New paints arrived for the second rendition of the '37 Ford. Not going for full on weathered, but more an old flat look. Two tone green with a gray interior. So instead of enamels, i am going to go full acrylic.XF-25 Light Sea Gray, XF-26 Deep Green, XF-27 Green Black and X-22 Clear.
So the Chattanooga ModelCon 2024 is coming soon. Still debating whether or not to try and get a build together for the show. I've seen show builds. Mine are nowhere near that level, and I don't build for show.
I do have a few ideas for some builds though. And with the new airbrush kit, I think it would be fun to try.
So the Bonneville is complete. With the first kit being airbrushed done, I can see the mistakes and the impatience when painting. But overall, I love this kit and would recommend it to anyone
The mold lines were very sharp, the amount of detail is great. The only issue I did have with the kit is the final assembly, is the chassis kind of floats at the front and rear. Other than that, full axles make it's a rolly. This kit also used the most amount of foil so far, due to the side skirts.
The dash had plenty of detail to work with. This meant, it was going to be a complete mess up or a decent detailed piece of art. After a few hours, I'm going to go with the later. This followed up by a simple interior allowed for a overall good set up.
I wasn't really sure about the tan. It looked a lot lighter in the bottle. But after the interior started to get painted, it looked good. Plus the darker two tone interior really works with the exterior Pearl Lime Green. Used the embossing powder for the carpet to help finish it off.
Normally, the AMT kits have a lot of flashing and a lot of other issues. I was really surprised with this one. I think more could be done with this, especially under the hood. Plug wires would really set this off as would battery cables. Guess it's time to order spare parts to start working with.
Overall, I think this is the best build i've done yet. The color choices, the actual work. Though, there are a few areas that need reworked. And I need to get some chrome paint so when the bumpers are damaged, they can be stripped, fixed and repainted.
Been itching to play with the new airbrush set up. While i'm waiting to order the paints from Hobbylinc for the rebuild of the '37 Ford, I needed a kit to practice on. I had a 15% off coupon for Ollies, they kits, though sparse in choice, are the cheapest around. So I ran over and picked up this kit. Wasn't much left to choose from, but I wanted something with a bit of "meat" to the body.
I had been messing around with the .99 cent craft acrylic paints. But now it was time to step it up a notch. I really didn't want to use the craft paint on this, so I stopped ay Hobby Lobby to see what they had. I opted for the Createx, as it was just there! I ended up picking up the Createx Wicked Colors Pearl Lime Green along with a reducer and clear coat.
By time got home, already had an idea how I was going to go about it. But still had butterflies in the stomach. I sprayed a couple of spoons, one in a flat white Tamiya primer and the other in a flat black Krylon primer. After they dried, I mixed a small amount of the Createx and applied it to the spoons. The white was way too bright for me. I liked it, but way too bright. The Createx over the black was a lot darker, more to what I was looking for. Yet it was still lighter than the Mystic Green I used on the Duster.
So while the spoon dried, I began de-flashing the parts I was going to paint. Got them lightly sanded and washed in soap and water. I will say, AMT needs to get their shit together when de-molding these kits. The body wasn't white by a dark gray due to the material used. The interior back seat was the same. Little extra elbow grease and it was somewhat cleaner.
Went and laid the Testors Flat Black primer over the body parts and used the Tamiya Flat White on the interior parts. Now to let it dry.
Per the instructions in the Createx whitepapers, the few videos I watched, I mixed up the paint as close as I could to the percentages and let it sit about 5 minutes. Still had a lot of air bubbles in the paint, but I was aching to try it.
Loaded up the gun and began to paint. Since i'm spraying over black, it's going to take a bit longer to cover. During the spray process, I had to widen the spray pattern a bit and increase the PSI from 15 to 20. I got a little too close in a few places and the air from the gun started pushing the paint.
There is some splatter spots. I believe this is due to the paint still being a bit too thick. As I sprayed i was realizing the spray pattern needed to overlap to actually cover. Since this is my first time, it's all a learning experience.
By time I emptied the paint batch, I looked on in satisfaction. There are things I could have done better. But I'm learning. One takeaway is, damn my fingertip is sore as hell. Feels like i've been trying to play guitar after years off.
Regardless, I can see my mistakes. I love them. I made them. I will do some light sanding after it's fully dry and lay another coat or two on it. According to the Createx papers, it should be dry sanded with 800-1000 grit paper, so we'll see. I know there is a run on the passenger fender that most likely won't sand out, but it will stay.
Not bad for the first time If I say so.
My airbrush kit is the Avanti Airbrush combo from Harbor Freight. It comes with a 0.3 mm needle.
Putting the wraps on the '55 Bel Air. Wasn't a bad kit as far as flashing, mold lines, etc. But it did have a few quirks to it.
The original idea was to go with a blue/yellow street rod. I had extra rally wheels from another build that I wanted to use. After laying the primer and paint, I sat on it a few days and decided against it. Mainly due to, I wasn't feeling the color combo. I wanted to be different with it, but it just wasn't there. Then to add on, the rally wheels I have, along with the dozen or so wheel backs wouldn't cut it due to the fact the stock build has a movable pin suspension and a rear axle.
I could try and forge some wheel backs, but didn't, and still don't think my build skills are there yet. The other thing was that the "street" wheels were molded in white and it came with 2 Crager style rims in chrome. So I opted for the classic daily driver look to move away from the current line up of muscle cars I have.
The build itself, went really well with the exception of the front suspension and engine bay. Because it's supposed to be able to roll and turn, everything is a fine point connection. Despite doing everything i could think of to get it together, I ended up just gluing it solid. The instructions were a bit difficult as everything seemed to sit on the same level, and the arrows weren't clear as to which parts went first. Though most of it was fine, when it came time for certain assembly options, it was throw it at the wall and see what works.
This is the first car i've done that used so much foil. Even after sanding the body before painting, the paint melded a couple body lines with the body itself, So trimming the foil in these areas was a bit off, especially with these old eyes.
As the final assembly started, it was clear that certain mold points were off. Case in point is the leaf spring connectors. The passenger side sits about 1/32 forward, compared to the driver side. It seems this is causing the driver side stance to sit more like a muscle car. With the passenger side sitting deeper into the wheel well, I will have to make a minor adjustment by adding a riser to that side.
There are some minor issues with the rear lights and bumper shocks, but they've been fixed the best i could get them. Only major issues was with the paint. Days after it was painted, it started to develop bubbles on the driver side fender. The fenders also came out rougher than the rest of the body despite multiple sandings. Overall though, I like the look and this is another car that if I owned in real life, would make a great Saturday driver.
With the coupe just sitting on the mantle among the other builds, it's been bugging me. It's missing something to complete it. Whatever it was, I couldn't place it. I wasn't going to use the Coke decals that came with it, as they didn't seem to fit with the build.
As I have been working on the '55 Chevy, I recalled it came with two set of decals. I pulled the sheet out, and there it was. So I added a set of flames to it and now it feels done.
The build overall still sits bad with me, since the way everything was half ass molded. But I still kinda like it and it would make a good road car for a saturday drive.
