66 Pro Street Nova

[ThomasR]

Howdy all, I'm Thomas, my first post here. I've picked up an AMT Pro Street Nova at the ol' hobby shop. I havent built models in nearly 7 years, and they were never all that good anyway , I think you guys would call them 'Glue Bombs' haha. Anyhow, Im having a bit of trouble starting up this one. I was just wondering if anyone here had some, not tips, but like pointers. I think what is throwing me off the most is the fact that the plastic is blue, and not the typical grey that I was used to.

Any pointers would really help, thanks!

-Thomas 8)

[Ace-Garageguy]

Probably the best advice for getting back in the hobby is to take your time and do careful work if you want pleasing results. Things like cleanly cutting parts from the trees with a knife and sanding the nibs off, along with the flash, really make a difference in how everything fits and looks in the end.

If you haven't built in 7 years, I'm guessing you don't have a stash of parts like a lot of us do, so you'll probably be building pretty much what's in the box. I assume. Again, take your time, test-fit before gluing, sand the seams off of things like transmissions, etc after the glue sets, and try to use a minimum of glue. I REALLY prefer liquid glue, as it wicks between the parts and welds them together very nicely.

When you get to the painting part, there are almost as many favorite techniques and materials as there are modelers, but I STRONGLY recommend you practice on plastic spoons or styrene Solo cups with whatever primer and paint you decide on BEFORE you paint your model.

A VERY good way to prep a model for primer after you sand off the mold-lines, etc, is to scrub it in warm water with an old toothbrush and something like Comet cleanser. The mild abrasive lightly scuffs the plastic so the paint or primer will stick better, without flattening details like sandpaper will, and gets in all the little cervices. It also removes the lubricants that may be on the plastic from when it came out of the mold, and removes grease from hands too.

[ThomasR]

*Snip*

Thanks a lot man. And on the contrary, friend, I actually have about 5-6 glued together, but eaisly taken apart and non painted kits haha. But that spoon idea is great! Nippers are a must with taking things off the trees, as I have seen. Haha.

[Skip]

Thomas, You didn't mention whether you planned on painting your Nova or not. Let's assume that you are.

Start off familiarizing yourself with the kit's instruction sheet, read through the assembly stages. Sometimes there are specific sequences that need to be followed to allow assembly to go together smoothly. OK, you've read through the inistruction sheets including the "biography" on the car's background and the designer's intended theme.

It is at this point that you make the decision whether you are going to build your model: Box stock? Replica Stock or Hot Rodded? Upgrade details? Slightly Customized? Your Own Theme? The list goes on as far as you want to take it... One of the ways that you can do this is find the real car (1/1 scale) in a magazine, websites etc. At this point you can compare the 1/1 with the 1/25th (or your model's scale), how do things compare? Are there any details that might require correction to make it look right? Most of the time you probably won't have to make any corrections but get in the habit of checking this step you may run across one that you do someday.

Get organized, find a safe well lit, comfortable place to build your kit, where you can have all your tools in one spot. I've built models on everything from the kitchen table to scraps of plywood. A table or workbench works best for my style, I build in a spare bedroom on an arts and crafts table (not fancy but it works).

Next decide what the paint color(s) are going to be, choose something easy for your first attempts at painting. A decent paint job begins with the foundation which would be the body work itself. Are there sink marks anywhere? Round injector pin marks? How about flash? Sadly most models have some defects no matter how slight.

Round up some abraisives, sand paper 400 - 600 grit is where I like to start if sanding on plastic itself. Sanding sticks will do the same thing try to get sanding sticks in the same grits that you would sandpaper. If there is any body work which you will be filling defects depending on the filler you use you may want to drop down to a coarser grit, start with the next step down 320 if hat works then work up to the finer grits until you have it the best you can do. Take your time, it's not a race to get to the next kit. There are a couple dozen or more schools of thought on filling defects; under primer or over primer boils most of them down to their essence, depends on the filler used.

Fillers, Putty... There are many choices here here's a few. 1. Tester's model putty (white). 2. Automotive fillers from single stage spot or glaze putty, two part glaze putty (Bondo #801 is one), Some people swear by regular Bondo. 3. CA glue, Super glue, thin or thick, use an accelerator if using super glue to speed things up, you can even use superglue and sprinkle baking soda or talc to add additional body to the superglue. Superglue is one of the harder fillers requiring a coarser sandpaper grit to work, use one that inflicts the least damage to the kit's plastic but works the superglue. I like superglue for that reason, it's hard enough that you can take a file to work it. Each type of filler has it's uses, strengths and shortcomings find one that suits your building style.

Primer, I think that Plasticoat is the one most people on this forum seem to like the best, comes in white, grey, red oxide, Hot Rod Black and maybe others. Match your primer color to the paint color. White Primer - White, Yellow, Light colored Topcoat to dark topcoats with dark primers. Through experimentation you might find that certain primers make certain topcoats look better, something like white primer with like Porsche Gards Red topcoat really makes it pop!

Paints, Find a paint system that works for you. You can use anything from a canned spray paint to thinned automotive type paint shot through an airbrush. Start with something simple and work your way up. Larger parts tend to come out better wither spraycanned or airbrushed, like engine blocks, rear end, transmissions, chassis, interior items. Small parts can be brush painted sometimes it's quicker to do it that way.

Glues, You can use the red tube model glue, liquid model cements, superglue thick or thin, epoxy 5 minute or epoxy, white glue for clear parts, watch crystal cement. The list of glues that many builders use is lengthy some swear by a certain glue while others swear at it! Find what fits your style.

Build and Paint in sub-assemblies, test fit before you glue the parts and or assemblies together.

Bill's advice on practicing painting spoons is great, it helps you get comfortable with whatever paint system you end up using. Even if you get good painting the spoons, and models there will be that one model that gives you fits. If this happens there is the purple pond and other stripping methods. Knowing about stripping model paint off of models opens up an whole world of cheap(er) kits bought at garage sales and swap meets.

Keep the models that you build, you will be surprised when you look back at them you can follow the improvement with each model that follows.

You could go on and on analyzing how to make your kit and techniques better, that's part of what makes this hobby tick. Notice how many times "fits your style" is used, it's all about what works for you, just because a method works for and is someone else's favorite doesn't always mean you will like using it. Don't be afraid to experiment. Have fun building your models to the best of your ability which is what really makes this hobby worthwhile.

[ThomasR]

*Snip*

Thanks a ton! That was extremely informitive, i have tons of pictures of 66 Nova's on my phone, from bone stock, to a Nos'd monster. Aswell as a few model engines that I plan to use as a reference on how to paint it. I really appriciate you taking time out of your day to type that all.

-Thomas 8)