`Polished Plastic ; Please Share'

[1972coronet]

After abandoning the 1976 Dart Sport build ( so close , so ... close ... BUT ! The wheelbase is off side-to-side ! ARRGGG ! ) , I decided to crack-open the Revell 1967 SS-396 Chevelle kit ; the 1990 release which is moulded-in Marina Blue or LeMans Blue (not sure ...) and give it a whirl .

To wit :

I have seen some truly impressive builds by Mr. Mike , Snake , and other forum members , wherein the bare plastic was polished instead of being painted . Mr. Mike's gorgeous build of the same kit that I'm working on was / is the inspiration for my trying the polished plastic technique ...

... so far , a liberal application of Meguire's #7 and some (arthritis-attack) elbow grease hath yielded a remarkable shine ! More work to be done .

In the meantime , I am hoping that the aforementioned members -- and anyone else for this matter -- would like to contribute images of their completed polished plastic kits ; and , perhaps share some advice and techniques in-so-far-as additional waxing / polishing to maintain the plastic's polished shine .

Thank you .

[disabled modeler]

John...I have polished the bodies on them before but normally I do it to the old promos I restore...its not hard unless there is any body damage.or there scratched up.   I never could post photos but have some I have done.

[espo]

I have refurbished two old kits in this fashion and both turned out great. One kit was the Revell '64 GTO in red plastic. The other was an old AMT '65 El Camino in yellow. In addition to the excellent Meguire  products you have already used another step I took was with a polish they offer for removing scratches in the plastic clear instrument cover on your dash board. Then a coat of Wax and the finish was very close to many painted bodies.

[mrmike]

WOW!  Such high praise John!  Thank you!  I have posted some pictures of that '67 Chevelle SS396 for you to continually be inspired to build yours.  I used Meguiar's Scratch X 2.0 to polish my Chevelle.  The shine is impressive!  The only issue with the body is were the metallic plastic had joined in the mold leaving a line on the passenger door.

[Snake45]

A '67 Chevelle would be Marina Blue. LeMans Blue would be a '68-'69 Color. 

I start by scribing out all the door lines etc, and knocking down mold lines and the panel line "dams" with very fine sandpaper. I've never used any kind of special "plastic polish" products, just Wright's Silver Cream silver polish and Trim Nail sticks, both from Walmart. The nail sticks work great and fast but won't get into all areas on all models (and Walmart hasn't had them for several months now). I buy white felt squares in the crafts section and cut them into 1" strips and use those to apply and rub the Wright's. Final buff is with an old flannel shirt. 

Don't have time this morning to post a lot of pics, but lemme see if I can find a couple on my hard drive real quick for you. 

 

 

[Johnt671]

This is my first attempt at polishing a  kit molded in blue.  I liked the color so I gave it a try, and it worked out pretty good. I used Meguiar's  Ultimate Compound.

[Greg Wann]

These are really nice.  Bare Metal Foil makes a plastic polish, you should give it a try.  While their product seems very watery, it works really good.

[Pete J.]

Polishing the plastic is a great way to go some times but there are problems that I see.  First and foremost you are stuck with the color the kit is molded in.  That is rarely the color I want to build.  Second, you can't really fix defects such as sink marks.  I suppose you could melt a little sprue into the depression and polish that, but I have never been able to do that an have it not show.  

The other thing I have noticed is that certain colors of plastic are somewhat translucent and it looks weird without painting the back of the body with either black or white.  Any other comments?

Edited February 4, 2018 by Pete J.

[Snake45]

57 minutes ago, Pete J. said:

Polishing the plastic is a great way to go some times but there are problems that I see.  First and foremost you are stuck with the color the kit is molded in.  That is rarely the color I want to build.  Second, you can't really fix defects such as sink marks.  I suppose you could melt a little sprue into the depression and polish that, but I have never been able to do that an have it not show.  

The other thing I have noticed is that certain colors of plastic are somewhat translucent and it looks weird without painting the back of the body with either black or white.  Any other comments?

All valid points. You have to like/want the molded color, and the plastic has to be pretty opaque to avoid the "plasticy" look. And then there's the problem with swirls in metallic plastics. 

I'm working on a green-molded '70 Camaro that had a deep "sink dent" right in the middle of the roof. I was able to carefully block-sand it all down flush and am driving on. 

Here's a way to maybe fill some other kinds of flaws. I used embossing powder here because black is black, but the trick should also work with sandings, filings, or shavings from the same colored plastic as your body. 

 

[Snake45]

Oh, and remember: If your plastic polish job doesn't turn out the way you had in mind, you can always go ahead and paint the thing as normal! 

