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RTR-X Widebody '69 (Boss 302, Revell 1/25)


Scargsy

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I'm parking this here (need to clear a few kits from the workbench before starting).

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I'm planning on building this '69 Mustang Boss with the C1 RTR-X mod kit, not an exact replica more inspiration.

The mod kit seems to be 3D printed (I think) resin pieces, I'm not great at the old filling and sanding so should prove interesting.

I've also got some other 17" wheels and tyres which hopefully (somehow) I can make fit.

No idea on colours yet.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So the kit I think is pretty old moulds but seems to have a few nice touches, such as the rear lights being moulded in clear red.

The instruction booklet is the new Revell style colour one and the decals look pretty good.

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Not too many parts, seems the kit comes with 2 engine blocks - I guess for various versions.

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Clear parts and chromes bagged separately (so was body, compared to main sprues). I might try strip the chrome, though I've never done that before.

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The aftermarket wheels come with multiple coloured parts: silver/grey for the brakes, black wheels with red inserts, also includes poly caps. The separate inserts should make painting them easy. I've no idea how I'll mount them yet to the car, given it's going to be a wide body kit, hopefully I can trim down the original wheel parts and mount them onto those to help pad it out.

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The resin parts come in a nice sturdy cardboard box but no instructions - guess I'll have to wing it, but not too many so hopefully not a difficult job. Luckily they seem to be moulded in some resin that's slightly flexible (great as I hate brittle resin) and seems to accept Tamiya Extra Thin glue (I tested on a few small offcuts).

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I made a start on the engine block pieces, I'm just going with the standard small block for the kit, not doing anything fancy as I don't intend on having it on show.

With the main block parts together I gave it and the air filter cover a blast of blue from a rattle can I had hanging about.

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I made a start on the body - fitting the front and then attaching the extended arches. The rear ones seemed to fit nicely and I managed to attached them with just Tamiya glue. The fronts didn't want to play ball so much so I needed to use some epoxy and clothes pegs to get them to conform...

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Whilst the epoxy does create a strong bond it's quite messy to use.

Once they were on I added the front and rear spoilers, and did some dry fit testing.

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I'm going to need to do some cutting and filing of the old wings...

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I made a start opening up the holes for the intakes, very nerve wracking as not something I'm used to, I made a start by initially drilling a few small guide holes I opened it up a larger drill hole in the middle then extended it with a file. I'm not sure if I should be attaching the parts from the back or the front, currently it's kind of big enough to fit in from the rear but I think it'll have cleaner lines if I attach from the front, though it's going to be difficult getting a clean join / size.

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It seems the interior tub has some holes for a roll-bar (which the kit has included but not mentioned in the instructions), I think that's for a convertible version of the kit given the large lugs on it which look like roof attachment points - I'm going to attempt to fit this as a roll-bar, I've sanded off the lugs - hopefully it will fit under the clear window parts. I also built up the seat parts (which are nice in that they have a front and rear section rather than the usual car kit parts of a single piece. They're maybe a bit out of keeping with a race themed car but since this is going to be a kind of street themed resto-mod build I think I'll stick with the comfy looking seats as I don't have any aftermarket ones in the stash at present. I did test out my home made filler on them and it seems quite good - basically some plasti-card pieces dissolved in an old pot of Tamiya Extra-Thin, hopefully it acts like plastic when set so should be the same hardness when sanding back.

I added the front radiators and fan cover (I like to fit as many parts as possible / same colour before painting) - these will all be painted black with the engine interior. I need to work out if the rear plate can be added before painting the shell (seems it might be used to hold the chassis in, viewing the instructions - I'd prefer to attach / fill it all before painting the exterior.

So that's where I'll need to leave it for a while. Plenty more chopping, filling and sanding to do no doubt, once I get some time!

 

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That looks tough already.  Interesting that Extra Thin works, seems unlikely to be the typical polyurethane if that's the case.  You can fit the rear valance before painting,you just have to insert the rear of the chassis first and spring the body sides apart to wiggle the front in.

