Gertrude - The '71 Plymouth Duster 340

 Never really seen too many Dusters at car shows as a kid. They were always Chevelle's, Vette's, a random Nova or two, Chargers and Challengers. Maybe the odd out Trans Am or FIrebird would show up. But rarely a Duster.

I was getting bored with not having anything to build while we waited on the truck the wife wants to ship. Took a trip to Hobby Lobby to look at their wood for another project and they were having another 40% off sale. I stood there for about 20 minutes looking at the kits but nothing really spoke out. Then I started looking at a 55' Chevy and this kit. In the end, it was the few dollar savings that I bought this one.

I was going to do another project with a '69 Superbee in MYstic Green, but for some reason decided not to. I grabbed the kit and started looking at the paints. I have a full can of yellow at the house, but didn't want another yellow car right now. AS i kept looking I spotted the Mystic Green. Started googling the real car in green and saw that most of them were a bright green. So i grabbed it along with a Testors "Wet Look" clear and checked out.

As usual, I washed and dried the parts. Layed down the first few coats of primer and let it set. Sprayed the first coat of this green and knew right away I wasn't going to like it. The body and hood were already in the brake bath.

The paint was coming out in swirls of a dark metallic green and a light metallic green. It looked like a baby threw up. After the brake bath, i went back and rewashed the parts. Did another round of wet sanding and tooth picking to get the cracks cleared and started over. This time around, I shook the paint for about 15 minutes. Upside down, right side up, left side over, the stuff was going to mix one way or the other.

Took the booth outside into the daylight, found some shade and layed on the first coat. It looked okay. Waited about an hour, layed on the second coat. Followed this up with some wet sanding and another coat of paint. It actually looked great. Let it dry for 24hrs and laid on two coats of the wet look clear. I was amazed. It was the best paint job i've done so far. It wasn't heavy, wasn't light. Just the right color green.

Slowly started the build. Decided to do a two tone gray and black Interior. There were no decals for the dash, so i used the infamous and disastrous chrome paint pen I have.  Was hoping to not have another "accident" like i did with the Cuda. It came out pretty good.

As I finished the interior, I started adding decals to the body. Chrome the trim and buffed it with Meguiars Scratch X. The body was coming out as best as I could hope for. I was more pleased with this build so far than any of the others.

FInished assembling the interior and got the motor and other parts attached to the chassis. Did a body fit and everything so far was going great. It looked good, had a good stance, the whole 9 yards. Then the snafu hit. I had been struggling with keeping the hood scoops and rear wing on. Seems the Tamiya thin glue wasn't holding well and I couldn't get the testors glue to hold well enough. 

I decided to attach the wing struts tot he truck, and drop a few drops on the Tamiya into the hole. BIG MISTAKE. It did what it is designed to do and ended up running down the trunk.

At a dollar a word and twenty dollars later into the swear jar, I masked it off, wet sanded it the best i could without going through the paint to reveal the plastic. Decided to just sand 3/4 of the trunk (2nd mistake) and repaint it. 

Stood there at the booth, shaking the can for about 5 minutes. Sprayed a few passes onto cardboard to make sure i was getting the right color to come out. Everything looked fine. Thinly layered the paint onto the trunk and started filling the jar again. The paint did what it did the first time around. Came out dark and went to light. Said to hell with it, and let it dry. Layed one more coat before the clear. 

After it had dried, i unwrapped the body and low and behold, you could see a nice line between the two paint jobs. (Lesson learned. Should have masked the entire trunk and redid the whole thing). Started sanding and got the line as smooth as possible. But there was nothing I could do to fix the clash between colors. And I was not about to brake bath it. I didn't have another set of black decals.

Leaving it as is, after all this isn't a show car. I started to finish it up. Finally able to get the wing struts attached to the wing, I got that in place after putting the body onto the chassis. Reglued the scoops that keep falling off and finished adding the engine bay components. And why it was designed to add all that stuff AFTER assembly, not sure. But the hoses were not easy.

Overall, I really enjoyed this kit with the snafu. It was a lot more advanced than I had thought with the individual front spindles that move, all of the extra hoses and parts under the hood, the rear stand alone shock mounts, etc.. But in the end, it's what I feel made this kit really stand out from all of the others i've done. And to be honest, I just may do another, just a different color. I did go with the single carb engine build instead of the six pack. My Roadrunner already has the six in it. Wanted this one to be different.

The body lines are well defined and made the BMF a lot easier to work with. Even the fender well chrome trim was easier to work, though you can still see some minor clumps. The interior was well designed, just wish there were more decals. And speaking of decals, the Plymouth decals, though white on the sheet fade out to nothing if put over a darker color, so a few of those were left out. Finished it off with the Tamiya panel line on the hood grill and there she was.

There are some minor touch ups that need to be done. Mainly under the hood. But in the end, I would give this kit and build an 8/10. 

Oh, and this is the first time I've used embossing powder. Layed in under the hood with Elmer's clear glue to give the effect of the fire retardant material that used to be there. I used the wrong size brush so the glue didn't get everywhere it needed to be. But I like it like this. Make it feel like it has that old feeling while still looking like a renewed car.

