AMT Plymouth Prowler - Progress

[klutz_100]

This post should maybe give you a laugh.

On the principle "honesty is the best policy" I'll share with you some rather less-than-perfect efforts of mine

I decided on Midnight Blue Pearl for this build. I had never seen it before and ordered it from MCW just because it sounded nice

This was my first time using automotive paints and I was a bit apprehensive but actually it went on extremely easily and smoothly.

I was more concerned about the color though and after 3-4 coats I was very upset as there was nothing "Midnight Blue" about this color - it was more purple if anything - and was sure I would need to repaint the interior to get a better co-ordinated match.

In artifical light


Natural lighting:



Everything changed, however, after putting on 3 coats of MCW 2-part clear!!
I couldn't believe just HOW MUCH the color changed under the clear

I now love the color and in fact everything goes together very well (please note that the Vallejo French Blue used on the seats is in fact much darker than appears in these photos).
Also note a typical for me lack of regard for painting things the right way - I have decided that chrome bumpers (if I put them on at all) will look much better than grey or black plastic lumps.






Now for some humble pie
From the start I had intended to put some flames on this car and Les (quadzero) was really generous in his advice and ideas - thanks Les!!

I stated out intending to do regular flames but then someone who shall remain nameless (but whose national team just won the world cup) showed me some flame work by Mike Lavallee and I was l snookered - I had to give trufire a go.

Made lots of practice attempts on scrap styrene sheet and I felt I was starting to get there. The technique is fairly simple, you just need three hands




However, the technique is quite hard to get to work in 1/24 scale and the prowler is actually a smallish car with not a lot of area to work on and since I had such a good paint job I was reluctant to risk it screwing it up so I decided to start with a test run on the trailer - I wouldn't be too upset if that were ruined.

Thanks be that I did test first! This is what I got




Gio says it looks like seaweed and I think he's not far wrong
So no flames on the body but I'm going to leave the trailer "as is" 'cos I think it's kind of cool in it's own way.



The body will now be polished and waxed and then I'll start putting things together.

Humbly and overambitiously yours, S-ski

[ales]

Wow! The colour is awesome, and so is the paint scheme. It's going to look stunning when completed.

[quadzero]

I know what you mean about those pearl paints. They change so dramatically when you clear coat them and you always get a nice surprise. The prowler is looking really good althou was a bit disappointed not seeing the custom paint job but I agree with you not risking that beautiful paintjob. I like the trailer and it's pretty colourful for sure. I'm glad you kept that theme there. Lol, I didnt think of seaweed but does remind me of a forest scene on the trailer. I'm glad you took on the challenge and look forward to seeing this beauy finished.

[gionc]

I cant say WOW by the surprise but I can ever say WOW for the result

[sportracer02]

Hi S-ski ,

this colour is great. Covering it with clear lets its appearance change from met. grey to dark blue.

Those natural flames seem to replace the flames we knew up to now on the real cars. In some custom magazines I saw some cars, and I´ll have to give it a try. Your flames turn out great

[AmazonSprite]

Wow - another inspirational build! Very impressed

[MPWR]

Originally Posted by klutz_100

I'll try and brew something up for those seats and maybe put some pop into that interior

Oh, why must you pun ish us so?

Great work as always, looking forward to more!

[klutz_100]

Originally Posted by MPWR

Oh, why must you pun ish us so?

I thought you'd appreciate that...

[mike@af]

Wow, that color is amazing. Great work.

[klutz_100]

Hum Hum - change in plans mkII

After last update, I decided to remove a little bit of orange peel. I sanded it down, put some more clear on and OUCH!!!



This was also all over the body.

At first I didn't have a clue what had happened, particularly that it just started happening as I was finishing up - all of a sudden my airbrush was spitting globs and leaving moon-like craters

I got some really helpful advice form a lot of people here but something someone said in passing set an alarm off in my head and I let the air out of the tank of my new compressor, unscrewed the drain screw an......the Mississippi flowed out!!!

Guess which idiot consciously didn't fix a water trap to their compressor? Yep. I was really surpised at the amount of moisture that had collected in the system after only approx 10 re-fills. I now have a 10$ watertrap/filter and I also made a new, transparent air-hose (sort of visuaa "early warning" device, I hope).




