Scale Models

[76ChevyTrucker]

All right, for all of y'all who don't know what I do with my spare time, this is some of it right here. I have built all of these models, along with many more at my parent's house, hanging from the ceiling, and even more than that that have met their fate during my annual 4th of July celebration.

Don't mind the dust and I hope y'all enjoy.

[Guest YellowJacket894]

Any tips on getting the paint right? (These are plastic, Skill Level 2 models, correct?)

[76ChevyTrucker]

Two and three. The biggest thing is I normally paint the body of the car with either a spray can or airbrush. The actual other parts, I hand paint very carefully, which normally invovles me painting my fingers a whole lot too, but that's beside the point. If I can't hold the part in my hand, i use a pair of tweezers to hold the part. After paint, its let it dry, use very sparing amounts of glue and press them together. Actually one thing I've got is a HUGE assembly pad that I put down on the table and its got all sorts of tips and tricks for building and painting the models, and some good ideas for details.

[Guest YellowJacket894]

Neat. I've tried painting models before, and my results are horrible. (I haven't tried it since I was 12 or 13.) I remember once I was trying to assemble a Datsun 240Z model kit and I started to paint the body red. Then I changed my mind and made it blue. Then I changed my mind again and made it black.

[Sixty8panther]

I used to love modelbuilding as a kid... built more WWII planes

than cars but all were fun. I loved making customs. I have a

1969 Camaro ragtop with a Lamborghini V12 as well as tail

lights & some interior peices... Trans Am rims & an IRS.

Also built a 1930s Mercedes "rat rod"

The most annoying thing by far is accidentally getting a glue

smudge fingerprint on a clear plastic piece, especially the

windshield or headlights.

Some day I will build that 1:12 scale 1969 Camaro I bought

on eBay... not sure if it will be stock, a hot rod or pro-touring.

[76ChevyTrucker]

that's why you use Elmer's School Glue on clear plastic pieces, no smudges and doesn't fog the clear plastic up. I've run into that where I can't decide on a color to paint a car, but normally after about two coats, you start to obliterate details, so its best to find a color and paint it that, and leave it that way.

[Mach5GTP]

Cool, I like the M1.

It's funny, because I love scale models, and I would love to build them from kits and customize them, but damned if I can do it well! I'm an engineer by education and inclination, I'm very good with my hands and I've been working on real cars for almost 20 years now, but God, let me put together a simple Level 2 or 3 model kit, esp. something that requires painting, and it'll look like a 2-year-old did it. Just awful.

I have a kick-ass 1/24th model of Speed Racer's Mach 5 that I started a few years ago, but I stopped because it was going downhill fast (bad downhill, not the good yay-free-mpg downhill). All the scale cars I buy now are pre-built diecasts, which really limits my choices. If I had even a bit of modelling skill I could buy one of the 1991-92 Grand Prix GTP model kits on eBay and modify it to look like my own 95 GTP. Or even better, I could mod the body to fit it over my 1/28th-scale XMODS RC chassis. Next lifetime, maybe.

Yikes, sorry for the novel. Nice models again!

[76ChevyTrucker]

Thanks Mach. I have to say that the hardest model I've EVER built was a scale of the 1969 Lunar landing....talk about detail Holy $h! batman!