway.

Very nice...and inspiring. Every time I look at this particular illustration, I get a real strong desire to build one as well... Love that track-nosed lakes car too.

Very clever.

I did something similar decades ago. I habitually overrevved a VW 40-horse-based engine with a non-counterweighted crank in a hot-rod Bug. Anybody who knows aircooled VW engines will know non-CW cranks will "whip" at high RPM, and beat out the center main bearing saddle. Mine broke the crank on the way home one night, but the halves stayed in register, so the engine kept running...though it was a little rough and very noisy. Soon as I pulled over and checked the end-play at the pulley, I knew what had happened (it broke at the crankpin cheek just behind the center main). She got me home and then all the way back to work the next day, and when I tore the engine down, I found the center main saddle in the case was indeed beaten badly out of round. Line-bore it and fit oversized bearing shells? Replace the case? Heck no. I gooed up the saddles with something very like JB Weld (Devcon F) and bolted the case halves together with a new crank and main-bearing shells in place (with little troughs carved in the sides of the saddles to let the excess goo squeeze out as I tightened down the stud nuts. After the stuff hardened, I took it apart and built it up as usual. Ran fine for several months, until I built it a new 1600 dual-port-based engine. Funny thing is that somebody stole the gooed-up engine I'd stuck in my '62 doublecab, when it was in the storage area.

That is quite possibly the most unusual Chevelle I've ever seen.

Ah yes, two of the major food groups...candy and meat. I've forgotten the other one. Wait, wait, it's on the tip of my tongue...I have it...alcohol.

Lots to love on this one, like that dry sump tank. It just gets better and better.