Following with interest Gabriel,

as always a great start

Thank you, Joel!
Yes: "biggest return in shortest time" modern approach that threw quality out the window. 40000 miles lasting VW transmission and 4 years Mercedes life expectancy. Thank you but no. Packin' my belongings and goin' back to the eighties!

Russ, glad to have you along for the trip. Yes, the quality of the kit helps a lot for a good start .

Cheers!
Gabriel

Update Ready for today's report!

Firstly, I finished the engine. Not bad for a straight OOB one. I wish the "ignition wires" would made for a better fit, but from the normal viewing angle, they'll look just good:


That is hands down the best front of the engine I ever had into a plastic kit:


Now, Chevrolet is haunting me. They must be very voodoo proficient down under The casting on the rocker cover it's in the wrong way on the right bank:


I undid the distributor, the heat shield, modified the locator pin under the cover and installed it in the right direction:


These are the parts I'm working on, each of them in different stadies of painting by now:


Gabriel

The engine looks really nice, and besides, when the hood is closed no one will see it anyway.

Jim

Gabriel,
Kudos on catching the upside down valve cover. Looks so much better the correct way.

Joel

Great engine Gabriel! If that is straight OOB then it is an impressive effort by the manufacturer. Like the blue you've chosen as well.

cheers
Michael

Thanks, Jim! For this one the hood will be open and these NASCAR kits assemble pretty much like a soap box - you can lift the body at any time to display the roll cages and all that goodies inside



Thanks, Joel - On TCC forum a fellow NASCAR fanatic told me that most NASCAR kits are that way (the wrong way). I'm suspecting a small design error, since all the models share more or less the same two engines with variations



Michael, I agree - I never run in a better model-in-a-model yet in this scale. The radiator unit it's also nice, with well detailed hoses (tubes, actually).

UPDATE
I took my time to mask the white trim of the body. Most of it it's going to be covered by decals anyhow, or provided as decal, but in some area it will still be visible. Right so, comparing carefully te pictures, I realized that not the entire bumper it's white, but the lower 3/4 only - one more reason to avoit the instructions in letter:


I used TCP-005 acrylic lacquer for the task because dries fast and covers well. To minimize seepage I sprayed it thru my Infinity 0.2mm @ 18 psi, never reaching a fully wet surface. I removed the tape with the paint still a little wet, to avoid jagged lines, but maybe a little too early - I have a couple of small chips that I need to address later:


Cheers!
Gabriel

Gabriel,
The white lower panels really came out great. No bleed through at all from what I can see.

Joel

That looks real nice and makes me want to pull out a nascar kit.

Thanks, Joel! Yes, no seeping or fogging at all - just couple small tears at the back and the small chip on the side. It's OK - very manageable errors.

Ryan, I was completely taken aback by the nice quality of these kits - I wasn't expecting it. And nicely dressed up, the caged interior looks also great!

Gabriel

Top job, my friend. Engine looks amazing. Super sharp paintjob, on the body.

Thanks, Jesper! I'm still nervous about the old dried decals, but so far so good.

Gabriel

Really nice finish on the paint there Gabriel, great work!

This build is shaping up beautifully, and we are only just past 2 weeks in to the Group Build!

Cheers, D

Really nice progress Gabriel

I do like that motor!

Gabriel,
I forgot to mention in my last post that the wash on the ignition wires makes a huge difference both in scale shadow effect, and that the wires now look like insulated wires rather then painted plastic.

Joel

Thanks, D.! Yes, it goes smoothly forward; in I rushed a little thru the first NASCAR, this time I'll take my time.


Thanks, Russ! Yes, I'm pretty happy with the engine too! I'm a little disappointed I haven't achieved a bigger contrast between metallics - although I used different brands - but I love the level of detail, that's for sure!

