My personal NNL-East challenge Mission accomplished!

[Belugawrx]

Well said Sir

What really disturbs me, though, is the condition of the plastic.

We all know Revell reads these boards- guys, PLEASE get a better grade of plastic for your snappers. The Super Clean actually leached some of the colorant out, and the soft plastic did not like the experience of having paint removed. Nothing will sour the adult hobbyists who like to use your otherwise nicely-done snap kits because of the cheesy materials. Similarly, if a kid is trying to paint and build skills, nothing will upset him more than a problem that could be easily avoided.

Tomorrow, therefore, is do or do not. The paint must be correct, or I'm in trouble. Right now, I have the body in some soapy water to clean off the residue and hopefully get it to the point where it will paint correctly.

Charlie Larkin

Well said sir

[charlie8575]

How to make decals and go goofy while doing it.

Let's be honest, the bright, colorful dry transfers aren't exactly aimed at adults.

So I'm making my own decals, which will actually be printed on photo paper at CVS or Walgreens tomorrow and then cut/glued. The photo paper will also provide the correct thickness.

I started at Licenseplates.tv and, using the old green plate, because that's the most recent one they had (and many of them are still in use, including mine,) I made a plate.

As the build of this little Cruiser is, in its own small way, a mark of determination, and because I think it's a cool one, I decided to use the lettering scheme from the license plates shown in Chrysler's recent ad campaigns- 313 IFD (Detroit's area code and the initials of their "Imported From Detroit" tag line,) a mark that Chrysler is, indeed, making its comeback.

New England, and the Greater Boston area, in which I live on the cusp of, is also marking the one year anniversary (roughly) of the horrible bombing at the Boston Marathon finish line, I also found a "Boston Strong" ribbon and copied that out.

Many non-profits are selling these, too, to help raise money for the ongoing medical expenses of those injured. If you can spare a few bucks, please find those organizations and support them. Look for ones affiliated or donating to The One Fund.

I also added a couple of Masonic emblems- a York Rite roundel and DeMolay- also known as the best thing I ever did when I was a kid.

Copy, and pasting isn't too tough. Getting the re-sizing isn't too tough.

It was the gymnastics with the Masonic emblems that made things interesting.

As both were photographed on backgrounds, I had to edit them out as best as I could.

At first, I attempted to use Open Office Draw. Generally, not a bad program, except it doesn't save in any conventional picture format and none of the drug stores can open .pdfs. Oh well, the sizing tool works well. Use it for that.

So, I downloaded GIMP- a free graphics software that's supposed to be comparable to Photoshop.

While it did work at editing out most of the undesired picture, it was maddeningly difficult to use and master. If anyone has any other ideas, I'm willing to listen to them.

After editing, I returned to OO Draw to size the objects as needed. That worked reasonably well.

I found Paint to be completely useless for this exercise, so I didn't use it.

With the pictures ready, I experimented with MS Word, in an attempt to use its basic, but decent picture editor to save everything as a .jpg on a 4x6 sheet. I saved exactly one image, and the rest couldn't be saved on a single sheet.

I then tried GIMP. The ribbon un-sized itself and because GIMP seems to insist on keeping everything highlighted, with no way (I found) to turn it off, when I resized the ribbon, it resized the entire sheet to tiny, including the other already small images I placed on it.

Not being one to give up easily, I queried the search engines for a way to make .jpgs out of Open Office Draw files.

I found this site called Convert Files. http://www.convertfiles.com

Wait a couple of minutes, and you're sent a .zip file with your file in it. Simply open and save as you wish to.

The results might be a bit small to see here, but this is it.

I may have to touch up the plate a little. I'll have to color in a registration sticker, anyway. No biggie.

Charlie Larkin

[Modlbldr]

Charlie-

Nice work so far. I'm sure you will be able to make the deadline.

To answer (or second) your question about painting Testors One Coat lacquer over bare plastic. It worked just fine for me. When the paint line first came out I used their Root Beer on a 68 Firebird directly on the bare plastic and it came out beautiful. It was actually the smoothest paint job I had done to date. As a matter of fact I sprayed the Wet Look clear on as soon as I sprayed the last wet coat. I was quite proud of it.

