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Post by bilbo63 on Feb 14, 2021 22:23:34 GMT -5
With the encouragement and help of the friendly folk here, I have been steadily improving my skills. Given that I was unhappy with the fit of the top to bottom body pieces on the Sullivan Penske, I decided to take Dan's suggestion and give this beast a nose-job so I could pre-assemble the front end and get it fitting nicely. For whatever reason, while dry fitting this car, things just don't seem to fit as well as the Miller High Life Penske. The top to bottom nose had a very noticeable "lip" which needed to be trimmed away and sanded. That wasn't a huge deal and pretty easy to fix. But the little bit that drops down on the side pods was virtually non-existent on one side of the Mears kit, and nothing more than a bit of rough flash on the other side. As I understand it, the Miller and Pennzoil kits are identical outside of the colour and decals, so I guess that I just got a bad one. Disappointing. I carefully cut the nose portion and suspension arms off of the lower body with a jeweller's saw. Yikes…No turning back now!
Test-Fitting the cockpit to be sure that I can slide it into place later. The "nose-job" "Pin Surgery"
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Post by illeagle10 on Feb 15, 2021 5:58:23 GMT -5
Steppin' it up Bill! Great job!
Jim
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Post by shunter on Feb 15, 2021 6:33:29 GMT -5
Great seeing these Penske builds...nice.
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Post by Dan Belcher on Feb 15, 2021 9:14:40 GMT -5
You're off to a good start! Looks like my instructions must have made sense LOL! Looking forward to this one.
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Post by bilbo63 on Feb 15, 2021 10:00:04 GMT -5
Thanks, guys. I was a bit anxious making that first cut as I've never done this sort of "MacGyvering" to a kit before. The jewellers saw did a really nice job and made a very clean cut.
Drilling for the pins was easily the most difficult and stressful part for me. I heated the tip of my hobby knife with a tea candle and created a decent starting point for the drill bit to settle into which worked quite well. I only had struggles drilling one of the four holes. The suction vise that I picked up from Lee Valley Tools was super helpful for securely holding the suspension arms while I drilled the holes.
Bill
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Post by MikeB on Feb 16, 2021 19:30:24 GMT -5
Awesome start
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Post by gks1964 on Feb 17, 2021 8:44:22 GMT -5
LOOKING GOOD!
Gerald
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Post by MikeB on Feb 17, 2021 10:57:53 GMT -5
If you want to add some extra detail the car ran several races with these vents cut into the side pods right above the rear wheel kicks
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Post by bilbo63 on Feb 19, 2021 19:24:21 GMT -5
If you want to add some extra detail the car ran several races with these vents cut into the side pods right above the rear wheel kicks I saw this a little late, Mike. It's already has a few coats of yellow and one coat of clear before I begin to add the decals. I am currently attempting to add the wires to the engine using some cat 5 wire that I had hanging around. I've never done this before – wish me luck!
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Post by illeagle10 on Feb 20, 2021 15:11:06 GMT -5
Bill,
I was wondering if you're going to go with wheel covers or not. While Unser and Sullivan suffered through the race with the wheel covers, Mears went to the standard wheels at the first pit stop. Unser lost time in the race due to a wheel nut falling inside the wheel cover. So Mears started with wheel covers but ended up without them. I chose to display my car without wheel covers. I have one set and I intended to put mine on and Unser car if I ever get around to it!
Jim
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Post by bilbo63 on Feb 20, 2021 18:50:15 GMT -5
I think that I'm going to go with no wheel covers. I like the look better without them. I went without them on Sullivan's car too. I added a bit of heat-staining on the headers and took my first stab at adding sparkplug wires. Turned out not too bad for a first attempt. I'm going to hit the "toy-chrome" wheels and bits with some dull coat next, then begin the decal work, but that may not happen for a few days as I have some other jobs to tend to. I'm thinking that I may eventually do Al Unser Sr's car and complete the front row. My Tamiya Newman Haas Kmart Texaco Lola T93 arrived last week, so that will likely be my next build. Probably as the Nigel Mansell version. I'd also like to do Zanardi and Herta at some point. Bill
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Post by illeagle10 on Feb 20, 2021 21:04:47 GMT -5
Hi Bill,
Your build is coming along great! As far as getting rid of the toy wheels look, one of my tips would be to strip the chrome from the plastic. There are many ways to do that. I use E-Z Off oven cleaner. I then clean the plastic and prime it, then I use a good metal paint. I use Alclad chrome process. It gives the wheels a great look. I also like to add valve stems to my wheels to help with that realistic look! I use brass rod, I think .020. This is all a little more work but the finish is priceless. As a matter of fact I never use any of the chrome that comes with a kit, I strip all chrome parts, most of the colors for those parts are not chrome anyway. As you pointed out it has a toyish look to them when factory chromed.
Jim
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Post by bilbo63 on Feb 20, 2021 22:02:58 GMT -5
Agreed. I've never been a fan of the kit chrome and yes, they always seem to chrome parts that shouldn't be chrome at all!
I used oven cleaner to strip all of the chrome except the wheels on the last two Indy kits. I stripped all chrome on the Andretti build.
I've found that a quick spray of dull coat on the wheels yields a very good result…it seems to knock it back just enough. I tried a Testors chrome on my firebird wheels and was not impressed, they just looked silver.
I've seen the results of Alcad and it's on my shopping list the next time that I place an order for supplies. (we have no local hobby store so I order everything out of Toronto)
You typically spray Alclad over gloss black, no?
Good tip on the valve stems. I have some .020 brass rod, so I think that I'll do that.
Bill
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Post by illeagle10 on Feb 21, 2021 7:02:43 GMT -5
Agreed. I've never been a fan of the kit chrome and they always seem to chrome parts that shouldn't be chrome at all! I used oven cleaner to strip all of the chrome except the wheels on the last two Indy kits. I stripped all chrome on the Andretti build. I've found that a quick spray of dull coat on the wheels yields a very good result…it seems to knock it back just enough. I tried a Testors chrome on my firebird wheels and was not impressed, they just looked silver. I've seen the results of Alcad and it's on my shopping list the next time that I place an order for supplies. (we have no local hobby store so I order everything out of Toronto) You typically spray Alclad over gloss black, no? Good tip on the valve stems. I have some .020 brass rod, so I think that I'll do that. Bill You are correct Bill, Alclad is a system. You need to prime coat, then gloss black and then the chrome paint. There are other metal painting systems out there and they work just as well. Alclad always worked well for me. Maybe some other members can chime in on what they use. As far as Testors is concerned, for some reason they have always gotten a bad rap, but I've always had pretty good success. I've always used an airbrush with Testors paint and thinned it well, because it is enamel paint. I have really never used their rattle cans. I do agree though their chrome paint is not up to the standards of other metal paints.
Jim
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Post by Dan Belcher on Feb 21, 2021 9:12:24 GMT -5
I've done valve stems on my last couple NASCAR builds using similarly small Evergreen rods since in theory the plastic-on-plastic likes to glue together easily, but it doesn't really seem to actually be any easier than just using brass rod. As far as chrome goes, I used Alclad on my Mears build and I absolutely love the results. Just take it slow when you apply the actual Alclad chrome over the gloss black. Use a light touch and wait for each layer to dry to see how it's looking. If you get heavy-handed it'll end up looking just like regular paint. Maybe even practice on some extra sprue. One Alclad alternative I've heard of but never tried is Molotow, so that might be worth Googling. For stripping chrome plating, I love Super Clean, the stuff that comes in a purple bottle.
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