'70 BOSS 429 - The MAXSTANG

[mrm]

11 hours ago, BK9300 said:

Fabulous work!

Thank you Brian.

8 hours ago, STU111 said:

G’day Michael, I don’t envy you that visit to the dentist. Some nice work on the Maxtang so far, I do like that custom shifter, very nice. Those wheels look great as well, I like the look of the Revell chrome spray on the rims.?? Gotta get me some of that stuff 

Thank you Stuart.

The Revell chrome was something that I was contemplating for a while. Two things were stopping me from trying it for quite some time. First off, I was skeptical about the results, as I expected it to be as good as the Mollotow or Alclad product at best. The second was the price and availability. It’s a $30 can which you would have to order online (if it’s available). Add sales tax and shipping and you are at $40 minimum. Until I went to the only not so local hobby shop for something, I don’t remember what and they did not have it. So having budgeted for it and having made the hour trip, I didn’t want to go home empty handed. And that’s when I saw it on their shelf. So I decided to give it a try. What really sold me on it was that it was available and it came in a spray can. I was still skeptical, but now I don’t want to use anything else. The results are better than anything else I have ever tried and it is also easier to use than anything else I’ve tried. No undercoats, no prep, no primer… just point the can and shoot. Me being me, I still prime and spray gloss black underneath, but these wheels here were shot straight from the can right over the printed resin with no prep whatsoever. There is a reason for that, which I will reveal later. It still does not like to be clear coated and it still takes a long time to cure. But it is still the best option out there. At least for me. 

Edited October 11, 2024 by mrm

[SpeedShift]

1 hour ago, mrm said:

Thank you Brian.

Thank you Stuart.

The Revell chrome was something that I was contemplating for a while. Two things were stopping me from trying it for quite some time. First off, I was skeptical about the results, as I expected it to be as good as the Mollotow or product at best. The second was the price and availability. It’s a $30 can which you would have to order online (if it’s available). Add sales tax and shipping and you are at $40 minimum. Until I went to the only not so local hobby shop for something, I don’t remember what and they did not have it. So having budgeted for it and having made the hour trip, I didn’t want to go home empty handed. And that’s when I saw it on their shelf. So I decided to give it a try. What really sold me on it was that it was available and it came in a spray can. I was still skeptical, but now I don’t want to use anything else. The results are better than anything else I have ever tried and it is also easier to use than anything else I’ve tried. No undercoats, no prep, no primer… just point the can and shoot. Me being me, I still prime and spray gloss black underneath, but these wheels here were shot straight from the can right over the printed resin with no prep whatsoever. There is a reason for that, which I will reveal later. It still does not like to be clear coated and it still takes a long time to cure. But it is still the best option out there. At least for me. 

Coming late to the conversation here, .......I was sold on ALCLAD but overtime it doesn't take handling very well...some parts I had to fiddle with like exhaust pipes and radius rods lost the shine, started to show the gloss black undercoat. Might still use it for parts not subject to handling.

I've been liking AK Super chrome lately...my LHS doesn't carry Revell chrome unfortunately.

Edited October 11, 2024 by SpeedShift

[mrm]

6 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

Outstanding work Mozzi!? This is going to be a real looker when done.?

Thank you Greg.

 

Edited October 11, 2024 by mrm

[mrm]

48 minutes ago, SpeedShift said:

Coming late to the conversation here, .......I was sold on ALCLAD but overtime it doesn't take handling very well...some parts I had to fiddle with like exhaust pipes and radius rods lost the shine, started to show the gloss black undercoat. Might still use it for parts not subject to handling.

I've been liking AK Super chrome lately...my LHS doesn't carry Revell chrome unfortunately.

I have never used any AK products, but I hear good things about them. 

[SpeedShift]

6 minutes ago, mrm said:

I have never used any AK products, but I hear good things about them. 

I would like to try the Revell Chrome in spray can...if I could buy it locally.

The guys in my neck of the woods have done paint comparisons of the popular chrome products and the expert judgement is AK is darn close to Revell but the Revell product has a just bit more shine.

 Did you decant and airbrush the Revell chrome? 

I prefer the control of application with airbrush, which AK requires.

Edited October 11, 2024 by SpeedShift

[mrm]

10 hours ago, SpeedShift said:

I would like to try the Revell Chrome in spray can...if I could buy it locally.

