2016 Corvette Stingray Coupe C7 (red) - wip

Dominik Weitzer
Here she is! Good work so far, keep it going. Looking good 🙂

Christian W
Thank you, brother! Hopefully the paint job is done by next week. That would be good.

Chris Greathouse
I love the black and red! Looks great! I have this same kit in my stash... I may outright steal your colors 😛 What do they say? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery 😄

Dominik Weitzer
Looks really good in red-black . Keep it going 😉

Christian W
Thanks, mates!
@Chris ... *lol* like Honda answered when the press asked them, why the (1st) NSX looks like a Ferrari. "It's a compliment to the fabulous design". No problem of cause

@Dominik ... hooray! It's September and I want to finish it this month. If nothing goes wrong, it will be done at the end of the month.

Only decals and clear coat is on the to do list. Then it can be built together. To modify the rear spoiler I'll keep fit the final. I think that's it.

arielvitanovus
Awesome work! Thank you soooooo much!

Christian W
Thank you! I guess, it's your C7, I built here.

arielvitanovus
Yep!! ????????????

arielvitanovus
: )

Christian W
One question: is it possible to replace the top with a transparent one? So I accepted the challenge. I built a mold and took "Easy Cast - Clear Casting Epoxy" for a try. The mold came out well.
The additional question: the top should be transparent dark blue. So after filling the mold of the top I mixed the epoxy with clear blue email color by Revell. Good: it was possible to mix them.
After getting the parts out of the mold the mold for the top is a little damaged at the sides. I have to make another one. A better one. One of two mold halfs.
The transparent blue wheel 😄 turned out well. It's hard.

The negative: the top isn't still hard enough to be ready to put on the model kit. It's dry but a little flexible.

The next try:
-> a new mold
-> filling the new mold with already dark blue material.

arielvitanovus
WOW... thank you for your efforts! Ingenious!

arielvitanovus
I think the glass was smoke/black.... checking pix...

arielvitanovus
Good eye.... from the outside it LOOKS black but it is actually blue when I saw a picture taken from the interior! Thank you!

Dominik Weitzer
Thats interesting Bro. I think, it could be easier to make a mold, if the roof is sectioned as an extra part. You remember about the T3-roof?
As extra part, you can glue two sprues on the side of the b-pillars, put this two ends of the sprues on fimo and let the roof "stand" on this built legs. Fill it with silicone, after it's hardened take a knife to cut it out in a line between the sprues. It could be possible, to pull the roof out of that cut because the mold is very elastic. Think so. Understand?

Christian W
@Dominik... Ithink we have to mak a call. Not sure that I understood😉 With the first mold it was good to take out. But the silicone was to thin on the top (inside) if the new part. It was teared off the mold when I removed the top.

@S ... I found pictures of replacement roofs. I was wondering, that it is dark blue instead of smoke / black. I was wondering at all that it is out of glass! I always thought, it is aluminum.

I think, I have to do the step, to cut off the roof of the "donor kit". I wanted to avoid it but I think, there is no other choice. The plan was to cut it off only to check the replacement by the new roof.

Christian W
Good, that I have some model kits bought to test the roof thing. And a donor body of my brother.

Dominik Weitzer
We talk tomorrow 🙂

Munkyslut
C7's are growing on me, 5's & 6's never did it for me but these do 😉
Any special plans for it?

Christian W
It's a rebuilt of a real car. The only change is change the top roof with a transparent one. Third try is in progress.

Munkyslut
That plastic glass looks incredible! Are the results as good as you'd like?

Christian W
Thank you. I'll report it, as soon as the parts are dry. The wheel I made a week ago looks good. The surface is not that shiny but I think the top roof will be better because the surface is much smoother than the tire / rim😉
I'm excited how it will turn out.

Munkyslut
The possibilities are endless...... clear hoods, roofs, T-tops etc

Christian W
The flashing lights at a police car😉, red tinted rear lights coming to my mind. I don't see the same efforts for smaller parts. The roof is more complicated. Porbably because I didn't made any molds before except the wheel you can see on the picture. But no mold containing two parts.

Dominik Weitzer
uhhhhh….thats kinda interesting bro 🙂

arielvitanovus
You guys rock!!! I am very impressed- ingenuity and attention to detail! ????

Christian W
🙂 Thanks to all of you. It sucks that the time for drying lasts days. The next days the red body will become a wet sanding to prepare it for a final layer of clear coat. It should be prepared too for the case to cut of the top roof and replace it eventually.

Today I took out the wheel out of the mold. It's ok again. Also I took the roof out of the right mold. It's harder than the "only" clear one but not 100% dry jet at the surfsce.

I keep you informed.

