Sox & Martin GTX by popeye the sailor - FINISHED - Revell - PLASTIC

[lmagna]

That's right Denis, blame it on the Lou paints!  Even though it could be possible true as some of those paints could be older than you are! But I personally have always had problems when using lacquer with any other paint. I have even had it react to the plastic sometimes!

 

Give Pledge Future a try. Gives a super gloss finish and as it is an acrylic does not seem to react to plastic or other paints. Craig says that he has problems with running but I personally have never had an issue in the few times I have used it.

[mtaylor]

Sorry to hear the troubles, Denis.  Is it lacquer going on over enamel?

 

And sorry to hear about the sewer problem.  Give the landlord a week, then contact the city.... but..... they may tell you leave the place immediately.  Depends on the city I believe.  

[popeye the sailor]

I appreciate the gestures gents......there are really not too many options left at this point.   I have a can of stripper that I bought back when I built the Nordkap........when I found out what would happen if I didn't cement between the planks.  never did that again.........don't think I'll do this again either.

    I have a whole jug of what Pledge is called now in the sink cupboard......I tried it and didn't care for it.

 

I'll simply chalk it up to listening to that clown who sits in my right shoulder.....didn't know he was Murphy's cousin   I do have a few pictures to update you on where I am with the car,  and the UN -  heavenly body.  the interior is done now...the dash is painted and installed,  along with the steering wheel and tac.

I didn't get any pictures of the body,  aside from the red.............this is what it looks like now.   if you don't have a chup bag.......any plastic lined bag will do  

landau roofs didn't look this bad..   I'll see what I can do with it tomorrow.

[CDW]

Just a suggestion...If you strip this down and start painting again, try to move that red/white mask line down a smidgen to the prominent body line that sits just under the current color separation line. If you look at the box art, that's closer to where the red/white line sits. In the big scheme of things, it really doesn't matter either way I guess. It will look good in either position.

[CDW]

I've noticed that these newer released car kits are packaged in the box far better than the old kits were. Individual parts trees in their own separate bags, and it also appears they may have retouched the tools as the parts look sharper and more flash-free than they were in the past.

[popeye the sailor]

no.....your right....I should have gone further down with the red.....I will correct that.   not with the stripper though.......it can't be used on plastic.  I'll give it a brake fluid bath and remove it all.   

 

some older kits.......they're really a grab bag.   some were really good,  some were done poorly.   I'm finding though,  clues as to which kits saw retooling, and which ones didn't.  the last couple I've done contained parts that weren't in the instructions,  and what should be found in pairs,  but only one is in it.   this kit {for instance} has a few weird aspects about it....even though it's a really nice kit.   it's pretty detailed in it's design........a horn that is not shown in the instructions {one can figure out a logical place for it},   a washer fluid jug,   the absence of windshield wipers,  even though there is a locator point for them,   outside door handles,  which was fairly common on older kits {some kits even supplied chrome molding}.   it also depends on the company too.  I've had some that put out a nasty kit......HobbyCraft comes to mind {a Canada based company}.  the kit looked really good,  but the fit was poor and the plastic was so thick and produced a heavy model.  I bought the Fokker Dr 1........could be painted in ten different schemes.

    if I remember right,  this was Richthofen's 1916 paint scheme

the model is quite heavy for a 1:48 scale model.......had a devil of a time to get the center wing and machine guns in place.   to compare it to a revell kit....big difference.  this one is as light as a feather

 

 

the body has been in the brake fluid for an hour or so.  the flat black is coming off very quickly.......it will take more time to get through the lacquer coat, although it's breaking up.   it might be totally stripped by the evening.  cripes......even the admiral is having fun with it       she's been pick'in at it too!

Edited May 22, 2019 by popeye the sailor

[popeye the sailor]

so.......the body is out of the dip........looks like the effort was a success.   now to give it a light sanding and clean it up the rest of the way.     pictures will follow soon.

[jct]

Sorry to hear about your paint woes Denis...you would think Lou could have at least sorted them for you !!   I'm sure you'll recover

[lmagna]

6 minutes ago, jct said:

Lou could have at least sorted them for you

I kind of did. Two boxes of something like 15 or 16 pounds of paint. Not certain exactly, maybe Denis remembers better! 

[CDW]

Paint by the pound?

