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Post by lotus098 on Sept 22, 2007 23:32:33 GMT -5
Being a model railroader and an Shelby Cobra when I saw a kit for a '63 Cobra I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to apply my skills to one of my other loves. ;D I also have decided to put some custom decals on it inspired by World War II fighter planes. On the front fender I plan to put on the name "American Storm" after one of my favorite Bob Seger songs; on the front of the door I will put on the logos of other car companies, similar to the way fighter pilots painted either a German cross or Japanese flag on their planes to mark kills. I promise I'll get some pictures when I'm done. So who else builds cars models, and what are they? I do have one question as far as car models go. When the instruction say to wet sand the model, do they mean that I should wet the sand paper with water, or sand it while the paint is wet?
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Post by ottoraysing on Sept 23, 2007 2:59:00 GMT -5
I have an extensive model car and truck collection. I have somewhere around 200 cars and about 100 trucks on display. I'm not sure of the number because I've never actually counted them. i've got at least triple that packed into storage boxes. i don't even want to think how many unbuilt kits I've got. Most of my cars are stock bodied, and generally of full size American cars. I do have several dirt track stock cars of the style that I drove back in Iowa. My truck models are of what ever I wanted to model at the time. What is meant by wet sanding refers to a specific type of sandpaper. Go to an auto parts store and ask for some 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper. It's specially formulated to be used either wet or dry. When I use it I do so under gently running warm water. This ensures that all debris will be washed off, and you'll not have some bit catch in the sandpaper and dig into the body. This will be fine for a beginner. As you gain experience, you'll want to get a polishing kit that has grits as fine as 12,000 grit. I'll keep watching this in case you have any more questions.
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Post by lotus098 on Sept 24, 2007 21:31:46 GMT -5
OK. Thanks for the explanation. I found some great stuff at the store the other day, sanding film. It's like sandpaper on a plastic film so it will bend without cracking and can be used wet or dry, it works great. Very handy for model railroading too of course. Just out of curiosity how many coats of paint do you use, including primer? I'm thinking 4 (1 primer and three of the car color, wet sanding between each coat) should be sufficent.
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Post by ottoraysing on Sept 25, 2007 17:20:03 GMT -5
It depends on the model as to how many coats of paint I use. If I'm just doing a quick build, I'll do a coat of primer and 2 or 3 coats of rattle can paint. For those builds I don't get involved in sanding between coats. If I'm going for show quality, I'll use a sandable primer, lay down a thin coat, sand out any imperfections, and lay down a second thin coat. I'll then sand that for smoothness, and then use a good primer for a last primer coat. I then lay down 2-4 coats of color paint, as you said this is with sanding between coats. I like to use an 1,800 grit and progress only to 2,400 or 3,200 at this stage. I'll lay on my gloss coats, generally no more than 2 light coats are needed, and then sand them to 12,000 grit. That is followed with polishing and the last step is waxing. I absolutely hate BMFing, so one of the tricks that I learned for emblems is after the sanding primers are finished and just before the final primer goes on; I lay down a good coat of silver around the emblems. On my last round of sanding, just before glosscoating, I carefully (note that I said carefully) with a very light touch, I sand through to the silver. This is only done enough that the letters can be seen. When the gloss coat is applied, they'll look just like chrome.
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Post by ottoraysing on Sept 25, 2007 20:16:41 GMT -5
I wanted to check with Eric first before giving you another forum to check. Try the Spotlite Hobbies forum (formerly Hobby Heaven). It's dedicated to model cars and trucks. There's an incredible amount of knowledge on there. due to some revamps a few years ago I ended up changing my handle on it; I'm now known as Kodiak Island Modeler. I also use that on some other forums (including a Sci-Fi writers forum), but I won't mention them here.
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Post by lotus098 on Sept 25, 2007 22:24:24 GMT -5
You car guys sure take painting a lot more seriously than model railroaders. (chuckle) Of course you don't weather car models, and you don't want to model trains to be shiny or always look good... ect.
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Post by ottoraysing on Sept 25, 2007 23:40:27 GMT -5
Weathering runs anywhere from a lightly used car to junk cars. I had a junkyard diorama for awhile, but my collection just got too big for it. One of the best things, at least for me, is to go to the local department store and pick up some cheap water-based paints. I like to use brown tones followed by the cars actual colors. I DO NOT glosscoat them. Dull is better. I sand through in somewhat random fashion, but I use pictures from junk cars to get the best effect. For rust through I use a moto-tool and drill carefully from the back side of the body. It takes practice but after awhile you'll get the knack. One trick for the gritty rust that you find on cars is to mix silica sand in the paint.
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Post by lotus098 on Sept 26, 2007 22:38:22 GMT -5
You might consider textured paint. You can find it at Home Depot; people use it to give things a phony stone look. It's great for wood grain when sanded, making stucco buildings, and painting tree trunks and lots of other times you want some texture to your paint. I love the stuff.
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Post by pcarrell on Oct 19, 2007 7:42:18 GMT -5
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Post by ottoraysing on Oct 19, 2007 13:22:02 GMT -5
One addition to what Philip said about bare metal foil is dont touch the back anywhere that it will be placed on the model. Where your hands touch, it will not stick. I love the way it looks when it's done, but my family avoids me when I'm working with it.
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Post by pcarrell on Oct 22, 2007 14:54:54 GMT -5
Thats true. It doesn't take much to goof with the thin layer of adhesive on the back of the foil.
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Post by lotus098 on Oct 24, 2007 21:36:51 GMT -5
Yeah, I don't have enough time to be a car and a train nut! Nice work there, Philip. Love that last one; nothing beats an old Ford with a flat head V-8 (Me I'd like a nice '39 Deluxe convertible in blue) Even if it is just a model!
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Post by pcarrell on Nov 1, 2007 8:26:10 GMT -5
That shouldn't be too hard to do with the AMT '40 ford model. It contains all the parts to make a '39 standard or deluxe, or a '40 deluxe. It's a coupe, so you'd hve to whack the top, do a little interior work, and recontour the quarters a little, but it could be done.
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