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'85 Z28, Childhood Tribute Build

 Back in the 80's, every year we would go to the county fair. As a child, it was my first concert, to where I saw Conway Twitty. Spoke with him, shook his hand, it was awesome. We would go to the demo derbies and the highlight for me was the Joie Chitwood thrill show.

Every year was the same show, same stunts. But as a kid, it was magical. Disney on four wheels. I would take the previous years program with us and run into the infield before i got on any rides, played any of the games and get as many of the cast to sign as I could. The only signature I recall not getting was Tim Chitwoods. Wild Bill and Todd Seeley were always the first. They were amazing guys that I recall to such a young kid.

Anyways, as time went on and I got older, I would still go. Same show, same stunts. But now i understood the planning, the precision required to do these stunts. Especially the two wheel driving Joie did around the entire track. 

In my early teens, long before the internet and home computers were the norm, I got into modeling. Mainly at the time was NASCAR, but there were a few other kits in there. After attending a show one year, i looked all over for a Chitwood model, but never found one. Come to find out though, ERTL did make one in the early 90's, but I never saw it until recently. And by that time, I was getting ready for the military and college. So modeling took a back seat.

Flash forward to now. I still want a kit. So I began my searching and found the old ERTL kit, but it is a bit too much for my liking. I have found all of the old toys that were produced. But nothing struck me, so I started looking to recreate the graphics.

I was lucky enough when I took a chance to contact the owners of the Joie Chitwood Collectibles site. I emailed them about graphics and Joie Jr. emailed me back. Mind Blown! He put me in touch with a few people who had graphics and they were kind enough to email them to me.

All of the logos were faded. They were originally created on the clear vinyl peel and stick sticker backs. I ordered a set of the ERTL logos off Ebay. Those too were faded. I scanned them in at 1200 dpi and used Photoshop to recreate new decals. I used the clear waterslide decal paper from Hobby Lobby. Test printing and all, i've used most of the sheets in the pack. All in all, I learned a few things with this paper. Using an inkjet printer, if I printed twice, the colors would have been a bit more vivid. Also, the Tamiya clear coat isn't great at sealing the ink to the paper.  Overall, I am happy with how they turned out.

I used the Tamiya white flat primer and the remainder of the white pearl that was used on the '71 Cuda. Few layers of clear and it's ready to start adding the decals. Note to self: the Micro Set/Sol eats through the generic waterslide decals. Especially if not well sealed and too much SOL is used.

After a few hours of applying decals, the car was complete and I had built what was a childhood dream. 

2013 Chitwood Reunion - Reference Photo

All in all, I like the kit as much as I hate it. Things fit together great. Think it has something to do with the "snap tite" features. The wheels went on great, no hassle. I do wish all bucket seats were designed like this though. There were plenty of decals for customization, but I only used a few factory ones. The engine bay on the other hand was a nightmare. Everything was pre-molded. Thought I was able to get some detail, just wish there was the option to build it. Though this is listed as a Level 4, i would rate this as a 2. Maybe a 3 with the decal work.

I would like to build the 90's Camaro. I have the original Chitwood decals, but they will require more work in Photoshop that these ones. I am pleased with the build. I still need to add the mirrors and a few more factory decals, but I need a break.

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Stella's Got Her Decals

 FInally got the Micro Set/Sol in the mail. Amazon being Amazon, sent me two of each. Double checked my order to make sure I didn't order two of each. This is why Amazon loses so much money.  Not the first time this has happened. 

Anyway's, here's a few images with the new decals. Makes it stand out a bit more.

Now i just need to order the wheel decal sets for the BF Goodrich TA's for the muscle cars.

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'71 Cuda - Ghost

This was a fun build. Basic to say the least, but left a lot of customization options. However, I decided to keep it just as basic. The build is based on a car I found in an article while searching the Cuda to check out color options, this is the '71 Snow White Cuda.

The only real difference between the kit and the car is the lack of front spoilers. Other than that, a few extra purchases, you could get the wood grain decals for the interior.

The car itself was very basic, few parts. The exhaust was modeled to the chassis, a few of the underhood parts were molded into the plastic. Mainly the battery and wipe fluid container. Basic motor and interior.

While I used the above car as the basis of the build, i wanted some a bit different, so I went with a two tone black on white interior. Masking as a tad difficult due to the lines on the door panels. There was a little bleed under the Tamiya tape, but it was easily fixed.

There were no decals for the dash, so this was going to be a full blown hand painted. In all, the interior wasn't difficult.

In reality, the only decals were the side panel Hemi decals and the plate decals. There is a Plymouth decal, however, it's a bit too large to fit on the cowl and too small for a windshield decal.

I noticed, that even though i had used the Tamiya fine white primer and the Tamiya pearl white base, the Tamiya clear wasn't "bright." In the end, I swapped over to using the Testors clear coat, hoping mixing the two wasn't going to have a bad effect on the decals or paint.

This will also be the first time I used the Micro Set/Sol products. Though i really didn't need to on ths one, as there were no raised edges or small decals, it helped me get used to them before I got the remainder of the decals on the Tbird.

All in all, i would recommend this kit to anyone starting out and to any builder who just was to take the basic and make a good custom. I will most likely buy another one. There were a few things I wanted to try here, but just took some notes.

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