69 Camaro

Chaz Gordon
All parts accounted for, I've clipped and cleaned all the plain parts and wet flatted the bodyshell. I'm going to be using alclad for the first time on this, so I've got to strip the chrome parts, which I will do on the sprue. The wheels were assembled 20 years ago, and the tyres are the solid rubber type, so they are not coming off the rims anytime soon, this means I'll have to leave the kit chrome on them. Fortunately, they do not have any visible blemishes.

This is going to be built to replicate a car my Wife had back in the day, so the colour is GM butternut yellow, which I'll mix from tamiya acrylics through trial and error.

Chaz Gordon
I would paint except that there is a fine pinstripe around the edge that is wayy too thin to achieve with any kind of masking technique, even the overmasking that I would normally use

scalemates
nice!

Chaz Gordon
Can't find the original Decals, I know they are somewhere, I never throw this stuff away. Anyhoo, spotted Dave Coly is selling the convertible 2 in 1 version on ebay for a great price delivered, so ordered that. Turned up 2 days later (thanks Dave), I was over the moon to find not only a full set of Black stripes (Rally & Hockey!) on the decal sheet, there is also a full set of white. I'll be using the black for this (after scanning it) and the White for the Convertible which is going to be a dark Candy of some kind. Also pleased to see there are two full sets of wheels & tyres in the 2 in 1, the Stock chrome wheels will be stripped & alcladed, for this kit, the Wide big rims will go on the rag top

Chaz Gordon
Well, I guess As well as getting to try out Alclad for the first time, I'm going to get to try our The Blue stuff molding compound I just got, and the poly resin I got last year too. While conducting my first attempts at chrome stripping, I managed to flush the rocker covers down the sink. Fortunately, I have a convertible just added to the stash, so I've got a suitable part to make a mold to cast replacements.

On the upside, as we can't get superclean in the UK, I'm pleased to report that Bleach Dot 4 Bleach does the trick. Interestingly, I discovered that Tamiya Acrylic Clear colours are pretty mush bleachproof, which is curious as they can be wiped off with IPA after even 20 years of curing. Cheap Asda Bleach has done the trick nicely, and I had a Gallon of Dot 4 on the shelf.

Bob Hall
Very Nice ! One of my favorite builds was my 67 Nicky Camaro ! Look forward to this one !

Chaz Gordon
Got most of the primary paint done this weekend, unfortunately, the Yellow that looked good on the test piece is Far too bright when painted on a whole body shell (Nice colour though will use that somewhere else) There were a couple of thin spots anyway, so I'll add another coat or two of a lighter shade hopefully get somewhere close the th target colour.

The camera and the lights also make the yellow brighter than it actually is in daylight, but it's still a few shades too bright.

Chaz Gordon
Yeah, I'm not that bothered to make that level of mess, I already flushed the drain into a tray, nothing to be found. loads of crud came out of the drain - Yuck. Truth be told, I'm kinda looking forward to making a couple of resin copies.

Chaz Gordon
We have one of those sink strainers, I just didn't put it in. D'oh

Chaz Gordon
Repaint today, pretty happy with the colour match to the target. I took the opportunity to practice flatting the original paint to a level that would be preparation for polishing, was very happy with the results, using simple cheap nail buffing pads, there was no wear through the paint layers, and the matt paint started to pick up a bit of a sheen, giving a perfect base for the new colour, which covered perfectly in two coats. I do find the Tamiya matt dries really fast though, which has up and down sides.

Chaz Gordon
Not much progress to happen today, Off out for the afternoon. Just going to put a thin coat of varnish on the body parts, so I can start shell detailing in a few days.

JD
I have some experience with blue stuff, so I'm interested in your adventures with it, also, you're able to buff and polish flat acrylic paint? Tamiya paint seems to have some unique properties...