 

[lmagna]

8 hours ago, CDW said:

Paint by the pound?

Mostly little 1 oz cans in one box and the older small bottles in the other. All enamel! The only paints Denis likes to paint with.

[CDW]

5 hours ago, lmagna said:

Mostly little 1 oz cans in one box and the older small bottles in the other. All enamel! The only paints Denis likes to paint with.

Dang, that's a lot of little bottles. 

I remember those days of enamel being all I would use...remember it very well. It was not a comfortable experience switching over to acrylics, but once I did, was glad I did. But still enamels have their place in the hobby and are fine paints to be sure. Some of the modern acrylics act more like enamel, like the Mr. Hobby Acrysion line of paints.

[lmagna]

I don't know about your skill with enamel but there is no question you have acrylic knowledge. I'm not certain if I have skills in either medium.

[popeye the sailor]

oh my god!  I forgot to post the update!   am I nutzo or what?!?!?!    here it is......

 

 

hey there everyone!  'bout time for the update.   the dip went into the following day.    the body would have come out of this with hardly a scratch,  except that I used a steel {I think that what the bristles are made up of}.   I changed over to a brass bristled brush.  bit too late though...it did scratch up the roof some.   here it is by the afternoon on Saturday.

the lacquer clear coat made it tough to remove........the brake fluid didn't dissolve it too good.   I had used the steel bristle brush on it and it broke it up,  but it scratched the plastic finish a bit.  it will need to be sanded with some fine paper to get it back.

out of the dip!  this is some really goofy stuff.......dumped it in my oil bucket on the garage.   the body then went into the wash......strong emulsion in Dawn dish washing liquid..........took the grease out of the way    what I was left with..........was an almost squeaky clean body!

that is the Humbrol flat black.......it didn't get any of the clear coat on it.  the brake fluid didn't remove all of it.   now it will be sanded with the fine sandpaper.   I'll do my best not to sand off the smaller details.   I didn't dip the hood........I'll see what I can do with it later.

 

most of the paint I got from Lou are flat paints........what there was of the Monogram and Humbrol paints was a mixed bag of gloss and flats.  the White Ensign paints are all flats,  and had to be separated by countries....... German Navy,   US navy.......etc.  there are some really nice colors indeed     at least now I can deal with them.   I found a color chart for the Humbrol paints......but so far haven't found one for the White ensign paints.....I'm still looking.   

 

I have done some sanding on the body.......it looks much better now.   I'll go over it with some finer stuff before I begin painting.  I'll likely sand the hood and repaint it then.  again.......sorry for the delay.......I must have gotten distracted.

 

[CDW]

Clean as a whistle! Nice save, Denis.

[popeye the sailor]

thanks........now if I can paint it without goofing up  

[CDW]

Get a cheap box of plastic spoons or some other scrap styrene and practice on those first before you try any new paint, or combination of paint and clear coat on a good model. That's where I've gone wrong in the past...by not trying new paint or paint combo on scrap plastic first. 

I just tried some new paint today on a beat-up model car body, and I was glad I did. The paint bottle said it could be used straight from the bottle into the airbrush....that was bad information. It just didn't want to spray through my airbrush well at all. It needed reducer, but I didn't have any that was compatible with the paint. If I had put that paint on a good model, it would have to be stripped for sure.

Edited May 26, 2019 by CDW

[jct]

13 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

  am I nutzo or what?!?!?!

I believe the jury is still out on that particular question......but a nice job on the body

[jct]

Hey Denis...any updates for this one?  

[popeye the sailor]

hello J........no.........stupid chores!   I got two more to do,  but I got to spent some time on the Arizona build.  I have the paint now.........once I shoot it {with no funny business}..........I should be back on the path to greatness {sic}.  I even got the proper blue for the roof.......metal flake.  perhaps if I get the chores done,  I can put some time on it.  keep look'in in  

[jct]

👍

[popeye the sailor]

I have the body on the table at the moment.  I've gone over it with 1000 grit sandpaper......should be good enough to put some paint on it.    the body is slightly warped.......like that since I started.  when I added the firewall and the radiator panel,  I didn't cement it along the fender wells.  so I've done that now,  weighing it down with something heavy.   I'm hoping that boxing the engine compartment will help take out some of the warp.

