I started this build many years ago. I used Humbrol to paint the body, but wasn’t entirely happy with the result, so I put it aside.
Since i got my new Kaleido colours, I wanted to try painting one of them on a whole car instead of just some small parts. I decided to go with the mid blue colour.
Here’s hoe it looked before I painted it.
Then I used the new paint.
I think it turned out looking quite nice, considering that I’m a newbie when it comes to painting cars. I wasn’t happy with the side covers, so I’ll sand them smooth and re-paint them.
Hopefully I can try the gloss varnish in a few days.
Also I hope I can find the box with the rest of the parts so I can finish it later.
I did some detail painting and then assembled most of the interior. I painted 2 stripes of tape black and put them on the back seat as belts. I also cut 2 pieces of plastic that was added to the belts and painted.
Almost done with the interior. For some reason I’ve lost a small part that goes between the steering wheel and the column. I might need to try and scratch build that part. The decals are also missing. The kit have been opened and then been laying around for at least 15 years. Possibly I could find another kit and copy the decals.
Some time ago I ordered the new Kaleido colours from Gaahleri. A whole set for automotive painting. The first colour I tested was the grey primer. I had a few problems at first as the primer probably is a little thick for a 0.3 mm nozzle, and I had to thin it down a bit. First layer looked like this.
I sanded down a few splotches and other mistakes and applied new primer.
The next colour I tried was the aluminium paint.
Maybe hard to see but it actually looks very nice! Then the inner roof got leather colour.
Once that was dry I masked it off and painted the mix of black and dark grey.
Some of the engine parts was painted with stainless steel from the new set, and the valve covers was painted with Italian racing red. To me it sure looked very nice. Some more parts was painted with different tones of grey and black.
Close up on the valve covers.
Lastly I masked the interior and painted all parts that I know should have body colour. Turns out the colour that I bought at the store wasn’t acrylic as I thought, but instead some kind of emeral or laquer that needed stronger thinner. Gunzes Mr Thinner worked well for this.
On the pic it looks quite nice, but at a closer inspection some sections was a bit lighter and will need another layer to get even cover. That is something I need to practice. I’ll probably need an airbrush with a larger needle and nozzle to get a wider spread when I paint.
The hood and rear bumper also needs to be painted on the other side. Once that is done, I’ll let it dry for a few days before I try to lay down the 2k clear cote. That’s something I’ve never done before. I just hope that I can get a nice even and hopefully glossy looking cote.
Perhaps I shoul find something to practice on first!
It was both a fun and challenging build! Most of my struggle was with the paint and polishing. In many ways I’ve learned a lot, which I hopefully can remember on coming builds.
This will be the last update before the final reveal pics.
I think this is as good as it gets.
I masked the entire car in preparation for painting the chrome trim. After paint it looked like this!
There’s alway a risk that paint seeps through, but it was successful.
Not quite as successful was that part of the black decals got ripped off and the clear cote on the rear stripe got damaged.
I should have known and I should have protected the decals, but kinda forgot.
I painted black on the front and filled in the damage, and used some clear cote to fill in the damage on the rear end.
With the tape gone it was time to progress with the build. After sorting a few spots on the inside roof, I painted chrome where the light should sit and added the main rear mirror.
Then I glued all the windows in place.
Once that was dry, I mounted the chassie with the body. Not entirely easy as the firewall needed to fit in its slot at the same time as I tried to spread the body to fit over the chassie.
With that done I could proceed with the underside. I decided to mount the wheels first, which turned out to be a good idea as the metal rods had a hard time to fit and I had to drill the holes out a bit. That would have been harder to do with the front and rear end in place. The exhaust system also caused a bit of a problem as it wasn’t entirely straight. So I had to glue one end first, let dry and then push one side down while glueing the rear end.
Next thing to mess up was the cooler and the wall it sits on. It needs to be pushed in from the front and then the fan pressed against the cooler. With some tlc and slight violence it finally got in place. Once that was in place I could glue the rear end and the grille in the front. Here it’s laying on the side as I had to paint one of the reflexes red.
Windshield wipers, battery and some other parts was glued in place.
All parts in place! 🙂
At this point the only thing missing was a few decals and the license plates.Which I sorted a little later in the evening.
I’ll go over it and try to correct a few spots where the colour have been scuffed off. Then it’s time for the final reveal pics.
