Model Forum / General / Models / May 2006

I decided to take a break from modern jets, having tired of the
disparity between the details of the kits I was building. Well, that,
and trying to apply all the two hundred stencils on Revell's 1/72
Twin-seat Typhoon.

I'm stuck without an airbrush, though - I do have one, but I have no
place to operate it and I've misplaced the hose adapter for the
propellant can, which makes it rather useless - and I know from a long
line of ruined car kits that gloss paints, other than black and
possibly one or two blues, hate me.

I've managed to solve the problem on one of the cars - by accident. I
discovered that the yellow paint I thought I had for the 2001
Daytona/Le Mans C5-R was flat, rather than gloss. Seeing no real
alternative, I decided to experiment - paint it flat yellow and give it
a coat of future to gloss it up afterwards. It worked pretty well -
especially after I discovered pretty much by a fluke that you can
polish the half-dry paint by rubbing it with a folded up piece of
tissue. The car body was nearly all glossed up even before the Future!

The other car is trickier, I think. I've gotten a 2004 Z06
Commemorative Edition Corvette (I foolishly thought they'd have parts
in common, so I'd learn from one how to best build the other, like I
did with my last two). It's supposed to be dark böue metallic - a
color I don't have, to begin with, and which I don't really like. I
decided at first that I'd paint it red - but that is nearly
transparent, and ended up being a very dark pink after the first coat
over the white plastic. I also used the gloss version, which despite
very liberal thinning took nearly fourteen hours to dry. The second
application was a bust almost immedieately since I got dust in the
brush, so I stripped it and now I'm back to square one.

I looked around for images of the real thing, and apparently there's a
"regular" Z06 which was available in yellow, which would be cool since
I've already discovered the trick to that. Would the plastic of the
Commemorative kit be any good for a yellow Z06 to go next to the racing
version, as I saw in one googled image? My eye for detail isn't good
enough to tell...

Also, does anyone else have any good tricks for brush painting large
gloss areas?

SP