1970 Plymouth Hemi Cuda

[Spiny]

Revell's 1970 Plymouth Hemi Cuda brings me bang up to date as I've just finished it over the weekend. Not perfect, but I think I am getting better. Incidentally, although it might look as though I have used zero imagination (OK, I did use zero imagination!), I did the car lime green because that's the colour I think suits it best, and built the stock rather than custom model for personal preference.

 

Overall, this is a very nice kit which goes together very well with the exception of the rear valance (more on that later). There are mould lines on the body, but apart from the ones on the A-pillars they are positioned so as to be easy to sand off. The main downside is actually on the instructions where there are a few places which call for the body colour when they should actually be coloured differently. In fact, I inadvertedly got to try out my paint stripping skills on the dashboard which is listed as body colour, but when I did some research turned out to be the interior colour. Lesson learned - do your research before painting, not after

 

So, first up the engine bay. It all went together much better than I was expecting it to with no real issues, even when it came to fitting the body around it. Sadly (sadly?! nothing sad about it), most of it is hidden by the enormous shaker scoop which I ended up rather obviously brush painting, although the camera has enhanced the brush strokes a lot.

 

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Unfortunately, the shape of the car meant it was difficult to get a decent pic of the interior. All down to Plymouth on that score, not Revell for the model nor Canon for the camera. These are the best I could manage

 

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Onto the exterior, and I might as well get the worst bit out of the way first. The rear valance just doesn't seem quite right. It has to be added on after the body has been mated to the chassis, but the hollows to accommodate the rear cart springs are slightly too wide apart. I hollowed them out further to get it to fit a little bit better, but didn't dare go any further in case I went through the plastic. So it doesn't sit quite right (only by about 0.5mm, but it's enough) and that has meant that the exhausts don't quite go in right either. At least being below the bumper, it's only noticeable if you go looking for it.

 

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The front went together much better. The only real issue was that the bonnet appears to have warped slightly which shows up from some angles, and not too much from others. I thought I had it straightened out before fitting to the car, but it appeared to refind it's warp overnight. At least it's not too major.

 

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Going to be lazy now, and just put up a load of pics from around the car. Incidentally, the bit on the first photo which looks like a run isn't, it's just a badly located reflection of the light tent. Window trim is done using the magic Molotow pen - I haven't done any foiling at all and with the way the pen performs I doubt I will

 

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And finally, I gave it a chance to chill in the sunshine in the conservatory. Thanks for looking - time for me to move onto something Japanese I think

 

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Edited April 16, 2018 by Spiny
Because I can't get it right first time

[Jim Wasley]

Great looking model.I do like the cool paint work,and the very well detailed engine bay,think you have done a Fab lot of work on this one,Cheers.

[spaddad]

orsum

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Good looking Hemi 👍

[JeroenS]

A nice ride in a colour that suits it well! I like the finish (great job like on the Porsche), could you explain which paints and other products you used and what you did to achieve the result?

[Thud4444]

Great looking model. I always wanted one of these, but the prices are insane for a decent car these days. 

Edited April 17, 2018 by Thud4444

[noeyedears]

lovely finish, looks ace!

[mustang1989]

Love the color, finish and all the details. Awesome work Spiny!!

[Plastheniker]

Convincing all around, beautiful work!

[Spiny]

15 hours ago, JeroenS said:

A nice ride in a colour that suits it well! I like the finish (great job like on the Porsche), could you explain which paints and other products you used and what you did to achieve the result?

I must admit that most of my learning process was from picking up bits of advice from here and from around the internet. There's lots of great paint jobs which I see other people have done, and I'm sure everyone has their own way of doing things. But here is my system. I'm afraid it is quite long-winded, not great if you're in a rush and I usually start painting before I begin the build.

 

First step is to decide on the colour, and then test the layers together to make sure they don't react as I often break the cardinal rule of not mixing brands and would much rather not ruin a model with reacting paints. I bought a pack of cheap plastic spoons, and spray the primer, colour coat and clear coat on the back separated by about a week each. If they don't react, we're good to go.

 

When it comes to painting, I spray in a storage box in the garage which acts as my spray booth. I try to spray when the temperature is between 10-25 degrees C and humidity less than 70% which unfortunately all but rules out spraying in winter. So I have to get ahead of target with the body shells in summer to let me keep building through winter. Then for each layer of paint, I employ what I tend to think of as the 2-2-2 method: at least two mist coats (enough to give a light mist on the surface, but not to provide a full change of colour in one layer), then two wet coats to build up that paint layer. The last "2" is the time-consuming one - wait two weeks for the layer to fully cure before the next one. Probably overkill, but I prefer to play safe.

