Where Have You Gone Joe DiMaggio? And! 1940 Ford Street Rod

Joltin' Joe has left and gone away?

I missed doing any posts last month, first time in a few years I think, but I have a good excuse: I moved.

In the new place I set up a medium-sized room devoted to just building small things--I am not done setting up my "workroom" yet, but a table is already in place for model making.

The big improvements are improved natural light and a lot more storage space for parts, paint, tools, glues etc etc etc.  These were both serious issues in the old space.  Am I getting too involved in building silly little toys?  Perhaps!

To shake out the new room, instead of continuing to work on some of the "serious" projects I started before packing everything up, I decided to build something box stock in like 1-2 days.  So I bought this 40 Ford Coupe at the local hobby shop, knowing zero about it. Turns out this is a really nice kit!

OK, I guess I will never be able to build a kit in 1-2 days.  Especially in the process of moving every other thing I own.  This 40 Ford Monogram kit has "modern tooling"! Beautiful casting, great detail, great fit, very little need for parts cleanup. The frame/front suspension is pretty complex and just taking that off the sprues and gluing it up took maybe 2 hours.

But overall, it's going faster because I can find things quickly!  So--the question is the same as it ever was!  I have more space, but do I have more time?

OK!!! more to come soon.....

53 Vette "Don Yost Build" Finished!

I took a break from a Vette Gasser project to try out some enamel techniques learned from an education airbrush DVD from Don Yost ....

Here's what I came up with. It's a box stock build of an AMT 53 Vette using some of the "Customizing parts".....paint is all Testors enamel, which is the only sort of paint Yost uses, it seems.

It's a pretty good kit, but like so many AMT builds, the suspension had to be dropped a lot....the hood doesn't quite fit....

Paint wise, Yost's technique is easy to use on every part of the build, and enamel paint, it turns out, is very forgiving.  To think I got rid of a lot of enamel paints a few years ago thinking they had no use....

Overall this build came out pretty well, if I had to do this again I'd work more on getting the hood to fit better, and spend more time on the ride height, both of which seem to always an issue it seems on these old AMT kits.  Other than the wheels from the parts box, everything else is "box stock".

Overall enamel paints have now worked their way back into my paint setup.  These DVD's from Yost, like 2 part clear, will change the way I build from here on.  I recommend the DVDs!  

Now it's back to the gasser, or maybe one of the other projects I've been working on.  Glad this one is done!

Don Yost Paint Part II--Enamel vs. Acrylic....

From last time...I am experimenting with airbrushing enamel paints, something I have done very little of since returning to this hobby.

To date I have been using mostly acrylic and lacquer for color coats; Acrylic, at least Jacquard's, is water soluble and binds well to plastic; it won't attack styrene, and it won't stink up the house. Airbrushing enamels on the other hand have bad memories for me. Growing up I recall that enamels clogged my airbrush (my brother and I mowed a lot of lawns to buy the thing), literally to the point of tears! Enamel seemed impossibly hard to thin correctly, stunk up the house like no one's business, and was very difficult to clean up, especially when spilled all over the basement floor! 

Fast forward 4 decades, and enamels are back!  Everything changed after I bought a series of How-To DVD's by master modeler DonYost.  Turns out, Yost is an unabashed proponent of enamels as the best paint formula for modeling. It would be unfair for me to give away his technique--you need to buy his video to learn his secrets--but as advertised, he lays out his system for airbrushing enamels that's easy to follow and, from my tests to date, and done in the Yost style, gives professional results every time.

OK! Last month I had been building a 53 Vette and had been kicking around the "Yost Style" but was wondering how enamel stacks up against acrylic for primary color....So as a "control" I airbrushed a body in acrylic alongside the enamel covered Vette.  This was old Monogram Badman Chevy kit I bought online; this was a kit I built like 3 times when I was 10 years old....40 years later my eyesight isn't as good but I'm still doing the same damn thing!

The Badman paint job used no primer, just color coat and clear. I used Jacquard Airbrush ready to spray metallic opaque yellow with a large dose of Jacquard PearlEX Gold, the result is a nice golden metal flake that took about 10 minutes to mix and 5 minutes to apply.

