Monday, May 28, 2012

66 Corvette--Finished!

After the disaster that was the 75 Vintage Vette I figured it was time to finish something, this time a 63 Corvette split window--from the AMT "Street Rods", I figure the kit is from something like the early 70's based on how yellow the instruction sheet was...I bought the kit at a swap meet for $5.


Some details came from Revell's Corvette Snap Kit #1968....the rear tail lights for instance.
Paint is House of Kolor Kandy Tangerine over a gold basecoat, purchased from Black Gold Web finished off with 2 part automotive clear, with the usual Bare Metal Foil trim and Model Car Garage Photoetch.

Besides that, nothing unusual here, this is an almost box stock build of a kit that has been reissued many times so it's not a rare kit.



It was a fun build....good to get something done. AMT for the most part did a good job on the kit--the engine compartment is nothing like the 1:1 but I didn't feel like taking the time to "fix" that. Maybe some other time?

Up next? Not sure. I scored a very good price on an extremely rare MPC 2000GT Toyota but am a bit chicken to start it.



I am still working improving my technique before going back to big-time customizing. It's not been steady progress, but I feel I am improving.....

Sunday, May 6, 2012

75 Vintage Vette--End of The Line

It's a beautiful day out today, I was in my relatively dark basement working on this model car when I realized all of a sudden the model sucked and I was wasting my time. I pulled off the wheels and tires--those looked good to me, and put the model down on the floor. Then I went upstairs, put some shoes on, came back downstairs and smashed it under my foot--3 good stomps and it was in pieces. What you see is most of what is left.
I have mixed feelings about doing this. On the one hand, the 2 part clear and reacted poorly with the decals as it gassed out, and the surface of the decals had become rough and pitted. This meant the finished build would never be up to what I have now come to expect of myself. I could see myself spending a lot more time and effort trying to "fix" this and never being happy with the results, so it was time to stop and move on to something else.
In addition to the decals, which once looked so good, now looking crappy; the general fit of the hood was off; the stance wasn't what I wanted; the engine compartment seemed too far off the 1:1 car; I could go on and on. I am not up for taking "favorable pictures" of my work or retouching photos. For better or worse, as I have gotten better at this stupid hobby, my own standards have gone up, and I won't waste time continuing to work on something I know I won't like when it's done.
The only thing left to do is move on. So this kit won't see the light of day. So what--there are lots of other kits to build. But along with the happy memories of building when I was very young, there were painful ones too, and maybe I did this so I could experience the latter. I have to think about that.

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