1966 Mercury Comet

[james220]

Pierre and Mark, you both have serious skills. If you have ever seen Doug Wythe's 69 Charger Daytona, he used your method Pierre and on Randy Dearrs beautiful Andretti Fairlane he used Marks way. So neither is right or wrong. I would put you guys skills right there with these folks. It takes a lot of patience to do what you both do. Keep up the good work, keep taking pics and keep letting me steal you guys ideas. And for goodness sakes don't stop modeling. 

[MarkJ]

Thanks, James. I really appreciate the positive comments and I'm sure Pierre does too. I would really like to see Doug and Randy's work. Do you have any links?

[MarkJ]

I just need to smooth the areas around the headlights and maybe install some small .020 rods along the top and bottom of the center panel that runs between the upper and lower grilles. Looks like there was something like that before the front end damage that happened during the race. After that I will sand the whole body and prime it. then I will do the three tone paint job. I bought some liquid mask I want to try to hopefully get a sharper line between the different colors of paint. Aircraft guys use it when doing camouflage paint jobs, and it appears to do a good job. Apparently you just peel it off when you're through painting.

[james220]

Mark I'm not the most computer  savvy person in the world so finding links  may not be my best bet. Both have appeared in issues of the old Scale Auto mag (let me look at home to see what Issues)  and I believe Randy does some of the work shown in Bill Coulters book  "Building and Detailing Stock Cars"  Randy has also taken the 1/12 scale Revell Camaro and turned it into the Mark Donahue/Roger Penske Trans Am racer. If you haven't seen it, it is something Special. Maybe a couple of days until I get back to you. Tonight is my wife and I's 25th Anniversary so we may do a little night on the town. Might even stay out until 10:00

[MarkJ]

1 hour ago, james220 said:

Mark I'm not the most computer  savvy person in the world so finding links  may not be my best bet. Both have appeared in issues of the old Scale Auto mag (let me look at home to see what Issues)  and I believe Randy does some of the work shown in Bill Coulters book  "Building and Detailing Stock Cars"  Randy has also taken the 1/12 scale Revell Camaro and turned it into the Mark Donahue/Roger Penske Trans Am racer. If you haven't seen it, it is something Special. Maybe a couple of days until I get back to you. Tonight is my wife and I's 25th Anniversary so we may do a little night on the town. Might even stay out until 10:00

Sounds good, James. Have a great evening. 25 years is very special. Our fiftieth is coming up in 2023.  If the Lord is willing and i'm still here.

 

[Pierre Rivard]

Mark, the body looks very, very good. I look forward to learn from the work you do with the liquid mask. I've never tried it so I am quite intrigued.

Red, black and white. Is there a better color combo out there? Don't think so.

[MarkJ]

4 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

Mark, the body looks very, very good. I look forward to learn from the work you do with the liquid mask. I've never tried it so I am quite intrigued.

Red, black and white. Is there a better color combo out there? Don't think so.

Thanks, Pierre. Yes I am hoping the liquid mask works out for me.  I am always masked challenged when it come to masking tape. I can never get a crisp line between the colors. I'm hoping the liquid mask adheres better then the tape and it peels off leaving a nice concise line between the colors. And none of the paint sneaks under the mask like it does with tape. We shall see. 

[jjsipes]

Looking good Mark. Keep it. 

[jjsipes]

Hey Mark, it just hit me and I went looking in my pictures from past car shows. Back in 2014 I seen this restored car at the Ford Nationals in Carlisle, PA. I have attached pictures in case you are interested in them.

[MarkJ]

Thanks, Jason. I was able to find these too. For a museum car its mostly correct. I think they got the color too dark 

for the red on the body and the wheels at the Southern 500 were white, not silver. The upper and lower grilles are not correct either. They used stock comet grilles instead of the Cyclone grilles. My grilles won't be correct either,. But they will be close enough for government work. My dad used to love to say that all the time. He worked for the Federal government.

