Painting

[CrazySpider]

Hey guys, I'm working on my 1958 Corvette Roadster (My first model car, I've only done engines and planes before), and I'm' wondering, what do I do about the painting? I'll put a picture of my engine in below, but do I just paint by my discretion, or is there instructions on the book somewhere? I'm looking at my kit booklet, and I only see assembly instructions. Mainly, my question is, do I paint the internal parts, and do I choose all the colors, or is there instructions? ( I obviously know I could choose the colors if I wanted to.)

[unclescott58]

The kits instructions do include painting instructions. Look on page 2. The whole upper half of that page is the painting instructions, as far as matching correct colors to the parts. The only place I depart with them on is painting the body and interior. My '58 body is going to be painted a non stock, for '58, color. I plan on painting mine Testors One Coat Lacquer, 1844 Ice Blue. With White coves. Beyond that, I'll basically be following what the instructions say as far painting the kit.

Scott

P.S. In the last year I learned to quit using Testors enamel paints for the bodies of my kits. My paint jobs have improved 100% by switching to Tamiya paint, which is a safe lacquer for plastics. I will also sometimes use Testors One Coat Lacquer. Not as good as Tamiya's. But OK. I'll still use enamels for engines, chassis, etc. A big warning about using lacquer paints. Most lacquer paint is to hot for styrene plastic. If your using lacquer not specifically designed for styrene, you need put down a good primer or base coat first! Other wise the lacquer will ruin the plastic.

Edited June 16, 2014 by unclescott58

[unclescott58]

Painting part 2. A lot of car kits will not give you a guide on what colors to paint what. In general the directions given with your Corvette are true for the same parts on different cars. The biggest difference will be in the color of each brands engines. One web site I use to help in finding correct engine colors is, Engine Enamel - Hirsch Automotive. This is a fairly good source, but not always 100% correct. They were wrong on their color suggestions for early 60's Oldsmobile V8 engines. This is again where I'll search the web looking for pictures of the real cars to see what something should look like. By the way, early 60's Olds engines from the factory are mostly painted red.

Now you can throw out everything I've just said above if your building custom or drag cars. Real drag cars. Search the web. Your own drag car or custom? Go wild! Have fun! Just about anything goes. A heck, anything goes.

Scott

[CrazySpider]

The kits instructions do include painting instructions. Look on page 2. The whole upper half of that page is the painting instructions, as far as matching correct colors to the parts. The only place I depart with them on is painting the body and interior. My '58 body is going to be painted a non stock, for '58, color. I plan on painting mine Testors One Coat Lacquer, 1844 Ice Blue. With White coves. Beyond that, I'll basically be following what the instructions say as far painting the kit.

Scott

P.S. In the last year I learned to quit using Testors enamel paints for the bodies of my kits. My paint jobs have improved 100% by switching to Tamiya paint, which is a safe lacquer for plastics. I will also sometimes use Testors One Coat Lacquer. Not as good as Tamiya's. But OK. I'll still use enamels for engines, chassis, etc. A big warning about using lacquer paints. Most lacquer paint is to hot for styrene plastic. If your using lacquer not specifically designed for styrene, you need put down a good primer or base coat first! Other wise the lacquer will ruin the plastic.

Again, thank you so so much, you give a ton of information in such a small post that really helps. I just skipped past the first few pages thinking that it was all copyright information and such, just skipping to assembly, and now I assembled the whole engine and the carburetor without painting them... I'm gonna have fun trying to paint this as a unit I guess I could use tape?

Edited June 16, 2014 by CrazySpider

[CrazySpider]

Painting part 2. A lot of car kits will not give you a guide on what colors to paint what. In general the directions given with your Corvette are true for the same parts on different cars. The biggest difference will be in the color of each brands engines. One web site I use to help in finding correct engine colors is, Engine Enamel - Hirsch Automotive. This is a fairly good source, but not always 100% correct. They were wrong on their color suggestions for early 60's Oldsmobile V8 engines. This is again where I'll search the web looking for pictures of the real cars to see what something should look like. By the way, early 60's Olds engines from the factory are mostly painted red.

Now you can throw out everything I've just said above if your building custom or drag cars. Real drag cars. Search the web. Your own drag car or custom? Go wild! Have fun! Just about anything goes. A heck, anything goes.

Scott

Yeah, I have already changed a few things. I really dislike orange, so I decided that instead of orange, I'll paint my engine block red, as I feel that is a nicer color for an old car.

[Speedfreak]

Testors I believe has a color called 'Chevy Engine Red' that you can get in the 1/2oz bottle. It's somewhere between red and orange, more red I think. That would at least get you in the ball park.

[Scuderia]

Testors I believe has a color called 'Chevy Engine Red' that you can get in the 1/2oz bottle. It's somewhere between red and orange, more red I think. That would at least get you in the ball park.

Testors still makes those, and a couple other 'engine' colours in the square and round jars.