Sunday, August 28, 2011

51 Chevy--Changing the Channel

Having finished my experiments with 2 part clear it's back to some building. I got some AMT 51 Chevy kits on sale from modelroundup.com and it's time to build something.





I have found that mock-ups are key and, at least from the perspective of making a hot rod out of this, it needs to ride lower. I didn't end up getting a picture of "Before" I mocked up a lower ride...but it looked like "the Eisenhower family's Chevy" and I don't want that.

So here's "after" lowering. I quickly glued up the chassis frame and front and rear ends, found some tires in the scrap box, and came up with this:


The body is channeled about 8 scale inches--which means: a lot! The 51 kit came with spindles for the front for a "lowered ride" look. I used that, and the stock ride height for the rear.


Nothing is cleaned up yet--there are still ejector pins and mold lines all over the place and other than some primer, no paint has been applied yet. I have found in modelling you always, always have to walk before you run!!!


I am thinking about frenching the headlights, and doing some sort of flame thing for paint.


Channeling means that many other parts of the car will need to be customized--interior, seats, radiator, motor mounts, and so on, because they will now ride too high. But since I am working in plastic, and nothing has to "work" as it would on a 1:1 car, this is no big deal. I already started to hack up the interior and will take more photos soon.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

66 Nova--Finished!

Not much time to build again this month but I did manage to finish the 66 Nova....


The Nova started mostly as an excuse to practice painting more with 2 part Polyurethane Clearcoat.


Again I have found that 2 part clear takes some extra attention to making sure the color coat is smooth--problems with the color coat seem amplified by tqo part polyurethane clear, rather than muted.


Overall a fun build...I had a good time applying the photoetch parts....



I used license plate decals, but just cut the decals out and did not soak them; I glued them to the bumpers with plain old styrene glue. I feel this looks better than other methods I have tried.


And, using brass for the fuel plumbing came out OK....


I have 3 '51 Chevy kits sitting around, that will be next....

Almost fall again!


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