9th-Jun-20, 07:08 AM
This started as a desire for a couple of paint jobs, and to fix some asthetics I wasn't happy with.
The main asthetics in question were, huge arches not suited to the wheel size.
Initially I thought about using plasticard and part filing the arches. But as I am currently on a scale wheels kick, I thought it best to see what happens with something close to scale wheels in place.
The real car ran 19" rears and 16" fronts, and with the wheels I found, I could get close to scale correct,less than 1/2" out scaled up, good enough for me.
Even then it required triming of the body posts and the removal of the side pod chassis height limiters to get the 22mm OD tyres to sit up in the arches nicely.
With the chassis and wheels sorted it was time to paint ... I like doing this, but I always dread a disaster, and so it was.
I usually use Halfords rattle cans, but with no halfords open I had been ordering Hycote ones from ebay.
As with the 60's nascars I did, I was not getting the gloss finish I am used to getting with Halfords, and this irked me ...
I designed my Decals and sent them of to Colin(Wraith) at C&C to print and they arrived as quickly as usual.
I masked off the lower part of the car to paint black over the main colour using model enamel by hand as I didnt trust the spray not to get somewere it shouldn't, or rather didn't trust I could mask that effectively !
The line wasn't as clean as I wanted so I quickly printed out my own decals using a black line with a red pinstripe above to tidy up the paint.
When I laqured the decals I had made, I discovered how to get the gloss finish. I had been warming the cans in hot water, something I always did with Halfords cans , a tip I picked up from somewhere.
Anyways I just gave the can a shake and laquered the decals I made as I was rushing around, and the decals had a gloss shine .... Hycote rattle cans do not like to be warmed it seems !
Mental note made, and plan to laquer the cars when decaled instead of using "Klear" was hatched to get a gloss finish.
While I was waiting for everything to dry I had noticed a lot of the cars did not have a diffuser like the model, The livery/version that Sideways make did run with that shape diffuser from what I can find, but many had nothing but a couple of just visible frame rails.
So the dremel was used to lose the diffuser as I prefered that look.
While I was at it, the half tray interior in bright silver was leaping out at me. I painted in the footwells with a gumetal colour and matt varnished the whole interior to "hide" them a little better. I also removed and refitted the rollcages a little higher up while I was at it.
Another issue that became apparent is the side exhaust sits quite low on the model, so in order to keep a good track clearance I decided it needed a change of sizing.
Squashing some brass tubing in the vice gave me the size I wanted, so that was cut ready to be JB welded to the body and painted a darker shade as photos seemed to indicate, once the bodies were done.
I had issues with my home made decals breaking up when using softener to help place, if only I had thought about adding those before I sent the files to Colin !
Colin's decals, as always, went on a treat and apart from my fat fingers struggling with some of the 1mm high text parts, all was going well.
Once decals were dry it was time for the laquer, un-warmed this time, to see if I had found the trick to the gloss finish.
I had .... but in my exuberance I made a schoolboy error. I assumed acrylic (ie . waterbased) laquer would be fine over humbrol enamel, it wasn't.
As a result, the reaction cuased the Humbrol paint to wrinkle
Where the decals were, they had done a good job of protecting the black but the rest was shot.
I didnt want to order up more decals, so I decided to sand back what I could without taking of the decals and repaint those areas with the black.
This left a less than perfect finish on the black, but I decided I would have too live with it and satin varnshed it (with Humbrol varnish this time) to minimize the visual imperfections.
So, after all this waffle, I present the finished product. Once again a flawed finish, but lessons learn't for next time (if there is a next time)
The main asthetics in question were, huge arches not suited to the wheel size.
Initially I thought about using plasticard and part filing the arches. But as I am currently on a scale wheels kick, I thought it best to see what happens with something close to scale wheels in place.
The real car ran 19" rears and 16" fronts, and with the wheels I found, I could get close to scale correct,less than 1/2" out scaled up, good enough for me.
Even then it required triming of the body posts and the removal of the side pod chassis height limiters to get the 22mm OD tyres to sit up in the arches nicely.
With the chassis and wheels sorted it was time to paint ... I like doing this, but I always dread a disaster, and so it was.
I usually use Halfords rattle cans, but with no halfords open I had been ordering Hycote ones from ebay.
As with the 60's nascars I did, I was not getting the gloss finish I am used to getting with Halfords, and this irked me ...
I designed my Decals and sent them of to Colin(Wraith) at C&C to print and they arrived as quickly as usual.
I masked off the lower part of the car to paint black over the main colour using model enamel by hand as I didnt trust the spray not to get somewere it shouldn't, or rather didn't trust I could mask that effectively !
The line wasn't as clean as I wanted so I quickly printed out my own decals using a black line with a red pinstripe above to tidy up the paint.
When I laqured the decals I had made, I discovered how to get the gloss finish. I had been warming the cans in hot water, something I always did with Halfords cans , a tip I picked up from somewhere.
Anyways I just gave the can a shake and laquered the decals I made as I was rushing around, and the decals had a gloss shine .... Hycote rattle cans do not like to be warmed it seems !
Mental note made, and plan to laquer the cars when decaled instead of using "Klear" was hatched to get a gloss finish.
While I was waiting for everything to dry I had noticed a lot of the cars did not have a diffuser like the model, The livery/version that Sideways make did run with that shape diffuser from what I can find, but many had nothing but a couple of just visible frame rails.
So the dremel was used to lose the diffuser as I prefered that look.
While I was at it, the half tray interior in bright silver was leaping out at me. I painted in the footwells with a gumetal colour and matt varnished the whole interior to "hide" them a little better. I also removed and refitted the rollcages a little higher up while I was at it.
Another issue that became apparent is the side exhaust sits quite low on the model, so in order to keep a good track clearance I decided it needed a change of sizing.
Squashing some brass tubing in the vice gave me the size I wanted, so that was cut ready to be JB welded to the body and painted a darker shade as photos seemed to indicate, once the bodies were done.
I had issues with my home made decals breaking up when using softener to help place, if only I had thought about adding those before I sent the files to Colin !
Colin's decals, as always, went on a treat and apart from my fat fingers struggling with some of the 1mm high text parts, all was going well.
Once decals were dry it was time for the laquer, un-warmed this time, to see if I had found the trick to the gloss finish.
I had .... but in my exuberance I made a schoolboy error. I assumed acrylic (ie . waterbased) laquer would be fine over humbrol enamel, it wasn't.
As a result, the reaction cuased the Humbrol paint to wrinkle
Where the decals were, they had done a good job of protecting the black but the rest was shot.
I didnt want to order up more decals, so I decided to sand back what I could without taking of the decals and repaint those areas with the black.
This left a less than perfect finish on the black, but I decided I would have too live with it and satin varnshed it (with Humbrol varnish this time) to minimize the visual imperfections.
So, after all this waffle, I present the finished product. Once again a flawed finish, but lessons learn't for next time (if there is a next time)
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