Chaz Gordon
I can do it with off the shelf automotive primer too, if the paint is thick enough, you can get a shine out of it. Not much depth, but it can shine

Munkyslut
I'm all over this, I had a 69 327 RS, finish is lovely, well cool mate😎

Chaz Gordon
Laid the first coats of Varnish yesterday. I really need a better airbrush for Varnish, my .2 is just too fine for it, to prevent clogging, I have to spray with the front aircap off and the needle pulled back a bit, getting a fine coat is not so easy. First coat looked like it was going to orange peel really bad, so I laid a thicker second coat earlier than I normally would, It settled out beautifully without peel, but was open a bit longer than I'd like and picked up a couple of tiny tiny hairs (Probably not actually hair as too fine and short for anything in this house) that'll need to be polished out.

Despite the smooth finish, it's not so glossy with the second coat, but that doesn't matter at this stage, details and decals before I worry about shine coats.

Varnish is 70% Vallejo 28.517 28% De-ionised water, 2% vallejo flow improver, a few drops of vallejo retarder

Dominik Weitzer
very nice Color! like it a lot.

Christian W
Very clean build 🙂 Like the Color too!

Chaz Gordon
Thanks, clean is my goal, I'm happy to take my time to get it right, the hobby is cheaper that way (technically - Stash growth not withstanding😉😢

Chaz Gordon
I love being able to make models based on real vehicles that actually mean something to someone. My Wife's Camaro for instance, I have so few of my former vehicles available to me as Models, having owned a lot of British saloons and Mid level sports cars, and a bunch of Volvos. I've got my 89 Ford F350 to do, thanks to Revell, and a Volvo 760 courtesy of Italeri, but otherwise, I'm stretching it. I'm looking for a couple of Ford explorers which made it into plastic in 1/24 and I can probably modify an Audi Mk1 Quattro to make into a Coupe type (I have an old one to restore). But that's about all I can find. I did manage to find Mk3 Capris in Diecast by Burago, so have a couple coming to be modified and painted to match my Two examples. My Rover SD1s can only be done with the awful Polistili die cast, and I have yet to find an XJ12 or Mk4 Cortina in 1/24. My Volvo 240s can be done, but HOW MUCH!!!

Greg Baker
Cool!

Dominik Weitzer
To have the own car as a model in the collection is also my goal, but i know, that some cars never were built in any scale. For Example '87 Buick Regal or Jaguar XJ40. Thats sad sometimes.
But if it is available, you can be happy to build it.

Chaz Gordon
3D printing is going to be the answer I think, lok of work though.

Chaz Gordon
It seems it needs to be French or Japanese if you're looking for the more mundane vehicles as kits. Even then the French ones available are pretty Iconic, with the 2CV, the Renault 4 & 6 and the DS19

Chaz Gordon
Slowly moving along. I did a bit of gentle dry flatting on the Varnish. I like the Vallejo varnish, it sprays nicely and is forgiving, but it takes so long to cure. I may need to warm it up in the future. It was still slightly tacky in places after 5 days. Seems well cured now though. I think I'll be doing a test item before I go near it with wet paper or polishing compound. Suspension is coming along nicely, should make some good progress this weekend.

Chaz Gordon
Glad you all like the colour so far. There is one very strange anomaly though, the Bonnet seems to be a slightly different shade to the rest of the car, even though it was all painted at the same time with the same number of coats, I'd do something about it, but by the time the stripes are on and polished it shouldn't show.

Matthew A
Nice to see you've kept your late '70s early '80s LEGO

Chaz Gordon
Early 70s too, the base is from around 1973

Greg Baker
I thought that looked familiar...😉

Nigel Chapman
Your Lego jig is pure genius !! I've been looking to try and do something similar for ages as I want to try my hand at building a slammed truck chassis.

Peter Hardy
Very resourceful use of LEGO. Do the kids know why they are 12 parts short. Lovely to see a rebirth of a classic

Chaz Gordon
There's only Two Kids in this house, both well over 40. I have a lot of adapted / improvised tools in my inventory. Lego is great for so many uses, I have a huge box of it. But I've used almost all the technic that I have with Model Making equipment

Peter Hardy
Just a big kid eh? Just like the rest of us!

