Quick tip - clear plastic pieces

Just about finished up with my next project, and thought I would share this quick tip...
I think it is pretty well known, but I still see lots of pictures of models that haven't done this....

The little clear plastic pieces that go over headlights on modern cars, often look "plastic-ey" and fake to my eye. Part of this reason is the scale thickness. For the strength required to be de-molded in the manufacturing process, as well as handling during assembly, they need to be very thick for the relative scale. While I don't have a micrometer to measure, they look to my eye to be a couple of inches thick in scale.

Which is fine if you are modeling a presidential limo, or other "bulletproof" car, it doesn't look right to me.

So what I like to do is trace the inside very edge of the plastic with a black Sharpie marker. This helps to hide the refraction at the edge of the piece, and make it appear thinner.

As seen here, you don't get a "glowing" edge where it shows off the thickness.

It also has the added feature of appearing as the gasket around the headlight lens cover on most modern cars.

Seen here on the front of my almost finished Corvette ZR-1.

(oh man, I should have dusted that off before the picture).
But hopefully you can see the difference.

Oh, and remember how I mentioned the thickness of the clear plastic? Well, that clear plastic is also much more brittle than the regular styrene that the rest of the kit is molded in, so be careful.

You can also use the Sharpie on the inside of the windshield to create the black surround. In this kit Revell provided a nice line molded all the way around to guide where I needed to color. Other manufacturers go as far as providing actual pre-cut masks to help you with the painting of this surround.

Up next, the finished ZR-1, with a slightly damaged windshield!

Hotwheels Ferrari 599xx Custom Police car

So I again haven't posted in a long while, (I feel I should just start every post that way) but had a project or two that I have recently completed that I wanted to share.

The first is this one here... A custom Ferrari 599xx Police Car.

This started as a project for the local Meet and Trade day that happens once a month.
A whole group of us get together and buy, sell, and trade what we have found in the past month, or looking to get rid of....
But separate from that, is an on-going, themed custom contest.

Themes in the past have been pick-up trucks, Rat-Rods, but two months ago, the chosen theme for the meet in December was Ferrari.
As a long time Ferrari fan I was excited, but also a little worried. As Ferrari and Mattel had ended their relationship, there would be no more Ferrari's available on the shelf, so I had to dig a little to find some to open.

The Ferrari 599XX seemed like a great candidate... Now I just needed find a way to make it stand out.

And again, a little searching, and I came up with the idea for a Police vehicle... but not just any Police vehicle... this one would be a fantasy car from the Dubai Police Force.

I was also doing some experimenting with custom decals... so I got to work.
The film I have is a white background, rather than clear, so that meant the car had to be white, which was no problem in this case.
I "stole" the light bar off of a Matchbox BMW police car, and was pretty much done.

A good bit of fiddling with the artwork, proper sizing, and I thought I was good.

The decals are printed on a color ink-jet printer, which leaves a little to be desired for color fidelity, but for a first experiment, I thought it came out great.

There were lots of other little symbols and logos which were also added. I made up placement and some of the smaller design based on Google searches for similar cars in the Dubai fleet.

Now that I had the car done, and still had two weeks left until the meet, I decided to go extra crazy, and create a whole custom card.

Based on a regular Hotwheels card, with a few changes and additions to reflect my sense of humor, and make it a little more custom.
Things like the QR code in place of the SKU code will actually take you to this blog!
A little bit on the back of the card...

All printed at the local office supply store, for a high quality finish.
They are adhered using simple spray adhesive, to a cutout section of a cereal box.
Then carefully cut to shape with an exacto knife.
Not perfect, but again, great for a first attempt in my opinion. I learn as I go, and will hopefully have the next one turn out better.

Up for January's meet is a Porsche.... So look for that one to come soon!
Thanks again for stopping by my little slice of the internet!

Almost 6 months later - Revell Ferrari Enzo

Wow! Has it really been 6 months since my last post?
I would guess that might mean that I have been busy, which I have, and have several completed models as a backlog that I will work on getting posted.
The first one up is Revell's Ferrari Enzo....
Mainly because I have the most "in progress pictures" for this one.

I picked this kit up for a pretty good price, and planned to do a comparison against the Tamiya kit of the same vehicle. While probably not a fair comparison given the many differences, I was quite pleased with the outcome.