[texxn5]

Hi Dennis, this is  nice model.  I have a real one, it has been completely redone back to better than when it was new.  It is a 440 Yellow/black version of the GTX.  This car was mine brand new from Dec 1966.  I sold it in 69 but miraculously found it unmolested in 1994.  It needed a complete restoration, but I didn't care since it was my original car.  I have completely done a complete Concourse restoration to it and it is now better than when I bought it new.  I can provide any pictures you might could use on building yours, however it is not the race car version of the Sox & Martin.  Let me know if any of these could help.  Keep up the good work.

John

Willis, Tx

[popeye the sailor]

hey there good buddy!   where ya been?  good of you to look in   you can post the pictures if you'd like,  but yea......I'm doing the Sox & Martin,  and I'm past the half way point as it is.  if I were doing a street machine,  they would be of more use.   jeeze......follow along already!......  

[texxn5]

20 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

hey there good buddy!   where ya been?  good of you to look in   you can post the pictures if you'd like,  but yea......I'm doing the Sox & Martin,  and I'm past the half way point as it is.  if I were doing a street machine,  they would be of more use.   jeeze......follow along already!......  

Hi Dennis, I'm just starting to try and get active again.  Spent over the past year + in and out of the hospital, became diabetic and lost most of the feeling in my hands and fingers but that is improving and I hope to start back on my Niagara soon.  yea, I'll take a couple of new pictures tomorrow and try to post them, it turned out better than when I originally bought it in 67.  Chrysler didn't put a lot into paints back then as they were really only interested in getting the hemi into production cars for NASCAR as Ford was really giving them a hard time about  the hemi not being for production cars. I've got 4 coats of paint, plus  6 coats of clearcoat, wet sanded in between on her, I put 2-4 barrels and a good cam in the engine, and I restored the original 4 bbl and manifold which I carry with me to shows.  I didn't get the hemi back then since I lived in far south Texas and I needed a/c since it is so hot so I got the 440 instead since it could come with the a/c.  Thanks for the invite and hopefully I'll get a couple of pictures posted tomorrow.  Good to visit with you - take care buddy,

John

[popeye the sailor]

look'in forward to the pictures....yea,  back then,  the muscle car was top priority    my brother was stationed in Ft Hood,  Texas..........came home in an "American Flag Barracuda".  that was a hot car too.........his wife made short work of that though    {quite a story}.   yes sir.......don't be a stranger.....always a pleasure   

 

[CDW]

1 hour ago, popeye the sailor said:

look'in forward to the pictures....yea,  back then,  the muscle car was top priority    

 

When I was a young man, traded one of my custom built motorcycles for a '55 Dodge Pickup that was custom built. It had a 440, big 4 barrel, and headers. That thing was just scary fast. The rear end would break traction so easily and start fish-tailing, even when you weren't trying to do a fast take-off. The '55 Dodge trucks had straight axles and leaf springs in the front. They gave you the true idea of exactly what the old saying "that thing drives like a truck" really meant. They were hard to steer, took a lot of muscle, and had a very rough ride. High speeds would make your hair stand on end, they were so squirrelly. Not a lot of fun to drive, I'll tell you that. Sucked gas down so fast, you could literally watch the gas gauge go down if you floored it. Maybe got 5 MPG at best. 

[Old Collingwood]

Your Biplanes  remind me of an occasion when a kid stole a cupple from a shop  and I shouted  "Somebody stop them little Fokkers"

 

OC.

[popeye the sailor]

pick ups were especially hard to pimp out.......most just go for looks,  rather than speed.  the main drawback is that there is no weight over the rear differential.......the tires would lose traction easily,  smoke 'em or wheel hop like crazy.  traction bars did little to counter it either.  sounds to me like the fella you bought it from didn't do his homework  

 

I love the Fokker.......the Germans had some of the most eye catching camo jobs on them.   there is also quite an array of aftermarket decal kits for them too    the largest one I have is the Revell 1:28 D VII.........if I would get off my duff and get busy,  I'd get the Guillow's Fokker Dr 1 out and sand the wings.  it has a wingspan of 20 inches.......I think it's 1:17 scale or something like that!

[CDW]

5 minutes ago, popeye the sailor said:

sounds to me like the fella you bought it from didn't do his homework  

And I didn't do my homework before I traded for it. It was a good looking truck and I sold it for $2000, which was a good piece of change at the time.