[MarkJ]

Got the first primer session done. I need to block sand and see if I can remove any voids that I missed with the first sanding. The primer brings out the faults you didn't know that you have. I will use a scribe on the trunk and door seams so they don't go away from the primer sessions I might have to use.  A primer session is when you mix some primer in the pallet and keep going around the model till you use up what you have prepared. A session lasts until you get the opacity you need to do the block sanding.  I did about 5 of these in the first primer session. it shouldn't take as many in the second session. This Vallejo primer is very thin when it is thinned out and not very opaque when applied. that is what makes you have to keep filling the pallet chamber until you feel the session is over. If the body was white, I'm sure the session would not take as long. This body is gray. I need a white primer surface to paint the white roof, or it will turn out looking light gray.

[Bill J]

Mark, your turning a 67 Comet into a 66 is absolutely amazzing. You never fail to impress and inspire. Looking forward to the finished car.

[MarkJ]

Thanks, Bill. I'm kinda turning a 67 into a 66. Don't look too closely after its finished. There are a couple of things that are way off, but i'm not telling anybody what they are. It's still going to look more like a 66 then a 67 and my chances of getting a 66 kit was zero. I'm trying to build as many Southern 500 winners as I can. Especially from the fifty's and sixty's. So far I have the 54,55,56,57,58,59,63, and this will be the 66 winner. I have the kits to do the 64 winner but it will be one of these cut and paste cars. 

[Pierre Rivard]

Looking good so far. Vallejo primer needs a few coats to build up but I find it helps see the small  blemishes needing a bit of fixing.

What sort of tool do you use fro scribing panel lines?

[Lowlife ! !]

 

Great build so far Mark, the bodywork looks very convincing !

I enjoy builds like this, lots of hints and tips !

Sure you know this tip, but for straight line masking i use bare metal foil.  I doesn't tend to let paint leak underneath like masking tape , works well for me anyway !

Good luck I'll be following along !

[Ian McLaren]

Looks very good,

[MarkJ]

1 hour ago, Pierre Rivard said:

Looking good so far. Vallejo primer needs a few coats to build up but I find it helps see the small  blemishes needing a bit of fixing.

What sort of tool do you use fro scribing panel lines?

Thanks, Pierre. I bought it some where . It looks like a pencil with a metal tip. you can also use the back side of a number eleven exacto blade, I have decided to use the gray vallejo primer for the red and black areas. It seems to cover better then the white. The Vallejo primer is very hard to sand compared to the aerosol Tamiya primers. But I am staying true to brush painting everything. I really dislike aerosol cans and I am really not fond of airbrushes. Cleaning them is not fun and neither is using them.

[MarkJ]

13 minutes ago, Ian McLaren said:

Looks very good,

Thanks, Ian.

[MarkJ]

25 minutes ago, Lowlife ! ! said:

 

Great build so far Mark, the bodywork looks very convincing !

I enjoy builds like this, lots of hints and tips !

Sure you know this tip, but for straight line masking i use bare metal foil.  I doesn't tend to let paint leak underneath like masking tape , works well for me anyway !

Good luck I'll be following along !

Thanks Martin . I'm not really fond of bare metal foil anymore. It doesn't adhere very well to do the job it was intended for, much less masking. And its kinda expensive as a masking tape. Its just not the same product it used to be. And of course that's just my humble opinion. 

[MarkJ]

Painted the side with Vallejo crimson red. It's a little to orangee red so I will go back and mix a little light blue in it to cool it down to a more cherry red. 

I figured I would paint the sides red and the roof white first then liquid mask and paint the black middle portions last and see what happens. Then the fun part, polishing. Which I really dislike immensely.

[Pierre Rivard]

I would do the same, lighter colors first and the black at the end. I have found that light over dark is almost impossible with Vallejo colors.

Do you plan to polish the color coat or the acrylic clear?

[MarkJ]

My attempts to get the Vallejo red the right shade failed, so I will use Creatix bright red instead. I also have some Creatix black and white so i will use those too. The Creatix paint went on pretty good with a brush so I'm hoping it will polish out well too.

[MarkJ]

Got the decal sheets printed. Not that great, but they will fit correctly on a 1/25 scale car. Printed extras if I have to double up on the white ones. Going to be painstaking work cutting these little babies out.

[MarkJ]

I will let you know how good the liquid mask works tomorrow. If not, I have a lot of work ahead of me fixing this. The liquid mask dries clear so you can't really see it in these pictures. I just hope it comes off easy.

Edited March 29, 2022 by MarkJ

[Pierre Rivard]

Very interesting. What brand material are you using and what is the method for doing this?