Vintage Toyota 2000GT--Fast and Clean?

Continuing from last post--still too busy at work, always, having completed a labor intensive project on the East Coast and now, finally, I am back at home for awhile (I hope). Glad it's done, now it's time to get back to things that don't make any money....like the pursuit of silly but fun hobbies.....

Still working on the vintage MPC 1:25 scale Toyota 2000GT. As far as I can tell, this kit is old, was never reissued, and is thus quite rare, which of course means if I lose a part or screw up I can't go buy another kit (easily, anyway).

I have decided on a box-stock build and for this project, I am trying to focus on the ever-elusive "clean build" without spending the next three years pondering and fussing endlessly over every part.





So in that spirit am I building carefully? As always: no!!! Not careful enough anyway....I noticed after painting the chassis that the engine didn't fit as well as it did during test fit, and then realized I put the oil pan on backwards! I had to carefully cut the multi-piece block apart, flip it, and re-glue the pan. Now it's ready to be cleaned before repaint. Good news is, the engine is going to make it....




After cleaning, priming, and clipping all parts that needed to be painted (except the body) I airbrush all parts that needed the same "finish". This seems an obvious way to save time, but until recently I often wasn't doing this. For this run, I am using Alclad2 on suspension parts.....



To get some variety I am painting other "metalized" parts with acrylic crafts paint through a single action Iwata SAR airbrush--crafts paints cost a fraction of Alclad's prices and in my limited experience, give a nice contrast to the Alclad look.



To make sure I don't spill, scrape, or otherwise destroy painted parts I store like parts in small plastic bags.....it takes time to bag everything up, but it takes more time to repaint something that gets dropped, soiled, or crushed!



To wrap it up for this post--how did the embossing powder fake-carpet look after paint? Great! Next up--body paint. White finish--can't wait....

Toyota 2000GT: Paint and Carpets....

I have been out of town but now I'm back....it's July already....still working on a vintage build--MPC Toyota 2000GT....



Since I have so little time to build I need to make the process as efficient as possible. Building has become routine: clean up parts after fully or partially removing them from the sprues, then use alligator clips poked into foam rubber to prime and paint.



When I am done I have a bunch of parts, some painted enamel black, ready for Alclad metalizer. I will spray everything at once. It's much faster than painting part by part as I go.



Getting the interior to look good is always important, but since this is a convertible, doubly so! Good looking carpets make good looking interiors, and scale carpeting remains a challenge for me. A hobby mag recently mentioned using embossing powders to simulate carpeting, so I thought I'd give it a try--I bought some ZING powder online, along with 2 embossing pens.



Initial results were promising. The embossing pen lays down a thin layer of glue, so I could make "fingers" that run besides the seats (which would have difficult with white glue and "fuzzy fur"). For thicker "carpet touches" I found that adding Testors liquid cement and more powder did the trick. After the glue dried I used a heat gun to melt the powder in place. I discovered it was easy to over-do the heat gun action and melt the powder too much; it took a bit of practice to get things to look realistic.



Here's a "before" pix of the rear deck. This surface will form the floor of the trunk. Without texture it looks pretty crappy.



A thick shot of Zing powder really helped. This was a triple dose followed by pouring (!) some Future acrylic sealer on top. Being that this was a rare and hard to replace kit, I should have practiced more on spares before trying out something new, but what the hell.