WIP: Shelby Cobra 427

[winstona]

I am building a Revell Shelby Cobra 427 this time around. After some disasters in my previous build, I am being very careful on this one.

This is quite an emotional build for me. I lost my job while building this. Even though it is not quite related, but I did not have enough sleep on a day where I said something really stupid to my boss. That got me canned...The night before, I was trying very hard to strip away the flock on the interior of this car...

Anyhow, here are the progress pics, I am sure I will remember this one when I am done with it:

Wheels are painted Alclad Aluminum as a base coat then Tamiya Metallic grey to create a two toned color and then the hub is painted with Gunze Mr. Metallic Color Chrome Silver.



The chasis was warped in the beginning. I had to use a hair dryer to straigten it before it can sit well:



The body was painted with Tamiya British racing green. two mist and one wet. It will be decalled and clear coated. This is already the second attempt, the first one was too thick and resulted to numerous fish eyes. I had to strip paint with oven cleaner. here's a test fit shot of the car:



Here's the part on this model that cost my job - the interior. I have followed klutz_100's alternative flocking technique to create this. I did not follow the entire how to but instead borrowed the idea of using double sided tape.

I taped the whole thing up with double sided tape and cut out the part where flocking is not needed. Minor overlapping is OK, as the flocking will cover the overlaps. The tape does not have to cover perfectly.

Then I added white flocking. After it is done and left to dry, I spayed a light coat of Tamiya Buff to add color. I actaully bought the wrong color flocking (should have bought the tan color) material but decided to try and paint it...it actually worked!

But as I said before, the paint was too sticky on the first attempt and I ended up stripping the whole thing and do it again late night. This took about 4 hours.



So far so good...

Winston

[0tobe60in10minutes]

dude the car is awesome. ive just finished a 427 the other day and it came out just wonderful. the only pain i thought was the exhaust pipes. ill post a thread later on.

love the flocking alos,

[Whumbachumba]

I've been working on mine on and off. I had problems with the drive shaft being too long. Yours looks really good.

[mickbench]

I built one of these last year. It was a great kit, but I had many problems along the way, but nothing to stop it coming out nicely.

The driveshaft is too long, as alredy mentioned. Just sand a few mm of each end.

You need to cut the bit of plastic that sticks out near the engine mounts, or the body doesn't sit on right. It looks too high if you don't, yours isn't too bad, but I can see the front is higher then the back, but this is normally how a cobra sits, but I still tried to get my a little better.

The front radiator hose just doesn't fit well at all. Someone on this board (Klutz) advised to make a new one from rolled up masking tape, or tube or something with a little more bend.

Also, ensure you glue the radiator at the front well. Mine fell off just as I'd got the body on, as the body rests on it. Doh.

And the exhausts are crap. Strip the chrome, at is also not too good, and fill and sand.

This is mine -

http://www.pictureparking.com/show_gallery.php?gid=2496

Yours is looking great in that British racing green. And I too get fish eyes now and then, Ts paints do that ALL the time if you apply just a little too thick. Annoys sometimes.

Also, sorry to hear you've lost your job. I'm sure you'll find another one soon. Might even be a good thing. Who knows..

[klutz_100]

I really like what you did with the wheels - the paint combo works really well for me

Also interesting with idea with the tape - are you happy with the way it worked?

TBH I don't get the Cobra in BRG - but that's just good 'ol subjectivity for ya

[winstona]

Originally Posted by klutz_100

I really like what you did with the wheels - the paint combo works really well for me

Also interesting with idea with the tape - are you happy with the way it worked?

TBH I don't get the Cobra in BRG - but that's just good 'ol subjectivity for ya

Thanks for the comments. The tape method is actually better than using glue I think. Because I didn't have to wait till the glue dries before applying colour. All in all, I love the result!

Very very slow progress, gotta focus on finding a new job. Here is the completed dash. I dry brushed the steering wheel to bring out the logo detail (I know this is not too accurate but I could not figure out a way to do without adding decal):



The body needs some more work on it before I can apply decal. Orange peel all over the place. I want to polish it smooth before I decal the body and apply clear. The Engine is completely untouched...

Winston

[winstona]

Time for an update...

The body is sanded and polished smooth after a while. I never could have thought polishing this body could be such a pain. The curvy nature of this car makes it very difficult to polish because the raised area will be prone to over-rubbing. At a few areas, I rubbed through the paint and all the way down to the primer! I have to do some small over spray at some areas to patch up a few spots and wait for it to dry and re-do the polishing again...

