A die-hard airplane guy
builds a car model?? They said it couldn't be done. Said
I was mad - MAD I tell you! But it is not I who am mad....
it is I who am crazee...!! Alright, that's enough Ren
& Stimpy for the moment.
By my reckoning it's been at least 25 years since I last
built a car model (and man is that a depressing figure!),
so I guess it's about time I give them another go. I actually
started this about 5 years ago, got as far as painting
the body, decided I wasn't happy with the finish and stuck
it back in the box. Gloss paints have never been my strong
point, which may explain why it's taken me a quarter of
a century (cripes, that sounds even worse!!) to attempt
another shiny car model. Of course, I never bothered to
paint them at all when I was a wee sprog so shiny paint
wasn't an issue then. Ah, the good ol' days....
For some bizarre reason,
which still escapes me, I decided I needed to finish this
a few weeks ago, so out of hibernation it came. The paint
was stripped off with oven cleaner and then re-sprayed
with the same paint, a 50/50 mix of Extracolour Roundel
Blue and Revell Metallic Blue (98). This turned out much
better, and after sanding out a few dust bits and touching
up I gave it a couple of light coats of Tamiya Clear.
The window frames, door handles and trimwork were done
with Bare Metal Foil and the Camaro & Chevrolet logos
picked out with Humbrol Metal Cote. A final light coat
of clear to seal all that in and a polish with Tamiya
Rubbing Compound finished off what turned out to be one
of the best gloss paint jobs I've ever done. Wonders never
cease.
The hood (that's the bonnet
to you Brits) doesn't fit very well, and I'm not too happy
with the headlights which are moulded as part of the grille.
If I'd had some clear ones in the spares box I would have
replaced them, but I don't exactly have what you'd call
a comprehensive box of spare car parts since this is the
only one I've built. I had to make do with painting the
headlights silver.
The bumpers had some nasty
mould lines on which I just couldn't ignore, but of course
there's the age old problem of how to touch up the chrome
afterwards. I used small pieces of Bare Metal Foil and
this worked very well. Not an exact match, but darned
close. Tail lights are done in Gunze Clear Red. I have
a feeling the inner bits should be clear back up lights
but what the hell, it looks pretty anyway.
I never had any intention
of adding every single wire and hose, but I thought the
basics were needed to spruce the engine up a bit. In theory
the car would start (spark plugs are wired up with the
correct firing order as far as I could tell from photos)
and you'd have heat in the winter but the battery would
go dead (couldn't be bothered wiring up the alternator)
and pumping the brake pedal would only coat the bottom
of the car in brake fluid because the brake lines don't
go anywhere. But you wouldn't be able to steer the damn
thing anyway, so who needs brakes? Spark plug wires are
from Detail Master, heater hoses are .030" plastic
rod and battery wires are Radio Shack's finest. Hose clamps
are silver painted decal strips.
I wanted to portray a nicely
maintained but roadworthy muscle car. You know, something
that a mere mortal like me could actually own and drive.
Yeah, right. The bottom was sprayed with a very thin tan
paint to simulate road dust and the tire treads were lightly
sanded. And I've just noticed that one end of the tie
rod has come off, which is much more like a car I actually
could own. Needs more rust though. A lot more.
Above
left: I have to admit, I'm rather proud of the
lettering on the tires - somewhat better than my blobby
attempts as a child. I remember reading somewhere that
acrylic paint was the thing to use on vinyl so I used
Tamiya White and it worked a treat. I don't recommend
doing more than one tire per evening though as a complete
mental breakdown and loss of eyesight and/or bladder control
will surely be the result.
Above right: By far the biggest
headache was getting that &%@£$!!! radiator
on. Much grinding and cursing was required. If AMT had
their way the alternator would be magically suspended
in mid air by the fan belt. Rather than hold it on with
a bent coat hanger (a feature of more than one of my own
beaters in the past) I decided to make the top mount from
brass sheet. It still defies the laws of physics somewhat
but it's better than nothing and you can't really tell
there's no bottom mount once the body's on.
Above: My scratchbuilt
brass alternator mount, magnified several trillion
times. Give or take.
Left: All the gauges
are Reheat 1/32 aircraft decals. If you look closely
you'll notice the Camaro is doing 350 knots at 5000
feet on a northwesterly heading, which is damn strange
behaviour for a Chevy if you ask me.
So, there you have it.
A car, built by a non-car kind of guy. It won't win any
contests, but I'm quite happy with it, and who knows,
I might even build another one sometime. Only if you're
nice to me though.
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