Finally getting started. Lots of flash, mold lines, and ejector pin marks to deal with.
Finally getting started. Lots of flash, mold lines, and ejector pin marks to deal with.
The rear wing was a separate part. Can't have that!
Well, I'll be dipped. The knock offs are directional. 
I'd have never caught that.
Body paint finally came out okay on the Hey Little Cobra. Chassis is almost done. Most of the work will be installing all the photo etch parts. Worst part is getting them off the parts tree. Xacto won't cut them and my Chinese nippers are 90% inept at actually cutting through anything but plastic sprue.
In reply to ddavidv :
I use a #10 Xacto blade against a hard laminate surface to separate photo etch parts. It works, but blade life is short. real short! I am anal about the direction of English knock offs, maybe from experiencing wheel departure on real cars
The C2 Corvette wasn't my only alternative scale build this month. I also painted up a new Auto World body and made custom decals to create Bumblebee for my step son:
And I still wasn't done as I produced my second set of slot cars to sell after making the AMC Rebel Machines, this time Dodge Dart GTS Thunderjets.
These were custom cast resin bodies. The copper and lime are painted and I played with vinyl top texture, and the other three are cast in the body color. Once again I designed the decals and printed them. All the details are painted by hand.
Those are cool!
Good news. After waiting out the paint for three or four days, it's finally hardened enough to be handled. I can get this '32 detailed and assembled pretty quickly now that this hurdle has been overcome.
Detail painting commences. One more day to let the primer gas out then YELLOW!
In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :
Yellow is going to look fly on that F40!
Lancia 037 progress. There are so many pieces that you can't see them all. Except for the windows and decals it is all metal, so when complete it will weigh as much as a 1/24th Tamiya Lotus 7! I will weigh them to confirm. Looks like it will be done by the end of the month too.
In reply to TurnerX19 :
I build slot cars and I can't even fathom how you've built that! Looks amazing!
In reply to Javelin (Forum Supporter) :
It actually builds a lot easier than I was expecting. The parts fit well, and with white metal and brass CA glue is truly instant, you don't have to hold things in place for 1/2 hour per part. The fussiest part so far has been the seat belts. The belt material is a thin vinyl self adhesive that lost its adhesion long ago (I bought this kit in 1995) and the material is too stiff. If I had built it when bought the belts would have exploded off of the seats long ago. Now they are glued firmly. All of the rear control arms and hub carriers are one photo etched brass piece that you do origami with and glue to the bottom of the chassis, then slide the axle in and attach the shocks and springs.Both shocks and the spring are a single casting. Several engine parts get installed after the roll cage braces, and the instructions are just clear enough to explain it in English or it's native Italian.
I'm pretty sure I had one of those 037 kits back in my "everything Italian rules" phase. I wound up selling it on without touching it.
The Hey Little Cobra is almost complete. I still have to attach the windshield, wipers and mirrors. While photo etched parts are cool for the grille and wire wheels I have to say I find the emblems and hood latches to be absurd. They are just too tiny and insignificant. Which was illustrated when the hood fell off yesterday and the hood latches disappeared on the work bench. I found them, but...if the bastards won't stick on the hood they are being replaced by dabs of paint.
Got most of the last of the paint done on the '32 today: interior trim, roof insert, and tires. While painting the tires I realized that there probably isn't going to be enough contrast between the charcoal wheels and flat black tires, and I had a wild idea that a far-out different color for the wheels, like red, would have been epic. But I'd have to split the wheel/tire combos to do a repaint the right way, and I'm also not sure if adding a third color to the exterior would be such a good idea. I may experiment with that down the road, but not now as the deadline is looming.
Assembly should be quick and easy, and I feel like I'm taking the easy way out with a curbside kit compared to most of the other cars being built this month.
It turns out that I didn't have to buy a kit for this challenge in the first place, as I recently discovered a 1/32 Airfix MGB in my stash. It's got an engine and everything.
Finished with days to spare.
I'll have the usual video review in a few days. It was...fun...but I'm glad it's done. I'd originally intended for a light metallic blue but Testors saw to it that didn't happen. The white is just Dutch Boy spray paint I've had hanging around for probably years. Sprayed really nice. I think the windshield should be raked more but my dash mounted mirror placement kind of dictated where it wound up. The photo etched parts are brilliant for the wheels, grille, dash and steering wheel and completely absurd for the emblems and latches. As always, I'd like to flog the guy who thought molding it in yellow was a good move. Any place where the chrome is thin has a yellow hue to it.
These "Ultimates" were seemingly a two kit run/failure. The only other one I've found on the web is a 1967 Corvette roadster that I'm sure is equally as nice. The fit of 98% of it was spot on. The body shell had some heavy mold lines on the corners and the wheels don't fit as squarely in the openings as I'd like. Aside from that, it's pretty sweet...but not something you want to handle much.
Reminder, this build in ineligible for voting.
Cool builds this month!
it just occurred to me I don't think I've ever built anything smaller than 1/25.
Maybe next month I'll have something theme worthy. Want to see my latest 80s NASCAR build?
We should start thinking about a theme. Or just 'anything goes'?
ddavidv said:We should start thinking about a theme. Or just 'anything goes'?
It's February and Valentine's Day, so maybe like the car love of your life? Or anything goes but it has to be red?
I'm racing against time here. Kind of appropriate for rally cars.
The Fiesta is Tamiya blue. I grabbed it on a whim instead of the Rustoleum blue I was planning to use. I barely had enough paint for 2 coats though so it's not as good as it could be.
The Mini is Rustoleum paint and maybe it's a good thing I went with Tamiya on the other car, because the red came out like this:
I have this problem with Rustoleum fairly often. Maybe primer would have helped but I usually don't primer things unless I have to. Hopefully I can polish it somewhat smooth and then cover it with decals.
Then again, I may not finish the decals in time. There's a lot of them.
I've started to always prime my builds. I resisted it for a long time but it just solves a lot of compatibility problems and also helps when they come molded in silly colors that want to bleed through. Hardware store gray primer for dark colors, Tamiya white primer for light colors.
Here's my latest WIP
1986 Pontiac aero coupe Salvino's JR kit with Mike's decals. Painted with Tamiya Camel yellow. I tried something new with the gauges and drilled them out, then added a sheet of clear plastic behind the dash, and attached the decals to it. I really like this, and it'll be my new technique. Used leftover Tamiya mesh in the grills, added cut down headlights from a Monté Carlo kit, drilled out the wheels, and added the fuel vent/overflow tube. I actually had an issue with the decal on the roof, and had to patch over it. Solvaset ate the decal, which I haven't had happen in forever. Oh well... will still display decently when done.
In reply to slowbird :
Your Rustoleum problem is the time between coats. Read all the fine print on every can you buy, they are not all the same. Many can only be re-coated before 20 minutes or after 2 whole days. Do it between those any you get what you see on your MINI.
In reply to TurnerX19 :
It says within 1 hour or after 48 hours. But then it says the coats should be "a few minutes" apart. I do have a bad habit of setting it down to dry and forgetting how long it's been before I do the next coat, but this time I'm pretty sure it was within 1 hour. Oh well, maybe I didn't go light enough on the spraying. It's pretty thick paint, this 2X stuff.
And on the "after 48 hours" bit, I've had it crackle and ruin after waiting a week to do another coat, so I just do as many coats as I can remember to do within the hour and then I'm done forever unless I decide to strip it completely and start over.
Tamiya doesn't give me nearly as much trouble. But then, it's like 4x as much $ per ounce or something.
Really need to get this airbrush working.
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