1976 Stingray

[corvettekid_7684]

I'm about to start building another scale of a car I owned. (wish I still had this one too) It's a 1976 Corvette, kit is a vintage 1/25 MPC. I'm posting these pics a bit early because I'm going to try to replicate the "weathered" finish the car had, and am hoping someone might be able to offer a few tips on how I could do this? I don't have an airbrush...
Car is silver, quite faded on the top surfaces with "firethorn" interior...







Pictures aren't the greatest, but I didn't take very many photos of this car...

[carl63_99]

CK,
Without an airbrush, that is going to be a challenge. I would recommend getting one. That said, you should find rattle can paint that as closely as possible matches the correct color of the car. From the looks of the car, you should put at least one coat of light grey primer, then go with the color. I would paint the hood separate, making sure to give it a good even coat, as it looks pretty good compared to the rest of the upper surfaces.

When you do the color on the body, purposely try to not get complete coverage on the top surfaces and upper sides. This will allow some of the grey to peak through. I would then probably do some polishing on the sides and hood, and clear coat the whole car with a gloss finish. THEN, spray the top areas with a light coat of flat clear to dull them up. It's going to take a bit of testing to see what happens, but I think it's doable.

I'd recommend going at it with a scrap body first, to practice and get a feel for how it looks and go from there.

Good luck!

Carl

[corvettekid_7684]

Thanks for the tips!! Yup, the hood and T-tops were fairly decent, but the other top surfaces were pretty rough. Everybody always asked me what color I was going to paint it because it looked like primer. However, this somewhat rough look grew on me, and I kind of preferred keeping it this way. I sold the car to a guy who completely restored it (bodywork anyways, as the engine wasn't anywhere near stock) He painted it a beautiful candy burgandy color to match the "firethorn" interior and it turned out great...
I was thinking of using a light gray primer misted over the top, but I'm having trouble finding any, as everything seems to be a real dark gray)

[corvettekid_7684]

Not much to post, but it's something...



Going for a metallic yet weathered undercarriage look...





Still waiting on some parts to come in the mail. I've also started another build to occupy the down time...I'll post something when I have something on it...

[corvettekid_7684]

A little progress...

[dzsiii]

going nicely...great work

[corvettekid_7684]

It's coming along...

Rear suspension


Engine with fan cluth, even though it gets buried in the fan shroud...


Engine


Here's a photo of the real 1:1 engine...not much to look at, but it had lots of power. The guy I sold it to checked it out and said it was a 1970 LT-1. I don't know for sure, but I did pull 7000 rpm in top gear once BTW, I later removed the air conditioning...


Completed interior


Interior


Weathered finish-camera flash exaggerates this a bit...

[carl63_99]

Looks like you got the technique down for doing the weathered finish! If you show this at any contest, make sure you have a pic of the real 1:1 scale car, as people won't understand the paint otherwise.

Keep up the good work!

[corvettekid_7684]

Thanks! I'm quite pleased with the results. I ended up using both white and gray primer and lots of sanding/polishing to get the effect I was looking for. I'm beginning to get that weird deja vu feeling while working on this one. Same thing happened when I built my '65 Impala

[quadzero]

Coming along nicely. The dash looks good, are the gauges decals or did you paint all that?

[corvettekid_7684]

Gauges are all painted, then added a touch of Future to them to give the look of lenses. You can barely see them when the interior is inside the body though

[corvettekid_7684]

A few added details...

[corvettekid_7684]

Just needs wheels/tires and a few small items now...