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Post by Mr.409 on Oct 31, 2017 12:28:39 GMT -5
After a long break I finally sat down on my workbench and did something with model cars! Last spring and summer went pretty much with Drag Racing our Stock Eliminator car, plus that now in the autumn I've been busy in the garage with my 1:1 '62 Chevy II. But now I felt like I wanted to work with plastic a bit, and instead of continuing older projects I decided to start a new one which might be a bit easier, Monogram's 1/32 scale '79 Malibu.  The kit doesn't have too many parts, but the few parts that are attached to the parts trees are actually surprisingly good. Even the body looks great even though grill, lights and that kind of parts are molded as one piece to the body...   It was clear right away when I got this kit that I'm not building it as a Cop Car. Since several of these G-Body Malibus were sold as new here in Finland, I want to build this to look like something that could have been cruising on Finnish roads when it was new. And because the American Cars around here back then were usually pretty poor models (four door, small engine and very few options), the 4D Sedan body style is actually a good thing. First thing was to fill the holes from kit's roof. They were meant for the emergency lights. Also those "high spots" or whatever they're called right next to the drip rail had to be removed as well...   Next step was the wheels and tires. Kit comes GM steel wheels and Good Year tires with raised letters. Those raised letters just didn't fit to the original look, so I sanded them away. But then I noticed a set of AirTrax resin wheels and tires that looked just right size for this Malibu. Also those wheels were the basic steel wheels that I'm a huge fan of... So I decided to go with those instead.  But how to make those AirTrax wheels fit to the kit axles? Well, I cut the piece where kit axle goes in from the original kit wheels and glued that piece to backside of the AirTrax wheel... Simple.     And then the seats... I wanted to have a bench seat, but the kit comes with buckets... Well, I cut the center console away and made a rough basis for the 3rd person to sit in. I guess the final shape will be done with Bondo and sanding...   |
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Post by TooOld on Oct 31, 2017 17:00:30 GMT -5
That body looks very crisply molded , not bad for a 1/32 scale kit .
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Post by volvo544special65 on Nov 2, 2017 3:55:55 GMT -5
Very nice, I have kind of a soft spot for american cars sold in Finland....seems like you have had more of those models than us in the 70s and 80s.... Except for vans and pickups, and some Caprices, this was a dark era for american cars in Sweden.
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Post by harron68 on Nov 2, 2017 12:09:47 GMT -5
Snap kits can be hard to get looking great. The few parts call for careful painting. Best of luck!
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Post by Mr.409 on Nov 9, 2017 15:16:40 GMT -5
Thanks Guys. Bob is right that the body is surprisingly detailed for being this small scale. And what Harron said about painting is true as well, there is lots of careful detail painting needed... Very nice, I have kind of a soft spot for american cars sold in Finland....seems like you have had more of those models than us in the 70s and 80s.... Except for vans and pickups, and some Caprices, this was a dark era for american cars in Sweden. Well, I can't say that this G-Body Malibu was a common car back then around here, but several of them were sold as new anyway. The G-Body El Camino was a lot more common sight than a Malibu. Definitely the most common new American cars in the '70s and '80s were also Vans, Pickups and Caprices. Especially the Caprice STWs were really popular. But the most important thing in the '80s was that the rules for importing 25 years old or older cars changed. Before it was so expensive and tricky that no old cars were imported in here, resulting that all US cars were the ones that were sold as new in here. They were often in very poor shape, but back in the day the "Crazy Finns" rebuilt all old American Cars they could find, no matter how bad they were. But then after the rules changed, all kinds of rare American Cars were imported in here in the middle of all of those four door sedans with almost no options... And because finding two door American Cars in here was not easy, lots of 4D Sedans were modified into 2D Sedans. Some of them were done very well, some weren't... Anyway, enough history, here's a small update. The bench seat is slowly coming together. I had to build a rear "wall" for the seat from sheet styrene. Then I started smoothing everything out with putty. Usually I've used the same putty that I use on 1:1 cars, but because this part is a bit tricky to sand smooth, I used Green Putty this time as it's much easier to sand. I'm sure there are still some minor sanding required, but probably I'll shoot a coat of primer next to see how much more work it needs...   |
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Post by volvo544special65 on Nov 11, 2017 13:49:37 GMT -5
Yes, but living just kilometers from the border and Tornio, I still remember that you saw some 70/80s yanks now and then when I was a kid, which etched a bit in the memory....of course, Corollas, Ladas, Kadetts and 120Ys still were 1000 times as common....  |
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Post by Mr.409 on Nov 27, 2017 15:31:32 GMT -5
There you listed some of the most popular daily drivers around here at that time too.  Something minor has happened since my last update, the front seat was sprayed with a coat of filler spray to smooth out all of those minor flaws at once. Then after a bit of sanding I brush painted it with a Humbrol color. Not perfect, but good enough to be hidden inside the car...   Some filler was also applied to the roof too. And at the same time I also removed the spotlight hole from driver's door and smoothed that out with putty.  And the chassis was painted too. Everything is done with a brush and that required some very careful painting in some areas (And some trial and error!). But luckily it turned out decent in the end.  |
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Post by TooOld on Nov 27, 2017 16:14:10 GMT -5
Nothing wrong with that , a little paint really brings out the details !
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Post by dogfish7 on Nov 28, 2017 8:50:34 GMT -5
Lookin good Niko.
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Post by fordrodnkustom on Nov 28, 2017 10:45:25 GMT -5
Excellent "mainstreamer" so far, good wheel and tire choice for it too.
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Post by Mr.409 on Dec 11, 2017 4:14:56 GMT -5
Thanks for the kind words Guys! After a bit of sanding and scribing the panel lines a bit deeper the body was ready to be shot with Primer. But before that I had to mask off the molded in grille and tail lights, as otherwise some of the molded in details could be hidden under paint. My plan is to BMF those when the body is painted, clear coated and polished...   After the first coat of Primer the body looked surprisingly good. Usually at this point I find a couple of small errors that need to be fixed before painting, but it looks like this time I can spray some color on it next.  And last here's a picture of the interior tub that got some color on it as well. The floor is Revell's Flat Black and backseat and door panels are painted with the same stuff as I used with the front seat. Of course I need to add some details to the door panels before I can install anything on place...  |
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Post by Mr.409 on Dec 12, 2017 8:03:03 GMT -5
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Post by harron68 on Dec 12, 2017 11:38:40 GMT -5
Paints can drive you crazy! Some primers are labeled "universal" but a test attempt, (plastic spoons are a tried and true spot), always makes sense if there's any question of paints reacting.
I luv the underside of the car! The engine looks great!
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Post by Mr.409 on Dec 12, 2017 14:18:20 GMT -5
Thanks!
Yes, I agree on that! This time I was using the same primer as always and the paint is the same brand as well. Usually they work with no problems, but don't know what went wrong this time... Well, hopefully a bit of sanding and another coat of paint will fix the problem.
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Post by fordrodnkustom on Dec 12, 2017 17:01:37 GMT -5
Perfect color for it though. What type of primer and paint did you use? I don't know for sure but I think sometimes it's the formulation of the plastic itself that promotes incompatibility problems for certain paints.
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It's an interweb thing.....