'70 Chevelle SS--Revell Snapper

[Snake45]

Started this one about five years ago, painted it with Tamiya Aluminum, cleared with Future. Future didn't work out, stripped it off with ammonia, re-cleared with Tamiya. In polishing it out, I burned through in a couple places so stripped it to bare plastic and started all over. Tamiya Aluminum, Tamiya Clear, polish out, looked good. Lost interest at the point of applying the stripes and gave it a time-out on the Shelf of Doom.

Got it out this spring to drag it across the finish line. Cazart, the Tamiya Clear had cracked!  There was a sort of “alligator-skin” finish all over the thing, worst on the roof, trunk and hood. Didn't feel like stripping and painting it again, so I tried to polish it out. Got almost all of it off the sides, and most of it off the roof etc, but if you look carefully, especially under magnification, you can still see it. But for some reason, this really shows up in the photos, and it looks kind of “mottled” in the pictures. But it doesn't actually look like this in 3D.

On to the stripes. Was going to use them from the AMT '70 Chevelle (this Revell snapper has stickers) but in measuring them, turns out they're too fat in width and too short in length. So I got a second set of them (I think I got them from Socal76—thanks buddy!). Then I got the factory stripe layout schematics on the internet, laid out the outline of the stripes with razor-cut masking tape strips on the hood and trunk, then split the stripe decals lengthwise. I laid down the inner sections first, and when they were dry, I laid down the outer sections, just letting them overlap as necessary. Then I had to go back and do the same thing at the ends to make the length. The decal job took me the better part of two days, but it looks pretty good. At least they're the right size and shape.

I normally do chrome trim with a Silver Sharpie, but that didn't provide enough contrast with the silver paint, so I went out and bought a Molotow pen just to do the trim on this model. It was worth the money (and I've used it on other things since then, too).

Wheels and tires are from the AMT '70 Chevelle. This snapper was the electric blue issue with the goofy UFO-looking wheels, and they had to go. When it came time for final assembly, I found that the rear pan (under the bumper) was MIA. It'll turn up sooner or later, most likely when I'm looking for something else. Worse comes to worst, I can always steal that from the AMT kit, too.

So it's not perfect, but it goes in the DONE column for 2018. I have another copy of this kit molded in green, with stock SS wheels, and I'll do better on that one, I promise.

 

And here it is with the AMT '72 I built a while back. The humble Revell snapper really shows how bad the sides of the AMT body are. As always, comments welcome.

[THarrison351]

Looks good! Almost like it was cast.

[TooOld]

Nice looking Chevelle Snake !  I didn't read your entire post ( I have problems reading a monitor ) but did see about the alligator cracking in  the clear , at least it was on  top of silver paint so it doesn't show as bad . 

[Straightliner59]

I had Tamiya clear do that on a Bug I did, back in the '80s. Chevelle looks good!

[511 nova]

Looks great