TurnerX19 said:In reply to Claff :
I use real automotive body putty. Home depot has it.
You want 'spot putty' and not the two part body filler. I've tried using the latter and it usually won't get smooth enough for model work. Tiny little texture bubbles that would never show on a 1:1 car prove hard to eradicate in 1/24.
I've finished the bodywork, the side moldings were sanded off, bumpers attached, and I've added a rear spoiler. We added an Abarth spoiler to Joy after we bought her but I wasn't buying a second fairly pricey kit for one piece. I found a cheap vacuum formed slot around body on eBay, cut of the spoiler and fit it. It's not perfect but the real car was a little off as well.
No pics, but I ran into an issue with the kit yesterday. Some debris somehow got into the paint on the hood, so I had to strip and repaint it again. Not ideal. The rest of the kit is looking better after the second coat of paint.
Also, I tried the oven cleaner chrome removal trick, and it worked GREAT! The truck's grille and front bumper was chrome, and I'm painting it body color.
Hoping to start painting the small parts soon.
I couldn't find my oven cleaner so used Castrol Purple Power or whatever it is. Spraying it on didn't work that well but I soaked the parts in a container overnight and that did the trick.
So color 2 of 3 applied:
I got some bleed-under but not from the pinstripe tape. It got under the masking tape that went OVER the pinstripe tape. Nothing horrible a little Turtle Wax won't buff off. The black is a Krylon and it is still really tacky from 8 hours ago. I'll have to let is sit awhile to cure before doing the white on the top.
But...how you know it is Monday:
Mother berkeleyer. That will be a giant PITA to fix and not have show.
Lotus looks fantastic with the P1's on it! Pretty sure when I built my version of that kit it didn't turn out so nice...
Body work is my least favorite, having many of the same issues as other here. What is everyone's method for keeping dust off the body while or before painting? Nothing sucks harder than laying down a nice shiny coat and then seeing that dust bunny or tiny debris right on the roof :(
Actually, I take that back, "glass" is my least favorite part, and the most likely to shelve my build.
More WIP pics on my Banshee to come, speaking of dust in the paint...
In reply to ddavidv :
I would try to decant the paint you're using and then dab it on the lifted sections, like using paint chip repair paint on a full size car. Let it dry and then wet sand and polish. Should be barely noticeable if at all.
Yeah, the more I look at it the less murderous I feel. 
I will attempt that exact repair.
Just prior to painting I 'dab' the surfaces with a piece of masking tape to pick up any stray nibs that may have landed. Think of it as a glorified lint roller or tack cloth.
I hate glass a whole lot less since going to Microscale Kristal Klear as an adhesive. It looks a whole lot like Elmer's but dries totally clear. I've made windows/glass with it in N scale train cars by just filling the opening with it and letting it dry.
Was going for a "Totally 90's" teal color, which just happened to be a leftover can of Rustoleum Lagoon matte.
3-spoke wheels are the coolest.
Wouldn't want to change the spark plugs on a 1:1 version - 4 of the 8 cylinders are under the cowl.
Also, I much regret not masking the dashboard more thoroughly before painting the body.
In reply to Benswen :
That's a spectacular teal color.
I just ordered a bottle of Tamiya dark gray paint to do the spoiler and body trim. I tried using a Testors CreateFX "Weathered Black" paint marker, but it's not going on smoothly and then I have to use too much to get coverage. Someday I'm going to have to learn how to polish things.
Had another "well, that escalated quickly" moment tonight.
I ended up spending about 3.5hrs painting tonight. Just about everything is done and ready for glue. Used a lot of lessons I learned with the last kit and took my time doing it right. Still happy with the overall quality of the kit; very minimal flashing needed trimming during the process, and the instructions are very clear. Hoping to start assembly tomorrow.
If we didn't specify scale, this is my entry. Mall crawler in 1:160 scale (N Scale)
I'm pretty happy with how it came out.
The front suspension on the F150 kit is a little peculiar. It will also look like it can't possibly go together and hold the wheels on but it does. Lucky you for painting the truck black, you don't have to hand paint the frame rails under the floorpan like I did. 
