75 Vette: Uncorking the House of Kolor Pearl

Back again and it's time to pick a body color for the long discontinued 1975 MPC vintage corvette kit...

I am building a 1:25 1975 Corvette kit, last manufactured sometime in the 80's; I purchased two "annual kits" via Ebay for about $40 each, the second in case I broke/lost something.....

To challenge myself (a bit) I decided to try out the world of "House of Kolor" paints. I've seen great paint jobs (1:1 and scale) using HOK paints so I figured I'd give it a try. I found 2 ounce bottles for sale at Black Gold as well as TCPglobal

One can choose from a bewildering amount of colors and textures in the world of HOK, and, I gather the painter is expected to mix and match to get his final shade. I had trouble figuring out what to spray first, until blackgoldweb summed it up in an email: for pearls, use solid white followed by the pearl and clear; for kandies, solid white, kandy basecoat, transparent kandy, and clear.

I ended up buying from BlackGoldWeb. After rattle can primer, I used an Iwata SAR for 2 coats flat white (BC2602) followed by 2 coats of Snowhite Pearl (PCB4402). Paint went on without a hitch and looked great. Pearls are iridescent as you may know; it was a bit hard to show in bench photos, but in sunlight the color subtly shifts between silver metallic and ghost white....very nice!

Next up is 2 part automotive clear, followed by bare metal foil and photoetched details. I am on the road (again) next week, so this will have to wait a bit....

75 Vintage Vette--Parts Is Parts

I always start these posts along the lines of "no time at the bench" and again: no time at the bench! That's the big challenge here--not patience, creativity, victory over failing vision, or a steady hand--but, just finding enough time to do a hobby--any hobby.

OK on to the build!

Since last time I've finished almost all the sub-assemblies for the 75 Vintage Corvette Roadster--MPC 1-7506. According to Coulter and Shelton's Directory of Model Car Kits this is a 3-in-one kit originally released in 1975 and never reissued, except as stock only in 1985.

The vintage kit has all the great things about MPC (e.g.: great looks and some really fun "customizing parts") with some of the bad things (e.g.: assembly challenges and 1:1 inaccuracies that makes me shake my head in disbelief....)

Case in point: beyond the body, this isn't really a 75 Vette, it's a 73 Vette with a few different body parts. Many things on this MPC kit are just--well, wrong.

The engine for example!

Now I am not one of those car nuts who can talk all night (read: bore you to tears) about the size of a single header bolt in a 47 Chevy Belchfire or whatever, but I do know that 75 'Vettes did not have 427 engines; rather 350's, but the kit has a 427 that's all wrong. To ameliorate I scratch built a spark wire shield, modified some exhaust headers from the parts box to better match the 75 Vette's, stole some 350 valve covers off the MPC "Class Action Monte Carlo" reissue, and made a few other tweaks. But basically after a week or so I gave up on this being a "perfect" 75 Vette--again, time is the big challenge here.

The kit's exhaust system is incorrect as well, although I have to say with application of different "Alclad II" finishes, what I ended up with still looks pretty good.

I am always trying out new paints and the latest is this Duplicolor "Vinyl & Fabric" rattle can. I liked Rustoleum's "Fabric and Vinyl" version of this so much I decided to branch out, but found the Duplicolor much less forgiving than its competitor's. I also make it a point to choose the product with the ampersand ("&") unless there is an 'n ("Vinyl 'n Fabric!") available.....

The charcoal gray appeals but I found the paint difficult to work with. It's fragile and chips off too easily, doesn't reflect light evenly, and looks terrible if you get a molecule of glue on it. Overall I think I won't use this again and stick to the Rustoleum product, if I can find it.

The chassis and suspensions are also done. The kit had a "metal spring" front setup, I imagine MPCs craftmen threw this in to give the model "real suspension" features, but for me their inspired design proved impossible to build. I remember trying to build this same MPC crazy spring deal when I was about 12 and having the whole thing break into pieces and make me weep--it's good to know 38 years later it's still impossible to build. Fortunately my weeping days are long behind me; I replaced the springs with plastic dowels and was done with it.

The last thing to build is body and wheels/tires. Then final assembly, adjusting for the inevitable crappy MPC 1:25 scale stance, and it's done! For color coat I am going to try to use House of Kolor automotive paints for the first time....wish me luck!

75 Corvette and 65 Olds Dynamic 88--Tale of 2 Car Bodies

After taking a break with the 72 GTO birthday build it's time to get back to a couple of projects that have been on the bench....

