International Scale Modeller

For this build I'm going with an old school kit, a 1981 Monogram SNAP TITE kit of an '80/'81 C3 Corvette. While helping a friend clean out her garage after her husband became severely disabled, I uncovered this kit. That was a couple of years ago and I've been waiting for a good time to see what I can do with it, and that time has arrived!



Being a beginner's kit, there isn't much to it, but I'll see how far I can push it. I have a few ideas, but we'll see how it goes.

There are just a couple of sprues:







I'll be stripping the chrome and repainting, hopefully with Molotow chrome. The rear window has a big gouge in it, so that will require some work. The body actually looks pretty nice, although I'm no 'Vette expert so it passes my undiscerning eye. Oh, and I think I'll skip the hideous (and probably fragile) decals.

Based on the fully comprehensive instruction book, this should take days hours minutes to assemble.





Nowhere does it say which model year 'Vette this is, the instructions and box only mention copyright 1981. Well, this is pretty obviously a C3 'Vette; what I at least consider THE iconic 'Vette body style since it's basically what I grew up drooling over (not that I or anyone I knew had one). The C3 was produced from 1968 to 1982 so I thought the odds of this being a 70's model where pretty high. Therefore I embarked on some research to see if I could determine a better year. I found some info that in 1980 there were some changes to the hood shape, bumpers and spoiler, but that info didn't convince me. Then I found a reference that in 1980 the front emblem changed to a new style used in '80 and '81:



So a close look at the front of the body and...



...definitive proof that this is indeed an '80/'81 C3!

So, I'm off the the races, so to speak!

I will be certainly be disappointed if you don’t use that totally radical devil decal on the hood
Like you know, totally
I am anticipating a selfie of your mullet hair growth by the end of the build...I am bald so naturally exempt from this requirement.

Best of luck with the build, hope you are feeling well

Scott

Yep, if this isn’t a perfect excuse to grow a mullet and ask your first cousin out on a date I don’t know what is! Happy building, looks like a lot of fun!

Update 1 - Polishing and Paint Test

Well, I'm starting to get some traction on this thing. The first hurdle to overcome was some nasty defects in the rear window. I'm not sure what this was, but it looked like something melted the plastic:



The windshield also had some scrapes and scratches, but not this bad. After a bit of elbow grease with Ultimate sanders/polishers and some headlight lens restorer that I found in the garage...



It's looking probably better than the original!



The next thing to turn to is something I've been wanting to try with this kit, and what's more '80s than a candy apple/metal flake-like paint job! Having never tried this, nor wanting to purchase any "specialty" paints for this, I thought I'd try some paints I had on hand. What follows is my first ever "plastic spoon paint test".

I started by priming with Stynylrez Gray Primer, I figured this would be a good base coat to workout any paint prep issues and cover the red kit plastic. I followed that with a coat of Stynylrez Gloss Black Primer:



Not the glossiest paint, but it went on very easily and provides a nice smooth base.

Then I wanted to try three different metallic bases to see if there were any significant differences in the final look. I chose Vallejo metal color Dark Aluminum, Gold and Tamiya Chrome Silver. Just one coat of these:



Finally, for the color coat I mixed Tamiya Clear Red 50/50 with Mr Leveling Thinner and applied several coats until I was happy with the color. These differences were a lot more subtle than I expected and I'm not sure that the photos show them.



Basically the Dark Aluminum (left) is has very little flake to it; the Gold (middle) has small flakes and is very slightly more orange, the Chrome Silver has the largest flakes and is maybe slightly darker.

Can any of you tell the difference? Any preference? I'm leaning towards the Chrome Silver, the larger flakes give it a bit more depth. FWIW, I will NOT be applying a 2K clear to this, that's way too much work for me. I'll probably go with Aquagloss which should give what I would consider a nice "80's finish".

Here is one more look from a different angle. If you happen to have an opinion about one over the others, please share it!



Thanks!
Bob

Update 2 - Experiment #2

For my second experiment of the day, stripping the chrome. After a little internet research I decided on the "Super Clean" method; so on the way to work the other day I stopped at a local auto parts store that had a 2 for 1 deal and picked up two bottles.

There is just one small sprue to strip:



My research indicated that I just needed to soak for a few minutes; this seemed too good to be true. But as you might be able to tell, by the time I could grab my phone to take a photo, it was already working!



And just literally a few minutes later:



Then after a rinse with water; where did the chrome go?



That was easy....

Nice start and I would go with the silver too

Some sweet work there right down to your stripping


Love the metal flake/candy idea
My last two builds use that premise with a light aluminum covered by Tamiya clear paint...one red the other blue
Personally I like the lighter of your spoons with the dark aluminum base
BUT
I also know how the colours don’t often look the same in real life, so you gotta go with your guts
I love that you are testing, doing spoons and using what is on hand rather than just ordering something..very much like me
Great work

Thanks Hawk and Scott!

