66 Nova--Flame On! Part Two!!

Not being able to get scale pinstripes right has really been bugging me (see my last post) and it's been working in my subconscious. I had a idea, which now seems completely obvious--why not use a masking agent to help with this?

Out comes the bare metal foil, which in addition to using for brightwork, can be used as a high-end masking tape. I threw the mask on one of my "junk box" bodies (a '49 Stock Merc) and carved out some flames using a SHARP #11Xacto. The rest of the body was masked with Tamiya tape. Finally, to keep paint from seeping under mask, I brushed a light coat of Future Floor Polish acrylic clear on the seams.....this is all stuff I've done a few times, nothing new here.

Once this was all done, some Jacquard acrylic was fogged into the flames. Now here's the new part. I got a 000 brush and loaded it up with international orange acrylic paint and carefully painted each mask border. The idea was to get about 2/3rds of the paint onto the mask and 1/3rd on the flame.

Here's what I ended up with. The pinstripes weren't perfect but much better than doing this without using a mask as a guide.

Not perfect, but a lot better.

And, I got a bit better as I painted more flames. By the time I was done--the whole process, start to finish, took about an hour and half--I had pretty good looking flames. Still far from perfect, but, good enough that I was a bit sorry I hadn't started with a lacquer color coat--I could have kept my work and built some sort of scale Billet-Proof Merc, but alas, this was practice only--flames over bare grey plastic. I ended up experimenting with laying some russet red over the whole body, which as a disaster as I had the amount of thinner wrong, so I wiped everything down with Windex, and the test body is back to bare plastic.

But the photos remain, hey, that's what a blog is for right??? I am going to try this in a few weeks on an Chevy body with an enamel color coat. I have been curing this for about three days and in about 2 more weeks the enamel should be tough enough that I can try this again.

66 Nova--Flame On!

It's still a bit too cold and misty for painting, so I worked this week on my "flame" technique.

First I needed to be able to draw flames. Earlier attempts looked like crab claws. Maybe a bit of practice is in order.

Tools for the job include a fine tip paint brush, a Sharpie marker, and a single-action Paasche 200 airbrush. I found the Sharpie wouldn't write on plastic or paint unless you lightly sanded it first.

Using the Sharpie I drew flames on some junk box bodies by hand. This is looking a bit crab-claw like; after some practice I got a little better.

Once the shape was drawn in I went over it using paint. Acryic seems to work OK for this. But here's the best thing--using Acrylic, painting details over an enamel or lacquer color coat, it's easy to fix "mistakes" with a q-tip dipped in Windex, since Windex will take off the acrylic but doesn't affect enamel or lacquer color coat below.

Then I filled in the outline with some Jacquard color. Anything that "spilled over" the flame outline got fixed with Windex used as a thinner.

This is about the best I could do after an evening of messing around with this.

In general, flames are not easy to paint at scale I am finding. Things are just too tiny. The biggest issue I have is the pinstripe that goes around the flames. I know there is a way to do this because I see other modellers who have figured it out. But for me, the lines around the flames come out too thick, making them not look "scale". I got some extra fine Sharpee paint pens, maybe that will help. Stay tuned.

66 Nova--Experiments with Two Part Polyurethane Clear!!!

One of the toughest things I've grappled with, since coming back to this silly hobby, is how to apply clearcoat to a finished color coat and get professional results. In the old days, we'd just spritz some Testors Enamel Clear over whatever we were working on and hey, we were done. For better or worse, I am setting my sites a bit higher now....

Reading the hobby mags, the clearcoat of choice (for model cars as well as some 1:1 cars) is Two Part Polyurethane. "Two Part" because the paint consists of a clearcoat and hardener--you have to mix the two right before use.

However there's a catch! Polyurethanes are extremely toxic before they have gassed out, especially for folks with lung problems (I have had asthma my entire life, so I would consider myself someone with "lung problems".....)

If I am going to experiment with Two part clear, I'd better be careful!

First thing I did was buy a forced-air system. These are mandatory at pro paint shops, and can cost thousands of dollars; fortunately scaled-down versions ($400 US or so) are available for small-potato painters like me.....I chose an Axis Air "Hobby Air" system as it seemed to be the most popular one out there.

You put a little yellow box--basically a small compressor--by a source of clear air. You make sure the air from the paint room is isolated from the air pushed from the "Hobby Air" device. The compressor forces the clean air down a 40 foot hose to a breathing mask. In addition to this mask, you have to wear a hood and latex gloves--you don't want the clear to get on your skin!

OK, with safety precautions taken care of, next thing I wanted to do is make sure two part clear didn't "eat" the color coat--no point in having a great shine if the color coat gets ruined!

