Days of Thunder Group Build

[Steve86]

Nice idea and the field is coming along nicely! I built the City #46 Cole Tickle (Tom Cruise) car many years along.

[MetroRacing]

Thanks Steve. Nice to have you along for the ride

Ashley

[Deadman Disciple]

Great job on the Texaco car, looks fantastic next to the Quaker State car.

Wayne.

[MetroRacing]

Great job on the Texaco car, looks fantastic next to the Quaker State car.

Wayne.

Thanks Wayne. Must appreciated

Ashley

[MetroRacing]

Ok so it's been a fair while since I've updated this. Fear not it's not stalled lol. Just working on my meantime projects whilst I get caught up with the bodies.

Speaking of bodies...

The Red was masked and sprayed on the Valvoline Pontiac:

And decaled

Was very happy with them until it came time to take the pics today and up close the carrier film has returned to a brownish colour at the very edges. Looking at the pic thought you cant tell so I'm hoping that when it comes time to clear coat it, it'll work some kind of magic on them lol.

I've also finished off the Zerex Thunderbird chassis. So my workbench now looks like this:

Valvoline in the background, Zerex in the fore.

The Zerex body has been primed and the inside painted red. Getting there slowly lol.

I'll be finishing up the old Blue STP chassis as well whilst I'm working away on the Zerex body. Then I can stop boring everyone with these similar white cars. The one after will be Yellow lol

TTFN Ashley

[arni]

Very neat masking Ashley,do you clear the shell between colours?

[MetroRacing]

Very neat masking Ashley,do you clear the shell between colours?

I dont. And typically i over apply a clear coat after the decals have gone on. Because the paints are gloss, it's kinda pointless to apply gloss to gloss paint lol.

What I did do was to wet sand with 2000 grit the raised edges you get after the masking's removed to try and level it out.

Ashley

[arni]

I dont. And typically i over apply a clear coat after the decals have gone on. Because the paints are gloss, it's kinda pointless to apply gloss to gloss paint lol.

What I did do was to wet sand with 2000 grit the raised edges you get after the masking's removed to try and level it out.

Ashley

You completely misunderstood my question,the whole point of clearing between diff colours is to seal the masking tape hence no dodgy lines.

[MetroRacing]

You completely misunderstood my question,the whole point of clearing between diff colours is to seal the masking tape hence no dodgy lines.

I've heard of people doing that on airplane canopies to stop the paint bleeding under the masking, but not on a full camo/livery. I think it'd add too much thickness to each layer, being on top of a coat of clear as well. Which when sanding the ridge, would leave a feathered edge rather than just knocking off the edge. Plus if you get the masking right and make sure it's burnished down into the edges and corners as you're applying it, then you shouldnt be left with any bleeds.

The only bleeds I have with this really, was inside the shell or inside the lip of the rear quarter windows. Inside is fine as I can sand it back to the white plastic if I need and it won't affect the look as it'll barely be noticeable, and inside the window lips will be covered by the windows lol. If you want to see dodgy masking, look at my A team van I'm building lol. That was a rush job to try and get it done for a local model club meet and I paid the price lol.

Ashley

Edited August 18, 2016 by MetroRacing

[Hamden]

That Valvoline body looks really stunning

Roger

[MetroRacing]

Thanks Roger.

I've clear coated the bonnet and had no trouble from the decals. So the body will be cleared over the weekend and maybe I can get that one finished and off the bench lol.

Ashley

[MetroRacing]

Wow has it really been so long since I've updated this. Well fear not the project hasn't stalled, I've just been beavering away quietly it would seem lol.

There's a big update coming but for this post I'll do my final step-by-step assembly method for the Chassis like for the previous 2 styles.

This chassis is clearly an updated version of the earlier one used for the GM cars. The one I photographed for this guide was the 3rd one of this style I'd built. The first was for the Kodak Olds I mentioned in a previous post, and that was pretty straight forward being largely familiar with the construction style. Therefore I was going to use the next one for the pics however it's Black and I didn't think the details would show up all that well, so I focused on the Florescent Orange plastic of the 3rd one lol.

