M2 Machines 1970 Datsun 510

[THarrison351]

I finally finished updating some of things to make this a little less toy like. I usually don't do anything to the M2 diecasts. I think I touched up the wheels on one of the Shelby GT 350s with silver paint because too much chrome. As you can see this one suffers from the same problem. At least in my opinion. I painted the wheel centers gunmetal. The calipers were painted also. The wipers were too far up on the windshield so I brought them down a bit and painted them silver because too much chrome. The taillights needed some touch up too.  I also painted the trim at the base of the driver and passenger windows with a Molotow pen to represent the chrome strip that's supposed to be there. The interior had this odd painted steering wheel. The column and wheel are silver and the spokes are brown. Now it's all flat black. It's not stock, but I didn't want to draw attention to it. I touched up the gauge cluster with a sharpie and fixed the door panels with some flat black paint because they had the armrests, door handle and roller all painted silver. They should have been accented. I did a little accent painting under the hood. It could use an intake manifold to connect the two "carburetors" to the engine, but then I need to wire it and meh, no one will see it again after this. I popped the exhaust off and ran a paint pen up and down it and glued it back on. While I was there, I painted the brake rotor assembly piece's backside because they bothered me. 

Before

Before

Before

Before

Before

Before

Edited February 29, 2020 by THarrison351

[Snake45]

The wheels alone make it look 100% better. 

If you can figure out how to drop the front end a little bit, it would look another 100% better. I know this is difficult, if not downright impossible, on some diecasts, and I'm guilty of leaving most of them alone myself. 

I can't see what you did with the taillights, but I'll tell you how to improve them even more. Take the body off and hit the ends of the plastic stems where the lights are mounted to the body with WHITE paint. Avoid the temptation to use silver or Molotow or foil or anything else fancy. White works best, trust me. This makes the black spots in the middle of lights disappear, or nearly so. Works on headlights, taillights, turn signals (hint, hint). WELL worth the disassembly/reassembly time.

Nice work. Green Belt in Snake-Fu awarded. Model on! 

[slusher]

Great looking Datsun, nice personal touches....

[THarrison351]

20 hours ago, Snake45 said:

I can't see what you did with the taillights, but I'll tell you how to improve them even more. Take the body off and hit the ends of the plastic stems where the lights are mounted to the body with WHITE paint. Avoid the temptation to use silver or Molotow or foil or anything else fancy. White works best, trust me. This makes the black spots in the middle of lights disappear, or nearly so. Works on headlights, taillights, turn signals (hint, hint). WELL worth the disassembly/reassembly time.

So, I've tried the white paint on the back of the stem in the past, but didn't notice a difference. That's why I stopped doing it. I tried it one more time just to see. After breaking the stem on one taillight frame (repaired) and painting the light stems I noticed the silver sharpie touch up I added on the left lens was missing. Must have rubbed off in polishing and handling. It's been replaced with a Molotow touch up. Thank you for letting me know. After getting it all back together, I took a photo and the flash was on my phone. I don't like the pictures with the flash because it washes out the model. I took a second photo without the flash and guess what, the stems show dark, but the photo with flash they look light bulbs in the lens. I guess the difference is the flash.

Flash

No Flash

Edit. After looking at the original posted pictures, they may not be as dark. There it certainly something reflecting back. I'll try it on my next diecast the BRE 240Z by Greenlight

Edited February 29, 2020 by THarrison351

[Snake45]

Now I see a difference. Looks better! 

[randyc]

That looks great.  Nice improvements.