I was searching for some references, mainly for the engine when I came across this listing, https://www.streetsideclassics.com/vehi ... t-corvette.



Well, that sealed the deal. I’ll be going with Scott’s instinct since it seems to be the closest match. I may add a touch of clear yellow and/or “thin” it with some clear to lighten it a bit. Mixing in Aquagloss should be ok, right?

And it looks like a black/smoke T-top and smoked rear window are now required!

Ya that’s a sweet old school vette
Good choice

This is gonna be a looker!! And thanks for the tip on the new way to "strip" the chrome parts.

Great subject choice...a throw back to my youth and dreaming of having one of these. Look forward to the ride.

Thanks Scott, Barry and Shayne!

Update #3 - Fixin’ the pipes...

In an attempt to keep my mind off the state of the world these days, I’ve made some slow progress. Next week I’m on vacation and stuck at home, so there should be lots to report on.

However, two weeks ago I started fixing a deficiency in the kit; the exhaust pipes are hollow, not it a good way! I guess they were saving plastic?



So I filled these with some styrene strips and the gaps with “sprue goo”. This sat for a couple of days giving the “sprue goo” plenty of time to fully cure.



Then after lots of filing, sanding, filling with “spruce goo”, sanding, priming, filling with Mr. Surfacer, sanding, and one more round of primer...



Much better.

I’ve also prepped the body and all other parts, painted and detailed the interior, and painted the engine. I’ll post pictures for these later today or tomorrow.

Stay safe,
Bob

Good save and they don't look half bad. If it was me I would have not gotten them any where near round.

Those pipes look excellent! Too bad Monogram didn't do that for you.

Thanks gents...

Update #4 - Paint progress...

Here are the photos of the progress I’ve made painting. First, the interior, a nice tan, Tamiya XF-59 Desert Yellow and various details...





Hopefully the seat backs won’t be visible. If they are, I’ll have to pull them out, fill them in and repaint, should be easy, one of the benefits of snap-tite!

Then, various parts...



I think the correct engine color for 1980 is GM Corporate Blue; I have a limited selection of blues on hand, so this is a mix of XF-3 Blue and XF-2 White. Eh, it’s in the ballpark. The blacks are all Stynylrez Gloss Black Primer, that will be the final frame color as well as the base for the chrome wheels and exhaust pipes.

Finally, the body and hood, in their gray primer, and the frame in its final color.



I’ve also now chromed the wheels, pipes, and valve covers, smoked the rear window, ”weathered” the engine, and painted the head liner. I’ll post these photos tomorrow.

’Til then, be safe...
Bob

Super sweet
Loving that interior and smooth primer, Bob

What a difference it makes with the a coat of paint. That original red was awful.

No seat backs suck...better test fit before you get too far along
I like the 1-2-3 blocks in the background as well.
What do you find you use those for??

digger303 wrote: Tue Mar 24, 2020 5:54 am What a difference it makes with the a coat of paint. That original red was awful.

Thanks Diggs, many more coats to come...

Twokidsnosleep wrote: Tue Mar 24, 2020 6:18 am No seat backs suck...better test fit before you get too far along
I like the 1-2-3 blocks in the background as well.
What do you find you use those for??

Yeah, I’ll check it... eventually. I just got the 1-2-3 blocks so haven’t really used them yet. Of course before I got them, I had plenty of uses! They should be good for squaring things up, holding things in position, etc. As I find uses I’ll try to include them in my build threads.

Update #5 - Ooooo, shiny...

For the chrome bits, I wanted to give Molotow Liquid Chrome a try. The plan was to decant some from a marker; well, easier said than done. After opening it, I was able to “milk” just enough drops to complete the wheels and pipes. Spraying was interesting, to get a really good shine, I needed to apply quite a bit and getting it just right was difficult; too little or too much and it was dull. In the end, I had to touch up most of it straight from the marker.





As I mentioned yesterday, I tinted the rear window. Not perfect, lots of dust and a few “bubbles”, but it looks ok from a few feet. This was done with a mix of Tamiya X-19 Smoke, X-19 Semi-gloss Black an Mr. Leveling Thinner. It took 3 or 4 tries to get it as good as I did. Failed attempts were easily removed with Windex. The first attempt didn’t include the black and it took many coats to get as dark as I was looking for; adding black to the later attempts cut the number of coats way down.



The engine is complete, awaiting installation:



Finally, I’ve taken the next step on the body, Stynylrez Gloss Black Primer.