 

First layer on I use Halfords primer. That probably won't help you in the Netherlands, but it's car primer so if you have a suitable on over there which doesn't melt the plastic that could work - just try on some old sprue first to make sure! At least two weeks later, it's on with the colour coat which will often tell you which is the best colour primer to use. I tend to use grey primer for dark colours such as the Porsche, and white for lighter colours such as this Cuda. No real hard-and-fast rule for which colours I use - the Porsche is Halfords Volvo 442 Dark Grey while the Cuda uses Humbrol Lime Green. After about a week, I'll add on decals and put a Humbrol wash on the panel lines - black for dark cars and dark grey for lighter paints. Two weeks on from the colour coat, and it's onto the clear coat which, so far, has been Revell clear gloss spray for me. I like that it gives a good shine, but it does react with the oils in your fingers and develop finger prints in the finish if you're not careful, so from now on it's a case of wearing cotton gloves when handling the body if at all possible. If there are any obviously raised blobs in the paint after any of the first two layers, I'll give it a rub over there with 1000 grit sandpaper, otherwise I just move onto the next coat.

 

Now all the paint is on, and the clear coat has had two weeks to dry, I attack it with Micromesh. Generally, I only use the 4000grit where there are runs, so assuming I did a good job of spraying I start with the 6000grit which will take off some of the shine, but also smooths out any orange peel. You can use 4000grit here, just be careful you don't go through the paint. Then it's onto the 8000 and finally the 12,000grit paper by which time you should have a good shine. For the Cuda, I got some 3000/12000 grit sanding sticks which allows me to get into more corners while reducing the risk of skinning the creases and edges on the body. With the sanding sticks, I dry sand while for the Micromesh I tend to wet sand with water as lubricant. You can usually feel when you have got the finish ready with a particular grit after the first one as you will feel the friction reduce.

 

Almost there now, and I for the Porsche and Cuda I used Tamiya Fine (not Finish) polishing compound. I had thought that the 12,000 grit on it's own gave a nice shine, but the polishing compound does seem to add that bit of depth to the paintwork - and further proof for me was that it's these two cars which people have given good feedback on rather than the Mustang and Corvette which didn't get the compound.

 

Last step is to add wax. After a bit of trial and error, I've ended up with Dodo Juice Blue Velvet which is a wax for 'real' cars. It's a hard carnauba wax which comes in a very small tin and at £6.99 seems expensive for the size, which is meant to do a car 3 or 4 times. But, for a model car, it's perfect and gives that last little bit of depth.

 

I hope that you find that helpful, even if you can't get the exact products in Holland I'm sure there are similar ones out there.

 

And that's to everyone that commented on the car, I'm glad you liked it

[nikkita katana]

Excellent stuff, particularly like the engine bay.

And good photography skills too.

 

 

[JeroenS]

Thanks for the detailed description Spiny, it made for an interesting read. You clearly put a lot of effort in the painting, and rightly so as it definitely pays off. As for the products, Halfords went under a couple of years ago over here so there's not too many stores anymore, but they do have an online shop. It seems they don't sell automotive paint like they do in the UK. They do have the wax and stuff so I'll keep an eye out for it. I like your idea of the spoons!

[Spiny]

19 hours ago, nikkita katana said:

Excellent stuff, particularly like the engine bay.

And good photography skills too.

 

 

Thank you, good of you to say and glad you like it. For the photography, I'm lucky in that I had all the bits apart from the light tent to be able to get a decent 'studio' set up. So it was just a case of putting the camera on a mini-tripod about 2-3 feet from the car, setting the car onto a mirror tile on top of the old Tamiya 959 box in the tent, then setting the aperture as narrow (highest f-stop) as possible to get the best depth of field. Fortunatley, my camera has a manual setting to allow me to play with the aperture and shutter speed - I need that tripod as most of the pics apart from the sunny ones have shutter speeds in excess of a second.

14 hours ago, JeroenS said:

Thanks for the detailed description Spiny, it made for an interesting read. You clearly put a lot of effort in the painting, and rightly so as it definitely pays off. As for the products, Halfords went under a couple of years ago over here so there's not too many stores anymore, but they do have an online shop. It seems they don't sell automotive paint like they do in the UK. They do have the wax and stuff so I'll keep an eye out for it. I like your idea of the spoons!

I'd love to be able to claim credit for the spoons but unfortunately I can't. It's one of those things you find trawling the internet, and I can't even remember where to give the credit where it's due.

 

In terms of the primer, the best advice I can give is stick with one if you have one which works for you (as it looks like your camper van does). I forgot to say that when I spray paint, I soak the can in warm water for abut 15 mins before using to heat it up and get a better pressure, and also that I tend to leave 15-20 mins between layers. And for the wax, that one wasn't from Halfords, but from Amazon.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003JJ3GX2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Glad to have been of help.

[Will9962]

Very nice work!

great paint job, really suits the car in my opinion .

[TonyW]

Nice looking Mopar. The Monogram Plymouths and Dodges push all the right buttons for me.