No More Excuses GB: Part Deux. Closed to New Entries But Finish What You Signed Up For

Oh I forgot...

And the winner for most obnoxiously tiny and annoyingly placed decals goes to...

Thanks

Almost there!

Driver is done:

With the driver done, I could finally finish construction:

Engine parts were a tight fit, but not as bad as I expected at this point. After a few minutes of wrestling and giant gobs of glue, they all got in their rightful places. (The bigger the glob, the better the job, right?)

I do want to make a complaint that the painting instructions SUCK. I realized far too late that the side of the box had pictures of the finished model that included paint details not mentioned/wrong in the instructions. I fixed a few, but it was too late for most. Oh well, remember for next time...

The back brace on the top of the chasis there was a real PITA. I had to tape that down to get it to glue into place as well.

Bottom actually done, with tires this time and no masking tape!

Car body after painting and before decals. Not bad for my first time doing this, I think. Although I could tell I was used to airplanes where you really only have to do one side at a time due to different colors. I kept sticking my fingers into the wet paint on the opposite side I was spraying! Gah!

And finally after three days at several hours a day, the decals are finally done. What a pain! I will say the decals seem to be pretty good quality, which is good because otherwise I would have destroyed them with all the tweaking I did. The shear number of them alone is daunting, but all of the cuts are wrong so they don't line up the way they are supposed to, and the overlaps are a nightmare. I follow Paul Boyer's method for decals like my life depends on it, and I still couldn't get some of them to look right. But I guess at this point it's close enough/good as it's going to get. Now all it needs is a clear coat and windows, then it's done!

Oh, and I havetest fitted the body and chasis, and thankfully they fit together very nicely, no fighting involved! It's just building the chasis that involves all the fighting...

Going out of town this weekend, but next week the "all buttoned up" pictures should be out!

Thanks

Looking great sub!  For how fast those cars go, calling the driver a pilot wouldn't be too far off!  It seems that most car models I have built have the same issue with fitting the body over the chassis.  Too tight of a fit.  I sometimes accidently bust off the radiator when I try to fit the parts together.  Good luck with getting it to fit.

Quick update:

Engine block is in, frame and interior is about 50% put together. The rest is painted and waiting. Tomorrow I will put decals on the driver (I keep wanting to say pilot!) then i can put him in. Once he's in there, I can finish building the rest around him.

Bottom is done, if you ignore the masking tape! Remember how I said the part fit was really tight. Um yeah, the front suspension is %#$@^@^@ impossible! I think minor offsets in previous parts may have all come together to make this an impossible fit, but I have been tweaking with it all day, and as long as this masking tape holds over night, I think it will turn out all right.

Inside of the body is painted gray, and masked off in preps for painting the outside.

Should be able to wrap this up in the next couple days.

Thanks

Slowly but surely...

Wow, I never thought I would say that a kit's parts fit TOO well, but man some of these are hard to wrestle into place!

Thanks, Kevin -- I'm looking forward to getting this one officially done, it's been one of my longest shelf-sitters as I tried to figure out what to do about the tracks. I think she should look pretty good. I considered a PE set which includes grills, but there's probably little else I'd use on it, given the advanced state of completion, so I might let it stand as-is in that respect. Hopefully I'll be on the job perhaps as early as next week.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

You're off to a good start sub.  I can't really help with the interior of a NASCAR vehicle.  Sorry.  You can always hand brush the future on.  It levels out pretty good.  As for the color coats, Testors has a lacquer in a spray can that goes on very well for a spray can paint. 

Mike, glad to hear you will be able to start on another project.  Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

I got word today that the paints needed for my Zvezda T-72B w/ERA arrived, I'll be picking them up on Friday, and hopefully cruising along to completion on that animal.

Cheers, M/TB379

Just to prove I'm actually doing something, here's what I've been doing for the past few nights:

So far pretty good. I keep wondering about how the real interior looks, but can't seem to find any photos! Found some of the engine though, so I may tweek that a little. What I really need is to get some Future and figure out how the heck I'm going to use an airbrush while I live in a hotel. Will keep you guys posted.

