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62Parts

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Everything posted by 62Parts

  1. This is the excellent 1/24 scale Hasegawa kit of the famous Ferrari Testa Rossa 250 pontoon fender as she appeared in the 1958 24 hours of Le Mans race. I spray-painted the body shell Tamiya Racing White, and polished her up with Micro Mesh abrasive 3200 grit before giving her a couple of coats of Tamiya Clear. Once the clear was dry, I polished again with Micro Mesh in increments up to 12000 grit, with a final rubbing using Novus #2, then #1. Next I applied the most excellent Cartograf decals that were included with the kit. The upholstery was spray-painted with Tamiya Dull Red. Seats were piped with Detail Master ignition wire bent to approximate shape, taped at increments, and then fixed to exact shape and clear-glued between the taped points. The ignition wire proved to be a perfect scale for the piping application! Seatbelts are made from masking tape spray-painted with Tamiya Gunmetal, with Studio 27 P/E hardware installed. (The texture of the masking tape and the paint color make for a convincing seat belt) Windscreen was trimmed with Bare Metal Foil. The power plant replication is a work of art by those craftsmen at Hasegawa! Engine block & timing cover were given a couple of coats of Alclad II spray-paint over gloss black, and the valve covers are Tamiya Italian Red with a satin clear top coat, and the Ferrari emblem and rib details were rubbed with a silver pencil. Throttle linkage is .005 guage wire from Studio 27, fuel line is clear/yellow rubber tubing from Model Factory Hiro. Ignition wire is from Detail Master, and the plug boots were cut from parts-box hollow rubber tubing. Headers were painted Tamiya NATO Black, and soft-polished with a Dremel tool. P/E hood & trunk pins are from Studio 27. The P/E wire wheels and real rubber tires are from Model Factory Hiro, and are the finest I’ve ever used, but sadly, are no longer available due to some license disagreement with Ferrari.
  2. Yeah - that's what I mean - AMT is making a real effort for another generation of builders, and they've got my attention again too! I look forward to seeing your take on that 37 Chevy!
  3. AMT is also trying very hard - they've started including really nice pad-printed tires in many of their re-releases, as well as other goodies like including all original parts for the first time in decades. They also throw in a bonus or two, like small versions of the box your kit was packaged in, and occasionally a very nice photo booklet like I spoke about in the Malco Gasser post.
  4. I guess we hobbyists need to funnel our support to all the model companies still left that are trying to bring new kits to market.
  5. Yeah Dave - I think it was "friendly" the way they wrote their instruction sheets - with a little humor, together with plenty of detailed diagrams, and real photos of how our sub-assembly should finish out! Something else I thought was friendly was the fact that they gave us extra parts for those that they thought we might fumble on.....they surely didn't have to do that, but they wanted to. All of that tells me the fellas at Accurate Miniatures had a real passion for what they were offering - it wasn't just "business" to them.
  6. The Corvette Grand Sports were raced with several different engines, but the most serious factory engine actually used was a 377 cubic inch displacement, all-aluminum, small block with four Weber side-draft carburetors and a cross-ram intake, rated 550 hp (410 kW) at 6400 rpm. Body panels were made of thinner fiberglass to reduce weight and the inner body structure 'birdcage' was aluminum rather than steel. The ladder-type frame utilized large seamless steel tubular side members connected front and rear with crossmembers of about the same diameter tubes. Another crossmember was just aft of the transmission and a fourth one at the rear kick-up anchored the integral roll cage. The frame was slightly stiffer than the 1963 Corvette production frame and was 94 pounds lighter. A number of other lightweight components were utilized to reduce overall weight to about 800 pounds less that the production coupe. This is Accurate Miniatures 1/25 scale version of what looks to be either chassis #3, or chassis #5. I had the decals to build the car as it was driven by Bob Bondurant, which would have been chassis #3, I think. For the body, I used Tamiya Racing Blue Metallic on a base of medium gray, and polished it up with Novus #2 and #1, with a final coat of Tamiya clear. The interior was painted with Model Master auto lacquer Nassau Blue Metallic (no clear top coat). Some of the decal stripes were missing from my eBay purchase, so they were made from sign shop vinyl film, the windshield surround was painted w/ Testors Rubber enamel, the wheels were painted with an equal mix of silver and gold. Bare Metal Foil was used for the oiler cover hinge and hood pins. In the engine bay, those sweet Weber carbs were painted Testors Pure Gold, the engine block is Silver Leaf, and the trumpets are Krylon Satin Nickel finished. Plug wires were made from .01 bead wire and plug boots are from Detail Master, Oil and water lines are made from parts box hollow rubber tubing. The hood was fairly complex, since it involved some construction of a series of P/E brass vent fins to be assembled on a rickety frame -- I messed with 'em and cussed right much - but they came out fine. This is a beauty of a kit, and the instructions are very detailed and even include pictures of the real engine. I wish Accurate Miniatures was still around - I'd thank them myself for the love they put into their model kits!
