February model car contest?

In reply to ddavidv :

I literally bought the rack...

Chassis done. Ready to install body. Body paint not perfect. Hoping decals will hide enough of it. Decals are all that's left plus the infamous windshield fitting. That will be last.

A still need to do the aluminum around the windshield opening and rear window detail paint as well. And the fuel filler. Done for the night.

ddavidv said:

Paint nozzles. They are the bane of my painting life.  Rust Oleum in particular seems to cause me no end of grief.

I've learned that, if I have one that works, to not throw it away if the can empties. I need to look into buying a supply of these things.

I also learned that nozzles from other products don't necessarily work. I think I used one from a spent can of WD-40 and found the spray pattern to be waaaaaay bigger than the paint version.

Amazon sells caps/nozzles for different brands of rattle can. The graffiti art people use them for different effects and line weight.

Javelin said:

In reply to ddavidv :

I literally bought the rack...

How do I place my order? 

In reply to ddavidv :

Happy to share! 

So jealous Javelin! 

Saron81 said:

So jealous Javelin! 

A local hobby store was closing and I happened to be n the right place at the right time to buy it and all the contents. Most of the brush paint is inside as are the spray cans that are going to be used next (to keep them warm). 

Tower Hobbies often has coupons you can apply to Tamiya sprays though. That's where I got a lot of my sprays.

Making progress.

I'm installing the glass right now. There is virtually no edge to the parts, so gluing them in without using Krystal Klear or something equivelant is about impossible. It's a shame the engine isn't better detailed since you can see it so well.

In reply to ddavidv :

Triumph models should always be displayed bonnet open, it is their natural stance

TurnerX19 said:

In reply to ddavidv :

Triumph models should always be displayed bonnet open, it is their natural stance

Now I understand why my Bi-Turbo model came with it's own Flatbed.

seats and steering wheel done 

making gauge faces:

Current progress 

I knew the windshield was gonna be an issue from all the research I did but wow, they weren't kidding.

No amount of heat or flexing helped. It was mostly flat in plane and needed to curve into place. Oh yeah, it's not big enough for the opening either!

Clothespins help.

I should be into the decals tomorrow.

Just picked this up today at the local hobby shop:

The face you make when the GT6 bonnet hinges actually work on the first glue attempt.

Today I painted the fender flares on the Grand Sport. Spritzed some spray paint into a cap and dabbed it on. First thought, it's a different color. I shot the blue on the bottom of the body over gray primer, while the flares were painted over the white. It took a couple coats but they're closer to right than after the first coat. The other big thing is that the sprayed-on paint is not particularly shiny, while the flares are. While the color is even and there are no obvious spots where it's thin, I guess it could have benefited from more coats? I think I should put some clear on the entire car, but I'm afraid of the paint behaving badly.

I also took a stab at the hood louvers, which are photo-etched brass. The parts are very small and fiddly and I have questionable eyesight and hamfists. I might need stronger glue but then I'll probably just wind up sticking all my fingers together. I haven't thrown in the towel but I'm not really looking forward to going back in for a second try.

On a better note, everything else is done. The interior is ready to go in the body when the body's ready to accept it.

The chassis is done. The reports of exhaust issues were right, there was no way for the right-side header to line up with the appropriate places on the cylinder head since the frame doesn't let it. It's on there as best as I could get it, but I have doubts that the side pipe will meet it as designed.

We'll press on regardless. The priority is to get the body cleared and then I can start adding its features. Monday might be a bit of a thrash to get it decaled and together enough for submission. If clearing doesn't go well, it might be submitted in primer as I have to go back to the drawing board. I'm not going to do decals unless the body is right, and I don't really want to rush through final assembly.

I loathe AMT kits sooooo much

Finished.

Final assembly of the GT6 began today.

Notice I said, began.

This kit was turning out really nice. And then I tried fitting the opening doors. 

They are glued shut now.

The side door glass got thrown back in the box. 

The dash doesn't fit where it's supposed to. So I glued it in a position that it does fit so I can get the body shell on. Which took about a dozen attempts and in the process the rear floorpan has decided it doesn't want to stay attached to the frame. With super glue. 

Oh, and the bonnet will not completely close. The only way I can see to make it work is to bend the frame rails up. Which, as you can imagine, is nearly impossible.

Pyro brand kits = because you will want to set them on fire. 

I'll happily build any number of crappy AMT kits to avoid another one of these.

Decals tomorrow evening. Getting down to he wire. I hate how the windshield looks.

In reply to ddavidv :

Ah man that sucks, the GT6 was looking so good.

The only old kits I've found worth the bother are JoHan and Revell. 

No pics, but I shot clear on the body of the Grand Sport and that really woke up the blue on the bottom of the body. Hopefully it dries to the point where I can put decals on tomorrow.

In the win some/lose some department, the clear did not like being on the hood (which I only painted a few days ago) and that'll have to be redone. I'm breathing a sigh of relief that the rest of the body will apparently be OK, but I'm not touching it for quite a while just to let it dry.

Final assembly is probably going to involve a few swears. The instructions say that the body needs to somehow be dealt with delicately to clear the rear of the chassis, but from test fitting I know the interior (which goes in the body before final assembly) needs to be dealt with delicately to sneak the brake master cylinder around one of the carburetors. I might see if I can get away with mating the interior to the chassis, then wrap the body around all that rather than how the instructions say.

I doubt the car will be 100% by end of day tomorrow, but it'll be pretty close.

I'll be cutting it close as well.

My chassis is now done though:

Made gauge backs out of spruce pieces. Then I realized you'll never see them. Ahhh... such is the way. 
 

4 wheels again... I ended using 2 of the 3 parts of the wire wheels. Imo it looks so much better without the middle piece. 

This thing looked so good...right until the point I put the body on the chassis. Then it turned to crap.

I can't figure out why it won't fit together properly. It's got something to do with the body/firewall area. With the bonnet attached to the hinges the bonnet won't even come close to fully closing. I took the bonnet off the hinges and that gap at the cowl is as good as it gets--with a monstrous gap between the valance and the bonnet and the wheel openings are too high. Ugh. Sucks, because aside from that it turned out pretty nice, considering what a POS 1969 tool it is. Those divots in the doors are for the door card mounts. I didn't notice them until it was painted. I'll have an appropriate video flaming it in the next few days. Cannot recommend, but thanks to Wally for at least satisfying my curiosity about this one I never built. I can't imagine how far across the room I would have launched it had I attempted a build in my teen years.

I am going to make it, with minutes to spare. The body/chassis/ interior glue up is curing now.

Will I make it? I don't know. Not in the right frame of mind to be putting on delicate decals right now. Got home to find dog piss EVERYWHERE in the kitchen and dining room. Thank the universe for Italian tile. Still this dog's been a problem since day one and the vets find nothing wrong leaving it to behavioral issues. Anyway. Floors are cleaned, I gotta make dinner, and I have too much left to do with the HS Bowling league I manage (team finals on Saturday). We'll see. I certainly don't need caffeine right now.

When looking for a car to steal the headlamps off of to replace the moulded chrome ones in the kit, I found the Gran Sport I built about 15 years ago:

I should be done in time....