70 buick gsx

[modelbomber]

Hi I`m building revell`s 70 buick gsx< I need help on painting the headlight besels, they are the same color as the car. I`m not good at masking at all!!  what would be the best way to paint them?? I would like to use testors spray enamel (rattle can) Except I would like to airbrush the car. Another question is how would the best and cleanest way to decant a rattle can for the airbrush??? Do I have to thin it down??? I just bought a airbrush a couple of weeks ago so totally new at airbrushing!!!  (neo for iwata) do I have to take the chrome off the besels first?  Sorry no pics at this time.

[Snake45]

When I did mine I airbrushed it in Model Master Chrome Yellow and just brushed-painted the bezels the same color. When brushing something like this, I found the best way is to start with a NEW bottle, flow it on a little bit thick, and work FAST. If you're lucky this can give a very acceptable result. Oh, and I didn't remove the chrome, just brushed right over it. Good luck! 

[Fat Brian]

Personally, I would paint the entire bezel then go back with bare metal foil and resilver the light backs. This makes for the least amount of masking while still getting a sprayed finish.

[Casey]

Unfortunately this is the most glaring weak spot on this kit, and even worse, there's no easy fix. The best thing would be to cut the headlight bezel area free from the bumper, but that would require two pieces, as you'd be sacrificing part of the bumper to get a full bezel, and vice-versa. The headlight buckets look horrible if they aren't highly reflective, which means leaving the chrome plating...which means you have to be perfect with your hand painting or masking. I would at least drill out the headlight buckets and replace them with separate buckets from another kit or scrap grille. That will make retaining the highly reflective nature of the buckets much easier, and make the detail painting much easier, too.

You might try a liquid masking agent on the bumper, then air brush the bezels after removing the chrome and priming them...like I said, no easy solution, unfortunately. 

[Ron Hamilton]

7 hours ago, Snake45 said:

When I did mine I airbrushed it in Model Master Chrome Yellow and just brushed-painted the bezels the same color. When brushing something like this, I found the best way is to start with a NEW bottle, flow it on a little bit thick, and work FAST. If you're lucky this can give a very acceptable result. Oh, and I didn't remove the chrome, just brushed right over it. Good luck! 

Same here with that kit. It looked fine utilizing that method. I built mine when the kit was first released as a GSX and as a GS Stage1 convertible, and I plan to do another, but as a Skylark, using the Model Car Garage photoetch set. I have to craft a grille, and fill the hole in the flat hood.

[Snake45]

18 hours ago, Casey said:

Unfortunately this is the most glaring weak spot on this kit, and even worse, there's no easy fix.

As I said, the area gave me no trouble at all. What's giving me fits--and has kept me from finishing the model for over 20 years--is figuring out how to do the yellow on the hood right. There's a thin stripe of yellow down the center, and the hood scoops are surrounded with yellow, which most modelers seen to just ignore and paint black. I THINK I've figured out how to mask the scoops but the thin stripe is still something I don't want to deal with, yet. 

In the meantime, this cheap, slightly undersized (I think about 1/26.5) Welly diecast with added Snake-fu is holding down the GSX slot on my shelf This was one of the first diecasts I Snake-fu'ed about four years ago, and I can see from the pictures that it could probably use another helping, using some of my newer tricks. Maybe soon! 

 

[Fat Brian]

21 hours ago, Snake45 said:

As I said, the area gave me no trouble at all. What's giving me fits--and has kept me from finishing the model for over 20 years--is figuring out how to do the yellow on the hood right. There's a thin stripe of yellow down the center, and the hood scoops are surrounded with yellow, which most modelers seen to just ignore and paint black. I THINK I've figured out how to mask the scoops but the thin stripe is still something I don't want to deal with, yet. 

In the meantime, this cheap, slightly undersized (I think about 1/26.5) Welly diecast with added Snake-fu is holding down the GSX slot on my shelf This was one of the first diecasts I Snake-fu'ed about four years ago, and I can see from the pictures that it could probably use another helping, using some of my newer tricks. Maybe soon! 

 

Snake, if I remember correctly the issue of this kit I have had that stripe as a decal in yellow and white.

[Snake45]

4 hours ago, Fat Brian said:

Snake, if I remember correctly the issue of this kit I have had that stripe as a decal in yellow and white.

Yeah, I have that, but I don't think the decal yellow over black paint will match the yellow paint all that well. I want to mask off the yellow before I paint the matte black, and then cut the decal to fit around it.

I know HOW to accomplish what I want to do, I just don't want to DO the tedious PITA job. But someday I'll be taken by the urge to kick this thing through the goalposts once and for all and I'll do it. I know me--that's just how I roll.

[Fat Brian]

1 hour ago, Snake45 said:

Yeah, I have that, but I don't think the decal yellow over black paint will match the yellow paint all that well. I want to mask off the yellow before I paint the matte black, and then cut the decal to fit around it.

I know HOW to accomplish what I want to do, I just don't want to DO the tedious PITA job. But someday I'll be taken by the urge to kick this thing through the goalposts once and for all and I'll do it. I know me--that's just how I roll.

Do you think layering two decals on top of each other might true the color up a bit?

[Snake45]

3 minutes ago, Fat Brian said:

Do you think layering two decals on top of each other might true the color up a bit?

Not really, no.