Here goes:

These are all the parts needed to build up the chassis

And first up is the floor and engine mount piece.

And together like so:

Next up is this brace bar:

This on mounts to the floor vertically unlike the tilted one from the previous chassis that was better glued to the cage.

Ok maybe this Fluorescent Orange still wasn't the best one for this lol.

Next the Fuel cell.

Pretty easy so far.

Then the Kicker bars.

Like so:

And to finish the floor section off this Bulkhead piece,

Just fits on simply

And that finishes the floor. Next up is the main cage section.

Starting with the Front bulkhead and the cage sides.

Assembly like all the previous ones.

Next up this piece.

You guessed it lol.

Next is the tricky part. But the fitting is the same as the earlier Buick and Pontiac chassis'

Unfortunately I forgot to take a pic of the next piece, but its the cross brace part that's the same as in all the previous kits.

It's a tricky part to fit but it mounts through the front bulkhead and the rear attaches to here:

Here's a pic of the whole brace fitted:

And that's it. You should have the same as this:

The 2 little pieces are braces that mount to the top of the front rails and through the front bulkhead, but fitting them now makes it near impossible to detail paint the brake and coolant bottles on the bulkhead and also makes it harder to fit the engine when the cage and floor are attached.

That's it for this update. The main build update is inbound. check back soon lol.

TTFN Ashley

[MetroRacing]

Ok so I actually finished the Valvoline Pontiac a while ago lol.

Here's some pics. Sorry they aren't the best.

The body doesn't fit the chassis very well and sort of just rests on top. takes a bit of fettling to get it sitting right but then as soon as you move it the body shifts

Here it is on some newly cleared shelf space with the other finished ones.

The Zerex is on hold as I just lost my mojo with the body for some reason.

But 2 weeks ago today in fact I found out that the club I've joined, Leicester modellers does build clubs some Saturdays, with the then next one being yesterday.

So I set myself a challenge to get the Kodak Oldsmobile fully painted up like a pre painted kit within those 2 weeks, so I could build and finish it on that day.

I started out with this:

The chassis, cage and engine halves had already been glued together and the body cleared up.

The tasks that remained was to strip the Chrome plating and detail paint all the components, remembering not to actually glue anything together as I went lol.

I was pretty confident that I could have all that done but what I was dubious over was getting the body finished in that time. I knew I'd only be able to get the first coat of primer on by the end of that Sunday and with having to leave the decals a full week to dry out I needed to have it fully decaled by the first Thursday, so that the following Thursday I could clear coat the body and then the Friday I could detail paint the grills etc. and fit the windows and hood and truck pins ready for Saturday.

No pressure but I couldn't afford any mistakes and the decals couldn't wrinkle with the clear coat either. Everything had to be perfect first time. Oh and of course the inside of the body along with the chassis had to be Black with the body being yellow just to add to the tight deadline lol.

But I got off to a good start. Here is the body on the Wednesday after 2 primer coats, Black interior coat, 2 coats of Rover Inca Yellow with sanding between each:

Not bad for 3 and a bit days lol.

And here's the body after 10 hrs constant decaling on Thursday after work:

Now to leave it for a solid week for them to fully dry out.

By the mid way point on Saturday I had all the pieces finished from detail painting:

Not pictured is the Chassis and Frame but they were finished too.

So what to do with all this free time I suddenly found I had?

Well you remember the STP Pontiac I had all those problems with back at the start and in the end just put it away? Well here's how the chassis looked by last Wednesday:

And so it was time to clear coat the body and bonnet. I tested out the bonnet on Wednesday night and in the morning it was fine. No wrinkles in the decals and the bonnet was the last thing I decaled. So with that logic the body would be fine too.

So I cleared the body before work and sanded the bonnet ready for the second coat.