JD
😄

Munkyslut
We're all X rated Bart Simpsons 😄

Chaz Gordon
All I can say is - Of course its' a Heller kit
Bart Simpson (Heller 79501, No)

Munkyslut
😄

Chaz Gordon
I have to laugh, I've just realised there's as many Comments about the Lego based modelling equipment as the kit I'm building 🙂 No Worries, Everything is Awesome, pass the Craggle

Chaz Gordon
Aghhh!! After flushing the Rocker covers down the drain, I went out and Bought The Revell Convertible 2 in 1 Camaro, so I get a pattern to produce the Rover covers, and a nice spare set of Decals, as it has both Black and White stripes and Hockey stripes, I would be left with a completable kit that is different from the hardtop and all my problems solved.

OR SO IT THOUGHT

I went through all the palaver of making a mould (in Blue stuff) and copies of the rocker covers from the convertible kit (From Araldite - another story), only to find out when I come to test fit the New rocker covers, the Convertible has a Big Block 396, whereas the Z28 has a Small Block 305, and my nice new parts are no good.

So, As my Wife's car was not either a Z28 or an SS, but I knew it was modified, I asked her if she remembers what engine it had - 454 BIG BLOCK!!!!

So engine from a Chevelle then! At least this takes me one step closer to accuracy, the 396 will pass for a 454 in this application, and I can build that and squeeze into the Hardtop, I'll just have to check the chassis, engine crossmember and all the engine ancillaries for which need to be taken from the 396 kit.

I'll have to make the Convertible a Z28, but I've got all the parts for that because the hardtop is using the stock grille, not the Z28 one.

Guess I'll have to get another Z28 kit for the rocker covers....... I have the perfect plan what I am going to do with it, it'll be fun and Sacreligious at the same time.

Nigel Chapman
I've used resin after market Big block Chevy rocker covers though I had to buy them from the USA which of course cost a bit!

Christian W
Quite interesting story also of the original car.

Chaz Gordon
More interesting is that at the time, my wife was an 18 year old California Hippy Chick, driving the ultimate Muscle car!

Peter Hardy
Stop bragging Chaz, where are the pics from the 70's?

Chaz Gordon
There is one picture somewhere in the attic of the remains of the car after an uninsured "friend" totalled it by driving it head on into a freeway wall in the San Francisco Bay area.

Munkyslut
So Chaz, what was 'the ultimate muscle car'........?

Chaz Gordon
I think a 69 Camaro with a 454 Big Block in Butternut Yellow comes pretty close. Personally, I'd Choose either a Candy Red 69 Camaro with a 500 big Block, or a Hemi Challenger. Love the Mustang Fastback, but not as much as the others.

I own a 74 Caddy Coupe Deville with a 472, which I hope to get to the UK in the next few years, could be a real sleeper muscle car.

Peter Hardy
Falcon XC Hardtop.

Greg Baker
Hyundai Pony

Christian W
@Chaz … 'More interesting is that at the time, my wife was an 18 year old California Hippy Chick, driving the ultimate Muscle car!'
That come into my mind nearly. I thought, how cool that is, that she drove the biggest engine 😄 I never thought on the fact, that it is years ago and we all were younger.

Dominik Weitzer
I like the idea how you trim the axles / suspesion hight. Thats cool!

Chaz Gordon
I think it was her Second or Third Car. At that Age I was Driving a 1981 Rover 3500 With a 5 Speed Manual. It met the same fate, except Backwards at 40 MPH. 🙁

Nigel Chapman
1969 was the best year for muscle cars - Corvette, Camaro & Mustang in that order

Chaz Gordon
Corvette isn't a Muscle Car, it's a Sports Car with a Muscle Engine

Munkyslut
Greg ...........😄 😄 😄

Greg Baker
Well, I wasn't compensating...😉

Peter Hardy
Greg, were to you the one with the Pony? You neeeeeeeeeeed to compensate!

Chaz Gordon
Well, it is technically a "Pony Car", although perhaps more the British meaning of "Pony" 😉
Just looked up it's heritage on Wikipedia, given the combination of designers and mixed Parts bins, It's a miracle it didn't fall apart before it got from the Production line to the delivery transporter:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Pony

Chaz Gordon
To be fair, my First car was a Chrysler Alpine with the Singer Sewing machine 1442 engine.

