Model car Quick Build Round 2 May 2nd finish

I built that Seven kit a thousand years ago. I did not get to anything close to that level of detail. Color me impressed.

To the El Camino

Sometimes I just need to leave well enough alone. The paint looked good, but I was a little bugged that the hood seemed to be half a shade darker than the rest of the body. So I hit the hood with another quick coat of yellow, and imagine my horror when I checked on it later to discover this mess:

Arrrrrgh! Looking on the bright side, the hood can be literally the last thing put on the truck before deadline, so I have time to sand it down and try again to get paint on it. Will that paint behave? I have no idea now. I've been threatening to paint something on this truck flat black if paint didn't work out well, and that option's available here.

Moving on, the chassis work is winding down. The engine was just being test fit here while I tried to figure out just how the heck the steering column is supposed to fit here. I couldn't wrap my brain around the concept of having both a steering column and an exhaust manifold trying to occupy the same space, so I'll sleep on it. 

Back to the body. The plan all along was to go two-tone along the bottom of the body, but the paint down towards the bottom of the body meant it was now a requirement. 

I got the exhaust in despite my best efforts. I kinda started ignoring the instructions a while back, and didn't realize that the exhaust should go on before the rear suspension. Oops! Fortunately there was just enough of a gap to get the tailpipes over the rear end or I don't know what I was going to do. Don't look at the pipes too closely; unlike Tony up there, these are not lined up very well at all. This thing's going to be loud.

I remember when my dad was building his Factory Five Cobra, he referenced an important milestone in the progress where you have gotten to the point where you had a go-kart. As of now, I have an El Camino go-kart.

I have also found a Sharpie paint pen but haven't tried it yet to see if it's suitable for model-building use or not. This poor Cutlass, the rest of which I have no idea where it could be, was the guinea pig. The pen seems to work OK, though the paint is pretty thin and is quick to scamper down grooves like here between the front fender and the door. I'm hesitant to use it on the El Camino.

This is what we're down to. I need to paint the engine bay and interior inside the body, and at least start putting silver on the trim around the bed and the windows. Then the windows go in, the body goes on, bumpers go on, radiator and A/C hoses run, and hope to heck I get the hood taken care of before Saturday.

In reply to Claff :

You really really really need a Molotow liquid chrome pen...

Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Claff :

You really really really need a Molotow liquid chrome pen...

Picking up 3 from the local hobby store this afternoon so I can do some details on the CoronaVette.

In reply to slowbird :

I would not try this detail on a complex, or really modern car, or one I did not know well on a personal basis. It also helps that this is a model of a kit car. The rivet counters can't complain about plumbing routing or small component locations when they vary so much car to car!

In reply to Claff :

That formula Rustoleum crazes like that if you re-coat between 2 hours and 2 days, every time. The small print on the can says to re-coat before or after, but they do not tell you why. Many other brands will do that now too. There are incompatible vehicles in the mix, mostly thanks to EPA volatile hydrocarbon regulations. When using it on steel parts at work I heat the parts to 170 before I paint them. Makes it dry before the thick spots run.

Thanks for that. I painted the white on the Mustang yesterday and it looks good...save for a dust nib on the roof. I was going to sand and re-shoot it but the above has convinced me to just leave it. It's not horrible but I know it's there. If this kit were half-decent I'd be more inclined to try to fix it.

Mocked up but getting attached today. That rear body pan is a total random guess as to where it gets glued.

The level of detail on Claff's El Camino kit is impressive. It highlights just how little there is on this turd. The AMT Falcon Ranchero I built was about the same but at least the parts fit together. Though I appreciate Round 2 reissuing all these kits from our youth so we don't have to restore glue bombs or buy overpriced 'collector' kits some of these are better left as fond memories. The kit world is ready for a new tool for 71-73 Mustangs. There were some Japanese kits made according to Scalemates but I can't recall ever seeing any. The Japanese are curious; they seem to make a run once or maybe twice and then the molds vanish never to be seen again.

Lots of great progress in this thread. I got some primer on the Corvette last night and snapped a pic before my ride in to work today. Color this evening and hopefully complete the chassis assembly. Saturday is coming quick! 

I chose to strip the chrome off the windshield frame with bleach so that I could glue it on pre-paint. It always seems difficult to get chrome & painted parts to glue well, and with the fitment of this kit that seemed like an additional challenge I didn't need. The windshield frame will get hit with the Molotow chrome pen when all is said and done. 

Looking at the caliber of builds on here is great motivation to step up my game, thanks GRM!

Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Claff :

You really really really need a Molotow liquid chrome pen...

I know I know. When you made the suggestion last week I had already made a big Amazon order and wasn't in the mood to go back for more that soon.

FWIW the putty I ordered and didn't expect until May 1 arrived yesterday. I need to pay attention to the fine print when I order. The putty was $4.99 but shipping it was $6.99. For that money it's a good thing it showed up earlier than expected.

During my lunch break, and after work, I finished my final assembly.





While I was really happy with this, I wanted to try and figure out a way to at the very least add some side decals. It just has to look like this to be right: 


Then, an idea popped into my head.



Painter's tape! It was close enough to the right color, and with some markers, I could do a proper blue-to-purple fade like the originals.







