AMT 66 Chevy Modified Stocker (1st kit)

[stavanzer]

On 1/29/2023 at 3:34 PM, bo_ells said:

Body color down! Saw this album with a bunch of pics and decided to go for blue: https://www.garaget.org/?car=422313

Body will sit a minute before second coat.

Was gonna go for red wheels, but the blue color mix had more metallic than I expected, it's almost candy (I guess?), so still deciding on wheels.

Also got most of the "steel" bits done (roll cage and the nutty demo derby bars/panels).

Steel bits were straight Semi Matte Aluminum. Body color was a 5:1:1 Blue, Silver, Pure White. I tested the mix by brush and the metallic silver didn't pop like it did when airbrushed.

 

 

That colour looks perfect.

I need to get back to mine.

[stavanzer]

Try Orange Wheels.

[bo_ells]

Minor progress, but I think it looks cool!

Second coat of body color, decided to go bold with gold wheels. Starting prepping the drivetrain for assembly to the chassis. Figuring out where the engine wants to be exactly is finicky, as there's no pin to reference off of (maybe I filed it off ?).

[bo_ells]

Edit: accidentally duped the post

Edited February 6, 2023 by bo_ells
duplicate

[TransAmMike]

First time looking in on you build here Bo....I'm kind of taken aback?by your mixing colors for everything you paint. Great looking unusual build.  I a watchin' now.

[bo_ells]

Lol thanks!

I really need to start a notepad or something for my mixes. I realized this morning looking in here that I had added white to the first body coat, which is not present in the second. I don't think it affected the overall result, other than some darkening. But I will inevitably good something else up if I don't start a good color log.

[bo_ells]

Been slow progress. Spent a week fussing with getting the drive train and engine glued in. You can see kinda in this pic where I mangled the glue point for the engine block. The lack of positive reference point for it gave it lots of room to slip back and forth. And the rear axle had some kind of twist that kept popping it out before the glue would set. Finally had to hold.it for about 15-20 minutes while sitting at the computer to get that side held in.

Not if it was me not prepping properly, not holding it in the first place, it the twist causing it it not sit right (even though test fit seemed ok).

 

Whatever ? Now I'm fixing the other mistake of not gluing the exhaust headers in place before gluing in the engine/drivetrain lol

Hopefully I'm on to starting interior assembly tomorrow morning, and get this thing close to done this weekend.

[slusher]

Looking great!

[bo_ells]

Done. Not complete, but done.

Opted not to fuss with the push bars, side panel "armor" and other fiddly bits. Just wanted it done. Getting the interior together just about finished me. I thought I had test fit everything well, but so much of this kit is left to the builder to figure out. Think I said it before, not a good first kit

 

The seat sort of has some locating points on the floor of the interior, but it ended up way to far forward and interferred with the roll cage, so I had to pop it off and reset it. The roll cage went together easy enough, but it has no glue points. If I were to do it over, I'd assemble the roll cage completely before painting, then drill and pin some kind of reference in there for it. Ended up figuring two good spots I was willing to scratch away interior paint to glue it in place.

Then the interior tub didn't line up with the body. Again, test fitting seemed like the dash was good, but it doesn't meet the base of the windshield. Once the firewall was in, the interior couldn't slide forward enough. This led to the drivetrain getting a bit of flex into it, tipping the engine up some so the air filter wouldn't meet the firewall as it was supposed to. The body seems like it should have slipped over the frame rails, but it ain't happening.

 

All in all, a good lesson, and generally fun despite the frustrations. I really enjoyed airbrushing. Looking forward to getting better at that, and prepping the next kit better. I did just see a video that had an awesome technique to get a good chrome finish using only Vallejo stuff. Had I seen that a couple weeks ago, I'd have stripped the bumpers and done them. Also didn't feel like learning to use the gloss varnish on this one, so that will be something to learn on the next one.

 

Next up, Tamiya's Nissan 300ZX #24042! I've read that is a well put together kit, and looking inside the box it's completely different from this one.