Here are the contents of the box. All molded in a neutral white color, with the exception of some clear parts and red parts. There is also a small number of chrome plated parts.
Construction begins, like most kits with the engine.

Not really a lot to see here... but the next picture I have shows the power plant much farther along.

It all fit together well to this point, and some small detail painting, and various shades of silver and black help create the mult-piece look.

And here is the completed engine, along with the rear suspension and driveline all attached to the chassis.

The next picture I have taken is clearly much farther along in the assembly.
The front suspension is hung on the chassis, and the interior tub, seats, and dash is all in place.

So these are the last of the pictures I have that I "found" on my camera.

Which leaves me wit the pictures I just took of the completed kit as it sits in my display case.

I chose to paint the exterior white after some internet surfing, and felt that it added to the clean, modern shape of the car.
Evident here are a few small pieces I have left off, such as inside the engine vents, just behind the doors.

Unlike the Tamiya version, the doors and trunk area (in the front) do not open on this finished model.

The rear engine cover does however open, and causes it to not quite close flush. I didn't have anything for a "prop-rod" to display the cover in the open position.

All in all, as I mentioned, I was quite surprised at how well this kit came out. Everything fit together really well, and came together without any real issues. All the pieces were well molded and I had virtually no excessive flash to clean up.
The only thing I took issue with was the bright chrome of the wheels. I chose to dullcoat the chrome and got a result that appeared closer to the images I found on the internet.
I say GOOD JOB Revell, and will likely be looking for other releases in the future.

I have several more kits that I have finished over the past several months, and will work to get some photos of at least the finished kits to share.

Thank you as always for looking!

Mustang II has defeated me....

So I bought this kit some months ago at a garage sale because my sister had a 1978 Mustang II when we were growing up. It was her first car, was pale yellow, had a tiny 4 cylinder engine and three speed automatic.

 

I always liked the shape of the car, but the performance was quite lacking for something carrying the Mustang name.

 

This one promised to represent a little more "performance modified" example.

 

As I showed earlier, I started painting the body with a white primer that had gotten too cold, and the paint came out like atomized tooth-paste.

Not exactly the finish I was hoping to start with. Plus you can see where the red in the plastic is already starting to seep through, and had turned the white a pink color.

So I started sanding it all down, got it smooth again (I thought) and went to one of my secret weapons..... Silver spray paint. I find that silver spray paint usually creates a nice barrier and prevents the "bleed through" of the plastic underneath.

 

So I set the new silver body and hood aside and started on the rest of the kit.

Which is where I started to encounter other problems.

 

The chrome plating on some of the parts was horrible. It's a little hard to see here, but one of the front wheels is half white, and half chrome. Again, out came the spray paint, and figured I can deal with aluminum wheels as opposed to chrome plated wheels.

The interior built up pretty nicely, and the 5 piece roll-cage went together without too much fuss.

Next came the engine.... And more headaches.

I have the block and heads assembled, with the oil-pan, intake, and carbs on top.

The engine pulleys don't line up correctly, and won't even contact the water pumps in the correct place..... So I decide I'll just glue the hood on, and not even worry about the engine.

My patience was running thin, and I just want to get this one done.

 

So out comes the silver body, with three coats of a light yellow to match the color of my sister's Mustang....

 

The body looked pretty good. Still needed a little work to get out some bigger flaws, but was looking like it might be done soon...

 

 

And then there is the hood

 

Apparently even with the silver barrier coat, the red still came through the 4 coats of paint...

So last ditch effort, I decide I'll just complete it with the hood off. I can re-work the pulleys and get that to look okay. Maybe add some spark plug wires, and detail the carbs a little and add some interest.

 

Nope...

 

See this little hole on the bottom of the oil pan....?

It's supposed to line up with this little peg on the cross member....

But the engine won't sit far enough back. The transmission tunnel is on the way.

 

Again, neither of these is a major hurdle that I can't overcome... I just don't have the patience to try anymore.

This little Mustang has fought me more than any kit in recent history.

 

I keep telling myself I am glad I didn't pick this kit as a place to start when I got in to modeling, I may have never gotten past this one.

 

So it will go back in a box, and someday, a long ways off, I may decided to pull it out, strip the paint, and start over.

More likely,  I will cannibalize it for wheels and tires, and a few other bits, and call it done with.

 

Certainly, I am ready to be on to the next project.

And heading towards a kit I know will go together much, much easier.