Miller-Meteor

[Mr.Zombie]

Hej!

I just picked it up few days ago and I thought I'd like to share it with you. It is the Polar Lights Snapkit that I begann some 5 years ago, and that has been sittin' here and waiting for paint for the last 4 years.

The Idea was to build it oob and just try to replicate the outside as realistic as possible. Sort of a pure paint project, space for experiments with different mediums and whatnot. The stage that I am aiming for is restorable driving vehicle. Something that is worth putting new wheels and mufflers on, to drive it around, or hit a local show before tearing it apart, but far beyond just buffing it up to get a classic. Actually the state that most of the MM Cars are in that are for sale at the moment.

Having a sort of a story helps alot with a project like that, makes it sort of believable, and giving you a certain rules while damaging the car.

As I picked it up I knew that I won't meke the same mistakes that I made whlie building the Ecto ( http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=41969&st=0&p=438050&#entry438050 ) so first thing I did was to drill out the molded in Headlights so I will have no excuse to leave them as they are, despite my spare light box is almost empty (if you have some spares that you don't need please send 'em to me! Same goes for any steel wheels, Have tons of five spoke, or what, but never gonna use 'em)...

As said, most of my attention went into the body, I used my own Cadillac for reference where, and how the Paint is chipping, used some maskol where I wanted to have pure rust and chips in Paint, damaged the bodywork and put some bondo, so the paint can be sanded off and see what happens, then I also wanted to repilcate something that is very difficult to get in that small, nameley rust under the paintjob, bubbles and whatnot. For that I mixed up salt with water and with a brush I applied that paste where I thought it would make some sense. After it dried for about an hour I sprayed the whole thing matt black and scraped of the salty bits, and then with a bit of polish I buffed out the sufaces where I wanted to simulate the spaces where the laquer would crack (body curves, anywhere where water can stay for a while), after that there was yet another coat of matt black and waiting for the results. Everything I do is basically experimenting, thanx to magic abilities of braking fluid you can redo paint as often as you wish, that is i you beginn from zero and if you can wait 4 weeks, heh...

However, as intended, the bits where the salt mixture stuck, were full of tiny bits of paint, after the second coat the surfaces look like there is something going on underneath, the bits I polished the paint stuck to the body but cracked as intended, very fine lines over the whole surface, nice. The maskolchips came just as expected, I did that a gazillion times now and the results are always realistic...

After another drying period I sanded the spots where I used the bondo and buffed out the doors, front wings and rear quarters, so everywhere where the paint wouldn't burn off. The result is quite convincing for the first time, so I went further, added ruststains, some dirt and ots of chips, painted one rim with diverse pigments just to make it as rusty as it can get, and then after I looked at the car for a while, I found that it was missing something, I didn't rust it out enough so the rust takes over the black, and the whole thing looked... Dead. I figured that a bit of color would make it interesting, and most important I was able to weather this bit different than the rest of the car, as it might have come from a vehicle that was standing somewhere else for another time period, or that was left for dead for another reason.

I was looking at pictures of Miller-Meteors to figure out what colors they had, and at first I wanted to paint one door in dark green or red, but then I thought "what the hell" and choose the most famous cadillac color. PINK. I know, the odds that somebody would unscrew a front wing from an Eldorado to put on hearse are not very big, but what if the dude who owns th real thing has a friend who is restoring a convertbile, used NOS replacements and the wing of the Meteor was damaged so badly that evn the FUBAR wing would be worth to put on, just for a while, so the car is roadworthy? Who knows.

So pink it is.

The interior is not quite ready yet, I choose the colors that my real Cadillac comes in, shades of dark blue and green, added some blanket to the front seat (a paper tissue), and it still needs tons of detailing work, I will put in some spare parts, airfilter, whatever. We'll see.

So yup, that is how far I am, now I have to BMF the windows and finish the interior before I can do something to the body, since most of the work that follows won't allow me to touch the car rough enough to take of the body again...

So yup... Thanx for reading, that is how far I got. No idea if I update it anytime soon, I do not remember to make pics while building...

Edited March 19, 2011 by Mr.Zombie

[chrismooney]

Very cool!!! I love the replacement fender!!!!

[Custom Hearse]

That looks great Adam! You're doing an awesome job on it.

Are you gonna make the chrome less shiny, or leave it like it was cleaned up a bit?

Keep up the good work!

[Mr.Zombie]

The chrome will be dull. But the bumpers need to be taken on and off every time you disassemble the car to get "in". So that will happen when I finally glue everything together, and don on need to touch them every 3 seconds anymore. Then it gets some dust, rust, and whatever.

[Custom Hearse]

The chrome will be dull. But the bumpers need to be taken on and off every time you disassemble the car to get "in". So that will happen when I finally glue everything together, and don on need to touch them every 3 seconds anymore. Then it gets some dust, rust, and whatever.

KOOL!!!

[brett]

Thats looking good? man, very cool and very realistic , not overdone.Waiting to see the finished product now.

[Dr. Cranky]

I love it, it's got all the right attitude, almost in time for Holloween.

[David G.]

Even though (or maybe because) I drive them for a living, I like hearses. Your version is really cool. The overall effect of your paintwork is excellent!

David G.