  7. Very tidy work there! We modelers have to depend on our camera's macro setting for 99% of our detail shots, right? I'm trying to use macro as a tool to train my own eyes to be more critical before I present a finished subject to my modeling friends. Your close, careful work tells me you do the same.
  8. Thanks Joseph, that root beer paint color is real sweet after it's polished up. If the vision in my head is right, she'll make a cool custom ride with some mag wheels and wide white walls. BTW, the Testors One Coat lacquer is some really good paint - better than the Model Master Auto Color lacquer in my opinion since this is a one-step paint...and it wet-sands nicely with Micro Mesh abrasives and polishes up beautifully with Novus #2 polishing compound, much like Tamiya paint.
  9. Yeah - I've learned that looking at my work in a photo tells me everything I need to go back and re-do. I'm learning to use that as a tool for a more critical eye.
  10. I agree Joseph, it's a blast to build an old kit you did before as a kid and again now as an adult, but with your adult skills and better supplies
  11. This is the reissue of the old AMT kit, re-packaged this time with a beautiful photo reference booklet, pad-printed drag slicks, and a re-engineered decal sheet. To replicate George's car, I used Krylon Baby Blue spray lacquer with a Tamiya clearcoat finish. The beastly 427 engine chrome valve covers were given a fine spray of Tamiya Light Gunmetal, then sanded at the lower flanges and painted a combo of red primer and hull red to give a look of new gaskets. Tires were sanded and wheels were given a light flat black wash to punch the details. Wheelie bar mechanism was a nightmare to assemble and I had to break out the ol' 2-part JB Quick Weld to get the assembly to see things my way---after the weld dried, it was painted with gloss aluminum. The drag chute cable was made from braided line from Detail Master. The seatbelts were molded into the drivers seat--I painted those with Tamiya acrylic Khaki Drab, then painted a piece of masking tape the same color so I could later cover the molded-in belts, plus continue the seatbelts to their mounting points on the floor. AMT included a very neat photo book in this kit that includes pictures of the real car at the model factory's offices as it had been striped with tape so that the engineers could take their measurements to make the molds for a scale model kit. HOW COOL IS THAT? ...this is how they did it before CADCAM digital programs! AMT has done a fantastic job of resurrecting their historic moulds and bringing some old kits back to market for a whole new generation of modelers -- and even better this time >> not only have they gone back to their original box art, they also include some real tasty goodies in most of these kits. They've brought the fun back to modeling... AWESOME work AMT! This is the reissue of the ancient AMT kit, re-packaged this time with a beautiful photo reference booklet, pad-printed drag slicks, and a re-engineered decal sheet.
  12. Sweet. Those looms make for a neat, realistic look Joseph!
  13. Hey David - Honestly, layering styrene never once occurred to me - why didn't you mention that to me last Friday? :) :) Yeah, I have big plans for the Nomad wagon -- I think all the kit chrome and Bare Metal Foil I'll be adding will really punch those paint colors up a notch. Also planning a striped 3-tone interior of gunmetal, orange and racing white for the upholstery with a Tamiya Pearl Clear coat over all of it. Here's another surf custom "in the oven" right now - this one is a 57 Ford Del Rio ranch wagon that Monogram boxed as a stock wagon or a police car, both of which kind of puts me to sleep. So I've started the 2-tone paint of Testors one-shot lacquer Root Beer Metallic and Tamiya Pure White, with plenty of chrome to be added in between, gonna add some fat white rubber from AMT, and maybe either some Cragars or some reverse chrome rims -- sit it lower to the ground, open up the back hatch, and add some goodies indoors...thinking about a roof rack for this one too. That's my buddy Junior in the picture. He likes to help. He's giving me "the look" because I've gone 15 minutes past his feeding time.
