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Chevrolet Super Sport Roadster


Spiny

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Time for the next project, and one with a bit of an overblown name. With that sort of name you'd expect some hugely overpowered convertible, maybe some sort of uprated Corvette. What you actually get with the Chevy SSR is a retro-styled convertible pick-up. This will be my first commercial vehicle (in the very loosest sense of the word) but don't expect me to do a weathered example - as with the rest of my display it will look qutie clean unless I make a real pig's ear of it.

 

So, on with progress to date. I should say that so far it's just been spraying which I did over summer and just got finished before winter set in. Still need to polish it up, and there are some bits, such as the deck lid, where there is some very noticeable orange peel.

 

First up, the easy bit - the wheels.

 

Started out like this in the box:

 

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A dunk in bleach, then spray with Silver Leaf paint from the XJ220 and they ended up looking like this:

 

50832761596_dfee272714_b.jpg

 

The chassis was sprayed satin black (no pics yet, but not that exciting) and also the interior tub. This was a bit of a pain as I had to do a bit of masking to separate the black fabric and a big T-shape of body-coloured paint. There's a bit which I managed to mask on both sprayings, but it's only little and bit of purple should hide it. First up, masking the body-colour area so I can spray the interior:

 

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Then I forgot to take a picture with the black paint on before masking for the body-colour area:

 

50832762786_d00bbfb1d2_b.jpg

 

And the 'finished' article just needing a bit of tidying up. With all the paint layers, and two weeks between layers, this one piece took me 10 weeks to get sprayed - not one to leave until the end of summer.

 

50832761941_15b00bb6c7_b.jpg

 

So what about the body. First impressions are that it's heavy. I decided to go for purple here, there's not many cars which suit purple so I'm hoping this one does work. Onto that body, and it didn't really have any sink marks, but there were a few minor mould lines which were easily dealt with. There's also a big mould line around the back as you can see from the photo...

 

50832020093_7cba8082ca_b.jpg

 

That took a bit of sanding, but after priming, sanding again and more priming I had something presentable. I went with white primer as I didn't want the colour to end up too dark on this one.

 

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On with the colour coat (Tamiya Purple TS-24) and I'm reasonably happy with the colour, but it just felt a little flat. Nothing for it, order some Pearlescent Clear to give it that little bit of sparkle.

 

EDIT: Missed the pic with it in solid purple:

 

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Not sure that photo does it justice, but I only gave it a light layer of the Pearl - I don't want something which is over-the-top, just enough to add some interest. After that it was on with the final clear coat to give me something to work with when I polish it.

 

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This weekend will mark the start of working on it properly, although I must admit that with all those curves I'm not looking forward to the polishing 😬

 

Thanks for looking.

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I'm just about to respray a Tamiya 350Z with a purple craft paint (for the third time!) but my camera steadfastly refuses to show the colour as anything other than blue!

 

Looking forward to seeing this one come together, don't think I've seen one built before - other than a 1:1 scale one on an American car show which they did some pretty wild mods too IIRC!

 

Keith 

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Nice start on this an unusual subject, mind if I take a socially distanced seat by the window and watch you work your magic

 

    Stay safe           Roger

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I'm surprised my camera hasn't turned it blue either - it can do that sometimes so I've been lucky here. Happy to have you watch this come together, although if you're expecting magic you may be disappointed ;)

 

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Spent quite a bit of time this weekend starting the build, and to be honest it looks as though I didn't achieve much.

 

But first it was more work on the body. I've washed the panel lines with black wash, and also dry-fitted various parts (bonnet, roof, bed-lid, rear bumper). The good news is that apart from a slight (<0.5mm) gap on one side of the bonnet they all fit pretty much spot-on - I'm particularly surprised by the bed lid as I fully expected it to be one of those parts which would stick once put in but it slid in nicely, and fell out when held upside down as you'd want. The only change since this photo is that I've run a cotton but dipped in IPA over the panel lines to tidy up the excess wash. Had to clean up the arms of the bonnet where they drop into the body as I used them to superglue to barbecue skewers to allow it to be painted, just need to touch up now I've removed the glue. But this is probably the first indication of how it will look when finished.

 

50846397471_9207c71fcb_b.jpg

 

As for the build, there has been no gluing apart from sticking the two halves of the engine together. The bits (apart from the engine) which are in tweezers still need a little more paint, and I intend to give the aluminium bits a wash next week before assembling the body.

 

50846397226_d610a51daa_b.jpg

 

Hopefully the engine will look better next week. As you can also see in this picture, I made a start on polishing the paint, although there's a long way to go. The bed lid had particularly bad orange peel, and is an easy shape, so I thought I'd get a start made on it. Only halfway through though, one side is as it was while the other side is polished down to 12,000 grit, just the polish and waxing left before the final shine but the wax in particular is a long way down the road.

 

Thanks for looking.

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I know where you're coming from. As a pickup, soft-top cruiser and something to drag away from the lights its a case of jack of all trades, master of none. From what I can gather it's not a particularly good car, but if I had £25k going spare I could be tempted - it's just got something about it. Like you I've only seen one in the wild, a bright yellow one near Barnsley, and the thing which struck me was that it's much taller than I was expecting - for some reason I had in my mind a vehicle height more like Ford P100 than F150.