The guys in my neck of the woods have done paint comparisons of the popular chrome products and the expert judgement is AK is darn close to Revell but the Revell product has a just bit more shine.

 Did you decant and airbrush the Revell chrome? 

I prefer the control of application with airbrush, which AK requires.

No. Straight from the can. The only downside of that is a little more waste of paint. And that depends on what you're painting. 

[mrm]

I wanted to finish the interior today, so I could move to the engine. 

First I addressed some of the small details. The pedals came from the other Mustang I'm building - the '71 Boss. The steering wheel received a little chrome trim and a photo etched emblem set in clear resin. The seatbelts are Model Car Garage photo etched parts and seatbelt material. 

 

I got an ignition key, a lock and a Mustang keychain from MCG too.

 

And my interior is done!

 

The key in the ignition with a key fob dangling...

 

Quick mockup of the interior in the body

 

Engine's next.

Stay tuned.

[BK9300]

Tremendous amount of work on your interior - looks great!

[mrm]

5 hours ago, BK9300 said:

Tremendous amount of work on your interior - looks great!

Thank you Brian. 
I wanted the interior to look as stock as possible, while not being stock. The gauges for example have the speedometer and rev counter from a Ferrari Enzo and the outer two faces are from a Ford Model A decal sheet. All of them came yellow, but different shade, so I painted them with Tamiya clear orange to make them the same and to colormatch them to the rest of the interior. 

Edited October 12, 2024 by mrm

[Steve H]

Awesome looking interior Mozzi. I really like how you have tied in the orange colour on the body, interior, and engine. It’s something I often do on my builds. I would never have been brave enough to do a full orange interior, but it looks outstanding. Look forward to the engine progress.

[mrm]

28 minutes ago, Steve H said:

Awesome looking interior Mozzi. I really like how you have tied in the orange colour on the body, interior, and engine. It’s something I often do on my builds. I would never have been brave enough to do a full orange interior, but it looks outstanding. Look forward to the engine progress.

Thank you Steve. The idea was to have a ery subtle body color and an interior that just "glows" from within it. The stripe was more or less an afterthought, which made the body not so subtle anymore. Not that there is anything subtle about this 'Stang...

[mrm]

Where I always start with an engine is the distributor. This is the single most impactful detail that could be added to any engine model. I didn't feel like drilling micro holes in my fingertips, so I decided to use a cheap prewired distributor from Gofer. It comes with some material for the sparkplug boots, but it is overall lacking any detail. 

 

Next I drilled the vacuum advance on the original kit part, before I cut it off. And then I drilled the Gofer distributor where the cut off part from the original would go.

 

I used the wire going through the kit's par as an attachment pin and glued it on the aftermarket part, together with a piece of the wire, to create some kind of detail. 

 

The new distributor was painted flat black and glued in place and some boots were cut long, for those iconic 429 valve covers, which were painted completely gloss black to match the theme of the car. 

 

The valve covers on the real car have breathers. I took round stock styrene and drilled a couple of holes, which will receive the tube for the breathers. Then they were cut as thin pucks right on each side of the holes. 

 

This was not supposed to be a very detailed build, but rather a fun "what if" project, but as it often happens it went it's own way. So I thought why not make that dip stick...

 

At this point I was thinking I just had to add the fuel line and the heater hoses.

 

Painted belts with the dip stick.

 

The original air filter assembly has this foam looking seal around it. I scratched my head a little to figure out how to replicate it. I end up using old Detail Master flat black enamel and dabbing it with the side of an old ide brush while it was drying. I'm very happy with the result.

 

As I said, this was not supposed to be very detailed and once the air filter is installed you barely see anything on top of the engine, so I didn't bother with any carb detail. 

Engine in a day! I am more than happy with it. 

 

Now I gotta sand and polish that body. Ugh...

Stay tuned...

[STU111]

G’day Michael, that interior is beautifully done.?? With what you’ve posted on here so far, I think I’ve got a rough idea how it’s going to look, ( unless there’s a plot twist to come! ) I’m looking forward to seeing the final result. 

[slusher]

You definitely have a fantastic build going on Michael, glad you chose grey, seems black has been done to death.".

