Lucy - 1970 AMT Chevelle SS

 

Like most AMT kits, the mold lines on this were bad. The clean up process was bad, as there was a lot of grease and grease stains on the plastic. I had grabbed some of the Createx Graphite Charcoal Metallic, as I wanted to do this in silver and black. I did the typical soak and scrub with water and dawn. Sanded it down to get rid of the body lines and sanded out the light fitments.

After it was primed and painted in silver, it sat for about a week. I kept looking at it and looking, and it didn't grab my attention. To me, it was too much silver and nothing to break it up. I decided to test the candy blood red I have over the silver on the test spoon and that was that. Lucy was born.

What I didn't see what that the charcoal color had pooled a bit on the hood sides. Looking at all the silver in the different lights, everything looked ok. I wet sanded it to get rid of the minor imperfections. I laid down the first coat of blood red and that's when I saw the body lines by the rear window. They didn't show anymore before or after the primer, nor did they show after the silver. But the red brought them out. 

Not much to do but keep going. The only issue during building was the air cleaner refused to sit flush on the carb. A little sanding and cutting and it acted like a 2 year old. But in the end, the nail glue did it's job. After the trim was done, it was cleared with the Testors Wet Clear. I was hoping for no major reaction and I was satisfied.

The rest of it went together fine, however I noticed something after putting the body on. Though the dash is set where it should be, sits flush and all, with the body on, it looks like it's titled back toward the motor, making the steering wheel sit high. The interior is just a simple black and gray with silver trim. Trying to keep it close to an original as possible.

Removing the body and trying to adjust it didn't work. I think it's the way the hood is designed as the hood sits high up the windshield. I never really looked at the Chevelles at shows, it's kinda like, seen one, you've seen them all.

There were a few glitches in the end, the Micro Sol didn't seem to mesh with the Createx and ate away at a small spot of red. I should be able to fix that before I polish it up. There's still a few things to tweak and touch up before it gets polished, but she is one fine look lady.

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Steel City Roller - 77 Ford Econoline

 I bought this van at the same time I bought the Plymouth coupe and the Chevy wagon. All I wanted from this kit was the vending machine, but figured the build would be just more practice. Still haven't gotten the vending machine together, but I will here shortly.

I had no idea what I wanted to do with this thing. I didn't want a Coke vehicle, at least not right now. I scoured the Google for days, looking for ideas, but all good vans came down to  custom graphics. Didn't matter if it was in the 70's or 80's, the graphics is what made these.

I did get an idea of creating a tribute to Ozzy. A groupie following him around from city to city on his US trip of the Ultimate Sin tour.I even started testing graphics, but they just wouldn't turn out. Just as they didn't on this final build.

After about a week and a half, I finally decided what I was going to do. Though I have a can of yellow paint, I wanted to airbrush this. I have the black that I used on the Nova wagon, and I like that paint. So I went to HL and picked up a bottle of the Createx Opaque Yellow. Guess it wasn't just on the Nova that the black laid thin, even with 3-4 coats. The black, over gray primer scratched so easy, that there was a lot of touch ups to be done before finishing.

The kit itself was relatively easy to build. The hardest part about it all, was masking off the dog house on the interior. This time around, I assembled as much as I could of the chassis and suspension that was going to be all black. Primed it as one piece and painted it as one. 

All in all, there are paint mistakes due to masking. Still haven't gotten the hang of it. I really wasn't keen on the yellow and black paint as I was the Createx green I used on the bonneville. And it seems i'm going through too much thinner and paint trying to get the proper mixes. But i have found that a 1-1 mix at 35-40 PSI works with just about all of the Createx paints.

Doing my own decals is still a struggle. Though everything was done at 1200 DPI, they splotch when printing. I did order a set for the green 37 Ford and a race kit I will be doing, but I don't want to have to keep forking over money for decals if I can do my own, so it's a process I need to iron out. Regardless, at a distance, this looks good. Up close, i've done better. I used the Tamiya Gloss Clear on this instead of the Createx. I like the sheen of the Tamiya better. Running out of that too, as it's a 1-1 mix and takes a lot for multiple coats. On the bright side, it's cheaper than the Createx. But I know I can mix the two without any drastic issues.

I tried a few new things with this one. Since I was using yellow and didn't want to risk staining it with the Tamiya panel accent, I used the panel accent over the primer. It actually helped get the black line settled under the yellow paint. Just did a little sanding before paint to remove the stain marks.

The helmet decals are a bit too big. The first print, they were too small, actually smaller than a dime. These ones could have been about a 1/8th of an inch shorter to fit better. 

The tires and rims were spares from another kit. I really love these tires. Soft rubber with really good raised letters for painting. The rims are a bit to small for the tires however, though they are glued to the rim back plates, I think I should have glued the tires to the rims. Same for the back plates. Now the back plates are sunken in, you just can't see them.

It was a very simple, stock build. I was getting frustrated with coming up with ideas on what to do, that I didn't get into any customizations. But I do need to step out of the comfort zone and start building instead of just assembling.

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