First up the 65 Olds Dynamic 88. I got this on eBay as a true glue bomb for $40--beat to crap, decals over unpainted plastic, a total mess. I have never tried to fix a glue bomb before. I figure this kit to be rare--I have never seen another Olds Dynamic 88 kit for sale; Coulter/Shelton's model collecting directory says it was originally issued in 65 and never reissued. I figured it was worthwhile to fix this one up.

First, i got rid of the huge sinkmarks in the trunk lid--nothing new here--this is something I've had to fix on many builds before. Tamiya basic Putty, thinned with Testors liquid cement followed by 800 and the 1200 sanding stick did the trick.

The hood presents a bigger challenge. There is a large gap between the back of the hood and the body. A custom hood that came with the eBay buy--this must have been a 3n1 kit--might fit better, but the custom hood had some damage out of the box I am not sure which way I will go.

The sides need a lot or work!!! The original builder attached giant Lake pipes, which proved to be difficult to remove--he really glued the dickens out of these. The pipes came off, but now I need to smooth the side panels. Getting really clean lines on the repaired surfaces is proving nearly impossible. I might end up making this a "kustom" and using parts box lake pipes to cover things up....or, it might be easier to find an original unbuilt Dynamic 88 for $150 or whatever, hold my nose and buy it, and just skip all the repair baloney!

....if that's not enough....I'm also still working on a vintage MPC '75 Vette Roadster; this is probably end up being a stock build.

The hood doesn't quite fit (of course--what AMT and MPC kits have hoods that fit?) but it's pretty close....

And...the rear logo will need to be hand painted as i not been able to find photoetch that will work. Bummer! Not looking forward to that....

Overall the Vette and the Olds are ready for more sanding and TLC. More work! More work! More work!!!

72 GTO--Finished--the 50th Birthday Build....

Before the end of 2011 I had the pleasure to visit with my family in my Central Valley (CA.) hometown. And what did we do to pass the time? Build model car kits (of course). As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, model building was a popular pass time growing up, and here I am 35 odd years later, back in the same basement, doing the same thing. It was fun! My younger brother built a really cool (and rare) Lotus Europa kit (I might get some pix of it if he ever finishes). My dad worked on a '53 Mobius Hudson. I built up a Round2 reissue of the MPC 72 GTO.

How did the 72 GTO build go? In spite of having a lot of flash and some really silly issues with parts fit, I got most of it done on my birthday, and then brought it home to finish. It took me about another month from there....adding two-part clear, bare metal foil, some photo etch pieces I had in my parts kit, some parts box decals, and other trim goodies.

The kit was built box-stock except for wheels and tires which came out of the parts box. The stance had to be altered (radically) but that's par for the course. In the end, the MPC 72 GTO has the basic look of the 1:1 car, although things like the side scoops are all wrong, and the engine compartment is a complete disaster. It would have been a huge job to build this up to be a "true to the 1:1 car" so I didn't do it.

It seemed appropriate to make a custom decal of the family portrait taken at the get together and slap that on the hood. I also created a "50 bday" vanity plate using MicroMark custom decal materials.

t was a fun build, that's about it. Nothing wrong with that! This was my first attempt to use two-part clear over decals; I had a bit of bubbling under the large white hood decal, but it's not too noticeable. And yes I put MPC on the side--I loved MPC growing up and I guess I still have a soft spot for their excellent kits!

Paint was decanted Duplicolor green lacquer with some Jacquard Perl-EX blue flakes dumped in. Sanding and polishing was done fast, fast, fast, and you can still see very faint sink marks in the trunk lid. Oh well.

For the interior I used Rust-oleum Vinyl paint. I saw this rattle can at the local auto store and had no idea if it would work on plastic. Yes, it sticks, and it looks great--it looks like real vinyl to me. It comes in different colors and I am going to try more of them. Happy Birthday!

75 Corvette--Aside--Foil Copy is Conquered!

Sometimes when I'm building I discover things--sometimes by accident. Those accidental discoveries are good things!

I was working on a 1:25 1975 Corvette build, using a couple of vintage Corvette from MPC,when I discovered the rocker covers are nothing like the 1:1 cars'.

Here's what MPC gives you.....

Here's the 1:1 engine (apologies to whoever posted this originally)

Besides not being chrome, the MPC mastered valve covers are nothing like the originals. I figured I'd modify them by casting them using Omurayu
to customize and "move things around"

Here's what I came up with....the casting is OK, and I could now sand it down and start moving around the filler cap and other items by cutting apart multiple castings. But right before I started I wondered--does CA stick to Omurayu? If not, I might be able to do something like the "foil copy" I have read about in hobby mags.