Clearcoat was KustomShop.com 2 part automotive clear, which was rubbed out (quickly!) with 2000/3200/12000 grit pads and Tamiya polish, followed by some Bare Metal foil for the trim. I used a Iwata SAR airbrush for the color coat and a Badger 350 airbrush for the clear.

This technique is nothing new for me.  The yellow looks good, but I have always had issues with acrylic laying down correctly; to me it always looks a bit blotchy and uneven.

The '53 Vette body used Testors flat white over a base coat of Testors German silver, all done purely in the Yost style.  In general Mr. Yost's method yields a much "thicker" color coat; as he says in his video, Testor's enamel has a self-healing property, so a small pit will get nicely filled in with paint and dry smooth--good luck doing that with lacquer! 

So the question is. which formula is "better"?

As far as I can tell, both paint formulas can give great results. The Yost/Testors/Enamel system seemed more forgiving, but the enamel color coat took longer to dry and stunk up the house (the paint uber-stink part hasn't changed in 40 years!)  I saw no orange peel with the enamel; the acrylic needed a bit more sanding and finishing, but, after this first enamel build anyway, and as quickly as the Jacquard paint went down, I felt I could get good results with either.

It's hard to say where I will go next.  Enamels are back in my paint locker with a vengeance  and for bodies, as well as engines, chassis, interior, the Yost method is great--it dries tough, looks good, and is an extremely easy and  forgiving airbrush method.  As I said last time: I recommend Mr. Yost's DVDs, and as I see it, these vids are must-views for anyone who wants to learn to professionally apply enamels to plastic.

An Aside--53 Vette "Don Yost Style"

As a Christmas gift to myself I bought Don Yost's "Airbrushing Model Cars" DVD....Yost apparently is an old pro who has won top prize at every model car building contest ever held since the beginning of time. This guy has a pretty different take on airbrushing than the direction I have been going.  For one, he uses (exclusively?) enamel paints from Testors, mixed with laquer thinner, and sprayed through an external mix airbrush.  He makes it look easy....

I didn't want to try this different take on airbrushing on my 60 Vette Gasser project since I had invested too much time in customizing and "engineering"--I saw myself melting the plastic with laquer thinner.  Instead I grabbed up a really old AMT 53 Vette kit I bought at a swap meet for $5, prepped the parts, and started spraying!

The result?  Yost's method is fast, quick, easy, and REALLY REALLY WORKS!  

I had this vision of using his method to knock out the entire project in one rainy December day--builds usually take me weeks....and I might have been able to, but the body proved to be a lot of work.....

The engine is box stock and done....

But the body had the same front and rear valance issues as the Toyota 2000GT, and had to be corrected the same way....putty, sand, putty, prime, sand, etc., but I wanted it done fast, fast, fast!

Yost has you spend a lot of time on prep...that makes sense to me....the body for this "proof of concept" build had been painted previously.....I demonstrated to my 8 year old nephew the joys of airbrushing so it was already painted acrylic blue without any prep; I had to strip off most of the old stuff, sand the mold lines, putty in the valances, and respray with German silver, my final goal being a flat white enamel, covered with a couple of shots of two part automotive clear.

I rushed one of the base coats and the paint ran, so now I am letting it gas out and will sand it smooth and try again.

Yost also recommended taping small parts down to the bench with masking tape and then airbrushing each part, flipping it after a quick dry and hitting it again.  This didn't work as well for me since the paint puddled up and made the final surface coverage a bit dicey.  I will stick to my "alligator clip method" I guess.  Nevertheless the Yost DVD is highly recommended; he takes a difficult topic and breaks it down into simple steps that get the job done fast.  To quote or maybe paraphrase him "this isn't rocket science--those guys wouldn't even let me in the door!"  For this hobby that's the right attitude!

60 Corvette Gasser--Body Work....

Continuing from last time: I am working on a 1:25 scale 1960 Corvette Gasser; this was an old project, started 4 years ago or so, then abandoned due to poor planning.....can I do better this time?

While waiting for some of the chassis mods to dry, I prepared the body for paint....the body for this build came from an early MPC '60 Vette....after the 2008 attempt I salvaged the body and put the remaining parts into the parts box.  But! Four years later I couldn't find some of the trim so I purchased the kit again...

