Here’s my latest assembly, Monogram’s 1/24 Cobra 427 S/C, the street machine supplied with wire wheels and skinny tires.I did this build for my wife who prefers small fast cars to my regular larger builds of WWII aircraft, ships & armor. I also wanted more experience painting shiny subjects.
I ordered after market Halibrand six-spoke racing wheels/ tires from Historic Racing Miniatures but the 1/25 size just looked way too small to my eye. I acquired several Accurate Miniature Grand Sport Corvette kits off eBay last year at the screaming deal of $7/ each ( both missing photo-etch) and used a set of their incorrect five-spoke wheels/ tires/ knock-offs for this build.
All chrome plating was removed using Easy-Off and replaced with airbrushed Alclad chrome over black gloss enamel. Side pipes were sprayed with Alclad burnt iron. Exterior blue/silver stripes done using Tamiya rattle can mica blue over silver leaf with Tamiya fine grey primer underneath. Remaining engine/ chassis/ interior was airbrushed with Tamiya acrylics.
This build went smoothly until I attempted to bond the windshield frame to the body using Zap-A-Gap medium CA. I applied too much CA to the frame bottom and tried to hold the parts manually to set onto the very slick lacquered surface which failed to stick and resulted in two ugly globs of CA...ugh! I chipped off and sanded my CA disaster and tried local masking and re-spraying (with AB) both silver under coat and blue on these two spots but the finished repair looks like my Cobra made a visit to a really bad body shop!
Despite my error, the wife is happy with her Cobra (she hasn’t inspected it yet with her reading glasses!). I am enjoying the fast turn around and quick gratification of car builds and look forward to completing two I’ve started simultaneously - the AMT ‘61 bubble-top 409 Chev and the Revell ‘50 Olds 88 Carrera Panamerican race winner. Will post pics if/ when I conquer these two.
Cheers,
John