[mrmike]

4 hours ago, Pete J. said:

Polishing the plastic is a great way to go some times but there are problems that I see.  First and foremost you are stuck with the color the kit is molded in.  That is rarely the color I want to build.  Second, you can't really fix defects such as sink marks.  I suppose you could melt a little sprue into the depression and polish that, but I have never been able to do that an have it not show.  

The other thing I have noticed is that certain colors of plastic are somewhat translucent and it looks weird without painting the back of the body with either black or white.  Any other comments?

If the flaws on the body are minimal to non-existent, painting the inside of the body flat black is fine.  If there are sink marks or other defects, then fill the mark with putty and paint the body after your bodywork is finished in whatever color you want.  The flaws in mine were so small that I didn't bother trying to correct them.  I polished mine because I like the color of the plastic and painting the body would have been more work for me at the time. 

[1972coronet]

Thanks for the photos and tips , guys ! 

Mike : Your '67 SS-396 is one of my favourite builds of yours ; so nice and clean !

Snake : That '71 'Cuda is fantastic ! I love the way you fixed the factory flaw facia-to-fender joint ; excellent tip with the embossing powder !

John Romaine : That blue '37 is splendid ! Nice shade of blue . I also see a rather nice silver '68 Charger in the background with a trick looking exhaust ... Very cool !

The '67 Super Sport example that I have is wrought with swirls and the such ; however , I'm not going to let that interfere with my directive . Plans include a tasteful smattering of period-correct decals ( Likely , the Jenkins Competition decals from the AMT '66 L79 Chevy II , tastefully-placed in appropriate locations ) , chrome-reverse wheels on the rear (from the AMT '62 Catalina) , and lord knows what on the front . 

Keep those photos and tips coming , guys !

[Johnt671]

Thanks. That kit was easy to do as it only had a few mold seams on it. I wet sanded it smooth and the compound took care of the rest. The Charger is my best build in my opinion. I have to look at it because it looks like the system is falling off the car. I hope it's just a reflection in the plastic case.

[1972coronet]

Looks like I'm going to have to dress-down the exaggerated peak on the tops of the front fenders some more ! They're an artifact of the moulding process ; no big deal .

I'm working on the engine at the moment ; it's going to have 'L88' heads , aluminium intake , and maybe a gloss black oil pan . Heck , I might even use the engine from one of the Baldwin-Motion Camaro kits !

[Snake45]

That Revell '67 Chevelle is a sweet kit. I built one when they first came out (early '90s?) and remember it as having no problems whatsoever. I've got a few more in the stash--maybe it's about time to do another one. 

[1972coronet]

34 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

That Revell '67 Chevelle is a sweet kit. I built one when they first came out (early '90s?) and remember it as having no problems whatsoever. I've got a few more in the stash--maybe it's about time to do another one. 

Revell's renaissance period for sure . Those kits were a quantum leap ahead of their predecessors ! The only other change I'm planning on -- outside of the tyres / wheels , and *maybe* the engine from the B-M '70 Camaro -- is its brake master cylinder . The kit's piece is a Corvette-style , disc brake conversion piece ( willing to bet that the car that kit's based upon originally had 4-wheel-drums ) , which is "out-of-place" for my target-era . The parts box will yield the brake booster and master cylinder from the Revell 1969 Nova .

Do you have the blue kit ( 1990 ) or the new(er) , moulded-in-white version ?

[unclescott58]

Just finished this one. No paint. No polishing. After putting down decals, I just covered it with Future floor polish. 

[Snake45]

8 hours ago, 1972coronet said:

Revell's renaissance period for sure . Those kits were a quantum leap ahead of their predecessors ! The only other change I'm planning on -- outside of the tyres / wheels , and *maybe* the engine from the B-M '70 Camaro -- is its brake master cylinder . The kit's piece is a Corvette-style , disc brake conversion piece ( willing to bet that the car that kit's based upon originally had 4-wheel-drums ) , which is "out-of-place" for my target-era . The parts box will yield the brake booster and master cylinder from the Revell 1969 Nova .

Do you have the blue kit ( 1990 ) or the new(er) , moulded-in-white version ?

The one I built was blue (first issue). I think I have another blue one in the stash. I know I have two or three white ones, too. One will be an organ donor for an El Camino conversion.

Front disk brakes are correct (optional) for a '67 Chevelle. I think that was the first year front disks were available on everything in the Chevy line (except maybe Corvair) and Chevy made a big deal of it. All the new car brochures that year featured disk brakes, illustrated by Rally Wheels, and, interestingly the Rally Wheels were black, not silver. I don't believe I ever saw black Rally Wheels in real life, so I don't know if they ever actually built and shipped any that way. 