To test, I got some body scraps out of the junk box and painted each with different paints I commonly use--here, it's Testors one coat lacquer with a quick and extremely ugly test-flame of some testors enamel and Tamiya acrylic. I would **never** try using lacquer clear over this as the ugly acrylic flame would be destroyed--come to think of it, maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing.....

For these tests: no primer, no sanding, nothing fancy--this is not for show.

I then mixed up a 4:1 ratio of clear to hardener and shot it out my trusty Paasche H0708 single action el-cheapo airbrush. The results were fantastic, and, incredible!

So: does polyurethane clear eat water based acrylics for lunch? Good news is, if there was a problem, I didn't see it. As they said on SNL--great taste--and look at that shine!

Lacquer--duplicolor here--same thing! I spent about 2 minutes polishing this one and it looks um--OK.... With some more work, both in prep and in finishing, it would have been (could have been?) perfect!

In fact I had so much luck with this stuff that I thought I'd try to "clear" something REALLY tough. I had an old body lying around that on which I was practicing painting flames by hand. I don't remember all the different paints I used during my practice sessions, but I think it has pretty much everything I own, including metalizing lacquers, transparent enamels, water based acrylics, acrylic/enamel hybrids, you name it, it's there. So I sprayed a few coats on there, sure that at least some of the paints would fade, welt, weep, or otherwise dislike the clearcoat. In the end, I didn't have a single problem with color coats and detail paints being destroyed--any of them!

So to sum it up--two part clear requires a lot of safety precautions but it's worth it! I made separate "test units" for Jacquard acylic, Testors lacquer and enamel, Tamiya acrylic and enamel, Duplicolor lacquer, as well as a motley hippy flame job consisting of everything I had lying around, and the clear coat played nice with all of it!

I think for my hobbies, 2 part clear will "change things". I won't treat clear coating any craft materials--model cars or otherwise--the same again!

66 Nova--"Not a Project"--Parts is Parts

Easter Already! And on my day off I am dabbling on with a 1:25 build of a '66 Chevy Nova....



As a kid, building stuff in the basement, enamel paints ruled the roost; since then we have more many paint choices, such as acrylic or hobby lacquer. About 2 years ago I gave away (literally) my whole collection of enamels, mostly because I was frustrated with how long enamels take to gas out (sometimes as long as week!) But now I am back to using a few of them again--for fine detail work, for me, enamels still work the best--they flow and cover better.



The engine included in the 66 Nova kit is quite tall, and I am not sure it will fit under the hood, having never test fit this! Let's hope it does!



The guts of the engine are ready for detail work now--I have already scraped away paint to glue on headers and drilled holes for plug wiring.....I am leaving off the oil pan for now. In the past I scratched it while handling the engine--no point in gluing it until the engine is ready drop into the chassis.



In interior is box-stock except for the seats, which I stole out of an old gasser kit. The 66 Nova kit didn't have a roll bar so grabbed an old vette rollbar from the parts box and fabricated the rest.



I tried weathing the seat backs and floor of the interior--I have never tried to weather anything before. It came out OK--but not great. Surprisingly, getting a realistic "clean" look might be easier than getting a lifelike "worn" look!



For the license plate I used a backing fabricated from a thin sheet of brass, which looks better than plastic--the latter looked too thick, and thus less realistic.



So I'm just building up the parts--I keep putting off working on the body. I plan to try, for the first time, using two-part clear on this build. The prospect of working with something so toxic is a bit off-putting, but at this point I have bought the materials and am probably going to do it.....maybe next weekend?

66 Nova--Stance Part II

I was in Patagonia, South America, for 2+ weeks, taking endless pictures in one of the most beautiful spots in the world. Surrounded by nature, I still thought from time to time about model cars--I have to admit it. I am not sure why I suffer, but I suffer happily....



Before the trip I started building a "Not a Project" 66 Nova--a quick and easy build that hopefully will avoid months spent fretting over how to do everything just right.



After being gone for 3 weeks it was good to see the project with fresh eyes. Yep, the box-stock stance is too high in front....so, I had to "engineer" a way to fix this.



First, I got rid of the stock axle bits that came box stock and jammed in some tube styrene....and glued the dickens out of it (I will clean it up later....)



Then I put some more tube in, to strenghten the first joint. I will do further reinforcing once I get a stance I like.



After getting one side the way I wanted, I measured everything and repeated the process for the other side.



....when this was all done the mock up still looked too high in the front. So I decided to get even more slimey. Getting inner wheels out of the parts box, I mocked up a wheel where the axle entrance was not centered, to quickly drop the front end further.



This dropped the front of the model another 1/8" or so--maybe 3+ inches on a 1:1 car. On a different day I might have done something more involved to allow the front wheels to still be "poseable" but what the heck, I am just trying to have fun here.