After work I cleared the bonnet again and sanded the body. The bonnet turned out to need another coat and the body a second. However I still wasn't 100% happy. I didn't have any problems during the clear coating but its that damn glue that Monogram used on their decals back in the 90's. It dries clear which is fine but it adds spots and lines of clear glue all over what was a perfectly flat and smooth colour coat, and it played havoc with trying to get a flat and smooth clear coat. Ideally the bonnet would have had one more sand and coat with the body following suit. In essence 4 coats of clear each, but I just didn't have the time to do it.

The next hurdle was that the windows didn't fit. I don't know if it was the amount of paint and clear or they just didn't fit to start with. but I had to sand down the windows and even clear some of the paint out of the openings.

That's also the only pic I have of the body after clear coat btw lol.

So in the end I made my deadline and took my kit of pre painted parts along to the Build club and returned with this:

So what now then. Well those that have been itching to see me Tackle the actual movie cars need fret no longer.

Next up is a back to back build of the #51 cars starting with the Exxon sponsored one.

I shall be building this like the Kodak, i.e. I need it ready for final assemble in 2 weeks lol.

No pics of the kit as its already on the bench but these are the extensive decals by Powerslide and printed by Cartograph.

You get 2 sets of Exxon logo. One plain white and one with a silver border:

The plain ones are to be used as a base for the others to prevent them being translucent. A nice touch imo.

Also included are decals to build it as the #15 car that actually raced in the nascar series in 1990. another nice touch lol.

Here is the Mello Yello kit from Monogram that I'll be building straight after:

And for comparison's sake, the kit's decals:

And the one's supplied by Powerslide:

I think I know which one's I'll be using lol.

Anyway that's it for this very long update lol. Hope I've not bored anyone too much lol.

Comments etc. welcome as always.

TTFN Ashley

[arni]

Very nice work Ashley.

[Blitz23]

WOW they're looking fantastic together, great job so far I can't wait to see the Mello Yello paint scheme.

[MetroRacing]

Thanks guys. Seems everyone's favourite is the Mello Yello lol. One of my friends kept asking when I was going to start it haha. Not long to wait for it now though. Gonna try my hardest with that one to get it as perfect as I can. No deadlines with it lol.

Ashley

[Hamden]

The Kodak car looks stunning!

Roger

[MetroRacing]

Thanks Roger

Ashley

[willciviceg5]

any updates?

[kpnuts]

Super work, this is an epic job, well done so far.

[MetroRacing]

Hi guys.

 

I did make further progress than what has been posted.

The Exxon car is basically finished, save the windows. I had a problem with the clear coat. It isn't bad but it wasn't up to the standards of the Kodak car. So I've decided to take a break from this build till next year.

The reason I haven't updated this topic with that is because, since the update to the forums software I've sort of lost interest in it. I mostly view this forum via my phone and the update has made it the same as the Web version, and I now find it too fiddly. This is probably only the third time I've come back on here since lol.

I'll try and post some pics of the Exxon car tonight and I may even start a topic on my latest project. 

 

Ashley

[Nick Belbin]

Stick with it! Looking forward to seeing the uodate.

 

Nick

[MetroRacing]

1 hour ago, Nick Belbin said:

Stick with it! Looking forward to seeing the uodate.

 

Nick

 

Thanks Nick. The project isn't dead just on hold whilst I focus on a refining my painting skills on other models. Unfortunately I seem to have found a bad luck streak. I've definitely refined my paint stripping method haha

 

Ashley 

[MetroRacing]

Ok here's how the Exxon car looks.

 

Excuse the dust but it's been sitting for a couple months. It's not a complete disaster but I'm not happy with it.

So I decided rather than continue drudging on with it, I'd put the build on hold until I felt like continuing it.

 

TTFN Ashley

[MikeGTC]

Damn, yea it sucks when things go wrong with a model you want near perfect.

If those cracks were already in the black / primer its from going to heavy with the paint coats.

 

But i do think those nascar cars don't look perfect at the start of each race, 

so having a few errors might be more realistic

 

Mike