GSL Common Kit: [revision] just another Model A Roadster

[Bullybeef]

Can’t wait to see this all together Kurt. The level of skill on this is astounding. 

[bobthehobbyguy]

Some great enhancements. Great fab and detail work.

[89AKurt]

  On 2/5/2023 at 1:20 AM, Bullybeef said:

Can’t wait to see this all together Kurt. The level of skill on this is astounding. 

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You are too kind. ?

  On 2/5/2023 at 1:36 AM, bobthehobbyguy said:

Some great enhancements. Great fab and detail work.

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Thank you. ?

Used several paints, started with Testors gloss black, on the rear axle and exhaust pipes, then quick running of a little thinner before doing Testors semi-gloss black on the radiator and brake bellows (yea I could have brush painted that tiny part LOL).  Model Master metalizer aluminum on the gas tank again, and nitrous bottle mounts, plus differential part.  Tamiya titanium gold, but more later...  Needed to dump the cleaning thinner and start fresh before squirting the Tamiya primer.  Then Testors blue on the nitrous bottle.  Finally Alclad stainless steel on the exhaust pipes.

Glad I got the chrome part off the differential, and masked for painting the suspension arm brackets.  Still not happy with the mismatched color tones on the exhausts, but I need to park my OCD on this one.

I forgot about picking up this bottle of Model Master brass non-buffing paint, had never used it.  Now that it's an extinct brand, I could probably sell it on eBay for $50. ?  No, I'd rather use it, you only live once.  This looks so much better.

[89AKurt]

#*&@%#*@%+=?

This Testors fluorescent yellow is a pain to airbrush!  It worked fine when I did a model rocket, but this time? ?

So into the brake fluid it went.

Trying to decide what the main color will be.  Last century I painted this Chevy COE with the Pactra (another extinct brand) fluorescent yellow, and it's still good.  Found several bottles of various brands that went bad.  This scallop design is what I hope to do, but in reverse.

I had good luck with the pearl pink nail 'polish' before.  Have the Model Master pearl, and some Scale Finishes "Didspade" to try out.  The Splash green was custom made for the '69 Chevy pickup, it's a "normal" color to do.  I like purple, have a range to choose from.  The leather seats will get done with a variety some of this paint.  The Pactra yellow is now on the table.   The Model Master turquoise is still good, had a similar color from the Testors colors by Boyd (Coddington) time period that was shot, but just because the kit suggests "teal" it's way down the list.  Did find out that I'm out of any flat black enamel, just ordered some from eBay (freaking gold plated now); Testors does not have flat black bottles now! ??

[89AKurt]

Took the rest of the day off from this project, went on a hike in the woods on "my" trail.  Stream is running like it's Colorado, had to take a picture of Blue Cloud.

Tonight I made a MSD ignition box, since I have these nice decals, been wanting an excuse.  The NOS decal is on the bottle.  Thought I should do the last Hobby Design fire extinguisher.  And since I was airbrushing (hate brush panting that much), did the distributor too.

[Kit Karson]

I'm already way passed impressed with the degree of amazing attention to parts that may never be seen by the casual observer.  I have to crawl under my 1:1 '34 PU to see the delicate assemblies and connections you've combined from over the counter and very accessible parts and materials!  Looking forward to seeing it and meeting you at GSL XXVIII... -KK

[Mr. Metallic]

I just got caught up on this and just wanted to say I love the side pipes. I was going to suggest that you shorten them just a couple scale inches. You're using the iconic 32 Ford frame rails, but the rear of the pipes hides the character line of the frame. Now that you've already painted them I guess they'll stay that way, which they still look great.

[89AKurt]

  On 2/6/2023 at 3:46 PM, Kit Karson said:

I'm already way passed impressed with the degree of amazing attention to parts that may never be seen by the casual observer.  I have to crawl under my 1:1 '34 PU to see the delicate assemblies and connections you've combined from over the counter and very accessible parts and materials!  Looking forward to seeing it and meeting you at GSL XXVIII... -KK

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Appreciate your comment!   Yea, I'm wondering if anyone will ever see the photo-etch nuts I put on the brake fluid reservoir. ?  Look forward to seeing old friends and new ones who I've met via the web.

