Making Details Pop on a Model Car and Perseverance in Modeling After 27 Years

[Kustom Steve]

Here is a shot of the dash and steering wheel just sitting in place, no glue yet so the wheel is resting on the seat. I also detail washed the steering wheel and tried to make a Falcon scribble for the center of the horn ring. I plan on painting the pleated areas of the seats and the door panels pearl white. I also plan to use some teal flocking for the floor - I think I still have some left and didn't purge it from my collection.

I didn't mention that I am trying to go for a 1965 look to the Ranchero. The Ford Tahoe Turquoise color was available that year (from '63 through at least '68), the Keystone Mags where available in '65 from my research and the tires were popular at the time. I am pitching the hole through the engine block Chevy motor and stealing a 427 out of the Crusin' USA series AMT '65 Ford Galaxie.

Finally I have two shots of what I did to stuff the tires especially the slicks under the car. The slicks barely fit the wheel wells. I had to do some minor trimming on the chassis plate to open the area up. The strange part was that I had to move the center of the wheel back 1/16" when I moved the hole up. Notice the weird hook to the hole. I will be using some epoxy putty to fill in the old holes, and and shoot the chassis. I was considering to paint the chassis white. My Dad painted his '65 Mustang coupe floor white and I have seen that done a lot back then in photos and car mags.

[Joker]

Welcome aboard Steve.

Thanks for posting the painting tip,

much appreciated and I look forward

to see more of your build techniques.

[Snake45]

  On 12/18/2014 at 2:06 PM, johnbuzzed said:

Some of the techniques (like tints and filters) used by military modelers would not translate well on many of our car models.

But some of them do.

I've been building both airplanes and cars since I was a kid. Almost all modelers specialize in one or the other and consider themselves either an "airplane guy" or a "car guy" (or a "tank guy" or a "ship guy"). I've lost count of the times I've amazed friends in Model Airplane World by using some technique that's common in Model Car World, or vice-versa.

Even more amazing, I've learned that nearly every tool, technique, or material that we use in Plastic Model World has been used over in Model Railroad World since the '50s, the '40s, even the 1930s. If you ever get a chance to buy a stack of old model railroad magazines cheap at a yard sale or something, take advantage of it, and read through them. I guarantee you'll learn how to do something "new" that you can use on car models.

[Kustom Steve]

I have been away from the forum for awhile but I have been doing some building on this project. I have gloss coated the body with Testors gloss lacquer and later buffed out the body in June. In May I reprimed the chassis white and painted it and the tonneau cover Testors Pearl White. Yes, a white chassis. This was a short lived custom paint job from the mid '60's. My Dad painted his '65 Mustang Coupe chassis white which was his daily driver. So I went for a pearl color. I also applied more detailing washes to the floor panels and used multiple colors of metal in the exhaust and other parts. I would mix the ink with some acrylic medium and paint over the whole chassis so the ink would blend better. I also finished the Tamiya Smoke tint over the rims and painted the hub centers glass black for Keystones. I then sanded the tire treads and made the front axle not go through the engine block anymore...

[Kustom Steve]

Well, it is officially done as of 8:59 pm Eastern time! This is the first model car I have worked on as well as finished sine 1997. I figure I got he kit in 1981 probably from KayBee Toy or while on vacation in Canada at Niagara Central Hobby. I painted up part of the Chevy Rat motor and let it sit until 1987 when I got my first (and second) crappy knock off Badger 350 from Just Close Outs. When both broke, my Dad had me return the second airbrush and get a refund and put it towards a real Badger brush. This model then sat in my stash until last October when I was considering to sell it. With the goading of my fellow co-workers who are also model car builders I got it done. I did almost everything wrong with the build except for one thing... I finished it! I tried a few new techniques on it and I am happy with those results, and it will make a nice shelf model. I will have more photos in the Under Glass forum

[disabled modeler]

Very nice....