[mrm]

3 hours ago, STU111 said:

G’day Michael, that interior is beautifully done.?? With what you’ve posted on here so far, I think I’ve got a rough idea how it’s going to look, ( unless there’s a plot twist to come! ) I’m looking forward to seeing the final result. 

Thank you Stuart. I'm just now trying some new resin for making realistic tires. Dialing the setting in is a nightmare, but we'll see how it goes. There may be few tricks left up my sleeve that may surprise some folk. I guess we'll have to wait and see...

 

38 minutes ago, slusher said:

You definitely have a fantastic build going on Michael, glad you chose grey, seems black has been done to death.".

Thank you Carl.

I am surprised you are saying this about black. I've seen '69/'70/'71 Mustangs on here in every color of the rainbow, but black. 

[mrm]

I managed to sand and buff out the body this morning. It was then washed really good with dishwasher soap and is now drying, so the body can be masked off and the fenders painted semi-gloss black. On the first picture you can see Duplicolor  can of what I use to prep surfaces to be painted. It is a nice foam that removes any unwanted contaminants.

 

The MAXTANG script on the back looking good.

 

It is mirror like and there is no transition edge between the stripes and the rest of the paint. That took three coats of 2K clear with sanding in-between. 

 

And my tires perfectly printed from rubber. This is how they look straight out of the printer, with no prep whatsoever. That took two failed prints and going to bed at 4am, but well worth it. 

Now comes lots of masking...

Edited October 13, 2024 by mrm

[mrm]

Ready for a different finish black.

[CA Whitecloud]

Zowie!

[slusher]

Michael, I really should have clarified myself more I ment total flat black builds..

[mrm]

5 hours ago, slusher said:

Michael, I really should have clarified myself more I ment total flat black builds..

OK. 
I don’t think I have ever built flat black anything. Except those lamb chops some years back, when we got carried away with my buddy over some drinks and almost burned my porch down. They were pretty flat black. 

[mrm]

Lots a progress today, which puts me on the final stretch with this one. 

To be a Maxtang I need some really loud rumbling exhaust. Side exit please.

 

The glass as installed but I really hated the complete lack of detail under the roof. One of the most overlooked aspects on any model build is usually the headliner. Very few kits address this detail. So I decided to make a headliner from the thinest sheet styrene I had. While I was at it, I made sunvisors from thicker sheet styrene. It will be all flat black when finished and nobody will see it anyway, so I am more than happy with it. 

 

After I painted and attached the rearview mirror, while sending greetings to whoever designed the attachment for that part on the windshield and his entire family tree, I managed to fit the chassis with the interior attached to it inside the body. This is far easier said than done considering the details on the engine, which is also attached to the chassis beforehand, the wider fenders and the mods to the chassis. But it boosted my enthusiasm seeing it together.

 

It looks awesome with the hood off too, everything color matched together.

 

I added quite a bit more detail to the engine bay, both with color and with some wires. I looked up pictures of the real thing online and I just had to have the blue wires coming out of the horns behind the grille.

 

The wheels received their center caps and were dropped in the tires. 

 

A glimpse of my custom suspension. 

 

And it is almost done. I have some little details to add, like mirrors, lightbars etc and to give it a really good final detail/clean up. 

The  name MAXTANG was given to it by my wife when I explained to her what the plan for the build was. Her first reaction was "Oh, so it's going to be like a Mad Max car! you can call it the MAXTANG." Now, obviously this has nothing to do with a Mad Max car but the name stuck. 

Almost there...

Edited October 16, 2024 by mrm

[STU111]

A high rider! There’s the plot twist in the story. Ya got me! I was thinking low ground hugging muscle.??

[mrm]

8 hours ago, STU111 said:

A high rider! There’s the plot twist in the story. Ya got me! I was thinking low ground hugging muscle.??

Yup. I wanted something different as am building a couple of different low ground hugging Mustangs already. My ‘71 Mach 1 THE TROOPER already scratched that itch. 

[RACINE ISHRAQUR RAZA]

Your Mustang is turning out to be such a masterpiece! I find the interior quite inviting! I'm building Sabrina's orange '77 Ford Pinto hatchback from Charlie's Angels that had similar seat pattern. Hope I can do the Pinto interior half as good as your Mustang.  

[BK9300]

Great job!  Got to see a lot of detail added in this build and, a little humor along the way (you know, the rear view mirror saga!)