Still working on 66 Olds--Paint Test!

What happened to August? For that matter what happened to September? Time hurries on....I wanted to do something different for paint on the 66 Olds build, so I am trying to use a different undercoat, and some transparent acrylics over them. Instead of just using plastic spoons or whatever, I thought I'd use the bodies left over from the 71 RoadRunner build.



The first body came from Ebay, and since it smelled like ciggies, the second one came from Ebay too....



I used Plastikote primer and after 24 hours sprayed on a single coat of Krylon Real Gold Metallic. The paint covers very well and covering with a single coat was no problem.



One of the unexpected results was that this gold paint shows up defects in the body like no one's bizness--like this huge sink mark on the hood of one of the bodies. It was interesing that many of the sink marks--and there were lots of them--existed in exactly the same place on both bodies. I guess there was a problem in the molding process, and no one cared enough to fix it....glad I'm not using these bodies "for real" because filling in all the sink marks would be a pain.



Overall the bodies are looking like they're ready for a color coat. I have a feeling that some masking/candies and then some metal flake sprayed over is going to look really good, assuming it spreads out OK and doesn't peel. I really have no idea what will happen.

Next time: and hopefully sooner than this time: some transparent coatings--see if we can do a multicolor "candy" finish.

66 Olds 442 "Clean Build"--More Time to Dry!

The bad news is that I continue to have time for not much of anything....hobbies and crafts being a couple of those things.

The good news is that allowing lots of drying time really helps a painting project!



Take the Alclad process. If you've followed this blog or any hobby mags--this is lacquer paint that will make non-metal surfaces look like they are made of metal--and it really works! Any sort of model builder--planes, trains, dioramas, whatever--is going to need this. You apply black enamel first, then airbrush over the Alclad lacquer. Only during this build have I realized that it's critical to let the enamel undercoat dry and gas out completely (a week!) or else the Alclad will look pitted or have other problems.


These are wheels I cast in resin and then Alclad coated with "Stainless Steel". On the bench they look better than they do in this photo--sadly I didn't have a lot of time to set up the shot--I am reasonably happy with how they came out.



Same thing with this aircleaner. It doesn't look so bad on the bench. The lighting in the photo leaves a bit to be desired....



The other item is scale "carpet". I have tried various means to get this into the build fast (because I never have time for any of this--remember?) but I have found that the best way to apply flocking is slowly and carefully--allowing the white glue several days to dry after its application.



Here it is. The seats and interior trim will cover up the yellow lines I drew as carpet "boundries". Maybe this weekend I will have some time to put together some of the subassemblies--we will see.

442 Olds "Clean Build"--Engine

So here we are a month since the last post--not much more time for hobbies and crafts, but hey, a bit of time here and there is better than no time at all....



I'm taking a bit of a break from customizing and focusing this time on a "clean build". We're talking less runs, drips, fingerprints, smudge and so on, and for me it doesn't come easy! One thing I've rethought is how I brush paint--no more dipping paint into bottles and dragging big clumps of goo onto the build. Instead, careful stirring, pouring into small plastic containers I stole from the local burrito place, and going from there.




Also a bit more attention paid to little things, like putting the lids back on the paint so it doesn't dry out or spill on some other part sitting on the bench. Simple, but, I wasn't always doing it!




So here's what I have so far. Not the clean room sort of thing you see in some of the hobby mags, but for me, it's a lot better.



As I said last time, I got some magnifying glasses I can wear, so I can see details a bit better. It has been a huge help, one of the best investments I've made in the pursuit of the "clean build". Now I can see details that need to be fixed before the camera picks them up.




But is it fun? I don't know. For me, it's different. I am always rushing around, trying to get more done at work, trying to get more done around my house, just trying to do more, more, more. Here, it's good to slow down and concentrate on something monumentally unimportant, for a change.



Next I have to apply the metalizing paints to parts of the chassis and put together the interior. After priming and sanding I have put aside the body for now--a clean build on that will be tough indeed!

66 Olds 442--Starting to Paint

So who has time for hobbies and crafts? In the past couple of months not me! I finally got a few minutes this weekend to do some quick painting of the 442 Olds I've been building (or trying to find time to build) over the past several weeks. Painting is always my favorite part!!!



From past entries you may know that I LOVE paints from Jacquard. Although Jacquard primarily advertises their paint as being best for dyeing fabric and coloring ceramics, their acrylics are great for plastic--easy to mix and airbrush once they are thinned down, and best of all, they don't stink up the house.

The main trick is what to thin them with....and after a bit of trial and error I found that windshield wiper fluid works best (who would have thought?) I whipped up some metalflake silver/green by mixing some Jacquard powders and airbrush colors and got ready to spray....





Two light coats, applied with a cheap airbrush, was all I needed....



Next I mixed up some blue wash, using 90% wiper fluid and 10% "Dazzling Mettalics" ice blue crafts paint from Decoart, and applied the wash to some of the surfaces of the interior.



The chassis pan was painted with Tamiya Matte Black, one of my favorite flat blacks....



...and the chassis components were prepped for metalizing paint with Duplicolor Acrylic Enamel Gloss black.

The good thing about having no time to paint (or anything else...): everything gets plenty of time to dry!!

66 Olds 442-Body Work Part II

It's been a month and there's not been a lot of time at the bench....I continue to work on a "clean build" of a 66 442 Olds....