Nigel Chapman
If you want embarrassing my second car was a Yugo 55 bought brand new in 1987

Peter Hardy
Mine was a Suzuki LJ 50 3 cylinder 2 stroke 4x4. Well, I won that one!

Munkyslut
That's nothing..........I had a hoop & stick

Chaz Gordon
Hmm, If it's a competition.......

[img1]

Matthew A
That's not embarrassing mine was a Townshend mountain bike. It was the Renault 5 of the bike world always had something wrong with it and when you got it fixed something else went wrong. Mind you I did get stopped by the police for speeding. Can still remember the combination of disbelief and anger of the pc "don't you know bicycles have to obey the speed limit? And what were you doing overtaking a car on the outside!?" To be honest I was going so fast I thought the Police car was parked.

Chaz Gordon
@Bob, I see you have the Z28 RS Motor City Muscle Boxed Camaro in your stash, Would you be able to confirm if the Rocker Covers are rounded or Square, with Fins?

Nigel Chapman
Chaz, Just having another look at your build pictures, your plasticard callipers are real nifty. Why didn't I think of that ?

Chaz Gordon
Can't get them on both sides of the disk unfortunately, due to the wheel backs, but we do what we can.

Bob Hall
Chris has one Built, here's a pic from his album. It's the same RS kit I have.

[img1]

Chaz Gordon
👍

Chaz Gordon
finally got to the task of pouring my first Resin motor from the mold I took from the Convertible's big block. Results not perfect, but I am very happy with the single sided mold for the block halves, heads & rockers. Just need to remake the second half mold for the ancillaries. I also forgot to get a mold of the Distributor and air cleaner. I need to do a mold for the wheels I'm going to use too, I got a nice set of 5 spokes in a job lot, which are like what was fitted to the original car, but they are front / rear customs so I need to make 4 in the one size.

Christian W
The parts Looking usable! Well done!

Munkyslut
Don't sell yourself short Chaz that's still a really good result!
They're just gonna get better & better with time 👍

Chaz Gordon
just made 2 full engine sets today with the new 2 part mold. Really pleased, learned a lot to make life easier. Also worked out a full engine set comes to just 60p to cast. The mold is the main cost at about £10 of silicone used but i'll make loads of engine sets from it.

Nigel Chapman
Those parts look excellent, well done !

Munkyslut
Those engine castings look like commercially available pieces, excellent job.......I'm impressed Chaz!

Chaz Gordon
Munky, technically they are commercially available - in the Revell Camaro convertible! So i couldnt sell them.
I'm going to review each future build and decide if i want to grab a mold of any parts i'd like to use elsewhere in the future. I have kits with Ford injected big block, Small block chevy, turbo pinto, injected small block chevy, ford v6 ohc, original hemi. Im on the lookout for a decent wade blower set. And i have mustangs and camaros for front end setups.

Dominik Weitzer
Good hint to cast the enginepart as you have done it.
I must replicate a Mercedes V8-Engine from a 1/18 DieCast and had since now no idea, how to handle it. To cast the half engine block and seperate parts - thats it!
I will catch up your idea. Thanks! And: work on😉

Chaz Gordon
Quick tip Dominik, for the parts that only need one mold half and are perfectly flat on the open side (or can be). Glue the parts to a high gloss Bathroom tile (the cheap flat kind) using PVA glue. Wipe the edges with a damp Q tip to minimise the glue lips. then allow to dry. Build a mold perimeter with Lolly sticks again glued together with PVA. Silicone Rubber can handle small undercuts and overhangs on parts that injection molding cannot, so asses the parts on that basis.

When pouring the single half molds, I have found great results with placing a flat cover onto the poured resin to get a nice flat surface on the parts. I have taken a ceramic tile and cut into useful pieces, then covered the tile with electrical tape (carefully so it's flat, overlap is not required) then sprayed Silicone release spray over that. When cured, I just peel the mold of the parts that stay on the tile part, then peeling the tape off of the tile releases the parts nicely.