Christian W
Next failure :/. The mold broke while I tried to get the part out. There was a big bubble of air on the bottom of the mold which made the mold to the surface of the top roof to thin. The part it self is not that bad (only 1 millimeter thick) but still to flexible and not even hard.
Next try's coming soon.

Christian W
I think I have no solution for the Project "glass top Roof". The latest parts aren't hard yet. It's a week now for drying and they are still flexible. Now I'm looking for an alternative material.

arielvitanovus
*fingers crossed! I appreciate your efforts!

Christian W
It doesn't work. I'm going to complete it now 🙁 Sorry. I have no other solution for the clear top roof. The parts I did are all still flexible. I don't know, what else to do.

Munkyslut
That's a shame Christian, I thought that was going to be an invaluable new process for custom parts.
At least you persevered with it 😉

Christian W
It is a shame and I'm not satisfied to stop at this point.

I want to get this done somehow and (sadly) sameday. This Corvette has to be completeted and sent to the owner. I have no more time for the experiment on this kit.

Maybe someday I'll get the solution. I have to find a material which works for this tiny part.
The suspisious thing is, that the wheels (which I've made with the rest of the material) are hard like a rock and the thin parts aren't. This doesn't go into my mind.

Munkyslut
Yeah good point, usually the thicker material would take far longer to properly set hard.

arielvitanovus
pssst..... you can take more time if you need to.... truly!!!

Christian W
Thank you. I want to get it done as soon as possible.
Today I'll paint the latest Roof with my clear colors to see, how transparent it will be afterwards. The target is, to have it nearly black and shiny from the outside but blueish transparent against the light.

Derek Huggett
Throw my little bit in here if I may?

I have recently been trying out UV curing resin to produce small parts from home produced moulds with some success. The great thing is for small items, you don't need to mix up a lot of 2-part resin, so there is less waste. Clarity of the resin is pretty good, but you do need to remember that the UV light has to penetrate to the bottom of the mould for it all to harden (this limits mould depth, and any 'tinting' that might be added will also interfere with light penetration). Once set (usually only a matter of minutes under a UV light - or even strong sunlight), demoulded and left to really harden off, the resin seems to take cutting/sanding/drilling/sawing pretty well. I am still experimenting though!

Just spreading the word if it is of any use to any one! 🙂

Christian W
This sounds really interessting! Regarding to the thin roof it could be an alternative material. I'll keep that in mind. Thank you!

Derek Huggett
My pleasure Christian - no guarantees though!😉

Dominik Weitzer
Thats awesome bro!

arielvitanovus
HOLY. CRAP. Amazing, Christian!!

Chris Greathouse
It's fun checking in on your progress. This roof thing is interesting.

Christian W
Thank you. I like the part. Yesterday I made another part - unsuccessfully. The next one is drying. And I made another form. There for I cut the Roof of a model kit off and made the half of the form yesterday. On Monday, I'll end the form and it all is dry, the production of the part (Roof) will start again. Hopefully the form works better than the current one.

Christian W
So. I filled two molds with the transparent stuff. Hopefully one comes out without any issues.

Then I painted some details on the body, the headlights, sidemarkers and stuff. Some other parts (grill, rear lights) completing the Body.

arielvitanovus
How is it going?? .....

Christian W
I was not able to get a perfect part out of the mold. Today I'll take the best of it and put some good layers of clear coat on it. Then I'll put it on the cat. You'll get both roofs to the model kit. The black one and the transparent one.

arielvitanovus
I appreciate your efforts! I am sure they are good!

Christian W
Only three parts are to do on the C7: the transparent Roof hast to be fit to the car, the black Roof has to be painted again and the license plates have to be mounted. The end is near *dingdingding*!

arielvitanovus
Wooo hooo !

Dominik Weitzer
Came out really really great Bro! In my opinion, the transparent roof is the affort you wanted.
Well done!

arielvitanovus
LOL

Christian W
*lol*² Thank you!

Christian W
Thus week I thought, I am done with the roof. I tried to fit the best of my casted roofs. It doesn't fit at the corner of the windshield on the passengers side. The problem: it's not pain. The is one millimeter different in the hight of both edges to the windshield. I tried the latest four roofs and all have the same issue.
So I did a restart. Making another cast. That went fail. Bubbles in the cast aren't welcome 😄
The third cast is now done and the first roof is in work. Hopefully it goes well.

Christian W
A little heat and decent fingers put the roof in the right shape. It's done 🙂

arielvitanovus
Thank you, Christian! It is amazing.... and was very well received!!

Christian W
This is pretty good to hear. I'm glad it arrived and that you like it. The 4th is the most interesting on building model kits.
I'm going to build a C7 for me this year. Also I'm taking out the roof. I think this is the coolest part on the model.