....this kit!!--AMT #31910--figuring it was the same tooling for a lot less dough ($9 US on Ebay). But it's NOT THE SAME KIT AT ALL!  The tooling is completely different....

Ah!  Turns out the above kit, AMT 38595, is the same tooling as the MPC Corvette, at least as far as I can tell, and it's a lot cheaper (The MPC kit, long out of production, is $35 to about $100 on Ebay and elsewhere; the above reissue is maybe $15 on Ebay)

To give you an idea of how different the tooling is, take a look at the bodies side-by-side!  The "red Vette"AMT body is on the right, and IMO is square and poorly proportioned.  The MPC body on the left is long, round and sexy.  Man I love what MPC did back in the day; their sculptors knew how to make things "boss", as my bros and I used to say!!!

So it was all the usual prep work; getting rid of mold lines (there were lots), gluing in the front and rear valances and then removing gaps (total pain as it was on the 2000GT build!) and the usual sand, sand, file, sand, file, rat spam and sand....

This time I tried out a different putty formula to fill the ugly gaps and do basic repairs: "Mr Surfacer" from "Mr. Hobby", imported from the land where the most obsessive craftsmen in the world live: Japan!  This is "liquidy", viscous, runny, downright smelly putty, as if you took a bunch of traditional styrene filler putty and mixed it with a gallon of liquid styrene glue, then bottled it up and sold it, which might be all that Mr. Hobby is doing here....

So how does Mr. Surfacer stack up? Well, he does OK, maybe, but I am not sure I will abandon CA glue for Mr. Hobby/Mr. Surfacer as my gap filler of choice just yet. Mr. Surfacer putty doesn't shrink and is easy to apply, but it pits and cracks a bit. Yes, this rear end still needs a bit of work but that's par for the course!  I will shoot it with primer and take it from there....

Wait a minute! Time to run along and wrap gifts!  So no more time for models today. Have a good holiday folks!

60 Vette Gasser--and Some Random Thoughts....

The Toyota 2000 GT build was box stock and I'm tired of box stock.  Let's build a custom.....When building a custom I have found you first have to "engineer" the build--work exclusively in white plastic and bare metal, without unnecessary attention paid to parts finish or paint.  Failure to plan out the entire build means I waste time finishing, painting, and detailing parts that end up not fitting.  Or getting ruined in the process of trying to glue them into place.  Or just not looking good.  Or all of the above!

My mini-model-manifesto: From about 3 years of trial and error, the following items/systems/assemblies need to be picked out, fabricated, test fitted, and otherwise "engineered" before any real finish work can be done:

• Which chassis, chassis tub, frame, and front and rear suspensions to use?
• Which body to use (resin?  Plastic?  Chopped top? Stretched?  Channeled?
• How will the body mount to the chassis and frame?
• How will the wheels/tires and rear tire mounts (inner wheels) attach to the front and rear suspension?
• Figure out how the wheels/tires will clear the wheel wells (if surgery needs to be done to get them to fit, do it before paint!!)
• Choose an engine block, oil pan, and transmission (then assemble this subsystem to gauge size and fit)
• Determine how the engine block and transmission will mount to the chassis--fabricate motor mounts if necessary....
• Choose a cooling system; determine how the radiator will fit into the engine compartment or body....
• Choose an exhaust system, determine how it will attach to the engine, how it will attach to the frame, and how exhaust will exit the car....
• How will the suspension parts (front and rear axles/springs/shocks) mount to the frame?
• Assuming front engine/rear wheel drive, determine the driveshaft length and fabricate or kitbash a driveshaft....
• Choose the body trim (grill, bumpers, headlights, glass components, headlights, taillights, etc).... 
• Determine how the trim will attach to the body (i.e., how you'll modify the body to accommodate the trim)?
• How will the windshield attach to the body?
• Figure out which interior tub or interior panels to use and modify the body/tub/dash/frame if needed....
• Which dashboard to use, and how will the dashboard mount into the interior or under the body?
• How will the steering wheel/steering column will connect to the dashboard?
• Kitbash or scratch build a firewall, then determine how the firewall will attach to the frame/body/interior....
• For the firewall, how will all components (exhaust, transmission, anything else penetrating the firewall) fit through?
• Figure out the overall stance of the build (height/rake)....
•  If there is a roll cage figure out how it will fit into the interior and clear the body
• Pick out seats and make sure they fit in the interior and under the roof.