 

The roll bar and the other engine are carry overs from the initial 1/25 release as a '69 Shelby Mustang.  If you look closely at the door panels in the interior, you'll see they still have the Shelby snake emblems.  The protrusions on the roll bar are the seat belt mountings:

 

https://photos.classiccars.com/cc-temp/listing/119/2613/15476479-1969-shelby-gt500-std.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

The engine block has been built up...

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A word of warning to anyone else attempting this kit - the fan has a pin on the back that goes through the pulley/belts and into the block. However the hole in the pulley part is very tight (as in I got it stuck). Took me ages to free the parts before I could drill out to widen it a little, in the process I managed to snap the pulley/belts part - though since it has a secondary connection part onto the block I managed to line them up fairly well I hope! The fan blades also took a beating in the process so will need treating gently as I fear they're likely to drop off in a stiff breeze!

 

Lots more filing then filling has also been happening in the build...

I managed to widen out the holes for the air intakes and get them fitted.

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My initial assessment for the aftermarket material may have been wide of the mark, as the rear arches decided to detach, so needed re-gluing, this time with 2 part epoxy.

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I took the advice and attached the rear panel to start with - there's some pretty shoddy fit there as can be seen above on the lower left side, however that should be hidden under the chromed bumper. You can also see I managed to chip the spoiler when I cleaned up the inside before a bit too aggressively (doh)!

 

Some of the initial filling I did with AK White (water based putty) but then I decided I'd try making some 'sprue goo' and use that as a filler - I had an old pot of Tamiya Extra Thin (where the brush can't reach the bottom) so chopped up some plasticard bits, threw them in and added a paint mixing ball bearing for good measure. The result is pretty thick at the minute (like that thick PVA glue from school days), I can always thin it with more glue later though. It goes on pretty well, nicely self levels, does shrink a fair amount when drying but it's a nice styrene hardness. It doesn't chemically bite onto the resin annoyingly (sanding hard will flake it off) but I'm kind of liking it - a good experiment I shall keep using in future.

 

I also experimented with stripping the chrome parts, first time I've tried this - can't believe all I needed was some household bleach!

With the bumpers de-chromed I fitted the rear one - looking at the real world photos of the car I'm basing this on, it has body coloured bumpers. There was a bit of a large gap however between the body and bumper (and it seemed uneven left/right) so I added some filler goo there too.

 

Multiple applications of filler and starting to question whether I could have finished by now had I not gone off script whether this will ever get this thing smooth. I gave it a sand and decided it was time to put some primer down to see how much of a mess I've made (hard to tell how smooth it is with the variation in colour, plus my new filler dries a kind of semi-transparent white).

 

I gave everything a coat of Zero Black Primer, I'm not sure if it's just old or normal but it separates out very quickly after shaking (and the thinners seems to have yellowed), I added a small drop of self-levelling thinners too (my last attempt with this went very lumpy but I'm putting that down to ambient temperature),

 

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I have to say it's not looking too bad - looks pretty mean in flat black, though I intend to do something a bit more colourful.

Clearly there's a mould line down the rear-haunches that I need to fix and some other minor fixes round those arches and intakes. I also need to work out what's stopping that bonnet laying flat down (something minor must be fouling somewhere).

I'll have to give it a good inspection in the daylight and decide on the colour scheme - I think I'm going to go for a custom Mitsubishi dark metallic red (which I have in the paint drawer), I was intending to use that for another build but this might be a good test for it, though I worry the metallic might show the bodywork flaws more.

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Darth Vaders Saturday Night Special! That black looks tough. The big arches suit the original shape perfectly as well.

 

My engine fan has suffered in much the same way as yours. I managed to remove it from the block with a pair of long nosed pliers after a trial fit, damaging only one fan blade in the process.

My hood has the same fit issue as well! I thought I had fitted the radiator top part a bit wonky but maybe it's a Revell boo boo? I'll be relieving the inner hood area to make things fit.

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A rub down of the worst offending parts and some more filler on the arches was applied...

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Second coat of primer...

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Nubs rubbed back and then onto paint...

Annoyingly my speckly airbrush strikes again - though some of this I think is from the primer blobs...

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Fairly sure the car jumping off the stand and onto the dusty garage floor didn't help!