  14. hey Mark - the white portion of the Hawaiian funny car body is the first layer of decals from Slixx. For the Nomad, I've got a set of Kelsey-Hayes wheels I robbed from a Mobeius Chrysler kit, and I'm gonna be using a set of fat whitewalls from AMT. Planning the roof-rack build at the present time - I'm thinking of using Evergreen styrene rod for the basket portion of the rack. I can picture the beach blankets and firewood up there on top.
  15. Hey Mike, for the tire markings on the race cars, I use a refillable acrylic paint marker made by Molotow - check out their website!
  16. Hey Mark - I finally got some pictures made this weekend (with Junior's help)...I've posted my first "works in progress" over in the Cars, Trucks and Motorcycles forum - check it out
  17. The disadvantage of spray-painting in North Carolina is being at the mercy of the weather - it recently got warm enough to paint, and I got a few body shells done, but with so many Pine and Oak trees, I now have to wait for pollen season to wrap up. Next on the agenda is a Revell 70 Chevelle SS 454, a Polar Lights Hawaiian Charger funny car, an MPC Donnie Allison stock car, an AMT 55 Nomad, and an AMT 62 Corvette gasser. BIG PLANS I SAY......BIG PLANS! For the Nomad wagon, I used Tamiya's new Orange Metallic with a Gunmetal roof. Everything in between will be all chromed out. I plan to morph this ride into a sweet custom surf wagon with some sick wheels and fat whitewall rubber and a slightly lower ride, but a couple of details were holding me up >>>NO surfboards or camping supplies...so I broke out the DAS air-dry clay I got from Askew-Taylor in Raleigh, broke off a few lumps, warmed it in my hands, laid it out and hit it with my steel pipe like I was making biscuits. I cut out several boards and fins and curved them a little to dry like that. Had to make them larger and thicker, since I knew I was gonna have some carving & sanding to do later to make them convincing. (I started out using sheet balsa for the boards which worked OK, but too thin for 1/25 scale). So far I have 1 clay board smoothed & sanded, and 1 Boogie Board completed. The boogie board was painted gloss light blue, ankle strap attached, and random areas touched with clear acrylic and dusted with baby powder for remnants of a day at the beach....plus it smells good too Also finished some beach towels & a firewood bundle. To be continued.............
  18. Ha! No Mike - "62parts" is just my screen name here on this site, like you're "youngtiger1". I want to add to my earlier suggestions- You said you don't want to end up with a toy, so once you become comfortable with your painting technique, you will also want to learn the art of weathering. Study it, find the materials, and try your hand. It feels odd at first to add dirt and grime to a perfect paint finish, but believe me - once you master these details, you will see your project turn from a "toy" to something much more realistic. I promise.
  19. Good day Mike! I'm a new member here myself, but have been building and painting for 20 years now. You expressed some anxiety about painting, which is the stage of the build that I enjoy the most. I can tell you that good paint comes from good technique and practice. I started out by trying several brands and types of paint - enamels from Testors, acrylics and lacquers from Tamiya. Since 99% of my work is motorsport modeling, I learned quickly that I favored Tamiya Gloss lacquers because of their superior smooth quality, quick dry-time, and sandability. The last several years I've learned more about paint polishing processes from articles on the web. (when I started modeling, the internet wasn't born yet). As an aircraft builder, you may want to try the flat enamel paint from Model Master, or the flat acrylic paint from Tamiya. Both are excellent paints, and both can be covered with satin clear or gloss clear...just keep in mind some basic rules: enamel over lacquer-OK.....acrylic over lacquer-OK ----------- lacquer over acrylic-OK.........lacquer over enamel-NO! I've now reached a point where the paintwork doesn't cause me any worry at all, and makes for a more satisfying build. I'm sure with some experimentation and some study, you too will master the art of paint. Just stick with it, and remember - it's just a box of plastic until you make it yours. Anyway - welcome to the club!
  20. well thank you there Mark! -- I'll be posting away soon after I make more pictures - I tend to put off setting up for photographs. I have a cat that likes to help...
  21. BTW, that's a showroom-clean engine in the Challenger -no miles on her yet. Nice work.
  22. Super Cool.. I bet if we took a vote, there would be VERY few who still have models from their kidhood. Thanks for sharing those pictures Joseph!
  23. NICE. Would you mind photographing those? -- I'd love to see em!
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