  On 2/6/2023 at 7:13 PM, Mr. Metallic said:

I just got caught up on this and just wanted to say I love the side pipes. I was going to suggest that you shorten them just a couple scale inches. You're using the iconic 32 Ford frame rails, but the rear of the pipes hides the character line of the frame. Now that you've already painted them I guess they'll stay that way, which they still look great.

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Appreciate the input, I wasn't thinking about that.  I was thinking more about getting the fumes just a little further back.

I'm still working on stripping the paint. ?  This fluorescent is a little tougher than other paints.  Today I assembled the master brake cylinder, and radiator.  Added the nitrous button at the gear shift knob, which is stretched red sprue inside steel tubing, mounted in aluminum plate, wire barely held in place with slivers of aluminum tape.  Carved the bottle valve from sheet styrene, small sprue for the twist knob and gauge, used a gauge decal that looks close to what I've seen.

[89AKurt]

Made a jig to hold the engine, I know all the handling is going to wear off paint and chrome.  Brass rod in the tail shaft hole, 2 guitar strings in holes that were drilled where the engine is glued to the chassis.

Fuel system is done.  Made just enough parts to suggest levers, linkages, shafts, etc.  A vendor at the model shows had thin solder wire, that was used from the carbs to the block with the pressure gauge.

[Calb56]

  On 2/9/2023 at 6:56 AM, 89AKurt said:

Made a jig to hold the engine, I know all the handling is going to wear off paint and chrome.  Brass rod in the tail shaft hole, 2 guitar strings in holes that were drilled where the engine is glued to the chassis.

Fuel system is done.  Made just enough parts to suggest levers, linkages, shafts, etc.  A vendor at the model shows had thin solder wire, that was used from the carbs to the block with the pressure gauge.

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Excellent, beautiful engine detail.

[89AKurt]

  On 2/9/2023 at 7:56 PM, Calb56 said:

Excellent, beautiful engine detail.

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Thank you!  I added the nitrous plumbing tonight, but not worth taking a picture.

After doing research to figure out what parts I need for the nitrous system, found that the bottle placement is not a good idea, so will be revising that.  And I thought all there would be is a line from bottle to carbs, but I see there are two regulators involved.  So I will doing a bunch of faking. ?

Committed to the main color, since I have a bunch of this green from my '69 Chevy pickup project.  I noticed that street rods at the last Roadster show are trending towards "dirty" tones instead of vivid bright pearl metal flake wowzer colors.  Still trying to get the disaster paint off the body, so I painted the frame because there is a bunch of work to do, and the interior so I can try the leather technique I saw recently.

[absmiami]

Great stuff

[89AKurt]

My OCD couldn't handle the trunk latch, the wire was too flexible, allowing the lid to pop up, and wouldn't latch when closing unless I tweaked the wire, so I removed the offender.  Made a new spring latch from newspaper printing plate.  Much happier. ?

Need to process pictures before posting....... ?️

[89AKurt]

Still cooling off from the paint debacle, but today (Saturday) I cleaned up the mess.  That Testors paint wouldn't come completely off on the body, so wet-sanded it.  In the meantime, painted over the green with the Model Master clear purple shift, which must one of the rarest colors they produced.  To add some interest, painted Dullcote on the chassis.  When I get to the leather, the paint should be cured.

Worked last night until 1:00 AM, assembling the chassis.  After doing the brake lines, the engine will be installed, then I can do the plug wires.  The paint screwup allowed me to correct the nitrous bottle installation, need to make new mounts.  Turned the battery 90º.  One more thing to do on the trunk floor before paint.  Made one nitrous solenoid, l think the fuel line gets one too.   MSD ignition decal is on a box.  Made a paper mockup for the new latch.