Thanks

waynec, the camo turned out nice!  Nice work again! 

sub, I will update the roster with your new entry.  I have built a few cars so I will offer whatever assistance I can.  Looking forward to seeing your first car model.

SR -- that looks really good! I confess to having had my eye caught by powerful cars covered with bright decals, and I'll be very interested to see this one go together. Cars per se are off my agenda as I have as yet no techniques in hand for developing a perfectly smooth, mirror-bright gloss finish, but all those decals tend to distract the eye from (likely) deficiencies in the paintwork...

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Ok gents, here's what I got:

It's a Revell 1/24 2006 Monte Carlo driven by #24 Jeff Gordon.

Oh man, what did I get myself into??? I need a "model cars for dummies" guide. I will probably break this open tomorrow night.

Thanks

Of course you can change your entry sub.  Just let me know what auto model you get and I will add it to the front page.

Absolutely fantastic work going on around here, guys!

Thunderbolt: LOVE the meteor. Looks fantastic!

waynec: You are on fire with these builds! I have to say I like the locomotive best though. Put it against and backdrop and I wouldn't even think it was a model!

68gt: I really like what you did with the Mig! My is that the way you have it displayed, it's better without a pilot because it looks more like a corporate desk model.

Great work all around!

So um, can I change my entry? I just don't have it in me to do anything with this poor a10 right now.

But I would like to make an entry for the "new genre" category. So here's the story:

As you can see, I'm an airplane guy. Don't know the first thing about cars, real life or models. However, my (almost) five year old son's favorite movie since he could talk, has been the Disney/Pixar cartoon Cars (and now Cars 2!) So in the last year or so, he has developed an obsession with all race cars. The kid will actually sit there and watch Nascar! At four years old! So my wife told me the other day that he saw one of my FSM issues that had a racecar on the front and said "maybe daddy can make me one." Since I feel bad for being gone from home AGAIN, I decided last night to give it a shot. Don't know what yet, i'm going to the LHS tomorrow to find something racecar-ish.

So if that's cool with you guys, I will let you know the details tomorrow. And trust me, I will need LOTS of help with this one I'm sure.

Thanks

Whoa waynec!!  Is that a big gun on your train or are you just happy to see us?!?  hehe! 

Sorry, couldn't resist!  Another fine build sir!  Chalk up another deposed queen for you!

waynec, WOW!  Nice work on the MAS and the K-5!   I will update the front page.  I haven't been really interested in the RR subjects or ships for that matter. But seeing your work is making me think of picking up a kit or 2.

Looking GOOD waynec!!  The completed rigging and the figures really add to the build, as does that lovely case!  This Italian MAS boat is new to me, I need to make sure I remember it.....Motoscafo Almato Silurante....did I get it right? (I tried not to look at your previous post)

Waynec -- what a fantastic piece of work! It makes me want to have a go at something similar!

Cheers, M/TB379

waynec, that MAS looks fantastic!  I can't wait to see it with a bit of weathering applied.

bufflehead, your Sherman looks great!  It's funny that you had to actually dust it off first. 

I haven't had any time at the workbench in a bit.  I bought a wooden jungle gym for my kids.  It took the better part of 3 days to assemble....board by board.  Not fun but the kids really like it so it was time well spent.

Keep up the good work everyone!

She looks great to me, Buff! I have one at an earlier stage, I was holding it back to get the full stowage treatment and go into a diorama along with a jeep, some figures and a Verlinden ruin...

M/TB379

I need to get something in this GB so I finally pulled the Tamiya M4A3 off the shelf, dusted it off (literally!) and took a couple of pics to show it's current stage.

I need to re-attach the PE periscope guard on the MGnrs hatch and repaint the rear hull plate.  I had to remove the radial engine crank tool I originally installed not realizing that M4A3s used the Ford V-8 engine, thus not requiring a hand crank tool

The bright lights don't show how dark the OD paint really is, so I think I'll hit it with another black preshade and then mist a lighter OD over the whole tank to lighten it up a bit.

waynec, that's a very interesting looking torpedo boat!  What is it?  I'm not very familiar with these vessels so I can't tell which country this is from.   BTW, it looks pretty nice as it is!