Nolan Posted November 3, 2024 Posted November 3, 2024 (edited) One of my friends had a shop in Hayward, California building Cobra replicas and he let me test drive the shop Cobra a couple of times. Great friend, who built great cars (RIP Paul Bennett). After driving the shop car that ‘only’ had a ‘stock’ 427, I can see why Carrol Shelby had heart problems! Talk about adrenalin overdoses. Anyway, I’m almost finished with this 2023 Revell Shelby 427 Cobra S/C kit #14533. It’s a struggle for me to build a mostly stock kit, but I’m trying, and mostly succeeding…this time. Chassis detail painted and together with engine. The interior went together pretty nicely, but I almost stripped the seat belt decals off and used some aftermarket belts, but I’m trying to keep it mostly box stock. I’ll try putting some wash on them to knock down the shine. I installed most of the cooling system and finished prepping the body for paint. Only problem is no door cards. Mostly stock remember, no door cards, Mostly Stock Remember. Nevermind, I’m going to model and print some interior door panels. Ohh, much better. I’m ready to paint the center of the body DupliColor Dodge Bright White for the stripes, and the body DupliColor Dodge Intense Blue Metallic. Hey, Shelby worked for Dodge for awhile right? Plus, I’ve already got the paint for touch-up on my Bright White Dakota R/T’s. I’ve had pretty good results with the DupliColor 1K clear, so I plan to use that on top of the color. I’ll post back when I’ve finished the paint. Nolan Edited November 3, 2024 by Nolan 5
TopherMcGinnis Posted November 3, 2024 Posted November 3, 2024 Cool project! Even cooler that you got to drive one!
Nolan Posted November 4, 2024 Author Posted November 4, 2024 6 hours ago, TopherMcGinnis said: Cool project! Even cooler that you got to drive one! Thank you. They are not for the faint of heart, and not the most comfortable to drive, but they will produce awesome levels of adrenaline. Building the kit is much more relaxing! Nolan 1
Nolan Posted December 6, 2024 Author Posted December 6, 2024 I had a slight change of plans with painting the stripes. My original plan was to paint the body Duplicolor Bright White, mask off the stripes and then paint the body Duplicolor Intense Blue Metallic. I did a test shot of the Blue and realized it would look like a metalflake Bass boat. I also didn't think I was up to getting the masking laid out straight because the edge would be right at the edge of the hood scoop. So painted the entire body Tamiya TS-19 Metallic Blue. I laid out the center line between the stripes and then cut a length of tape to the exact width of the decal sheet stripes. Then I cut the tape into small pieces and used them as guides for laying out the outer edges of the stripes with Nitto (?) vinyl tape. Then repeated for the other stripe. With the body wrapped up in yellow Frog tape, I airbrushed the edges of the tape with some Tamiya Clear in hopes of sealing the tape. I sprayed the stripes in Tamiya TS-27 Matt White, which covered the Blue very nicely. Unfortunately, in my excitement over the success of NO BLEED THRU! I forgot to take any photos. Oh, well. After baking the body for about 4 hours at 113 degrees, and then letting it sit for a couple of days, I knocked down the rough edges on the stripes, then laid on a couple coats of Duplicolor 1K clear. I'll let it cure for a couple more days, then wet sand and polish. Not perfect, but perfectly good enough as a learning process. Nolan 4
Nolan Posted January 8 Author Posted January 8 (edited) I almost had the Cobra ready to take to the NNL West show last weekend, but I could not get the windshield to co-operate. First problem was getting the windshield to stay in the frame. Second problem was how to get the windshield frame mounted to the body, but was leery of just super gluing it to the body. Plus the chrome had a lot of flash and one of the wing(?) tabs was broken off. I stripped the chrome and got rid of the remaining wing mounts and smoothed out the flash. I glued some very thin strips of .01 Evergreen sheet to the inside bottom of the frame spaced just the thickness of the glass back from the wipers. Then I glued more strips to the sides of the frame and roughed them to the shape of the uprights. I popped the glass into the frame and located the gap between the sun visors for another piece of Evergreen. With all the pieces glued into place, the windshield just pops into place and is locked in pretty solid. To mount the windshield frame to the body, I taped the empty frame into place over the two little nubs on the cowl and drilled a tiny pilot hole through the little trough between each wiper arm, wiper shaft, and the frame, and through the body. Then using gradually larger drill bits worked up to the diameter of some Evergreen rod I had on hand. I smoothed up the frame and painted it with Revell Chrome. I mounted the chassis to the base of a display case with 40 gauge wire wrap wire over each tire and just twisted together underneath the case. Easy to dismount and re-mount to/from the case. The body and interior mount to the frame pretty easily, by inserting the interior into the body and just slipping the nose over the radiator ducts, wiggle everything into it's happy place and then the back of the body snaps over the tab at the rear of the frame. Hopefully my next post will be under glass! Nolan Edited January 8 by Nolan 1
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now