Well it turns out--a clean build takes a lot of time!!! As I discovered last time, the '66 442 Olds kit had side trim moldings that is great for a vinyl top build, but for a "normal" roof, which I am using here, they had to go. I have been sanding, filing, carving and sanding some more.



It turns out getting rid of the trim is easier said then done! We're talking hours of work. Finally....the trim pieces are gone, but on the 1:1 car there is a "crease" in the sheetmetal, down the side of the car, right underneath the side molding. It's proving impossible--or at least extremely difficult--for me to get a sharp crease here. After 2 weeks of knocking it around on the bench, I reached the point of diminishing returns; the more I sanded, the worse it looked....





And another problem: After removing the trim strips, the door lines needed to be carved out again. I was not sure exactly how to do this, so in "experimental mode" I used the sharp tip and back of an X-acto #11 blade, a Micro Mark reaming tool, and a bit of .020 plastic as a guide, that I taped to the door before carving.



I filled in some of the spots and holes and carving slip ups with superglue, which I then sanded down....



A lot of the rear trim had to go as well; it will be replaced by photoetch parts. From this photo I also notice that the styrene rod I put in place to help fix the rear window is visible from certain angles. It might be that once the headliner is in it will be harder to see. But it's something I hadn't thought a lot about, until now. I need to file that down, then, it'll be ready for primer-sand-primer- repeat.....who said this was going to be easy?

66 Olds 442--Body Work, Part I

Still working on a mild custom 66 Olds....the goal of this build is to test fit everything and get everything entirely in shape before doing ANY finishing....



This is one of those AMTish things that drives me crazy. The instructions say if I'm building a non-vinyl top (I am) to remove the side trim pieces, a bit of which you can see here. This trim wraps around the front, sides, and rear. It all has to go. I haven't been doing this that long but I do know that removing a big old chunk of trim is a going to be a lot of work! But I need to do it; getting rid of the trim will make this look less like "your Mom's Olds" which is what I'm after here.




To make things harder there's a piece of body trim that can't be removed--this little crosshatch gizmo thing on each side. So I have to carefully sand and file around it. I ended up putting my finger over it to make sure I didn't accidentally scape it up. I have read of others "foil copying" this sort of thing, then sanding away the original, then gluing the copy back on, but I have never had any luck with that whole process...it always ends up looking like a little blob of bird doodoo.

So that's for a different project.....



OK, after some filing and sanding here's the back so far. A new problem is cropping up--on the 1:1 car, about mid-door there is a nice sharp point where the body sheetmetal is bent at a 20 or so degree angle. The trim strip covered that, and with it gone, I have to try to get it back somehow.



And here's the side. It's getting there, but as with so many other crafts, to do a good job is going to take time. I just have to get used to it. It would have been nice if AMT gave optional trim pieces you could attach or not, depending on what you wanted the finished model to look like, but, nope.



I continue to do a lot of reading about how anyone working with minatures does his thing without losing his or her mind and going blind at the same time. One key is to have good magnification, that's comfortable to wear, so I'm told. To this end I bought a $40 magification headband thingy from Micromark, which seems to work OK, although you have to hold your work x inches for it to be in focus (no way around that I can think of)


But the best part is the instructions that came with. This picture of happy Mr. Science Guy rocks the front of the instructions and I just cracked up. I mean, this guy just had a frontal lobotomy and now he's ready to party! I liked it so much I cut out his picture from the cheesy manual and put it above my bench. These are visual aids for the truly inspired.

1966 Olds--Parts is Parts....

From last time: still working on rounding up parts for a '66 Oldsmobile mild custom.



Getting scale windshields in without them looking terrible (glue smears, finger smears, poor fit) is always tough for me. The glass that came with the kit (AMT/Ertl #6268) didn't fit, and it looked too thick. So I put some styrene rod into the inside of the roof....



And cut a playing card up to size out how big the "glass" (to be cut out of clear tyvek) will be. Should be pretty straightforward, but we'll see how it works when final assembly day comes.



Dashboards are tricky for me too. They never seem to fit right. The kit has me suspend the dash between the two interior side panels, but on other builds that's never worked for me. Instead I've glued a strip of styrene to the back of the dashboard, which I'll affix to the body, beneath the windshield.

I didn't much like the custom wheels that came with the Ertl kit; instead I found 2 wheels in the parts box that looks like something that might have been dreamed up by Centerline in the 1:1 world. But I only had 2 wheels, and needed 4...which means....time to cast.



I used 1:1 RTV mold maker this time, having run out of the first batch of 1:10. I like the 1:1 a lot better--much easier to prepare and mix.




Trying to learn from previous mistakes, I put polymer clay around the entire mold as a barrier; I learned my lesson a few months ago when RTV mold goo leaked all over the place before it had time to set. It made a heck of a mess!



So here's what I used this time around. I found that tiny bubbles (real ones, not the ones in the song) were getting into tight places in the wheel mold and was making small details, like the scale "bolts" on each wheel look, well, terrible. To fix this I use a toothpick right after the resin pour and actively chase the bubbles out. Now the scale bolts look spot-on.

BTW latex gloves are a big time saver, keeps RTV and resin crud off my hands, and I am not going to do a lot more casting without wearing them.



So here are the Centerlines I ended up with. There were a few issues with the very outer rims having tiny holes in them, but I figure these can be fixed with gap-filling CA glue.



I also found at the bottom of my parts box a crazy, retro looking Mag wheel, perhaps off an old Monogram drag kit. I figured I might as well make some copies of that too, and I did. No idea what I'll end up using them for.