So this time around I am building a 1960 Vette gasser.  I started to build this about 3 years ago but because I didn't follow the steps above the build was a failure....Being that I had just returned to the hobby I had no concept of "engineering" a build and following the necessary steps I mention above; I figured I'd pick out some cool parts and prep and finish each one before final assembly--but it didn't work!  Nothing fit and I had to throw it all away!

The ten thousand dollar question! Can I learn from my mistakes? 

This time: to start, I kitbashed the frame.  It's a combination of an old AMT '53 Vette (#T310601) frame and chassis and the tube frame from Revell/Model King's 50 Austin Gasser 85-2090. 

This was combined to form a gasser/drag frame.....here I test fitted the front axle from the Austin kit (and found the tie rod would need to be flipped so as not to bang into the motor--glad I am engineering all of this!!!).  I also set the rear springs and shocks from the 53 vette in place along with the quick change rear end from the AMT Double Dragster #AMT 646.

The Chassis is also from the 53 Vette....the wheels and tires I want to use (I may change my mind) are from the Model King Judge 69 GTO FunnyCar #29891P.....my goal here is to make sure the front and rear axles line up with the wheel wells....with all this roughed in, it's not too early to mock up the stance......

So far, it's looking pretty good....I used a stack of playing cards to prop up the frame and tape to put the wheels in place.

The frame now has motor mounts...the engine block/tranny is a Pontiac V8 from an AMT parts Pack.  The exhaust system (far right) is entirely scratch built, for me, a first trying to do this with tube styrene  and solder stock...it didn't come out too well but I am not done with the finish work yet (on any of this).....some sanding and putty work might save the headers....I have not yet begun to engineer!

Toyota 2000GT FINISHED!!!

Finally!  Done with the MPC Toyota 2000 GT Vintage build!  It's been a heck of a long haul on this one...

I have been back into this hobby for 3-4 years now, off and on, and I have to say this one took all my skills such as they are, and patience such as it is, to pull off the end of this build.  What an ornery kit!  The trim (pretty much off of it!) didn't fit, and I mean, anywhere, not even close, and that's after a lot of careful prep and test fitting; the instructions stunk, the single-atom layer of chrome fell off in the my fingers while handling the parts....

Much cursing and fear and loathing ensued, but, it's done at last.  I have mixed feelings about the result, from some perspectives it looks pretty good, from others, not so good, I especially struggled with the front grille, which absolutely would not sit correctly no matter what I did. I took the back end with its giant ugly body seam seriously, and it came out OK, but not the front--it needed as much or more TLC to pull this off. The front grill had 2 big pins in the back that mounted to nothing--to me this kit must be a re-do of a promo or diecast or something, because some of the parts didn't seem to belong.

What I am coming around to: for box-stock builds like this, you have to have 2 kits, the first of which is "practice" where you check your parts fit and whatnot--probably build up without any paint; the second  is the "real" kit for paint and display.  Now, this 2000 GT kit goes for maybe $100-150 USD if you can find it at all, but if I look at all the time I spent trying to muscle some of the trim into place, a second kit would have been a bargain--is my time worth $1 an hour?  Something like that?

So what did I have to do to get this sucker off the ground?  The knock offs had to be shaved down like 6 scale inches (!!!)  Out of the box, they stuck so far off the sides of the car that it looked like something "Speed Racer" deployed after hitting "B" on his steering wheel.

The wipers basically didn't exist (at all) and had to be scratch built--MPC did include some useless protrusions on the oversized windshield that in some universe might be wiper blades, but not here on planet earth!  There were no front headlights included, unless you wanted to use "lights up" which I didn't; there's another trip to the parts box.

Overall I'm really glad it's done, and now it's on the something that hopefully is a bit more fun--because this one was a giant pain!