Maxwell House Thunderbird

[Ben269]

Monogram kit, 30 year old kit decals looked pretty good, but they are thin and I think every decal tore while trying to set it.  Testors bottle paint airbrushed for the blue and the dark blue.  Had some extra 9 hole wheels, which is what this car used in most of the pictures i could find of it.  

[Ben269]

I ran out of the Testers flat clear, so I bought Tamaya.  When I spray the tires over the decals, it seems to be too hot or something.  It looks like the decal is peeling off, and ruins the effect.  Does anyone have that same problem?   Any ideas or suggestions?  

[espo]

Great looking build and the decals look turned out good as well. As for the "Good Year" on the tires, back then the tires would get painted with a simple stencil and some sort of spray paint at the time. Usually not done to a show car standard as they only had to last a short time on the track and were then thrown away. The appearance may be closer than you may think. 

[Rattlecan Dan]

Nice job bringing that one back to life. Looks super. Not sure but a coat of dull cote might fix up the goodyears. Looks nice none the less.

[TransAmMike]

Looks very nice.  It so happens we live in the same city that Sterling lives.  So you can guess we were a big fan. Met and talked to him on numerous occasions and he actually got us  in the pits of a couple of races.  Very nice guy.

[Shark]

To fix the Goodyear lettering, get a new #11 exacto blade and cut a few areas between the lettering. Soak a cotton swab with setting solution and dab it on generously. For some reason the hollow AMT tires are bad for doing this and it has worked for me.

[bbowser]

Nice job!  Sterling was a favorite and I always liked this livery.

[bobss396]

I have fixed chipped decals with a dab of X22 clear with success.

I did a Pinto modified as a consignment a month or so ago. Old parts box decals went on and I shot some TS13 clear over them. Some of the decals looked like a dry lake bad right away, I was resigned to a strip job. BUT... once the clear dried, the cracked decals looked perfect.

[Ben269]

Mike, that's cool that you got to meet him, sounds like he was a pretty cool guy!  thanks for the tips, guys, I'm going to try a few things and see if I can get a better result on these tires.  this never happened when i used the Testors dull coat, it just started happening with the Tamiya, so i think that's the fault point.  might be able to clean them up with a blade, might just sand them clean and try a different dull clear over a new decal, we will see.

[ChrisR]

Looks great!

[PappyD340]

Very nice!

[MarkJ]

Don't know how I missed this one. First thing that grabbed me was the excellent metallic paint job. Very clean overall appearance. I agree that dull coating the tires will improve the lettering immensely. I would not attempt to remove the decal material around the letters. That would be a very daunting task. Buying a new goodyear tire decal sheet would be a much better choice than that. I'm thinking Power slide makes a pretty good sheet with many choices on it.

[Jonathan]

Really nice build!

I guess I'm showing my age - but I really like the cars of this era, as compared to the newer ones.  I know, I know .... things change, progress, etc., etc.  Really beautiful work there!

[HSCHMIDT]

Good looking built , really like detail of engine , I have also built some older Nascar kits , with decal issues. Found some good replacements at Mikes Decals , and various sources on Ebay. Again nice looking built.

[bobss396]

23 hours ago, MarkJ said:

Don't know how I missed this one. First thing that grabbed me was the excellent metallic paint job. Very clean overall appearance. I agree that dull coating the tires will improve the lettering immensely. I would not attempt to remove the decal material around the letters. That would be a very daunting task. Buying a new goodyear tire decal sheet would be a much better choice than that. I'm thinking Power slide makes a pretty good sheet with many choices on it.

I use mainly the Shabo dry transfers for my tires. I have a bunch of brands. The decals that come with the Performance Plastics tires work well. I wash the tires first, soap and water to get any mold release off them. Apply the decals, give a light coat of Dull Cote. I'll do another light coat the next day.

[Nacho Z]

You did a great job on this one, Ben!  She is a good looking model for sure.

[charlie schirtz]

can you share with me the color blue that you used for the body and chassis.I am building this car currently

[Bbo1974]

Great job on the metallic blue!  I've been having trouble with old kit decals recently.  The tire decals particularly have been troublesome.  So I have purchased powerslide tire decals and am leaving the ones from the kit decals on the sheet.

[Oldriginal86]

Well done. Nice job on the paint and decals. My favorite era of NASCAR.

[Sledsel]

Good looking build! Paint looks super.

I had an issue with decals on tires also. I now scuff and paint with acrylic paint then apply decals with setting solution, after some satin clear.

Edited December 19, 2023 by Sledsel

[VietnamVet67]

Hero card for your car.

[Ben269]

Charlie, I used Testors bottle paints, Arctic Blue Metallic (1109-RM11091_0611), and Blue Met. Flake (1539-RM15391_0811).   The arctic blue is darker, a nd I mixed in a little purple for the belt line stripe.  I mixed some of the arctic blue into the blue metal flake to darken it up a bit, and used that for the body and chassis.   I watched a few races from 1991 on youtube to get an idea, then just mixed the colors to get what I thought looked close.  I have no idea what the actual colors are.  

[MarkJ]

8 hours ago, Ben269 said:

Charlie, I used Testors bottle paints, Arctic Blue Metallic (1109-RM11091_0611), and Blue Met. Flake (1539-RM15391_0811).   The arctic blue is darker, a nd I mixed in a little purple for the belt line stripe.  I mixed some of the arctic blue into the blue metal flake to darken it up a bit, and used that for the body and chassis.   I watched a few races from 1991 on youtube to get an idea, then just mixed the colors to get what I thought looked close.  I have no idea what the actual colors are.  

Ben, looks like you nailed it according to the ref pic Ed posted above. Usually if you can mix your own colors, you have a much better chance of matching the paint.