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Well that wasn't one of my better ideas adding a wash to the engine. Unfortunately, all that happened was that I turned it dark grey with the wash acting more as a paint that I wanted. So, before it dried I grabbed a bit of old t-shirt material and polished the engine to get rid of most of it. I think I've managed to get it to an almost acceptable look, but the other bits aren't going any better. This is how the engine block/gearbox ended up:

 

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The rest of the weekend's modelling time was spent finishing off the belt assembly and getting paint onto all the other parts of the engine. But apart from the engine block I only got a few of the bits finished, most of the rest are still wanting more doing at them (unfortunately for some pieces that includes trying not to ruin them when I add on the wash).

 

50871595566_d214389aaf_b.jpg

 

Early impressions of the kit are that it's pretty well designed (although not the most complicated) and the few bits I've stuck together so far have fitted perfectly.. No sink marks on any of the body parts, but there was a massive one on the end of the top of the engine which needed filling in. So far, I'd say this is one of Revell's good ones.

 

I'm afraid that's all for this week, thanks for looking.

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Hi Spiny

 

Personally I think the engine block is looking good.

 

I've also find that a wash will cover the entire area and darken/deepen it which is fine if that is what you want!I Is it worth dry brushing the engine block? It should bring the colour back.

 

my two pennies worth!

 

Nick

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Thanks for the encouragement. Looking at it again after a day I may have been a little harsh on how it looks. Definitely I should have used a smaller brush to apply the wash than a 0 brush - too much wash meant that some parts are way too dark. But on the bright side, I think the worst bits are (by some miracle!) all going to end up covered by auxillary parts so I should get away with it. Incidentally, I didn't put a wash on the exhaust manifolds, hence them being noticeably paler. I think the contrast between that and the engine is one of those factors making me feel better about how this is turning out.

 

Hadn't thought about dry-brushing it, and that would have been a good idea before I started gluing parts on. One to remember next time I get the wash wrong.... :)

 

 

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Looks a though things are really getting busy in the vehicle section- had to scroll down almost to the bottom of the second page to find this :) That has to be a good thing.

 

Unfortunately, things aren't moving quite so fast with the SSR. After looking at it for a few days, I decided I wasn't happy with the intake manifold, so it took a bath in IPA and was repainted. Still a bit dark after it had its wash, but I'll live with it. With that finished, I was finally able to get the engine assembled, or at least assembled as far as is required for now. Not sure what is more depressing on this - that it took 3 weeks to make this meagre progress, or that once everything is put together this will be almost invisible.

 

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At least I'll know it's there. While waiting for various paints and washes to dry, I did a little bit more polishing. The bed cover has been sanded with Micromesh, as has the metal on the interior where I could get to it safely. Both will be given a rub over with polishing compound in future, but no more sanding so the risk of polishing through the paint is minimal now on these bits. Not looking forward to the body though - that looks as though it'll be a paint to do with all those curves and inside-corners. The other job was adding some paint to the inside of the bonnet. I masked up and got the sound-deadening done in black, then it was a case of picking out the logo. I need to give the silver and red another coat and tidy up a couple of bits where I've gone outside the line, but you should get the idea.

 

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I also dug out the ladder frame chassis and discovered that there's a bit of a warp (not sure whether this is as it came, or whether it's picked it up while being stored after painting). Either way, I want to try to straighten it out a bit, something I've not done before. Would I be right in thinking that the best thing is to put it in hand-hot water then try to twist against the warp> And once that's done, my thought is that I should put it in cold water to to try to set the straightened shape. Does that sound correct? I suspect that it will straighten out when fitted to the body anyway, but it would be good to give the process a try.

 

Thanks for any advice, and thanks for looking.

 

 

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Can't really offer any advice on the warp - I've tried both with and without dunking in cold water, and also taping the warped part down onto a steel plate and pouring boiling water on it, but have never been that succesful in straightening parts out. The theory is good, so hopefully you'll have more luck (latest warped part I had was of all things the floorpan in a Tamiya Impreza - you know those perfect kits that just fall together? Well that one didn't and it still sits with only three wheels touching the ground!) 

 

Keith

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Your plan for dealing with the warp sounds good.  It would probably retain it's shape if you let it cool slowly but quick cooling means less time holding it.  Not that a tiny volume of plastic is likely to stay warm for very long.

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Only just found this one, but the subject is one I'm up for (years ago I built a terrible quality AMT Ford F100 pickup) and I think the colour works well.  Nice detail on the engine.

 

Can I ask what pearlescent top coat you use?  I've been looking for pearlescent white for a project I've had in the stash for over 2 years now, and maybe I can make that over regular white work.  Although I suspect its going to be lacquer based, and I only shoot acrylics, and its been an issue finding pearlescent white acrylic...

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2 hours ago, HoolioPaulio said:

and its been an issue finding pearlescent white acrylic...