I also found the center fuel tank difficult to mount. Everything else fits really well.
Before I get into progress pics, I have bodywork questions. I got color on the El Camino bed today and it's a little on the thin side. I put on two coats and you can see where it's not completely covering the primer on the ribs on the bed floor and some contours on the bed exterior panel.
I imagine the easy answer for this is "more paint" but I am concerned about doing this on the car's body and obliterating molded-in details like the side markers and nameplate script. I'm sure there's a happy medium between not enough paint and too much paint, but I don't trust myself to get to that point and stopping before crossing it. On the plus side, that panel in the second picture is going to be hidden (it's the bulkhead between the interior and the bed) but it's not filling me with confidence when it's time to tackle the exterior.
I'm weighing options, including going to a darker color. That would probably mean doing the bed over in flat black since the paint inside that is going to be super thick and all detail will be lost. It would also highlight my poor bodywork from attempting to remove the vinyl top. I'll sleep on this decision.
Anyway, progress. I went to Home Depot hoping to find automotive body putty to smooth out my B-pillars, but found none. Out of desperation and parsimony, I figured sandable/paintable spackle might work. Long story short: it won't, but I had to try it.
Putting the stuff on, I had a hunch that it wasn't the right stuff for the job. Looking on the bright side, I now have some filler for whenever I get inspired to paint the living room.
Moving on: engine is done
Interior is done. I wound up repainting the door panels and did not attempt to redo the chrome strips on the trim panel.
Back to the body, where I pretty much sanded away all the putty I put on it. I don't want to deal with this area anymore so I sanded the whole thing down and the next thing I'll do with it is put down color for better or for worse. In light of the paint not completely covering primer above, I think I have to reshoot the hood with the lighter grey primer or run the risk of the hood winding up a different color than the rest of the body.
We're in wind-down mode now. All the parts left on the trees are for the most part detail stuff for under the hood after everything is put together. I got the front suspension half done so there's been some progress on the frame, though the balance of that has to wait until the interior and bed are mounted there first.
In reply to Claff :
You are correct about the need to re-prime the hood. Yellow is especially sensitive to the under color.Dont worry about the thin places on the bed interior the chances are GM had some thin places on the car when new. I would scratch the bed floor with some coarse sandpaper and fill the scratches with varying shades of rust.
White primer. That was the same problem I had doing the '69 Boss 302. I shot some Tamiya white primer over the color and then applied another coat. Solved the bleed through.
My eBay find showed up yesterday and I dug into it immediately.
Step one - open box with feline supervision
Steps 2-XXX fettle with details. I lowered the front suspension some, painted the engine & trans, and did some test fitting. Ended up here at about 9:45 last night.
Coming along. It's a crappy kit and I'm loving it. I spent the better part of 4 hours last night sitting quietly working on it and it was super relaxing, almost to the point of being meditative.
In reply to ddavidv :
This. The secret to good yellow is to paint the thing white first.
In reply to Claff :
With the yellow I found it was best to use a number of really thin coats like 5-6 or else it just didn't cover the sharp edges at all when I did the brat, same issue with the bedlines. Just keep a few more thin coats and should turn out awesome!
kazoospec said:If we didn't specify scale, this is my entry. Mall crawler in 1:160 scale (N Scale)
I'm pretty happy with how it came out.
Looks great! I finished an HO scale (1/87) slot car:
In reply to Kanek :
OK I'll try more thin coats. Roughly how long should I wait between coats?
We have a nice clear day so it's time to break out the airbrush from it's long slumber. Back when the wife got me the kit I contacted Gravity Colors and they mixed me up some Verde Chiaro lacquer paint that I'm going to attempt to spray out.
In reply to Wally (Forum Supporter) :
That's going to be so nice!
In reply to Benswen :
You need some sort of hot pink graphic to finish the triumvirate of 90's rad.
In reply to Claff :
When they're just surface dry but still soft is what I did, so like 10 minutes, 4 rum sips, or 1/2" of cigar
Success!?! We'll find out fort sure once we get it cleared but the color is about perfect.
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