I’ve been struggling with the paint from the start. Partly because I’m not used to paint cars that are supposed to be glossy. Lack of skills and technique is something I need to work on. After finally having put on clear cote and letting it dry for about 2 weeks, I tried to polish it.
I started with trizact 6000 grit wet sponge/pad and carefully sanded the hood and then the roof. Trying to remove dust and other flaws. Then I used medium course polishing compound. It felt like a skin peeler. I was very careful with that and used a fine compound after that. The car looked like this afterwards.
It’s starting to get shiny but still needs some work. I used 3000 grit wet pad and worked some of the worst spots. Still very afraid that I’ll sand through. On it again with 6000 after that and then I used Tamiyas fine compound before I used the very fine polish.
It’s better but it’s possible to see where I need to do more work. Feels like quite a lot of orange peel in some places. I’ll try to be as careful as I can and polish some more. I also feel like I could use some really fine polish to finish it off with when I get that far.
This kit is set as a test kit for me to learn the skills so it’s okey if I fail, but I still want to try and make it as good as possible.
I started building this kit as I was waiting for the clear cote on my Charger to dry properly.
My eldest son got it as gift many years ago, but he wasn’t really interested in building it.I asked if I could build it for him, and he approved of that.
I started prepping the body and started building parts of the engine.
As I’ve got myself a paint booth, I decided to try better colours than acrylics. The booth sits on the side of the desk right now, but needs to be placed in a better position as it takes too much space on the desk.
While trying to figure out the best location for it, I decided to start a bit with the interior. After looking at pics I’m doing a mix of the instructions and how I wanted it based on the pics.
A lot of masking and painting, one colour at the time.
I’ve started touching up a few spots and doing some detail painting. Still got some more to do, and I plan to make belts for the rear seat. I really do like the colour combination on the interior.
Today I picked up two parcels at different locations and different content.
First I picked up this kit.
A Road Runner felt like a fun car to build!
Next thing I picked up was a long awaited paint booth.
All I need to to now is installing it in my hobby room. I also need to buy a led strip and a bucket with lid so I can tuck the hose there later. And hopefully it will do what is required of it, meaning drawing out paint particles and fumes so I can avoid setting off the fire alarm, and also give me opportunity to paint with other colours than acrylics.
I assembled the tires and used some Tamiya black panel liner around the lug nuts.
After trying to adjust the stripes, it looks like this.
I used panel liner again to black out the grille a bit.
I wasn’t entirely happy with that so I added more black later.
I thought I use polyurethane gloss varnish to get a nicer and hopefully harder surface so I painted a few parts with it.
I thought that looked alright so I decided to paint the hood and body as well. That didn’t go as well.
Not sure if I flooded the colour too much as it started to puddle. As it dried it got a bit more even, and I decided to try and wet sand it and do another cote on top.The varnish looked hard and nice on the front and rear parts and after a day I thought it would be hard enough to sand a little, but then this happened.
The varnish started rolling off and had a rubbery consistence. I guess I’m not patient enough. Anyway I removed the varnish to the best of my capability, and then had a go with Vallejos gloss varnish for metal colours. I did a try on the hood.
Maybe not perfect, but a lot better than I had hoped.I’ll lay a cote or two on the body as well and hopefully that will work out okey as well. My idea is to try and polish it later, but this time I’ll wait at least a week.
I used the decals for the wood panels and instruments.
I think it turned out pretty nice!
While the decals was drying I assembled the front and rear assemblies.
After touching up and giving the seats a bit of clear varnish the interior parts looked like this.
Then the interior was assembled.
I glued the firewall and did a test fit of the interior and engine on the chassie.
By the looks of it, it seems to fit very well.
I realised that I had missed painting clear varnish on the firewall, so I masked off the interior and varnished it with some of the other parts.
The body also got gloss varnish.
I actually gave the body another cote of varnish before starting to add the decals.
The decals on the hood was fairly easy and only required some slight poking and some microsol to look nice. The stripe on the back was a whole other story. It went fairly well on the left side and on top of the trunk, but the other side didn’t fit with the opening for the reflex on the side. After trying to get the decal look right it started falling apart so I didn’t dare work anymore with it.
I put on the rest of the decals on the body and will let it dry properly before I continue. My idea is to use white and pink to try and rectify the broken decals.
Music and Model building 