Aside Again: 69 Olds--60 minute Interior including Mask!

Still taking a break from the 69 Chevelle--I don't know, it might just be too much work.  For that project I Ebayed a 69 Olds to steal engine and chassis components for the Chevelle.  What to do with the left over parts?  From last time--SPEED BUILD!

If you've followed this blog at all, you've seen it too many times: I tend to take a really long time for my "serious" builds, sometimes a year or more.  I don't know what is more noteworthy, that the damn things take so long, or, for the time they take, they don't come out better than they do!  OK, to keep my sanity, I am interspersing side projects where I build things as fast as I can, and building up the "Olds Leftovers" is becoming one of them.

Last time I painted the body in 15 minutes, not including a tiny bit of drying time, but including time to polish.  Not bad eh?  This time it's on the the interior.  How fast is too fast?

Just to make it challenging, I didn't glue it all together and paint it matte black.  That would be too easy!  I tried to mask it too!

For the mask I used bare metal foil, which turned out to be a pain, not because it was that hard to get it on or trim it, but that it was hard to remove it!  I used liquid mask for the right angles (paint always flows in there otherwise) and shot it with a quick coat of Testors One Coat Clear to try to seal the masks. I seriously doubt any of it was dry when I shot it with Tamiya Matte Black, but it all stuck; I got lucky!  So: The whole interior build, including dash detailing and whatnot, took about 60 minutes.  I used quick dry lacquers, so as not to have to wait around for things to dry, and worked on one thing (quickly!) while another thing was drying. I am also finding myself using sharpies more and more, as those pens (I use ink Sharpies, not paint pen Sharpies), cover bare plastic OK and there is almost no dry time, and obviously no brushes to clean up.

Here's how it all came out: well, OK I guess.  In my photos, as always, you see no retouches or attempts to pretty things up, and with speed builds, what you see is what you get. The red paint isn't red paint at all, it's red sharpie, applied to save time.

I dunno, it's looking damn ratty to me, but I will dust it off and maybe clean it up a bit.  Since it's going into a fastback, on the shelf of my kitchen, where it's dark, it will probably be just fine.

A new tool for this speed build thing: for cutting Bare Metal Foil, a really good modeler named "Dr Cranky" suggests on his youtube: using surgical blades vs. Xacto #11's.  I tried that for the cutting the interior mask (as well as the body BMF--next time?) and liked it very much.  Go Dr Cranky!

Aside: 69 AMT Olds 4-4-2: the 20 Minute Paint Job--including Polish!

From last time--it looks like the 69 Chevelle Convertible is going to take a long time to build!  So I was thinking, how can I make a part of this go faster?  How about the paint?  How fast can I do that?

I purchased this AMT Olds 4-4-2 to steal chassis and engine compartment bits for the Chevelle (more about that next time?).  That means I have a leftover body. I got to thinking: can I paint this leftover in 15-20 minutes time (including prep, paint, and polish), and not have it look completely horror show? Why???  Why not?

Let's get started! I took about 5 minutes prepping the body, which mostly involved sanding off some mold lines with 600 grit wet and dry, then going over it very quickly with 2000 grit.  

Next, time to prime: OmniPak MasterBlend is the primer to use.  It dries in about a minute and I have never seen it barf with any color coats I choose. There are lots of primers for plastic model building out there, but I think this one is the best.

After misting on a coat, waited a minute and misted on another.  

Next, on to color coat: Duplicolor Perfect Match is easy to use, can be found in any old car parts store, and for rattle can paint, goes on nice and smooth, I think.  So right after the primer was dry to the touch (maybe 2 minutes?) I put on 3 light color coats, waiting a minute between each coat.  Normally I'd let the color coat dry and sand, but this is speed-painting, and we are already about 10 minutes in!  So forget the sanding. I went crazy with Una Capa Laca clear.  2 very heavy coats, dumping it on until the paint looked like it was going to run.  I waited about one minute between coats.  Yes the color coat was still wet when I capa laca'd.  Sorry!

I let it dry for about 4 hours. I won't count that time I guess, I ran some errands and took a nap, so that doesn't count right?  After the body was pretty dry, I quickly (!!) sanded with 2000 grit wet and dry (wet), then followed with Megular's 7, Tamiya Polish "Finish", and Novus 2 and 1.  These are all polishes I have used before, just never this fast.  I mean I barely applied each, got the paint and cloth to go squeak-squeak and moved on.

So how did it come out?  Really, OK I think!  You can see here, there is a bit of wavy gravy in the trunk but overall, for 20 minutes total work it is not horror show.

I think with 15 more minutes polishing (no reason I have to say I am done, but I could just say I am) and some foil, decals, and other finishing steps, this isn't going to look too bad.

The "shine" isn't all that bad either.  It's a bit cloudy and not as deep as I'd like. I figure I should have at least waited for the color coat to dry!  But again, this is 20 minutes total work.  Yes, 2 part Polyurethane is going to look better, but I can't even get that paint mixed and ready to shoot in 20 minutes.  Rattle cans rule!