The bonnet wasn't as bad but still looks pretty orange peely / textured...

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Anyhow, after that disaster I decided to call it a night, let it settle and take a look in the cold light of day.

The interior has come along in the meantime a lot better...

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Carpet was a layer of enamel with 'micro balloons' scattered in it wet to add texture (there was some small texture moulded already) before adding a thin black wash.

Seats were dry brushed in various dark greys, black acrylic washed then semi-gloss cleared.

The wood panels are the kit supplied decals, they still need sealing and possibly semi-gloss or flat clear coat, there's some texture underneath them but I think it's out of scale.

Not shown (yet) - I had an issue with the wood effect surround for the dash dials, I couldn't get it positioned well and it ended up crumpling so I've not used it - I did paint the surround in a similar colour to the wood, hopefully with another layer it should match quite well and will be hidden in the cabin behind the steering wheel.

 

After sleeping on it I decided I'll see if I can sand back the worst of the lumps, if not I might need to try stripping it and reapplying.

Some light wet sanding with some 2000 grit sanding sponge and here's where it's at (with the interior test fitted and hood - though offset due to masking tape underneath)...

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Still pretty warty and ugly, lets see if I can get it smooth, unless anyone has some better suggestions?

Strip it and start again?

How do I even strip lacquer paint?

 

One thing with this paint is it's quite translucent, I should have probably gone for a gloss coat underneath for the metallic nature, though the primer coat colour will show though - there was a small chip in the primer, just above the chin splitter on the left and you can clearly see it shows through a lot lighter. Therefore I worry that any heavy sanding will leave dark spots that will show through a second coat.

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Best suggestion I can give is to give it a clear coat, which will probably not lay that smooth with the way that's turned out. But it will give you a bit more to sand back before you start digging into colour (it doesn't really matter if you burn through the clear so long as you don't go through the colour. Then once you have a reasonably smooth finish on the clear you can give it a final coat of clear which should get you pretty well on the way to a decent shine and should (hopefully) hide a good bit of that speckling.

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  • 4 weeks later...

It's been a while after a household full of Covid put the brakes on the build for a while (everyone fine now).

The body shell got a 24 hour bath in IPA but that and a good scrub with an old toothbrush didn't seem to shift any paint, though it maybe made the colour slightly lighter.

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It may have softened some of the filler though.

After that I attacked it with some sandpaper to get rid of the worst of the lumps and bumps.

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I decided to try cover it with an undercoat of gloss 'wine red' to help with the metallic but unfortunately I should have learned from the previous coverage issues that red doesn't tend to cover well being somewhat translucent...

So I decided to fill the small sections that were showing and thought instead of another thin coat I best go back to priming.

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This time red oxide and that's as far as I've got...

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Still seems a bit lumpy but at this point I'm just wanting to try and get it finished.

I keep having issues with the airbrush so I've decided to splash out on a new (cheap) one - see if that helps at all, I managed to knock the larger lumps off from the red-oxide primer but I still think there's a bunch from previous coats under that and I don't want to end up sanding back through and having to add another layer of primer!

So the plan now is another coat of the Mr Hobby Wine Red, then the metallic and finally a clear coat!

 

 

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You are putting the hours in here and deserve a decent result. The car looks really aggressive with those big arches.

 

If I can bring a bit of gloom to the thread though, I do think you may well be disappointed if you add topcoat at this stage. If the primer feels rough, there's no way a top coat won't go on the same. Sorry to be a partypooper here but I don't want to see your efforts all in vain.

 

The primer needs to be smooth, at least an 800 grit finish. Sanding back what you have will remove quite a bit of material so a further coat or two won't hurt at all. The prep work on any car takes ages. The final top coats are the reward for the groundwork put in.

 

Good luck, it will all be worth it once you are done.

 

Tony.

 

 

 

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I'd have to second what Tony has written, this is looking good now but if you're seeing lumpsin the primer try to get rid if you can. Primer is very good at showing imperfections, but unfortunately gloss is even better! I know (from experience!) that it's a pain to burn through the paint, but better to get a finish to the primer that you're happy with or it'll only transfer through to the gloss.

