Paint it or build it in its molded color

[junkyardjeff]

Got me a unbuilt mid 60s Monogram 34 Ford kit off Ebay coming in the mail that I will build but having a hard time deciding if I will paint it since I like the maroon it comes it,this will be my first over 50 year old unbuilt kit I have ever got my hands on. Engine will get painted but that might be all that gets paint as the black the chassis comes is not too bad.

[Bucky]

I have built molded color plastic kits in the past without painting the body. If the plastic is fairly shiny, and there are no swirl marks due to the molding process, it should look pretty good.

[GMP440]

I did it once with the Revell 70 Trans Am kit.  Did not paint the body.  Instead, I used the Millenium polish kit and buffed out the white body.  Came out pretty good. Every now and then I look at it and think I should have painted the body. 

 

Edited September 3, 2019 by GMP440

[Richard Bartrop]

Some of those old Monograms look really nice in their bare plastic.  I've done a couple that way myself.

[StevenGuthmiller]

1 hour ago, Bucky said:

and there are no swirl marks due to the molding process

That is the biggest factor when deciding whether or not to paint.

If there are no swirl marks, the mold lines can be removed and the plastic can be polished just like paint.

The only one that I have done this way in the past 30 years is a particularly nice Johan '61 Plymouth Fury.

 

 

Steve

 

[Bucky]

In my experience, the ones that present the biggest problem are the kits that are molded in metallic plastic. The ones I've had hardly ever had evenly distributed metallic in the plastic.

[ChrisBcritter]

I have an original built-up Monogram '34 Cabriolet and there are no swirl marks in the maroon plastic; it's smooth enough that a good waxing will really make it sparkle. Good luck with it!

[Bugatti Fan]

Each to their own, but plastic always looks like plastic to me. However, if the colour of the plastic is even and flawless and the modeller wants to retain it a coat of gloss clear might be the answer. I have tried this a number of times and it has worked quite well.

[Snake45]

Polish it up and amaze your friends! I've done quite a few polished plastic models and am proud of all of them. 

[my66s55]

I use future and they come out nice.

 

[SCRWDRVR]

The only kit I’ve ever not painted was a monogram coronet that was the metallic blue plastic, I just liked how it looked. I recently put pledge/future on it and it looks even better now I think. 

 

[Lunajammer]

The color of my 58 T-bird seemed too precious to cover so it got a good polish.

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, Lunajammer said:

The color of my 58 T-bird seemed too precious to cover so it got a good polish.

Nice! I've got an old survivor Mono '55 Chev custom in that color and I'm just gonna polish it up, too. 

[Plowboy]

If I'm not mistaken, the Monogram '34 has a separate roof section. It'll be quite difficult to get it glued on cleanly enough to be able to just polish the body. Personally, I always paint. 

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, Plowboy said:

If I'm not mistaken, the Monogram '34 has a separate roof section. It'll be quite difficult to get it glued on cleanly enough to be able to just polish the body. Personally, I always paint. 

Just requires careful fitting. Shouldn't be an insurmountable problem. 

[StevenGuthmiller]

10 hours ago, my66s55 said:

I use future and they come out nice.

 

White is a really tough color to do this with.

The transparency of the white plastic can become pretty apparent if not painted, especially if it gets any back light whatsoever.

 

I discovered this when I decided not to paint the interior parts on a '66 Chrysler 300.

Under most circumstances it looks fine.

But if the light hits it right, it's obvious that it's unpainted plastic.

 

 

Steve

[Richard Bartrop]

Whatever plastic Monogram used to use in their kits was pretty opaque and they came out of the moulds with a high gloss, so they didn't look as blatantly "plasticky" as some. 

[junkyardjeff]

I am going to build without painting the body and now to decide coupe or convertible.

[Brutalform]

18 hours ago, Snake45 said:

Polish it up and amaze your friends! I've done quite a few polished plastic models and am proud of all of them. 

Yep. I’ve polished a few solid color bodies using Novus #2, then #1. A flannel cloth works best.

Some of the bodies that are cast in a metallic color, ( some monogram kits) usually need to be repainted because of lines in the metallic that no amount of polishing will fix. 

[Classicgas]

Ywhile the above models look nice to my eye cleared or polished plastic still looks like plastic. If you are building factory stock you would be limited to one choice, and what's to say the molded color is accurate to a factory color.

[StevenGuthmiller]

1 hour ago, Classicgas said:

Ywhile the above models look nice to my eye cleared or polished plastic still looks like plastic. If you are building factory stock you would be limited to one choice, and what's to say the molded color is accurate to a factory color.

I don't agree.

I don't believe that without being told, you would have ever been able to tell that at least these models were not painted, at least from the photos.

It's easy to say that in hindsight, but without being supplied that information beforehand, I don't think that you would have been able to make that determination.

 

I consider myself to have a pretty good eye for this sort of thing, and I would have never known without being told.

 

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TarheelRick]

All those models look really good.  I just bought the AMT Dirty Donny GTX, it is molded in black plastic and the body looks good enough to just polish and leave it as is.  Someone mentioned the transparency of white styrene, wouldn't a good coat of white on the inside take care of that problem?

[bobthehobbyguy]

The polished models shown here look great. Definitely go for it. 

[Snake45]

2 hours ago, TarheelRick said:

Someone mentioned the transparency of white styrene, wouldn't a good coat of white on the inside take care of that problem?

All white styrene is not created equal. If you're going to polish it, it needs to be as opaque as possible, which most modern white styrene isn't (some, though not all, '60s white styrene is). 

Only white styrene I've successfully polished so far was an AMT snapper '53 Corvette. It looks good. I currently have an older AMT '59 Vette on the bench I'm trying to pull the same trick on. 

I recently stripped an original annual AMT '67 Cyclone that's so dense and white and clean that I'd love to polish it, but there's a hole in the hood that will need to be filled. Unless I can come up with a virgin hood, I'll have to paint the thing. 

[ewetwo]

I just put Pledge Renew on this one. It was molded black.