I resanded the body with 1200, 2000 grit and 6000 micromesh and re-sprayed the clear and I am now calling this a save despite some minor flaws which are still present.

This is how it looks now (and stays )



By this point (last night) I was pretty depressed about this build - no flames and painting hell.

The flames and colors were supposed to complemet each other and now I had a pretty boring Dark Blue Prowler.

Then I borrowed a trick from my Daytona. I had a nice dark, smooth and glossy grill, so I masked off and hit it with Alclad II Chrome just for the fun of it.




I think with the chrome bumpers (which were originally just for fun) and by leaving the (thick!!) glass covers off the lights (artistic license ) it will liven things up a bit..?? I think it even looks a bit "Demonic" and "Prowler-ish"



And a quick trial run with the tub attached.



There's a Slim chance I might get this finished over the weekend

[quadzero]

I think the painted grill really adds some zip now. It's too bad about the water ruining the paint job, it's not fun having a setback when the end is in sight. But seems to me you managed to save it very nicely.

[Merkava]

I'll say you saved it! The color looks marvelous, with a very deep gloss. I concur with you, sir, that the headlights look ten times better without the "glass" covers. And I also concur that the grill looks teriffic in chrome.

Very nice

[klutz_100]

Still prowling….


For some time I have been a bit annoyed with myself that I had ignored the door speakers and hadn’t tried to simulate the speaker grill and just left a “grey hole” (1).



Going through my spares box looking for some dial decals (my kit didn’t have any) I came across something (4) that tweaked my imagination – looks like CF from a motorbike

I made a Tamiya tape stencil (2) and transferred it to the decal and cut to shape (3)

I roughly smoothed (is that an oxymorn or merely a physical impossibility? ) the flat paint with a squadron polishing stick and it went down very nicely with some SET and SOL (BTW this was my first ever CF decal )



I had intended to tone the decal down with some Smoke but in the end I decided not to as the speaker is way down in the foot well and would be invisible.




The dial panel and radio surround had been earlier painted with body color and now I masked of and painted satin black. Only after I had done that did I remember that I had in fact painted the interior with XF German Grey !! A test showed that it looked just fine like that (if not better even) so I left it as is.

The dash, dials, door locks, buttons etc. were detailed by toothpick.



As I mentioned above, my second hand kit didn’t have any decals which was a big problem for the dials. A friend scanned me his Revel kit decals which I re-sized and ink jet printed on regular paper. I used a cheap hardware store punch set to stamp out the dials and then white glued them in place and filled the apertures with 5-minute epoxy to simulate glass.




Here a couple of shots of the almost finished interior.

My favorites are the picked out PRND123 lettering on the shifter, the red/blue spots on te aircon dials and the red spot on the door lock






BTW I have lost the tiny tacho that goes on the steering column somewhere in my workshop


I added some guitar string brake lines (G-string, I believe). Don't laugh at my lines, Les!!






One last addition to the interior

Someone said earlier that the interior was boring and I promised to “brew” something up – here you go….



..and to put some “pop” into the interior – is coke OK?...




AMT detailed the interior with a cup holder and it seemed a shame to let that go to waste LOL



A friend made up some aluminum masters which I then cast in resin.



I then made up some decals on BMF decal paper

On the menu coke and/or…can you recognize the brands?


This quickie build is getting long as usual….

[MPWR]

Quickie build? You?

Coming nicely as always. The speaker grilles look great! Wouldn't have thought to use a leather punch, but I guess it works.

Does your G string remain flexible enough to bend without binding or kinking?

Originally Posted by klutz_100

Dunno 'bout dinner, but after dinner drinks have just been served in the muscle/hot rod forum

Subtle, yet effective.

That's a pretty cool looking coffee thermos there with the coke cup and beer can.

Miller, eh? Cheers.

[quadzero]

Holy catfish, do you ever run out of innovative ideas for bringing out the best in a kit? The speaker grills are excellent, I would never have thought it was simply a decal. I like the way the dash came out, excellent toothpick work there and difference in colours really make it look alive. The best part is the coke cup and beer cans, I can't believe they are in this scale. I avoid using round wound guitar string as I find it very hard to work with and yet you made magic out of it here, I will have to rethink about using it from now on, it sure looks better then black wire I have been using. Great work here, Doc.
I think I will go play "dominos" now, whew.