Joel, thanks again! Yes, pin-wash with oils it's always my last step in building an engine, and exactly that's why - all that beautiful detail has the tendency to get lost under the uniform paint and need to be "resurrected"

UPDATE
Today I had planned to do the decals work on the Petty's NASCAR. First I sanded the body with a spent 2000 grit, but mostly from routine than from a real need - the paint was smooth and uniform all over - I insisted more over the trunk lid

I knew I have hard times ahead with the frail decals, so I took my time over. I started with the front bumper, then continued with the left side. I don't have a particular reason for this order, it "just came" that way. The long decals were cut in halves, to easy handling and to prevent too much pushing and pulling on the surface. The front bumper was a near failure, I almost reached to the point of giving up and do the bumper with paints. Eventually I managed to settle down the decals acceptable, but I couldn't prevent a few cracks that need filling now with paint. On the left side and on the roof the things were a little easier, but I still couldn't prevent the decal over the rear end from breaking in two - it just snapped a the smallest attempt to position it. On the second 4 from the side decal, you can see the decals as it cracked again by itself, under the touch of a soft brush.


As I worked my decals around the car my method improved by trial and error. I discovered that I have to place the decals in place, using Micro Set, then I have to re-hydrate the decal with two or three applications of Micro Sol, only then I could move the decal without breaking it and from there, keeping it wet, I could work it into surfaces. On the larger decals, the first two applications of Micro Sol disappeared like into the sand - the decal was dry again in seconds! Using this chain of operations, I've got better decals preservation on the right side and the rear of the vehicle:

However, when decals were dry, I still needed to slice them along the bottom side "step", because there was no chance to conform them at that 90 degree angle. The slicing lines are quite visible, and I need to patch them with paint as well.
All in all, I'm glad I didn't irremediable damaged any of the decals. I have some extra work to do, but it's achievable and, if I am lucky, tomorrow morning I'll be ready for 2K.

Cheers!
Gabriel

Hotwheels never looked so good as this!

Gabriel
An absolutely impressive display of decal application. One would never know that these decals are old, and pretty well dried out.

And Russell, somewhere in my model/computer room I actually have that Hot Wheel's car. Just gotta go find it.

Joel

Thanks, Russ - you just put a smirk on my ugly face

Joel, I've been chasing for two hours cracks and bald dots over the decals with acrylic white, red and orange. If for red I had a pretty close match, the orange I had to mix and in some points dried darker than the decal's orange. But I'm still happy!

UPDATE
After I cleaned the body with an IPA solution, touching the decals only and if only needed, I applied 2 component Splash resin. I still have No Name one, but I know now the Splash cures softer and I need to polish it to fix some decal raised edges and such.
Here you can see on the front bumper mismatching orange, some seeping red and the gap left by the two halves of the decal on silver. The silver reinforcement I'm gonna mask and paint it over later, after the resin is cured.


Fearful for the state of the decals, I applied the resin in two etapes: first a two-pass tack coat, the second more consistent than the first, but still not full:


the second batch of resin I mixed thinner (adding 10 drops of xylene to the 2:1 mix) and I applied it some 10 minutes after the tack coat, this time semi wet and respectively wet. I managed a pretty good coverage and I can say I am happy with the way it turned out:


All coats were applied with my H&S Evolution 0.4mm @ 20psi.

Then I pulled out the last bits - or almost all of them and start preparing the finishing stage of the build:


All these parts are by now primed, painted or partly painted.

Cheers!
Gabriel

Very nice progress Gabriel, and the little touch-ups on the decals are barely visible.

Cheers, D

Gabriel,

Oh Wow!! The Glosscoat looks fantastic. I'd say you really nailed it for sure.

Joel

Didn't he win the Richmond race almost by default? I seem to remember Dale Sr. & Darrrel Waltrip crashing each other on the home stretch while Kyle escaped getting caught up in the carnage for the win.
Nice looking body so far. Thanks for sharing !

Gabriel,

Nice work on the paint and decals. The shine is great. The engine looks good, too.

Lovely work on managing both the decals and the gloss coats Gabriel. the car looks superb.

cheers
Michael

Tanks, Damian. They are visible on the orange, but honestly I'm not overly bothered by it because the decals torn in difficult to see spots for most of the time.



Thanks, Ivan! It went smooth so far - a "relaxation build" for sure!



Thanks, David! I'm sort of "getting into it" since it's the second NASCAR build in a row



She's still in a little need of TLC, but she's looking good, I'm pleased with her looks.

UPDATE
I'm being busy writing couple of reviews these days, but I found little time to keep adding details to the Pontiac.
Kicker bar, the air ducts and the fuel cell added:


The fuel tank straps picked out with black (they need a retake) and the oil can added.


I did also some small other things on the wheels, radiator and dash, but none is complete as yet.

Gabriel