While it's not perfect, it's damn close! I can't do the Nite tailgate decal (yet) but it's in the plans. I sent pics to my dad, and he said I nailed it. Really happy with how it came out! I may take some better pics tomorrow, but these will do for now.

I have a spare tailgate for that kit. 

Wheels have been chosen. Actually my wife said these over the saw blades cause "they were too busy." Um, okay. Added the discs and painted the calipers as well. Radiator hoses made from plastic coated paper clip. Ignition wiring was a chore. But it's the correct firing order.

Making doors.

Need to do some "CAD" work for the filler pieces. Only at this scale paper is more appropriate it seems. Lots of work ahead of me. Still not sure how I'm going to attach the doors so they open and close.

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Lookin' good! You've inspired me to pick up another Flareside kit. I think I might have to build it as a desert prerunner.

In reply to ddavidv :

My curiosity got the better of me and I ordered that Mustang too. Mostly just because it comes with two whole motors. And I also have a 71 Mustang from Lindberg that I want to compare it to. 

In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :

Love the wheels! And that door work is really cool.

As for the SVO, well, I panicked and sprayed another coat of green over the mistake, but messed it up more and then threw it in the purple bath to start over. I hope it'll be ready to paint by tomorrow and maybe even dry enough to assemble by Saturday. 

I already know what my next build will be, though.

I have my model.  I'm waiting on building materials now.  I'm not going to compete this round, obviously.  However here is a teaser photo.

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Brilliant!

In reply to slowbird :

Awesome on the Cougar! Too bad about the SVO. I'm in the same boat, I still need paint!

slowbird said:

As for the SVO, well, I panicked and sprayed another coat of green over the mistake, but messed it up more and then threw it in the purple bath to start over. I hope it'll be ready to paint by tomorrow and maybe even dry enough to assemble by Saturday. 

Purple bath? What's that? I too have some paint to remove and redo.

In reply to Claff :

I pour some of this stuff in a decent-sized plastic container, throw the car in, and put a lid on it. Usually about 24 hours is enough. Sometimes I leave it in there longer though. A toothbrush will free up whatever hasn't fallen off by that point. Some other products work well also, but this stuff is easy for me to find at Walmart and it's only 5 bucks for a pretty big jug.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Purple-Power-Degreaser-1-Gallon/16778256

I have a spray bottle of that stuff here. Should be enough to give the hood a bath.

Today was a big day, the mating of the body and chassis. I usually dread this part because it lets me know if I screwed something up bad enough that nothing lines up, and I had a hunch that could be the case here. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First step, painting the underhood area.

Then I put flat black down on the headliner

Painted silver around the window trim and down the bed rails

I put in the windows and inside rear view mirror, then set myself up for the moment of truth. It didn't go together that easily. The engine bay of the body had a protruding... something that needed to get squeezed past a valve cover. Both inner fenders needed to be leaned on a bit to get past the alternator on one side and the A/C pump on the other. Then there was the pushing, tugging, squeezing, massaging, cursing. The radiator fan popped off, and both exhaust pipes went off in various directions. That's when I knew this wasn't going to be a test fitting. It was not. going. to. come. apart. again.

I finally got it to where it was pretty close to right, and decided to leave it at that before I pushed on something to the point where I started breaking stuff. I think the interior is still not sitting flat on top of the frame, and that's causing the body to sit a little tall. The body is also a smidge too far forward, but nothing is budging. I started poking around to see what could be done and how long it could take, and then I remembered this was supposed to be a two-week thrash for a car forum and that some build effort and double/triple checking of stuff is going to be sacrificed in the name of speed. So I declare the body on the frame, and while it's not 100% where it's supposed to be, it meets my definition of "close enough" and there's no more trying to force it into complying further.

So we'll call it a night, and spend some time tomorrow painting the trim separating the yellow and black paint, see if the radiator and hoses go on OK and line up, fix the stuff that fell off while mounting the body, and debating stripping and repainting the hood or leaving it as it sits. It'll look OK at a glance and maybe even in pictures, and then it'll go on a shelf to get covered with dust for years down the road.

slowbird said:

In reply to ddavidv :

My curiosity got the better of me and I ordered that Mustang too. Mostly just because it comes with two whole motors. And I also have a 71 Mustang from Lindberg that I want to compare it to. 

Weird...couldn't add comments to the quoted post. Anyway...I'd be more interested in a side-by-side comparison of the AMT kit. The Lindbergh is an old Palmer kit from 1971 so I wouldn't expect greatness but do post up here so we can all have a look.

As promised, color! You can see where I got a little over zealous on the clear coat and developed some runs on the rockers and by the Corvette badge near the front wheel opening. They were actually worse but I was able to force some of the larger puddles off with air. I've had similar failures with clear coat on previous models, and sometimes they just dry themselves mostly out of existence. 

I think I have most everything else painted and accounted for, tonight/tomorrow should be final assembly pending any major issues. 

Paint.  *sigh*

Strip it off and do it again!

*sigh*

Got color on the body and should be able to get the decals on today.

Should I install the "glass" before I clear the car?

In reply to Aaron_King :

I'd clear it first, I've had a couple where the clear yellowed the glass. 

Everyone's cars are coming along so well. I made a little more progress this morning, my hand isn't as steady as I remember.  Now I'm waiting for clear and chrome foil so I can finish.