Keep up the nice work.

Later-

Edited April 22, 2014 by Modlbldr

[Tom Geiger]

I've always used the Acme Platemaker. Make your plate and save the jpg to your hard drive. I scale those to size in Word. Import the plate into the document and scale it down to .23. I print them on my own printer on 60lb paper. Works for me.

For your stickers I've also done them in Word but have to approximate size by trying a few and printing them out until I get it right. I just did window decals on my Chevette. I did a college decal for the back window on clear decal paper. I used Irfanview to reverse the image so I could put it on the inside of the glass. The other decal I used came from the new 49 Merc wagon kit. It was the Yin and Yang symbol. Again I wanted it on the inside of the glass, so I soaked it to get it clean of the decal glue. Then I used Microclear Canopy Glue to glue it face first to the inside of the side window. It dried clear and looks great.

[Brizio]

Looking good!

[johnbuzzed]

Looking good, Charlie. I am a Past Master Councillor, Babylon (NY) Chapter, back in '73. Lotsa fun and good times.

[charlie8575]

Looking good, Charlie. I am a Past Master Councillor, Babylon (NY) Chapter, back in '73. Lotsa fun and good times.

Past Master Councilor, (former) Marlborough (Mass.) Chapter, 1995-96. And it was the most fun I had. One of my long-term projects is re-activating Marlborough Chapter.

New York DeMolay has a really great e-Mail newsletter called The Bridge. Go to www.nydemolay.org and sign up if you'd like. While I was at LIARS last year, I was going to try and make Wantagh's installation, but wasn't able to pull it off. Hopefully this year if it's the same day again.

Charlie Larkin

[charlie8575]

Today has been very slow-motion. Things like that happen, I suppose.

This is the body, post-strip and wash-down. There's a little bit of paint that's being stubborn. Hopefully, it won't cause problems when I apply color again; this is almost mandating primer now. I think, for the safety of this really horrid, cheap plastic, I'm going to blow the dough and get the Model Master lacquer primer and paint, because I don't want this getting buggered on me.

The areas where a lot of the bubbles that occurred are still paint bubbles, but they're coming off with my fingernail. I suppose that's a good thing. The big spot on the top, though, doesn't seem to want to budge much, so I'll leave it rather than risk more problems.

As it's supposed to rain, I'll be painting in the basement with the door open to vent.

Hopefully some more updates tonight.

Charlie Larkin

[charlie8575]

I've always used the Acme Platemaker. Make your plate and save the jpg to your hard drive. I scale those to size in Word. Import the plate into the document and scale it down to .23. I print them on my own printer on 60lb paper. Works for me.

For your stickers I've also done them in Word but have to approximate size by trying a few and printing them out until I get it right. I just did window decals on my Chevette. I did a college decal for the back window on clear decal paper. I used Irfanview to reverse the image so I could put it on the inside of the glass. The other decal I used came from the new 49 Merc wagon kit. It was the Yin and Yang symbol. Again I wanted it on the inside of the glass, so I soaked it to get it clean of the decal glue. Then I used Microclear Canopy Glue to glue it face first to the inside of the side window. It dried clear and looks great.

Hmm...I'll try that again, Tom. Perhaps I was rushing a bit, or perhaps the computer doesn't like me. Both, maybe?

To clarify, you removed the yin/yang decal from the backer? How did you adhere it to the inside? While it was still wet, or did you let it dry first on another surface? This may be a case of I have to see what you did to understand it.

I'd print my own, but our printer is old enough that it won't handle heavy paper without jamming. Printing the photo at CVS costs me about 25 cents (tip- always get the prints in an hour. They actually cost less and use better paper and chemicals so they'll actually last,) and I can do that while getting paint and stuff.

Charlie Larkin

[charlie8575]

Well, one small update.

The trip to CVS to print the special graphics as a picture didn't work...their printer scaled it up way too much, and I ended up being this pixelated mess.