Here is the latch.  Took about 8 times of gluing in place, then needing to tweak it.  When it was perfect, super glue with baking soda dumped on it, holds in place where two holes in the spring are.  The license plate will be glued into the steel tube.

[89AKurt]

I just couldn't toss the nitrous mounts, so modified them.  Made a polished aluminum plate angle to cover the latch.  Could have done sheet plastic, but I *had to* do this.

Dash got the gauges, and two teeny tiny toggle switches.  Picked the eyeball decal for the shift knob.  I find it amusing there is a 4 speed shift pattern decal, when it's an automatic 700R4.  There are 2 decals that I have no clue what they are for, toothpick is pointing to them.  Are they for the horn button?  Something I learned from looking at photos of real cars, the bottom gauge is oval, and the left hole is actually the ignition switch.  Added the speedometer and combo gauge.

Replicas & Miniatures of MD photo-etch rings added, used clear paint for that, a drop in the center of the gauge, worked around to the ring.  I have used up my toggle switches, hope they are still available.  From what I can tell, not the Wizard of "O"s.

Sprayed the Pactra fluorescent yellow, managed to not screw it up.  ?

The seats and door panels are painted.  Airbrushed Model Master leather with a little flat black added.

Never tried this technique before.  A tutorial I saw used acrylics, several colors including umber, which I am not an artist and don't have hundreds of colors to use, and a sponge.  A favorite color of mine is an Afrika Korps military color, added different ratios for about two layers, finished with straight leather.  Bounty paper towel was used, trick is not to use too much because fibers come off.  Mixed on the yogurt aluminum, added drops of thinner.  Airbrushed a light coat of Deft clear varnish.

Wanted to get the tire/wheels done.  Airbrushed gloss black again, I know that's the thing to do, not semi-gloss.  Used Softscrub cleaner and a toothbrush to dull the tires.  Brushed battleship grey in the treads, at first thinned but the treads were still glossy, so straight from the bottle.  The chrome rings fit tight in the wheels, don't need glue, that gets high marks from me for Revell.  Next thing to research, do the hubcaps have colors in the design?  The instructions say to glue on the steering column in one of the first steps, which is just stupid.

Question for who have built this, what is with the steel pins for the brake drums?  I want to drill the front deeper, but think it will break through the hub (or worse break the whole thing).  Could drill the rear deeper since the axle is there.  It's a shame the nicely detailed drums are going to be hidden by the wheels.

[89AKurt]

I figured out what to do with the steel pins.  The rear axle, drilled deeper, front I cut about 3/16" off.   It was friction fit, two fingers held the backing plate and a thumbnail pushed them in.  I can't see a kid getting this part done without breaking the front axle.

Brake lines are done.  Used a generic diagram, which showed some sort of balancing valves and a "APV" inline, simple blocks of plastic.  Also made T fittings from plastic, didn't go nuts with shaping or adding p-e nuts.  Some touch-up paint still needs to be done.  "Plug wire" for the flex lines, wire insulation for the transition to thin solder wire.  This is the first time I ever did so much for the brakes.

 

[89AKurt]

Finding out how tight everything is, discovered some clearance issues.   First up, the brake pedal arm was clearing before, but adding just one tiny part caused interference with the engine.  The other was finding out the wires that hold the 'cap' on were touching the floor, so I made an 'access hatch' and fixed that!

Been wanting to use the circuit board holder.  The rear frame rail didn't fit in the groove, so I made a wood adapter block.  I think the way the wheels attach to the brake drums is lousy engineering.  If you were to display without the wheels on, the studs are a nice detail.  Sanded them off, and ground the center of the wheels down so they won't touch the steel pins.

Painted the brake parts.  Glued the engine and exhausts on.  Now I can do the thing I don't really like to do (say what, after all this other stuff?), spark plug wires.

With all the handling of the frame, broke a headlight mount, so need to rethink and redo those. ?

[OldNYJim]

I’m really enjoying this build - you’re doing a beautiful job of detailing up this relatively-simple kit.