Hmmmm... maybe a jet black ‘Vette would be cool...

Bob

Update #6 - An aluminium ’Vette?



Well, maybe not; this is just the next step - Vallejo Metal Color Dark Aluminium. I followed this with a coat of Aquagloss to protect it from some masking I’ll need to do.

Tomorrow, color...

Looks really good. Doing some great work with this kit.

CygnusX1 wrote: Wed Mar 25, 2020 10:57 pm Looks really good. Doing some great work with this kit.

Thanks Cyg... but you may have spoke too soon....

Update #7 - Two steps forward, on giant leap backward...

OK, on to color. I was pretty happy with the spoon test, but wanted a little lighter, so without testing I added some clear yellow and got to spraying. So one step forward.



Well, it turned pretty orange, or as the better half said, copper! Well, it's interesting, but there were a few issues that needed cleaning up.

While I let the final paint dry, I started assembling the chassis; another step forward.



Now to tackle a few issues on the body. Some dust, etc to address and some unevenness to the color, but I was willing to live with it color. However... while addressing the "dust", I got a little heavy handed and ate right through the color! Ahhh..

Well, OK. This will give me a chance to address the issues I had with the color... I'll just strip it and start over. This was also a chance to try out the Super Clean as a paint stripper. And I must say it worked just great, although the Stynylrez primer was a bit if a bear to remove! But a 10 minute soak and an old toothbrush made pretty quick work of it, until...Disaster struck!



Yup, held on a little too tight while scrubbing...

At this point I was pretty frustrated, so I finished the stripping and put it aside; that was last weekend...

That gave me a week to consider how I was going to fix this, and today was the day to put my plan into action. I decided I needed to have something to hold the mirror in place while I glued it. Wire! So I drilled small holes in the bottom of the mirror and top of the mount and through the door. I then superglued some 0.015" lead wire into the mirror hole and threaded that into the door.



I pulled this into place, the lead wire had enough give that I was able to get the placement pretty good. Then added a touch of Plastic-I-Weld and...



...Bob's your uncle (no wait, I'm Bob, not your uncle)! This is now sitting on the shelf waiting to fully cure before I decide if I want to try that paint again.

For now, I'm going to turn my attention to an Egg build, there should be a thread for that coming shortly (is there a place for the Egg build threads?).

Bob

coming along very nicely there Bob

These kits are much like the 70's Revell offerings a real challenge, one you're rising too very well

Update #8 - Back in Black... and Dark Aluminum...

(Apologies to Bon Scott and Angus Young)

The photos should cover this....





Tomorrow, Clear Red....

Bob

Looking good and nice work

Oh yeah, that is gonna look cool

Go super thin layers on the clear red....it is waaaay to easy to get heavy handed and try to see some colour too fast.
Then the dreaded runs will occur, both in paint and your pants

With my Neanderthal manhandling skills, I usually pin side mirrors on before I break them off.
Kidalike pitot tubes, just cut the bugger off at the start of the plane build

Thanks Hawk!

Twokidsnosleep wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2020 4:44 pm Oh yeah, that is gonna look cool

Go super thin layers on the clear red....it is waaaay to easy to get heavy handed and try to see some colour too fast.
Then the dreaded runs will occur, both in paint and your pants

With my Neanderthal manhandling skills, I usually pin side mirrors on before I break them off.
Kidalike pitot tubes, just cut the bugger off at the start of the plane build

Thanks for the tip Scott, unfortunately I didn’t see it until now. Already done. Yeah, light coats. My problem is I have no patience! Managed to complete it without runs, that I’ve seen. However getting even color is a bear! Oh, well it isn’t too bad.



I think some Aquagloss next, then the T-top...

Update #10 - UNCLE!

Yes, that’s right, I’m calling Uncle on this paint job. After looking at it more, the color was just too uneven. Compounded on top of that, while painting the running lights, I found the mask was too big leaving a noticeable aluminum strip under one of them. In case you are unaware, touching up a paint job like this is near impossible. Trust me; I know. I attempted and made quite a mess of it.

Time to strip it yet again!

How does a Stynylrez Gloss Black finish sound?

BobM wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2020 3:41 am Update #10 - UNCLE!

Yes, that’s right, I’m calling Uncle on this paint job. After looking at it more, the color was just too uneven. Compounded on top of that, while painting the running lights, I found the mask was too big leaving a noticeable aluminum strip under one of them. In case you are unaware, touching up a paint job like this is near impossible. Trust me; I know. I attempted and made quite a mess of it.

Time to strip it yet again!

How does a Stynylrez Gloss Black finish sound?

Three times! I'd be pulling ky hair out by now! You sure have patience

I really like what you're doing so far. Nice!