 

As for the model, excellent work so far. I know I wouldn't have been brave enough to add that widebody kit to it given the challenges it presented.

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I echo what's been said so far. Patience is key and you'll like the end results better if you put the work in now instead of either settling on a less than desired outcome later or having to go back and do it over again. This car body does look aggressive and I like the whole idea for this build. Looking forward to more......

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So I did another rub-down and a few extra bits of filling...

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Primed again...

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Lightly rubbed down, then on with the Wine Red Mr Hobby...

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More light sanding and on with the metallic red Zero paint...

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I'm not sure about red - it's looking far more orange peely!

Anyhow another light sand and then on with 2 rather thick coats of Mr Topcoat Gloss from a rattle can...

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Urgh - some nasty dust particles got stuck in it, so once dry I micromeshed them out.

After that I hand painted the window surrounds, handles and applied the decals. The ones for the orange lenses at the rear quarter panels are awful - wish I hadn't bothered (could have maybe painted them and used some clear resin/paint to build up a glass effect).

The bonnet (hood) decals I managed to get on quite well but I had an issue with one of the door side decals ripping a little bit - I touched up as best I could with some black paint.

I also attached a few of the smaller items - number plates (with decals on) and some of the smaller front lenses, plus the front grill parts.

Before giving it a final sealing coat of clear I decided to try wipe off some of the dust with some IPA - big mistake, it started melting/pulling the paint off the hood! (I wouldn't mind but this is exactly the same IPA that didn't shift the paint previously after 24 hours working wonders in seconds!) I left it to dry then sanded back the lumps (mainly it's kind of burnt back on the hood - so there are orangey looking patches, mainly along the raised centre section.

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So another clear coat and then back to construction...

Unfortunately the clear seems to take an age to fully cure though and I may have slightly imprinted the soft cloth pattern on the roof whilst installing the glass and cabin (after leaving for 3+ hours). Not to worry, I might brush paint over a final clear coat on there depending how well it smooths out.

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I also got the chassis, exhaust, axle and suspension parts attached. I did unfortunately manage to detach the front number plate and a wing mirror, they will need supergluing back on at the end.

The next major step is how to mount the wheels. After a bit of test fitting and examination it looks like I've come up with a solution...

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The topmost one is the original back half of the kit supplied wheel (that fits onto the mounting posts for the axles).

The middle is the back side of the Fujimi aftermarket disk brakes (that come with the wheels), the opposite side will nicely mount to the wheel interior.

The bottom is my bodged wide track extension and lowering - basically I cut the centre from the original mounts, razor-sawed off the top extruding part from the brake disk rears then sanded both parts flat and glued together. Luckily this seems to be the correct (or close enough) offset needed for the extended arches. I've also 'eccentrically' mounted them to lower the cars stance a bit, pushing it as far as I could whilst maintaining maximum contact area on the flat parts. Hopefully being off centre also gives me a small amount of wiggle room to get all the wheels touching the ground via rotating them a bit (this will make the brake calipers rotate round a little but hopefully I won't get a car resting on 3 wheels, provided I can get some slow enough setting glue.

 

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So the last of the small detail pieces on and lights, wing mirror and number plate reattached. All my CA glue had solidified in the bottle so needed to risk it with Tamiya extra thin (and PVA for the clear bits).

 

I'm going to call this one done. Didn't turn out as good as expected (when do they ever) but another build on the completed list!

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Paintwork seems to attract dust and chihuahua fir like a magnet!

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Bit of a crack around the rear arch bottom when I tried shoe-horning the chassis in the wrong way (better to insert rear first).

 

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That's a tough looking Mustang. 

 

I like the way you used the hood outer decal as a stripe, it flows well with the side stripes. The brakes peeking through the wheels look good as well.

 

Tony

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That's a good looking turn out! Stance , wheel/ tire choice is perfect and the flares really add a good look to the car. I hear what you're saying about a build not turning out just the way we want it sometimes but hey....you're taking some learning bits with you and it's going to end up affecting your future builds in the most positive way. In the meantime I'd be very happy with what you've done here bro.

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