[1972coronet]

58 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

The one I built was blue (first issue). I think I have another blue one in the stash. I know I have two or three white ones, too. One will be an organ donor for an El Camino conversion.

Front disk brakes are correct (optional) for a '67 Chevelle. I think that was the first year front disks were available on everything in the Chevy line (except maybe Corvair) and Chevy made a big deal of it. All the new car brochures that year featured disk brakes, illustrated by Rally Wheels, and, interestingly the Rally Wheels were black, not silver. I don't believe I ever saw black Rally Wheels in real life, so I don't know if they ever actually built and shipped any that way. 

The El Camino , 1966-come-1967 , is a nifty conversion . I've seen the same on the wagon .

I know about '67 being the first year for disc brakes for the A-bodies ; I was referring to the master cylinder in the kit . It looks like Corvette ( 4-wheel-disc )  piece ; like the aftermarket conversions which were popping up in the late 80's / early 90's . IIRC , the only way to get disc brakes in '67 was with the vacuum booster .

I've seen the black-coloured Rally Wheels in the brochures , too . At first I thought that they were just an artistic representation , emphasising the centre caps and trim rings . But , owing to their stamped-steel construction , a semi-gloss black was likely the proposed finish vs. argent .

[peekay]

Here's one I did a few years back. The kit plastic was unusually swirl-free and molded in a colour I liked so I went for it.

I used 600 sandpaper to do the mold lines followed by sanding cloths - 4000 and 6000 - all wet. After that it was a lot of work with Novus 2 polish.

(Today I would use Tamiya coarse polish before the Novus.)

At one point I smeared plastic glue onto the body, which would have meant re-painting, had I painted it. But it came out fine with more of the above.

Hosted on Fotki

[Snake45]

15 minutes ago, peekay said:

Here's one I did a few years back. The kit plastic was unusually swirl-free and molded in a colour I liked so I went for it.

I used 600 sandpaper to do the mold lines followed by sanding cloths - 4000 and 6000 - all wet. After that it was a lot of work with Novus 2 polish.

(Today I would use Tamiya coarse polish before the Novus.)

At one point I smeared plastic glue onto the body, which would have meant re-painting, had I painted it. But it came out fine with more of the above.

Hosted on Fotki

That's a fine, fine looking model, and I never would have guessed it's polished plastic--which is of course the real test. 

Get some Wright's Silver Cream and you can toss both the Tamiya Coarse AND the Novus #7. 

[Atmobil]

2 hours ago, peekay said:

Here's one I did a few years back. The kit plastic was unusually swirl-free and molded in a colour I liked so I went for it.

I used 600 sandpaper to do the mold lines followed by sanding cloths - 4000 and 6000 - all wet. After that it was a lot of work with Novus 2 polish.

(Today I would use Tamiya coarse polish before the Novus.)

At one point I smeared plastic glue onto the body, which would have meant re-painting, had I painted it. But it came out fine with more of the above.

Hosted on Fotki

That looks really great and many times better than the boxart model with its white wall tires and chromed bumper. Great job on polishing the plastic.

[ChrisBcritter]

That looks excellent - and no worries about burying the details under the paint!

Got a Monogram '40 Ford pickup I'm doing the same way. One thing I'll have to deal with is smoothing out the roof; the molded pleated headliner seems to have left some slight ridges on the outside.

Edited February 5, 2018 by ChrisBcritter

[1972coronet]

6 hours ago, peekay said:

Here's one I did a few years back. The kit plastic was unusually swirl-free and molded in a colour I liked so I went for it.

I used 600 sandpaper to do the mold lines followed by sanding cloths - 4000 and 6000 - all wet. After that it was a lot of work with Novus 2 polish.

(Today I would use Tamiya coarse polish before the Novus.)

At one point I smeared plastic glue onto the body, which would have meant re-painting, had I painted it. But it came out fine with more of the above.

Hosted on Fotki

THAT is one of the best F1's I've ever seen ! I agree with Gaute (Atmobile) : looks much better without the (incorrect) whitewall tyres , and without the chromed bumper . 

That model looks impressively real !

[krassandbernie]

This is the only polished bare plastic kit that I've completed. It was an original issue Monogram Blue Beetle; and I had more fun building this one right out of the box than just about any other model to date! I swapped out the front wheels and tires with sister parts from the Little Coffin so all four wheels would match. The rest was just brush detailed; and the interior was sprayed with white Tamiya primer. If I recall correctly I polished the body with Micro Mark's polishing compound or Novus.