You did great at that leather technique - I’ve tried that too but haven’t mastered it yet…

[SpikeSchumacher]

Wow, just WOW...

[89AKurt]

  On 2/16/2023 at 4:41 AM, CabDriver said:

I’m really enjoying this build - you’re doing a beautiful job of detailing up this relatively-simple kit.

You did great at that leather technique - I’ve tried that too but haven’t mastered it yet…

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Thank you!  Don't give up!   I've seen another technique of shading such seats with washes to give a shadow effect, I started with the darkest shade, and finished with the original color, the lighter shades being at random in between.

  On 2/16/2023 at 5:30 AM, SpikeSchumacher said:

Wow, just WOW...

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?

Spark plug wiring is done.  Used wire insulation for the plug end, can't really see it, but the coil wire shows it well (still need to make the coil).  The distributor end is smashed with pliers, there was no way to drill the cap!  So I'm hoping superglue built up will mimic the 90º ends, will paint black in the morning.  The really hard part was getting the wire into the drilled holes in the block, which is painted black, was using the iPhone light.

Was concerned about clearance with the body, again there is no space.  Why did Chevy have to put the distributor in back?  I've noticed there is a ventilation tube at the front, which the kit does not have, so that's something my OCD is bothering me about.

[slusher]

Excelent clean work!

[89AKurt]

Thought of something else to make, a transmission cooler.  I see the usual application is for RVs and pickups that tow stuff, so I figured it doesn't need to be as big.  Had trouble finding a picture, but found a video, and when the guy pointed to where the lines go into the 700R4, I could see that Revell had the detail bumps there.  Detail Master radiator face photo-etch, wire from my stash, photo-etch nuts finish that part.

Another detail I have been thinking about making, crankcase ventilator / oil filler.  My real pickup has this part on a valve cover, kit has nothing.  Used the cordless drill, roughed to shape using the Dremel with cutoff disk, then files, sanding stick, steel wool, polish.  Thinwall stainless steel tube completes that detail.

Cooler fills that empty space nicely.

Also turned the coil the same way.  Painted the hubcap scripts.

[Bullybeef]

Kurt you are continually adding more wow to this build. The chassis alone would be a showcase piece for me. 

[Mr. Metallic]

  On 1/23/2023 at 5:19 AM, 89AKurt said:

 

Started the brake master cylinder, specifically the frame mount.  Used aluminum newspaper printing plate, and steel tubing, the pin makes it look like I plan to make it move, but not happening.

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Where can you source the aluminum newspaper printing plate?

[89AKurt]

  On 2/17/2023 at 8:41 PM, Bullybeef said:

Kurt you are continually adding more wow to this build. The chassis alone would be a showcase piece for me. 

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Appreciate your enthusiasm!

  On 2/17/2023 at 8:48 PM, Mr. Metallic said:

Where can you source the aluminum newspaper printing plate?

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Keep in mind that I got it last century, and I live in a small town.  Any printing plant that produces a newspaper, and that applies for the inserts, uses aluminum plates the size of the page, mounted on rollers.  Last time I got a sheet, they said they send them somewhere to recycle.  Don't bother trying flashing that you can get at Home Deephole, it's thicker, and breaks when bent.

One thing Revell did an awesome job on, are the headlights (except for the sprue location).  The lenses are beautifully engraved, and fit perfect in the buckets, glued with Testors canopy glue.  Used stretched clear sprue to make blue dots and HID blue headlight bulbs.  Looks like I screwed up brush painting one taillight, debating whether to redo it, but there is a Murphy's Law about that.

Started on the body again.  Drew the design on the instructions, but when I laid out the top, needed to add another scallop.  Took almost 2 hours just for this!

Sprayed the Splash paint.  I'm getting the hang of using it, just need to be a spaz in making quick strokes.  But the trunk almost got crazed, so maybe I will wet-sand and do a quick second coat.  Masked and airbrushed the steering wheel rim, in my research it appears the original color has a tint of brown, not just black.  I'm always amazed at lowrider builders, I'm not a fan of masking.