 

Not a pearl white as such, but I noticed this during my last shopping browse at Scalemodelshop;

 

https://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/product/17ml-pearl-3rd-gen-acrylic-ak-interactive-ak11206/

 

Unfortunately, and I could well be wrong, but it looks like a pearl medium to me. I did buy the metal medium which they reckon can be added to any solid colour to make a metallic, but I haven't tried it yet. I suppose I should have bought the pearl too!

 

Keith

 

edit: It's out of stock at Hobbycraft at the mo, but you may be able to find it elsewhere, but there's also this;

 

https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/pebeo-white-pearl-acrylic-paint-59ml/629274-1000

 

I haven't used that particular one, but have just sprayed a Tamiya Nissan 350Z with Pebeo Pearl Violet. Thinned with tap water (ours is very soft) or distilled water it sprays very nicely as long as you use thin coats over a primer coat. I've used solid craft colours many times in the past, and the only problem I've had is when using a laquer clearcoat over one as it was too hot - sticking with acrylic clears I've had no problem. Depending on my mood, I sometimes add a little Johnson's Klear ro the diluted paint as I find that helps it spray a little better, but didn't bother with the latest paintjob

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12 hours ago, johnlambert said:

Your plan for dealing with the warp sounds good.  It would probably retain it's shape if you let it cool slowly but quick cooling means less time holding it.  Not that a tiny volume of plastic is likely to stay warm for very long.

 

My thinking (and it sounds as though @keefr22 has the same idea) is that, with polystyrene being a thermoplastic rather than thermosetting plastic (i,e. it gets softer as it gets hotter) then in theory it should be possible to bend it into shape in hot water, then by cooling it the thermoplastic nature works in reverse and should hold the shape. It tried it and it sort of worked, in that I've managed to about halve the warp, although I suspect it may be gradually reverting to its original shape. So currently it's clamped to the desk with the offending corners off and on the cutting mat and the other corner weighted down by a pencil case. I'm hoping time will finish off what the hot water started as it didn't seem to want to go any further than I had got it.

 

11 hours ago, HoolioPaulio said:

Only just found this one, but the subject is one I'm up for (years ago I built a terrible quality AMT Ford F100 pickup) and I think the colour works well.  Nice detail on the engine.

 

Can I ask what pearlescent top coat you use?  I've been looking for pearlescent white for a project I've had in the stash for over 2 years now, and maybe I can make that over regular white work.  Although I suspect its going to be lacquer based, and I only shoot acrylics, and its been an issue finding pearlescent white acrylic...

 

The pearl is Tamiya's TS-65 Pearl Clear which is a lacquer so probably a bit smelly/poisonous for spraying in the house. If you can cope with Tamiya rattlecans, they do a pearl white as well. I then overcoated the Pearl Clear with TS-13 Clear to give me something to polish without taking off the mica flakes. Funnily enough, there is one in my stash (probably about 2-3 years down the line) which I am considering Pearl White too.

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21 minutes ago, Spiny said:

Funnily enough, there is one in my stash (probably about 2-3 years down the line) which I am considering Pearl White too

 

Mine isn't your regular earth vehicle awaiting the perfect metallic red and pearlescent white.  The crowning glory in my Gundam collection

YsxxPkr.jpg

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Finally did something other than the engine on this. But first... trying to get rid of the warp on the chassis. After no luck with heating/twisting/cooling or with leaving for an hour with a twist in, I resorted to somewhat desperate measures. Soaked for a few minutes in hot water, then dried off the thickest of the water and clamped to the desk with the cutting mat and pencil case to twist it the other way:

 

50920055537_05687653c6_b.jpg

 

It was left like this overnight, so it had every chance to straighten out. And the result? Not straight, but I'd say I got rid of about 2/3 of the warp - fingers crossed that the rest of the straightening out can be taken up by the body (which feels pretty sturdy).

 

Meanwhile I started on the rear end. The diff/propshaft assembly is made up of three parts, all stuck together before painting so quite easy. Everything except the exhaust is down as being painted satin black, but I decided to at least liven up the springs (not easy to see but located between the beam axle and ladder frame) so they were done gloss black with matt black between the coils of the springs. Not very visible even at this stage, so will probably be completely invisible once built. There's a bit of fiddling around with the scissor spring (instructions say it's the rear track bar) and exhaust as they're close to sharing space, but so far I'd have to say that this kit is going together very well. In some ways it's quite simple (solid metal rear axle anyone?) but the detailing seems to be elsewhere - this is still a 100+ piece kit.

 

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The hubs, dampers and ARB are just starting to be painted, so I guess they'll be going on next weekend with a bit of luck.

 

Thanks for looking.

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Despite your headaches with the warp, the build is coming along nicely!  Take a look, saw this over the weekend:

 

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This guy certainly likes his!  I see this whenever driving to my parent's place - and it's always shiny!  😎

 

Cheers

Nick

 

 

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Saw this over in the 'what have you see today' thread.  Funnily enough, it's a dead ringer for the only one I've seen in the flesh which was also yellow.

 

One thing your photo has flagged up to me is that the front strip isn't gloss - I had to check other images and it seems that's standard. So I will have to remove the kit chrome from that and give it a spray when the weather gets better for painting. Fortunatley that isn't needed until near the end of the build so it should be warmer by then :)

 

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