Keep your work area easy to clean by putting down greaseproof paper where you will work, as the resin doesn't stick to it, and t's disposable.

Greg Baker
That's a neat trick. I'll have to remember that.

Chaz Gordon
Finally getting some more progress on this, I'm starting to build up the engines that I cast. I'll build and detail all three. One will go back to the Donor kit, and another into this one. The remaining one will go into either one of the 58 Impalas that I have to restore, or a Revell Midnite Cowboy that is being restored. Once I'm happy with the Big Block chevys, I think I'll cast up a bunch and detail them, and put away as a stock of pre-built replacements for any random Chevy project. Exhaust headers are the biggest issue as these didn't cast very well, I'm going to have to make another mould. I'm thinking about getting a 3D printer in the near future, so I may just leave the headers until then and print some.

Dominik Weitzer
nice progress

Brandon H
Looking great!

Munkyslut
Excellent progress Chaz! 👍

Christian W
Mass production is cool!

Nigel Chapman
Engine(s) look great

Bozzer
Chaz, you're tempting me into this moulding lark!

Chaz Gordon
Thanks. My aim is to build up a collection of engine moulds and options. As I go through my kits, I'm looking for good option pieces to make a mould out of. I'm also planning on getting a 3D printer in the near future, so whatever I don't have I can design and print. Unfortunately, a resin printer isn't really an option at the moment, so whatever I come up with will need filling and sanding to make a mould from.

Options for V8s would be, Blower, Modern Injection, 8 Trumpet Injection, 8 Carb, Stock 4 barrel. I have Big Block chevy already, I have the Revell F-350s, so that will give me big block Fords. I've got a Hemi 3 in 1 kit, so that should give me some nice hemui options, and there are endless small block chevy and ford kits.

I'm also thinking of adding a 1/24 Merlin to the mould set, think I could do some interesting stuff with that. Revell peterbilt truck would supply a good transmission casting for that.

It's all a little Chicken and egg at the moment. My next build will be picked for being something I have no plans to do anything other than OOB.

Peter Hardy
Yeah yeah, heard it all before Chaz! Best of intentions I don't doubt but when you open the box it all changes! OOB? That'll be the day!

Chaz Gordon
Wellll... fair point. although Military aircraft generally get the OOB treatment. I just feel the need to add those details into cars and sci-fi. Although Greg went and messed me up on Civil aircraft, so now I'm going to have to light them up

Greg Baker
Wait... what did I do now? Just wait until you see the four propellers I've got planned for my 1/72 scale Connie.😉

Besides... doesn't OOB just mean "unpacking the kit before you start improving it"

Peter Hardy
1/72 scale Greg? Really? You'll feel like you are working on Mt. Rushmore! Chaz my boy, you have been caught out, don't worry about trying to implicate "Poor Greg", fess up and confront your addiction!

Chaz Gordon
Thanks to my addiction, I have three toolbox stacks for model making -
1: Construction, Sanding, Modification
2: Painting and detail
3: Electronics

That's in addition to my mini tool boxes that have the tools I use all the time.

Chaz Gordon
Got the plug leads made, quite pleased so far. I'm using wrapping wire I got on ebay, probably a lifetime supply for 3 quid. Also, some of the ancillary parts now detailed. You can't see it in the pictures, but there are lots of holes drilled for the brake pipes and plug leads to be added later. Had to order sone 0.4 wire from ebay as the wire I was going to use was too chunky, would have scaled to 18mm brake lines! 0.4 scales to 9.6mm brake lines, which is a big over sized, but 0.3 is too flimsy and doesn't straighten too well.

Chaz Gordon
#37 - This holder is fantastic, and I use it all the time when working with high detail, I just need to get a couple more so I can let things sit to dry while work on the next part.

