Bone Stock '57 Bel Air

[topher5150]

For Christmas I picked up a Monogram 1/12 scale '57 Chevy Bel Air. I had one when I was a kid, and did the strip version, and seeing that most of these are built like that I'd thought I would do mine bone stock. I'm doing it in Larkspur Blue, with an Ivory top, and blue interior. More pics to come

[cobraman]

Nice color. That's a pretty nice kit as I recall.

[henry57]

Paint looks great, I love the larkspur blue. What paint are you using?

[DumpyDan]

Looks good, want to see more

[topher5150]

Rust-Oleum Ultra Cover Seaside.

Got some work done on the engine while the paint dries. The valve cover lettering turned out ok

Edited December 30, 2015 by topher5150

[Lovefordgalaxie]

I'm very biased to say something on this build as I really love this kit, and lost count on how many I built...

I have a ton of reference pictures of 1:1 scale 100 points stock Bel Air Coupes if you want. 

They show the primer color on the floor, where the car was undercoated and some factory markings.

[topher5150]

Got the seats painted up, turned out ok. Has anyone been able to get a shiny chrome center section in the dash board of this model? I tried foil, then I tried paint and it's not working.

Edited January 3, 2016 by topher5150

[topher5150]

[topher5150]

thought it would look cool using the Ivory paint from the roof on the insides of the fins.

[espo]

A thought on the white painted inserts, This was a common tutone paint treatment on the 210 model Chevrolet. I owned a 210 hardtop many many years ago, the side trim that the Bel Airs had was a brushed aluminum with the gold Bel Air wording. The 210 did not have the brushed aluminum trim and was usually painted to match the top color. If you wanted to change your model to depict a 210 you could sand the ribbing in the insert smooth and use chrome trim instead of gold on all other trim like the grill and front fender "gills" and hood and trunk trim. One other trim change if you want to make it a 210 is the chrome spear on top of the rear fins are shorter on the 210 than on the Bel Air. For your dash trim you might try some aluminum silver paint. On the 1:1 the dash trim was brushed aluminum with a black wash to show the bow tie emblems that were embossed in the aluminum trim.

[GTJUNIOR]

This is going to look amazing. 

[topher5150]

Thanks hopefully I can live up to your expectations

[henry57]

 

When they were new the original panels were machined and the high spots were polished, after a a few years the aluminum dulled and turned white.

Here's a pic of an original Bel Air panel,

 

[topher5150]

an hour of taping, and careful razor work followed by two quick blasts of spray paint.

[topher5150]

Got some bare metal foil, and stripped the chrome on the bumpers

[topher5150]

getting a little ahead of my self, but I just had to see what it looked like

[Dogfish_7]

Nice BMF work.

[charlie8575]

That's coming right along.

Charlie Larkin

[topher5150]

Nice BMF work.

after doing that I think I'm going to take a break from any vehicle with any kind of chrome

[Dogfish_7]

Share your sentiment. Also find it extremely difficult and frustrating.

[StevenGuthmiller]

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news Kris, but you painted the wheels backwards.

The only thing that should be body color is the outer wheel edge.

 

Steve

 

[OldNYJim]

I like how the car you're BMFing matches the car on the BMF pack!

[topher5150]

I like how the car you're BMFing matches the car on the BMF pack!

I didn't realize that until after I took the pic

[topher5150]

Got the interior looking pretty snazzy. Went to paint the bumpers black so I can use Alclad apparently I didn't see the word "Semi" on the can of gloss spray paint

[topher5150]

She's starting to take shape, a little more paint, and some polishing....lots and lots of polishing