29 Ford Street Rod

[OldNYJim]

...because this site really needs ANOTHER Revell Model A build right now ?

I’ve got a box stock version of one of these just about ready for polishing and assembly, soon as the paint dries anyway, so I pulled another one out of the stack to get going on.  I’d like to still MOSTLY use the parts that come with it, but I’ve got a change of wheels in mind and I’d like to do some little mods and tweaks to improve on the end results a little.

First up, a little filler on those frame rails to smooth them out:

Something I’d like to address on this build is hiding the tabs that are visible on the underside when the kit’s finished:

I still wanted to retain the way that the interior assembles to the floor so I smoothed out the ribs that extend past the outside of the frame rails there and cut a couple of little filler pieces to cover those tabs but still allow the kit to assemble like normal:

Everything still assembles as it should but at least you can’t see those gaps and tabs if you peek underneath the body.

Whilst I’m smoothing out holes, I filled the door handle mounts on the body, and as I won’t be running the full exhaust system I smoothed out the recesses on the rear panel that allow the pipes to snuggle up to the body:

 

On a related note, has anyone noticed a couple of rough spots on the body of this kit?  There’s two rough circles of uneven surface  that showed up last time I built one of these - I thought it was maybe something I’d done the first time but I can see them on this one too.  Nothing major, but a little thing to watch out for. I think I got them handled on this one, but I’ll see how the primer levels out once it dries:

Ive got a particular idea for a flamed paint job that I’d like to try on this one - I’d like traditional black main color  but with a more modern look to the flames with some pearls and metallics.  I got a set of Pearl Ex powders and I’d really like to get a pearl flip-flop with one of the colors that I liked from the set:

More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[slusher]

Nice start Jim, I will be watching..

[OldNYJim]

23 hours ago, slusher said:

Nice start Jim, I will be watching..

Thanks buddy!

The thing that used to hold me up a lot on builds was waiting for the clear to set-up properly on the body before I can polish it out, so I’ve started the habit of doing the body first and then letting it sit for three weeks before doing the next part.  The Testors gloss enamel I’ve started using dries to a touch in a day or two but you can’t get a REALLY nice shine unless you really let it set up right (or use a dehydrator, which I don’t have...)

So, I get to do the fun bit first!  I wanted to have this thing black with some pearl red-into-pearl-purple flames.  Rather than paint it black and then try and layer enough paint up over that to get vibrant colors for the graphics, I’m going to do it backwards - bright colors first then mask the flames and hit the rest with black.

Picked some colors out...

 

First up, pearl red:

 

Then the fade into pearl purple:

 

Then a little thinned-down neon pink just to add a little fade to a lighter color at the ‘front’ of where the flames will go:

 

I’ve been wanting to play with my new PearlEx set and this seemed like a good place to use it (like it’s not ridiculous enough already), so I mixed up a clear coat with their red-blue flip pearl and shot three coats of that, followed by a couple of coats of clear plus their bright pink powder.

 

After letting that set up I shot it with a barrier coat of Future so I can mask over the top of it tomorrow and not have to worry about damaging the paint or pearl coats:

Got some nice flip-flops going on there, especially  coupled with the fades too - I like how from the angle in the pic above the first pearl coats are giving some red and blue highlights over the base colors, and then on the top surfaces the pink starts to come through.  Of course, when I lay down the masks for the flames and shoot them almost all of that paint will be covered anyway and you’ll never see it again, but hopefully we’ll get some really cool color-flipping flames out of all this!

More tomorrow!

 

 

[OldNYJim]

I was really excited to do this next bit...the flames!  

Took three tries to get some flames I was happy with, but got there eventually - cut some masks on my Silhouette and laid them down over the paint I shot yesterday:

And then shot black (and crossed my fingers that I didn’t ruin it somehow...)

Then a half hour of careful de-masking later....

I need to seal them in some clear next to protect the black - the humidity’s REALLY high here this week so it’s not an ideal time to shoot the ‘real’ clear coats but I’ll put a barrier coat of Future over the whole thing to stop any damage in the meantime. 

