SPA Modeler

That looks spot on!

Looks like you are nailing this one perfectly my friend. Watching for more!

You are crushing this Joe. Those panels look really smart. Finishes are so important. Even more so than fine details. Great finishes give more realism than many photo etched pieces slapped onto a kit. Of course when you throw PE on a great finish you end up with greatness.

Joe is one of the great car modelers for sure.

Thanks for the very kind words fellas!!!

Dragline wrote:You are crushing this Joe. Those panels look really smart. Finishes are so important. Even more so than fine details. Great finishes give more realism than many photo etched pieces slapped onto a kit. Of course when you throw PE on a great finish you end up with greatness.

Joe is one of the great car modelers for sure.

Awww cmon' now bro!! I don't know 'bout all 'at. Thanks for the vote of confidence in any case Bob. Glad to have you back man.

Moving on to what is normally my favorite part of the interior....the dash. Again.....this one presents very difficult obstacles. How to BMF that bad boy and NOT get any wrinkles.

Y'all.....after this part I'm really looking forward to the seats on this one......something a little easier. Deluxe dash panel inserts look like this in the real world:



And again....BMF ing this was dang near impossible. I tried chrome silver paint which looked good initially and then over time it did some weird stuff. Set up wrong or something. Anyway it looked like hammered dog crap!!!



This is where drastic measures are called for. Some may call me crazy for this but hey......ya gotta do what you've gotta do in modeling. I chunked the whole dash in a bath of brake fluid and stripped off the paint and started completely over. I had a spare dash sooooooo. I cut it in half and cut the dash pad/ cover off of it to gain easy access to the outline of the passengers side of the dash for being able to cut a template out of BMF in which to place a perfectly cut BMF piece on that side.



Take II: After creating an outline onto the BMF I cut it out to the exact shape and laid 'er into place. Not perfect....but I can live with this alot better than that other job.



I'm going to Molotow on the drivers side of the dash because there just aint NO WAY I'm going to be able to pull that off with BMF but I think I can get the two sides to look pretty close to the same after I pull trick #2 out of the hat. The passengers side was the real eyesore as there's just so much more area and there's no gauges or any other detail to 1.) take up some of the blank space and 2.) to provide detail distraction.

I may have tried spraying Alclad II or Spazzstix after sanding in a texture.

It looks great after your effort though, no denying that.

I thought about the Alclad but it wouldn't have flowed right. Either way you're masking way up under the hood of that dash cover. Makes things tough. I came up with solution #2 though.

I ended up going over the left side of the dash with Molotow chrome and because of its flow properties it made its way into the nooks and crannys of the gauge clusters corners. After the Molotow had dried I shot a uniform coat of MM Acrylic Flat Coat over both sides of the dash trim bringing everything to a uniform finish. I then applied the Mustang medallion to the left side of the dash. Then the decals for the instruments went on and I painted the radio up, applied the chrome to the radio and light switch knobs. Ignition cylinder bezel went on and I inserted the keys into the ignition switch. PE pedal faces went onto the pedals and I picked out the chrome trim around the pedals.

I'm mostly content with this dash despite the difficulties presented with it. I've done better work but given what I had to work with here I'll take this where it's at.

Wow. I ate breakfast without spilling anything.

Joe, you are a master builder!

YES! That looks outstanding Joe. Put in the work and it pays off.