Hertz Shelby Mustang - The Original

[TonyW]

That orange peel looks like it will sand and polish out OK. If the reflections on the hood are anything to go by, there's a diamond shine waiting to get out!

 

I'm really relieved the decals behaved themselves under the clear.

[Spiny]

You're not the only relieved one about those decals. There is a small mark on the bonnet which I think is caused more by a bit of decal setting residue I didn't completely get rid of, but that's only visible if you get it at just the wrong angle. As you say, the orange peel will polish out, the tricky bit will be not burning through the paint, or even worse the decal!

[Spiny]

So this weekend I got onto some gluing, and first up was putting all those dashboard bits together.

 

 

While everything went together pretty well, I am a tad concerned I may have messed up a little. As the multitudes who are building the Hertz have probably/are yet to discover, there is no positive placement for the rev counted, so I plonked it on the dash in what looked to be the right place. Trouble is now I suspect I've put it too far back and it may foul the windscreen, and on checking (why didn't I do this before gluing ) it's definitely in the wrong place. So I need to decide whether to move it (which will necessitate a dashboard repair but will definitely be needed if it snags the windscreen) or just live with being wrong.

 

With the dash done, I could get some progress on the interior. Door handles and the rear seat had been painted ready for install, so they have gone in too. This is how it looks at the moment.

 

 

Since then, I've got the grey, but not the silver on the front seats, and have almost got all the paint on the wheel hubs I need to as well as haveing sanded the tread on the tyres to make them look a little worn. I also had a go at the first of the wheels, so far my thought is that having to detail paint over the chrome paint is proving a pain with the fish-eyeing, let along having to paint 5 small areas on each wheel. Not looking forward to the next three, and I haven't even finished the first one yet.

 

Thanks for looking. Hate to say it, but looking at where I am I'm beginning to have doubts as to whether I will have this finished by the end of the group build.

[TonyW]

To make the wheel painting a bit easier with all those segments that need filling, I dilute black paint just enough so it runs into any low areas, and then touch it over the wheel nuts to fill that area. Five touches, five wheel nut surrounds done. Let it dry and repeat as necessary. The black builds up and the capillary action does the painting for you. Once that area is done and dry, tilt the wheel over a bit and do the same with the cut out area next to the rim. It's a bit of a faff waiting for the paint to dry enough to do the next segment but it's easier on the eyesight than straight painting. Any paint that wanders off can be either removed with a cotton bud or a paintbrush damp with thinner. 

[Spiny]

Sounds pretty much like the method I used for the dash and the rocker covers. The main thing which got me about the wheels though was that with wider areas there was less opportunity for the capillary actiojn to do its thing, hence the fisheyeing instead which almost made me consider stripping the chrome.

 

I was hoping to get the grille painted over the weekend, but as has been the norm this weekend the weather was rubbish so no spraying. Instead tonight i gave it (and my fingers holding the cocktail stick!) a quick blast of matt black. This will be done in reverse as I intend to go over the raised parts with Molotow Chrome. Not sure what made me to it the opposite way to what I did before but too late now.

[TonyW]

Now that's a good idea. I'll be watching your results with more than a bit of interest.

[mustang1989]

That dash looks like the "bee's knees" right there! Great work. I hear you on the tachometer placement. I went through this same issue two builds ago. True PIA.

[Spiny]

On 23/08/2021 at 21:14, TonyW said:

Now that's a good idea. I'll be watching your results with more than a bit of interest.

It wasn't a good idea   I thought I'd try it with the 2mm nib as it would run across the surface with no chance of it dropping into the gaps between bars. Instead, the chrome ran into the gaps between bars (I must not have shaken it enough as it seemed runnier than usual). So I guess that the gaps will be filled in with the same method you suggested for the wheels and which worked ok on the dash and rocker covers.

[TonyW]

That's a shame. Would holding the pen at an angle and doing one side of the raised area at a time work? Or maybe cut a bit of card that fills the centre gap while you do one side at a time? The initial idea is a good one, getting the method dialled in would be worth it in the end.

Good luck.

[Spiny]

This is the current state of play, although very unusually the camera is making things look better than they are, when you see it life size the chrome tends to take over the black and look more as though it's filling the whole lot.