More soon!

[espo]

Great looking Flames. I like how you set this up with the Black color going on last. 

[Jantrix]

That looks terrific. Nicely done.

[Dragonhawk1066]

Looks great so far! What a great method and step by step tutorial for doing flames. I might actually be able to flames this way, thanks again for the step by step breakdown!

[OldNYJim]

Thanks all!  Hopefully the step-by-step was useful

I forgot to post the inner fenders earlier - these will barely be visible on the finished car, but I gave them their own flames too just in case anyone were to ever peek behind the brakes to see if anything’s back there:

 

This angle of the body really shows how much that red portion changes color with the Pearl overlay if you compare to the pink flip you can see in the previous set of pics - I love it! 

Beacuse I can’t help from rotating the paint stand round I figured I should get a coat of clear on there before I ruin something by playing with it...more soon!

[James2]

Show stopping technique. Looks great!

[Tom Geiger]

Cool! I like that you took care of those interior tabs showing on the underside. They are visible on the one car I built!

[Maindrian Pace]

Very cool!

[Deuces ll]

Bravo sir!!!!!

That looks great!..... ??

[Nazz]

Great job Jim! Those flames are beautiful.

[oldrevellfan]

Nice flame job !

[beeRS]

I'm loving this paint job!

[OldNYJim]

Thanks everyone!  Just a little update...got a really nice warm day here with low humidity - perfect for laying down some clear!

Came out pretty smooth!

 

Doing some more work on getting the frame really straight and making it look as nice as I can today - more soon!

Edited May 31, 2020 by CabDriver

[gman]

That has to be one of the slickest, most well-executed flame jobs I have seen. The shot in natural light really showcases your hard work.

[oldrevellfan]

Awesome !

[Dragonhawk1066]

That turned out beautiful!!??

[NOBLNG]

Really outstanding work on that body there Jim!

[tooltime-fan]

This paintjob is awesome

 

[AmericanMuscleFan]

That's a perfect paint job Jim!  Great technique for the fades, it's simply superb!  I assume that you have hand cutted the flames shapes on some masking tape?  If so, what kind or brand did you used?  A very beautiful Model A in the making sir!!!

[John Pol]

I have a airbrush can`t never figure how people fade there paint job nice work by the way

[OldNYJim]

Thanks everybody!  So many nice comments!!  

2 hours ago, AmericanMuscleFan said:

That's a perfect paint job Jim!  Great technique for the fades, it's simply superb!  I assume that you have hand cutted the flames shapes on some masking tape?  If so, what kind or brand did you used?  A very beautiful Model A in the making sir!!!

In this case I made the flames in software and then cut masks using my Silhouette scrapbook cutter.  The blue material is Oramask 813 masking film - but it cuts just as well by hand as if does by machine (and before I had the cutter I used to do this kind of job by hand).  
 

57 minutes ago, John Pol said:

I have a airbrush can`t never figure how people fade there paint job nice work by the way

I just think of them as a tiny little spraycan! ?. I usually start the spray off the body and bring it up (or down) to get a fade between colors...just takes a little practise is all.

I’ve been prepping parts and learning some new techniques and messing with some new materials so haven’t got much further on this one - did decide to strip the chrome off the grille and shoot it body color (with the Ford oval in a pink to match a portion of the flames):

 

Started a little work on the engine too - wanted to smooth out some of the ridges and grooves and fins and stuff to make it look a little more modern - but more on that soon...

 

Edited June 10, 2020 by CabDriver

[OldNYJim]

Just a little update today...there’s a cool Hot Wheels who’s name I forget; but it’s a coffin shaped slingshot dragster that has cool little skull ‘headlamps’.  Made a mould a couple of weeks back so I could make some of these...

I’m going with a mostly-black interior to match the bodywork but I figured a couple of little highlights to match the colors in the flamejob might be cool:

Flocked the floorpan yesterday so I could start a little work on the interior today...the frame and engine parts are still drying so I’m finding some little jobs to amuse myself in the meantime:

More soon, soon as I’ve done more!