Munkyslut
For plug wires on 1/24 I use telephone cable, painted yellow, red or black, seems to work well & is easily bent into tight scale forms

Chaz Gordon
I considered that, but it's thicker and needs painting. I also looked at tinned copper wire, same thing though. This wrapping wire is skinnier at 0.55 OD, which is still 13mm at scale. The advantage is that with the right stripping tool, you can strip the ends and glue into smaller holes in the distributor cap. I drilled the caps out with a 0.3 drill bit.

Chaz Gordon
Also, there are 8 colours on the wrapping reel, so I can also use for battery cables. It's also handy for lighting as it's real cable designed to be soldered.

JD
I have to say, the fruits of your labor learning to replicate parts has not gone unnoticed..😉

Nigel Chapman
I'm impressed with your distributors Chaz, they look great. I had the same problem and ended up buying a joblot of pre-wired distributors from the USA

Bozzer
Chaz, you could always use fibre optic cable? That's easily painted and with a little heat, can be bent safely. Just a thought, brother.

Chaz Gordon
Thanks Guys. Bozzer, I have craft wire and optic nylon fibre down to 0.2mm. What i've discovered though is that perfect scale doesn't look right on 1/24. I'll be running the Brake lines in 0.4 Aluminium wire, which scales to 9.6mm, which is a bit chunky for a 3/16 inch ID brake line, but looks a lot better than the correct 0.3.

Chaz Gordon
Very productive night, finally starting to get some traction going. Motors starting to go together, Firewall piped, Interior starting to go together.

Greg Baker
Oh, looking good!

Munkyslut
Chaz they look fantastic! 👍

Chaz Gordon
Just realised I didn't drill and wire the distributor for the Small block yet. So That's on the to do list. I also need to order some white decal paper for some engine bay part stickers.

Tim Heimer
Loving the great detail Chaz!

Nigel Chapman
Wow they are looking good

Chaz Gordon
Thanks, I'm starting to feel like it's taking shape now.

Bill Newcomer
I am late to the party. Now following.

Chaz Gordon
Parts starting to be ready for final assembly. Just struggling to get the resin manifolds right.

Munkyslut
Great work Chaz!

Tim Heimer
Looking good!

Dominik Weitzer
nice progress!

Chaz Gordon
Junking the resin manifolds, I couldn't get them to look right. Kit manifolds from the convertible will do the job, worked out how to scratch build manifolds for the resin motors.

Kerry COX
What is all this power leading to. ? Mmmmmm. ?

Chaz Gordon
I have some kits in need of restoration, and maybe a big block Chevy to replace the weedy original motor.

Kerry COX
Have fun Chaz. Motors have so much detail and it's worth every bit you add. 👍

Brandon H
Those power plants are looking spectacular!

Chaz Gordon
Decided I'm going to try to use my scratch-built manifolds for this build too. I've added a quick step-by-step for forming the manifolds.

Kerry COX
I actually saw one of these on the Gold Coast two days ago, bolting across an intersection...................magic sound too.:-O Oh! Oh! Oh!

Christian W
Very good description of the making of the exhaust manifold pipes.

Nigel Chapman
Thanks for the excellent tutorial Chaz, this is something I will definitely try out. Which JB weld product did you use?

Chaz Gordon
Haven't done that bit yet, but I'll be using the 6 minute steel, as it's all I can get in the UK. It takes days to cure though, I used it for the Rocker covers on the test piece, and they were sticky and flexible for about a week, then hardened like rock.

Chaz Gordon
To Qualify that, It's all I can get in a syringe. I just don't get on with the stuff in tubes.

Chaz Gordon
Some additional learning, in kit plastic, the pipes do not hold well in the heads, makes it more fiddly bending up the pipes as they are swinging around all over the place. Then once made and taped, had to carefully remove and load up the holes with medium CA, before replacing the pipes and setting position. I find Zap-a-gap Medium has a very long drying time, especially when working with metals.

Chaz Gordon
UV resin is working well for the 4:1 join so far. Practicing and iterating

Spanjaard
nice work on those engines, Chaz

Chaz Gordon
Got some Mojo today and finished grinding the 4:1s on all the manifolds.

Nigel Chapman
Looking good