 

 

I did the chroming with the side of the nib of the 2mm pen, then completed the inside of the grille outer panel and the very ends of the bars with a fine brush. You can see where the chrome ran in between the bars in a number of places, particularly to the right of the badge. I think if I leave this for a couple of weeks to let the chrome get reasonably solid I should be able to make this look ok with some fine matt black painting between the grille bars.

 

The most annoying thing is that doing it this way round I could have just kept the kit chrome and had the same effect for less work.

[TonyW]

Isn't it great when you spend ages getting yourself right back to where you started from? I'm glad I'm not alone here. 😀

 

The grill looks very good. Huge close up pictures are merciless and yours passes with flying colours.

[stevehnz]

Looking good Spiny, good enough for me to order one of these too. I think your rev counter should be mid dash, as in this photo, it seems to be the common placement on these.

Steve.

[Spiny]

I agree with you about the rev counter placement, that was what I meant about it being in the wrong place. Although the kit instructions would have you put it where I have it, every single picture I can see has it towards the middle as your photo. The more I think about it, the more I'm thinking I'll have to get it moved or it will annoy me.

 

As for the grille, that is definitely going to have some matt black put in the hollows between the grille bars with the finest brushes I have at my disposal (Tamiya Ultra Fine or Army Painter Psycho) as that is bugging me too.

[mustang1989]

That does indeed look really good in photos. I hear what you're saying about a "total" chrome look through and can see where it would look like that. Hmm.....is there any way to sand the back down to the point where just the ribbing remains, then airbrush Molotow over the whole grille assy. Just a passing thought. I'm definitely looking forward to more of this awesome build.

[Spiny]

I think I'll stick to just painting the gaps between the grille bars, not because your idea sounds bad but for two very good reasons:

 

1 - I don't have the courage to start grinding away at the back as I'm sure I'd go through the bars as well (there's two large what I presume are ejection marks but which look like suckers on the back of the grille)

2 - My airbrushing skills aren't far above non-existent. I'm sure that the airbrushing alone would ruin the part even if I didn't destroy it with the sanding!

 

Didn't get anything done on it this weekend but should get something done, even if just polishing, next weekend. Now all I need is for the weather to be good enough to let me spray - August weekends have been terrible.

[mustang1989]

14 hours ago, Spiny said:

I think I'll stick to just painting the gaps between the grille bars, not because your idea sounds bad but for two very good reasons:

 

1 - I don't have the courage to start grinding away at the back as I'm sure I'd go through the bars as well (there's two large what I presume are ejection marks but which look like suckers on the back of the grille)

2 - My airbrushing skills aren't far above non-existent. I'm sure that the airbrushing alone would ruin the part even if I didn't destroy it with the sanding!

 

Didn't get anything done on it this weekend but should get something done, even if just polishing, next weekend. Now all I need is for the weather to be good enough to let me spray - August weekends have been terrible.

I hear ya Spiny. Looking forward to more progress bro. 

[Spiny]

A bit more work this weekend, but unfortunately a good deal of it has been rectifying defects. First of all, I made a start on Micromeshing the body. And having finished that, I was just congratulating myself on not having burned through the paint (yet! - still the polishing compounds to go) when I noticed that a corner of one stripe decal appeared to have disappeared. I've touched it up with Revell Gold, which if you view it at the right angle is a perfect match for the gold stripe, and if you view it at the wrong angle looks nothing like it. After that, I've given it a couple of coats of Future over the topand hopefully when that's polished back it'll look ok. The good news is that because it's the stripe on the rear valance which has suffered it's not going to be too noticeable, and even less noticeable once it goes in the display cabinet. No pictures - it won't look much different to how it did last time but I will post up when the polishing is finished.

 

The next bit of remedial work was to sort out that rev counter. fortunately it came off the dash relatively easily, but I had to sand it back to give a decent finish, then repaint the top of the dash before I could reattach the rev counter. Took most of the weekend what with paint drying and all, but that meant the seats were finished and are fitted too.

 

 

And the last bit of rectifying was finally possible due to the decent weather - having had the run on the bonnet I'd sanded it back before bank holiday but it was only yesterday that I was able to get a further clear coat applied. You can still see the run, but it's much less obvious and I think it will look better once I've sanded back a bit further. The finish of the clear has come out pretty well so apart from the last bits where the run was sanding here should be minimal. Other news is that I've continued with the wheels, the first has had all the painting it's going to get and just needs the decal applying. The rest are coming along and should be done next week. I also got the rear lights painted (Tamiya Clear Red is much better that Revell, both in terms of depth of colour and how well it covers the silver). So here's the odds and sods all together.