OK here's what I get during mock-up now, after the slimey styrene-and-off-centered-wheel work. To me, this is a good look.



....not as high as an original box stock build, but not totally "slammed" either; an over-slammed front gave the car an too-modern look that I wanted to avoid. Best of all, what might have taken 4-5 evenings to engineer "totally clean" was glued up in about 30 minutes. No one will be wiser but me (and you!). I won't tell anyone if you don't.

66 Nova--Setting the Stance

For the past week or so I've been working on a 1:25 scale AMT Nova #636. The goal is to keep things in the realm of "Not a Project"--nothing custom, nothing fancy, rather, a simple and relaxing build.



Unfortunately, AMT never makes things too easy, and this kit is no exception. A lot of the problematic areas I've seen with their kits pop up here. For one: the "steerable" front is fragile; intuitively I don't see it holding up the weight of the model. In this case, each front wheel is supported by a small spindle that is in extreme danger of falling off and/or breaking.




To (try to) fix this, I glued the dickens out of the top A-frame (using sytrene glue, CA, and plastic weld). Then I did the same to the lower supporting axle assembly in an effort to "sandwich" each spindle in place. Finally I glued the seam between the frame and the inner wheel well, again with CA, normal glue, and plastic weld. When this was done and dry, I shot the entire axle assembly with primer/sealer. The result isn't very "clean", due to the amount of glue I had to use, but inside the wheel well, painted flat black, no one will notice.



Another issue: in my experience, AMT engines never sit quite right on their motor mounts. I am seeing that here; the motor is not sitting flat, nor straight, when nestled into the engine compartment. I will have to tweak the block and motor mounts to fix this. This is why I test fit--I would be unable to sort this out once the engine is painted.

(By the way, no photos yet, but I have a strong suspicion the exhaust system won't fit and will have to be reworked, and the front and rear bumpers and grilles will have to be modified to fit without large seams being visible....just a guess, but on most other AMT kits I have built to date this has been the case.)



The stance--the way the model rides on its front and rear axles, wheels and tires, is key to the model looking good versus looking like a load. I have learned that AMT kits sometimes have poor attention paid to "stance" while the kit is being mastered. Fixing the ride height before paint is critical to the final model looking good.



This Nova kit is no exception--but, as this is "not a project", I wanted to keep things easy. To start, I taped the rear axle in place and added the cool, huge rear slicks. The back end looks great--so far so good.

On the front end, the "stock" ride height looked so bad that I didn't bother photographing it. Basically the front rode higher than the rear, and that's not a look I wanted.




To fix this, one option is to really cheat--just epoxy the fronts into the wheel wells.



This is the lowest ride possible in the front. Looks good I guess, but steering is pretty much impossible.




Here, I turned the front spindles over 180 degrees so the ride height is lowered by about 1/8" (real inches, not scale). This is probably what I will end up using; this is a good look, and I could see the 1:1 car having a ride height like this.



OK, this slightly lowered front is probably what I will end up using. But looking over the photos, the super-low front end appeals to the ten-year-old in me. It's not a slam dunk! I am going to go out of town for a bit so when I come back I can review this, and maybe the decision will be easy. Right now, at this very moment, the ten year old in me is winning out! Who cares if the 1:1 car can't steer! This isn't a 1:1 car!

66 Nova--"Not a Project"

After taking months (!) to build the 66 Olds it's time to cool down. Let's try something easy! Anything with big rear tires and little fronts appeals to the ten year old in me, so why not AMT's Chevy Nova 66 Pro Street #AMT-636. A steal at $18.



Open the kit up--it's molded in blue! Why do manufacturers do this? Do they really think in this day and age most modellers aren't going to paint every part?



Along with the odd blue plastic is flash--everywhere. It's not too hard to get rid of, but takes time.



After faily lengthy cleanup the engine compartment was easily assembled. I will test fit everything I can, and check out the stance in "blue plastic" before doing any real painting. I learned this lesson the hard way--fit first, paint later!





As I was cleaning up the parts, I realized that sanding the soft blue plastic brings out odd white chunks that are strangely resilient to filing, as if the plastic is a bit too soft and too rubbery. Don't know what's up--I think primer-sealer is going to be necessary.



Hefty rear racing axle. The parts didn't fit together quite right, but it looks nice and will get the job done.




Small block Chevy? I would have liked something bigger, but this is a "non-project", remember? No swapping in any other engines for this one--I will stick to what came with the kit.



The body looks good and seems to be void of any major sinkmarks. There are a few mold lines to clean up--so a quick shot of primer-sealer will help identify them.



I have to leave for a few weeks, but when I get back this should hopefully be a quick build--quicker than the last one! We will see!