Here is the polished body:



I then decaled the body with the supplied decal. I initially wanted to build one with the regular dual racing stripes. But if I want to do that I have to make the decals myself. Never done this before so I decided to stick with the supplied decals. I looked at the decal supplied by this kit and the added numbers are not too bad after all...



The following pic shows the front of the body. I cut off some spare decals from the sheet to make the stripes below the big front opening (surprisingly not included with the kit):



That's it for now. Next up is to clear coat the body and detail the engine a little bit.

Winston

[mickbench]

Winston,

Great update. As for polishing, I got fed up with polishing model car bodies, only to then cut through to the primer, it really did start to ***** me off somewhat.

I then learnt a trick, and I’m sure many others do this as well. The reason you /we all tend to sand the paint is to level and then buff back up with a compound to put the shine back on again. I learnt, that after 2 – 3 mists, and 2 wet TS paints would leave a orange peel or texture. Normally you’d apply a few extra wet to allow for the rubbing process.

EVERYTIME I did this, I cut through to primer. On a Honda S2000, I was rubbing, and cut into the primer… I was ready to bin it. And Thought, sod this I’m going to cut ALL the orange peel out, with 2400 and if I cut through to primer, I’ll be re-spraying the whole thing anyhow. When the paint was so smooth, it was nothing but flat yellow, with no gloss, I shot an extra two VERY wet coats of TS camel yellow.

I couldn’t believe it, the TS spray dried super smooth, zero orange peel, and I then just compound with Tamiya fine and finish and wax.

From now onwards I’ve always stopped at the 2 wet, cut ALL the orange peel out etc, and then finish it off, and I’ve been a lot happier since.

Just thought this might help you.

Oh – the Decals for this kit I thought were GREAT. Respond to decal solutions VERY well.

[winstona]

Today I worked on the engine of the car and I tried out engine wiring...

However, everything went well except that...the wires are too thick!

I tried to remove them but I super glued them already...

Well, to my eyes they are ok, but the camera doesn't lie:





Anyways, it's a good learning experience...AGAIN. How many times do I have to say this before I can make a perfect model?

Winston

[mickbench]

Winston,

Do you ever notice that when you glue something with CA glue, and it’s lined up perfectly, and you NEVER want it to come apart – and the slightest gust of wind and its fell off…

And when you mess up, and you want to break it up, it’s so stuck, a trident missile wouldn’t dislodge it..

Happens to me all the time, it looks fine, but you’ll learn for next time. Try putting some silver colour masking tape over them in places to make clamps, can make a difference..

[winstona]

Originally Posted by mickbench

Winston,

Do you ever notice that when you glue something with CA glue, and it’s lined up perfectly, and you NEVER want it to come apart – and the slightest gust of wind and its fell off…

And when you mess up, and you want to break it up, it’s so stuck, a trident missile wouldn’t dislodge it..

Mick,

So true....

Anyhow, the reason why I leave it on is because it looks ok when you look at it. I discovered that they are too thick only after I looked at the photos..Oh well.

Winston

[white97ex]

Originally Posted by mickbench

Winston,

Do you ever notice that when you glue something with CA glue, and it’s lined up perfectly, and you NEVER want it to come apart – and the slightest gust of wind and its fell off…

And when you mess up, and you want to break it up, it’s so stuck, a trident missile wouldn’t dislodge it..

Happens to me all the time, it looks fine, but you’ll learn for next time. Try putting some silver colour masking tape over them in places to make clamps, can make a difference..

one of the great modelling curses. lol

[eph2]

Wooww.. nice work at the moment!

[winstona]

Hi all,

Another update to this never ending build...

The body has been clear coated with Gunze Mr. Super clear last week. Two mists and one wet. I let it dry for 2 days. Then I moved on sanding and polishing.

Today I finally finished the polishing work on this model. Tough job...It took me at least 5 hours to finish it. The hood is the most difficult part. There are a few spots here and there that I over-polished especially at the edges. They will be patched up eventually. My fingers are so numb now with all the polishing...

Here are some polished body pics:









Thanks for looking!

Winston

[mickbench]

2 days before polishing out a clear coat eh..?? I cleared with X22 on my ducati over a week ago, and I'm still not able to polish it out yet..

Looking nice. I can see where you burnt though, but that can be fixed by a dab of white paint.. Not a problem.. Touchups are a part of model building.. Keep it up, it's going well..