As I understand Foil Copy: you take a piece of tin foil and press it against a detail you want to keep, then fill the indentation in the foil with superglue. Let the CA glue dry, then remove the CA, trim, paint or whatever, and use on your kit.

I could never get this to work--the CA always came out like a little blob. I posted "how do you really do this?" on a couple of hobby forums and no one on the forums seemed to know either. Is foil copy some sort of myth?

Well, no. CA glue DOES NOT stick to Omurayu molds, and I made a PERFECT "foil copy" of the filler cap from it.

So here's how I did it: I cast the small item using Omurayu, poured in a dab of CA, let it dry a LONG time (for me, it took 24-48 hours), removed the dried CA from the mold using tweezers, trimmed, and painted. It works!

Here's the finished part and to give you an idea of the tiny size of the casting, the part vs. a guitar pick. This is like learning to use 2 part clear--for me, it will change a lot of things. And BTW, I will not use this tiny filler cap for the valve covers....the MPC 1980 Monte Carlo MPC-702, besides having a nifty little Honda Motorcycle included in the kit, has correct valve covers for a 75 Vette, and I will just steal them from that.

75 Vette-Vintage Kit-Body Work....

I had a chance to buy a couple of vintage MPC kits off Ebay--MPC 1-7506, '75 Vette Roadster. This is before the ERTL days or whatever, and I remember back as a kid, MPC was "way cool"--they always made stuff that had the right look. Now that I bought these vintage MPC kits it means they will be reissued soon right?

Getting right down to work: body time. I love the lines on the 1:1 Vettes with this later body style. The front bumper assembly on the kit didn't fit quite right, but I am hammering it into place.

Besides getting rid of mold lines and all the usual steps, I disliked how MPC mastered the front grill for the model--just a blob of chrome with none of the European-looking refinement. Let's fix that....

Using the back end of a #11 blade I cut out the offensive inner facades of the one-piece front bumper assembly.

Tricky work, because the entire front bumper piece doesn't fit on the body that well to begin with and is pretty fragile.....after both inner panels were removed, I replaced them with blanks made from .010 styrene. Looking better already.

The actual mesh for the grillwork is presenting a challenge. Nothing is available in the aftermarket I can find for this, so I am trying to modify some leftover photoetch from an old GTO build. The guitar pick is in there to give you an idea of how tiny this work is, at 1:25 scale.

The other thing I didn't like was the vent in the top of the dash, so I found a more suitable vent on an Avanti kit from the parts bin....

I cast the vent in resin, and then cut it into the dash. I didn't quite center it right, but after some sanding it's probably going to be OK. I am still somewhat of a beginner, so this is as much about learning technique as anything else.

And of course! You have to get rid of the "1975" license plates....many kits that were derived from promos seem to have the year stamped on the plate, which obviously isn't realistic. Poof--sanded off--gone. Are we ready for paint yet?

51 Channeled Chevy--Finished--The Good, the Bad, and the Fugly!

Free at last!--the 51 Channeled Chevy is done....some of it came out OK, some pretty bad, and some just downright fugly.....

What came out not so good--the hand painted flames on the side. I'm not going to try to do that again...from certain angles it looks OK but for the most part it looks sloppy and unprofessional. I give the handpainted flames a C-! If I had used masks (like on the hood) it would have looked much better.

I give the engine compartment a solid B (?) or not-so-solid B/B-? Maybe this was beyond my abilites, because cramming such a large engine into a small compartment was akin to building a tricky jigsaw puzzle! It's hard to believe that because I was too lazy to figure out how things would fit during the early stages of this, I basically built the engine up inside the finished engine compartment. Doh!

The fugly would be the stance. In Pat Ganahl's seminal book "The American Custom Car", he talks about the history of custom car stance--specifically hot rods are raked; customs, low front and rear, or even low rear and high front. So my build is a custom with a hot rod rake. To me, this doesn't really work. The build would have looked better if I had given the whole thing a more traditional "lead sled" low look, or, made it more of a hot rod as far as paint and trim (sponsor decals, dechromed, hood scoop, rear slicks, whatever).

The good is the interior. This is my best interior work to date, and the color scheme--ivory and flat green, with red trim, works well.

Overall--hey, it's done, on to other things. Thank goodness!