 

 

Thanks for looking, next week I'm going to test my patience with my first attempt at foiling...

[Spiny]

This was was of those weekend where you spend ages on something, and don't feel like you've moved on very far. Yes, this was the weekend where I had to polish the body shell, first of all with Novus 2 to try to get rid of the worst of the orange peel (not totally successful, but the worst has gone), and then Novus 1 for the final shine. For the first time ever, and by some miracle, I haven't burned though the paint anywhere, even more surprising given how many edges the are on this thing. I must have put the paint on too thickly! There will be some wax added once it's built, but this won't be far off the end result.

 

The other job was the one I've been dreading, my first go at bare metal foiling. I only did the surrounds to the 3/4 windows, but did learn a few things:

 

1) Foiling isn't as bad as I thought it would be

2) Foiling takes a lot longer than I thought it would

3) Don't grab the foiled piece with your fingernails - I've left a couple of indents in one of them.

 

They don't stand out in the pic below, but the windows are there, sitting near the '2' and '23' on the instructions. And this is how the body looks now:

 

 

That's the only picture from me this week. The only other thing I got done was to finish the wheels, but for those just imagine four like in the post above.

[mustang1989]

Man........that suuuuure looks purdy!! Awesome paint work on the body and that interior looks just beautiful.

[Spiny]

Another week with only one picture, and this picture will look very similar to last week's. After last week's first try and foiling around the rear windows, this week I did my first foiling on a car body. Not perfect by a long way, especially around the windscreen, but it is bordering on the acceptable. Hopefully next time I can do a little better, but I'll live with this for a first attempt.

 

 

That took up pretty much all of Saturday's modelling time, and with only limited time today I barely got any more done. Just painted the headlining, and added decals to the wheels so fair to say today doesn't feel as though it's been too productive. But I am hopeful that next week I might get the chassis and body together.

 

Thanks for looking. Three weeks to go and I think it's touch and go as to whether I'll finish in time.

[mustang1989]

Man......just loogathat shine on the roof!!! WOW!!!  Foiling always seems to take alot of time but is a necessary evil to get these autos to look right. Looking forward to yet more progress from you on this build. 

[Kitkent]

Bare metal foil is very difficult to do,it's looking very good! Chris.

[TonyW]

Any progress is still progress.

 

It's really starting to come together beautifully now. That shine is pretty deep as it is, once it's waxed it'll be deeper still.

 

I've only just noticed the rivets around the steering wheel outer. Nice touch.

[Spiny]

Thanks all for the likes and comments. Been a rough few days so I needed that. And that's also my excuse for not really getting much done - been having to make myself do some modelling to fill my mind but not really the same as jumping in for fun.

 

Still I did get some very visible progress done. First of all, the windows are in now:

 

 

The big windows actually went in pretty easily, just the UV resin on the top and bottom and they sit in place quite nicely. The smaller 3/4 windows were a bit of a pain though, kept falling through the hole. It turns out that they are better installed from the outside rather than the inside, so I ended up putting a run of 6mm masking tape across the inside of the window, then dropping the windows in, adding a bit of UV resin fore and aft sides of the window and setting it there. Then, once set, remove the masking tape and add UV resin to the inside of the top and bottom of the window (inside the car!). Fiddly, but it works.

 

The interior should also be an easy install, but it does keep trying to go slightly out of alignment (or at least mine did). It still ended up being slightly lower at the left hand side than the right, but only by about half a mm, so not really visible.

 

After that, it was time to add the chassis (well, chome bits on the boot first, lights were painted a few weeks ago). The front springs go in at this time, but you can pish those up into the turret, fit the chassis, then use some fine tweezers to drop into the chassis hole and seal with Tamiya Extra Thin. Not as painful as I thought it would be. And the last bit was adding the wheels. Three have clicked into place, but the left front just refused to click so it's glued on.

 

 

It's finally looking like a car, now all I need to do is push to the finish line.

 

Thanks for looking.

[Fnick]

That is looking really slick! Makes me very tempted to have another go at a Mustang at one point... Now where that's eBay link...😋

 

Nick

Edited September 28, 2021 by Fnick