This month has been slow for building anything. Between work, the holidays, I was wanting to get something built for the upcoming model show. I tried to build a show worthy car, at least in my mind. I need a break from it, so now I am writing this post. I originally picked up a Nova SS Pro Stocker car for it, but everyone wished me "best of luck" with it and I see why. I'll post about that when I get around to building it. So I went to Hobby Lobby and it was a toss up between this one or the '70 Buick GSX, this one won out.
I found an article online in regards to the way I wanted to build it. The only difference between this one as my build is I went with the manual transmission with the W27 rear end.
The kit itself was well done. Very little to no flashing, parts cut and trimmed from the spru tree's easily. Being winter, I was very nervous that the cold weather would affect the paint and clear coat. So far I have been very lucky.
I was sprayed in the same Createx Pearl Lime Green that I did the Bonneville in. The interior is done with Testors Flat White for the headliner, Flat Black for the sun visors and Createx Opaque White for the seats and panels.
After priming and painting the body, I let that set for about three days. I slowly worked on getting the interior and motor built. With the Chattanooga Modelcon 2024 coming next week, I needed to hurry, but work smartly. In the end, I feel i stayed within the "safe" zone, since I was building or trying to build for show.
There were a few minor issues along the way, but nothing that hasn't been able to be fixed with a few exceptions. Seems i got fingerprints on the glass. And no matter what I used to clean them, the oil from my skin just smeared. I got it cleaned the best I could, it will have to do. Having issues blacking out the grill. The Tamiya panel liner wasn't getting dark enough, even with a few coats and an hour to dry between each one. I went over it with a very thinned out flat black. After about 2 days of drying, it looked ok, however there were a few spots of chrome coming through. Added a bit more liner to it, and it just looks a little "blah."
The rear fender mounted well enough, but there is a small gap in one side. Though it prefit fine, not sure why it's giving me the business now. Overall, it looks good. The instructions aren't clear on the hood hinges however. I am debating to put them on, but I believe they should be there. I can always prop the hood open is need be.
Still have some minor details to do and decals to add, but for the most part, it's about 85-90% done.I tried to paint in as many little details as I could. I used different color paints on the chassis to give it a bit of dimension. So there is a flat black frame with a gun metal gray subframe and a body matching floor pan. The shocks were painted to matched the motor color in blue and silver.
There's a lot of little details that I wanted to get in, just incase of things like the windows or a misaligned body panel made its way in, that maybe it wouldn't cost as many points in judging.
Here are current photos of its progress. Once it's fully complete, I'll post them.