So, I grabbed a package of 4x6 index cards and decided to give it a whirl.

After fiddling with the printer settings to actually get it to print, this is the results.

Body update will be coming later. I grabbed a can of Tamiya Maroon, which, over the red plastic, is very close to the Deep Cranberry Chrysler offered.

The body is drying now. I'll shoot pictures later tonight.

Charlie Larkin

[charlie8575]

Well...as the post title suggests, we now have paint.

It'll probably need one more light coat, followed by a polishing, but we're definitely in the money now.

I ended up going with Tamiya TS-11 Maroon, as experience has shown Tamiya spray lacquer does work well on plastic directly and it's almost idiot-proofed.

I now bring you the results....

I should be able to do most of the assembly sometime tomorrow.

Charlie Larkin

[charlie8575]

I just hit the paint. I must say, Tamiya spray lacquer polishes out nicely, even with 600-grit paper. There was enough schmutz in the paint (dust and such) that I needed to start out a bit more aggressively. As also suspected, I will need 1-2 more coats of paint. This paint is incredibly thin. Quite impressed.

After the next coat or two dries, mostly to cover a couple of spots I missed due to tuck-under and to provide a little extra depth, final polish, a probable clear coat for a little extra depth and then assembly.

It's raining here, although painting in the basement shouldn't create too much trouble.

Post-polish pictures below.

Charlie Larkin

[Tom Geiger]

To answer your question...I soaked the Yin andYang decal until all of its glue dissolved and set it out to dry. Then I used the micros ale canopy cement that is a glorified white glue that dries clear. I put it onto the face (print side) of the decal and stuck it to the inside of the glass. It dried clear and the decal looks great.

[Ramfins59]

Charlie that is looking great. You're a brave man to spray a lacquer paint on bare plastic without a primer/sealer.

[charlie8575]

Charlie that is looking great. You're a brave man to spray a lacquer paint on bare plastic without a primer/sealer.

I know a couple of people who have done this with the Tamiya lacquers, because they're not "lacquer" a'la DuPont, PPG, et al, but some sort of weird synthetic lacquer. I don't know what it is, but they stink to high heaven- enough so that I wear my paint mask with them, otherwise I feel like I'm turning green.

I wouldn't have believed it either if I hadn't seen the models myself. So far, I'm not at all disappointed,

Coats three and four just went on, with four being a light mist coat. The paint is now drying. A final sand and clear tonight, followed by some detail painting and foiling, then assembly. Worst case, I might do final assembly and decals when I get to Jersey, but I think it'll all be done before I hit the road Friday morning.

Charlie Larkin

[slusher]

Looking good Charlie. Tamiya and testors lacquers are safe for bare plastic. I have many builds no primer. You could use Tamiya fine or medium compound and rub it out instead of sandpaper..

Edited April 23, 2014 by slusher

[charlie8575]

I now see why they generally recommend a fresh blade for BMF.

The good news is the small amount of foil the PT needs is done. The paint looks really good. Although It doesn't absolutely need a clear-coat, I'm probably going to shoot one on it anyway because I think I ended up with one of BMF's periodic "not quite" envelopes. Not a huge deal.

This first picture does a pretty good job of showing the true color.

Here are a couple of more.

The finish is coming.....

Charlie Larkin

[cobraman]

Lookin'good !

[charlie8575]

Thanks, Ray. Off to fix the bumper now. Assembly will probably be after sunrise, and almost definitely prior to leaving for Jersey.

Charlie Larkin

[charlie8575]

ARRRRRRRGHHHHHH!!!!!

While getting ready to do the final assembly, I found the headlamp lens unit is missing!

Looks like I'll need to see if I can scare up another PT tomorrow someplace- given the time constraints I'm working under for Thursday, that should be very interesting.

Worst case, it's WIP while I wait for Revell to send me another one.

Charlie Larkin

[charlie8575]

My LHS had another PT come in. Completion this evening when I get home, and pictures in under glass.

Charlie Larkin

[charlie8575]

Challenge met! See under glass.

Charlie Larkin

[Danno]

Congrats, Charlie.