75 Vintage Vette--Kristal Klear and More....

I'm almost ready to finish up assembly of the MPC Vintage 75 Vette.....it's time to get this one done!

I was gearing up for (and dreading, really) the usual struggle with the scale windshield; from other posts you have heard me complain that glass often doesn't fit right on these old, warped, dusty kits, and this one was no exception; this Vette had the most warped, bent up piece of convertible crap I've seen so far. But! When I grabbed up the Microscale chemicals for last post's decal restoration I also bought another Microscale product called "Micro Kristal Klear" which I will call MKK from here--more because I liked the "multiple misspelled K's" in the name than anything else....

Turns out MKK really works! I taped and clamped the ill-fitting windshield and layed some thick glue around it. Then over the course of a couple of days I removed a single piece of tape or a single clamp and applied a bit more glue. This was repeated several times. In the photo I have applied the final coat of MKK around the bottom of the windshield--that's the broad white band.

But as you see from this "after" pix, MKK dries almost completely clear, as advertised, and it really bonds! Yes there is a thick bead of glue on there, and the windshield is there for good; you just can't see the glue! This windshield would have been a nightmare using my normal tools (watch crystal glue, styrene glue, or epoxy--all of which i figure would have smeared, run, and generally made a huge mess.) MKK bonded tough enough that I could apply the Bare Metal Foil right over the glued glass and it didn't pop out....

While I was waiting for all sorts of things to dry, I messed around with an Old Buick Wildcat Kit I got on sale at the local hobby shop. This is almost a snap kit, having like 20 parts--no engine, no nothing, so I thought I might fool around by laying on a way too heavy flake yellow followed by some acrylic flames with india ink pinstriping.

It's all fun--the main takeaway here is that non-scale metalflakes can look OK (?) at scale...I figure if this were a 1:1 car each flake would be as big as a dime, but so what!

And also I put the Kandy Tangerine House of Kolor paint down on another oldee moldee I had sitting around--a 63 vette. Turns out the 2 vettes might get done at the same time....stay tuned!

75 Vette--Decal Restoration!

I finished up a nice House of Kolor Snowhite Pearl paint job on the 1:25 '75 vintage Vette. Then I got a comment from a reader that it needs the red decals. And it does!

The problem is the decals, like the kit, are about 37 years old, and have seen better days! How in the world do you get old/faded/busted up waterslide decals, that came out when Gerald Ford was president, to look good now? The main issue of course is that any attempt to slide the decal off its backing will cause it to shatter--from the photo you can see the things are already cracked, split, cut up, and otherwise in bad shape!

Modern chemistry to the rescue....Microscale Industries makes chemicals perfect for restoring old decals. This was all new to me--the first time I tried to resurrect old decals. But there was a lot of guidance online. I started with the "Liquid Decal Film" on the left. I coated the old decals with "Film" and let them dry. This liquid bound the old cracked decal so it could be removed from its backing without shattering into a thousand pieces.

Next, I coated the body with some of the "Set" solution. This worked a bit like glue, so the decal softened and laid down correctly on the model. As per the instructions on the bottle, I then (carefully) brushed more on top of the decal and let it dry.

The decal was still hard to work with and broke in a few places. Fortunately I had 2 identical kits and 2 sets of decals to cobble together to make 1 good model. Also the "sol" solution saved me!

Microscale's Microsol was where the real magic occurred. I read that the crappiest, most ornery decals can be brought back to life with Microsol and for me, that was about right. "Sol" seemed to melt the dickens out of the decal, let it stretch and even out then dry to the body. When I initially applied Microsol, the decal looked terrible; Microsol seemed to create more air bubbles and distortions than it corrected--but once the decal dried it looked really good! The directions said to poke air bubbles with a needle and apply more "sol", which I did--over and over and over. With a lot of patience I managed to get pretty much all the air bubbles, cracks, and imperfections to go away....

The other thing I learned was: never, ever, EVER touch the decal once I laid down the "Sol"; when wet with any of these chemicals, the decal is extremely fragile, so handling the decal while it's wet will ruin it.

I also read online to use a hair drier to get the decals to hug corners and lay down flat. That helped a lot. In the end the solvent/hairdryer/drying process was repeated several times for each area that needed a decal. It all worked!

Overall, with a lot of patience this came out looking really good! It's hard to believe that decals this old can be used at all, but they can. Now it's time for 2 part clear--I will apply this right over the decals, I hope the clearcoat will not mess them up....fingers crossed.

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.