More Models

Since the last post I've been attacking some models and actually finished a couple. It helped that I got laid off in late September so I've had some time. Lots of updates.

Airbrushing

I finally started practicing with the airbrush. I used the cheap ones that came with my compressor to paint the olive drab on the upper surface of an early B-25 Mitchell bomber. I also used it to spray intermediate blue and sea blue on a pair of planes where I was practicing the USN WWII tri-color camouflage scheme. 

I used Squadron acrylic paints and they worked great with the airbrush, both the cheap ones and the Iwata Eclipse I plucked from the Hobby Lobby blowout.

Ok, so I owe Jose Luiz Lopez a half apology for my earlier post where I took issue with his statement that $150 compressor/airbrush bundles were total trash. I'd said that's not true for compressors, and I'll stand by that because the little compressor I got works fantastically. I said the brushes were acceptable and you don't have to spend big bucks to get one. Here's where I own half an apology; the cheap brushes that came with mine are just OK for spraying large areas but they aren't reliable for trying to spray in finer areas and with lower pressure. Tip dry seemed to happen more often with them. However, I've been hearing good things about Gaahleri and other more affordable brushes (starting at $30 on sale), so it's only half an apology because you can still get a good quality brush without spending the hundreds that Lopez indicated you'd have to spend. Even then, I can still use my cheap ones for priming, base coats, and varnishing.

The Iwata is really nice and I'm lucky to have gotten one on sale.

Three Cars

During my "sabbatical" I built three cars in addition to the 280Z I built earlier.

1970 Dodge Challenger (1/25 scale, AMT)

This AMT kit comes from a series of US Postal Service themed sets boxed in collectible tins. I got it because I liked the box but also because I hope to use the car in a diorama for a friend. He owns a 2018 Dodge Challenger Hellcat and an auto parts company. I have an idea to pair this 1970 Challenger with a model of his Hellcat and tie it into a diorama themed for his company.

I started this kit probably somewhere around late summer of 2025, then finished it off during my time off work, wrapping it up mostly in November. It's better than I remembered most AMT kits from when I was a kid, helped probably by being a 1981 tooling rather than a 1960's tooling. It wasn't perfect; there are fit issues putting on the rear bumper and the roof, but a nice build overall. It was my second serious effort at a civilian vehicle after the 76 280Z and I think it turned out ok. 

Lots of lessons learned:

• Be careful with those Testors spray enamels, especially if they're old. I used a dark red can from that first bundle I bought, and the pressure wasn't up to snuff and the paint came out too heavy and it looked awful. So awful that I stripped the body with mineral spirits and redid it with a different paint.
• Hobby paints are overpriced. I redid the body with a generic gloss burgundy spray from Ace Hardware. It was $6 for a big can, versus $9 and more for one of those dinky hobby cans. I'm not saying the hobby paints can't be awesome; the little Tamiya lacquer cans spray fantastic! But the Ace stuff went on just fine, and I've been using consumer-grade primers on other kits. But ultimately, I will have to move to airbrushing for more control. It's too easy to over flood areas with rattle cans. 
• Priming is critical for cars. Car bodies often need a gloss paint. I noticed these can pool up into small groups on untreated smooth plastic. I primed the car body parts with Mr. Surfacer 1000 and it worked great. 
• Gloss varnish really helps with decals. Really good decals may not need it as much, but some gloss varnish under the decal helps to reduce silvering. 
• Panel wash is great on wheels. I got panel wash mainly for emphasizing panel lines on airplanes, but a little black wash over chrome wheels will help bring out the details and add shadow where untreated chrome plating would otherwise be too shiny or smooth to show them. It's one of the easiest weathering/detailing tools you can use.
• I wonder if AMT are ripping us off for as much as they charge for forty-year-old molds (and sometimes older!).
• I haven't painted the metal frame around the front and rear windshields yet. When I painted the frame on the 280Z, it was really difficult. Since then, during a live chat on Modeling with Mike (YouTube), I learned from some other modelers that using Bare Metal Foil is a much better way to do it. Or chrome pen, but that still requires tricky masking of curved surfaces.
• I don't know if more recent toolings feature better design, but while cars can go together quickly there are several problematic areas. Getting the body fully assembled and attached to the chassis usually involves some tricky maneuvering to get the body in place, navigating the interior and the engine. Sometimes getting the interior or windows on can be touchy as well. And for bodies that include extra parts, you have to find ways to make the paint homogeneous (on cars, getting that body paint perfect is like 80% of the point of car kits). I'm curious about how newer Tamiya cars go together, there has to be a better design for these things.
• I haven't yet tried to detail-up the engines. I've seen some incredible work by modelers online where they've added cables, weathering, and scratch-built parts. That's something I'll have to work on; the Challenger was mostly just out-of-box.
• Car kits are interesting in that many support several build options. So when you're done, there are often many parts left over, including possibly multiple tire and wheel sets, engine parts, and alternate hoods. I've noticed some people save them in a scrap parts pile for later kit bashing or sell them online. 
• Patience is the number one tool in a modeler's toolbox. Sometimes you have to simply take a day long break from a car kit after laying down a coat of paint so it has time to fully dry.

1965 Chevy Stepside (1/25 scale, Revell)

This is a common kit you can still find at retail, a 2022 rebox of a 1999 mold. I really liked the way this kit came together. It offered options to build it stock or custom; I chose to do the custom edition since it had nicer looking wheels. The box featured a body in metallic green; I did it in gloss green since I didn't have a metallic green and I did have a new can of Testors gloss green enamel spray (yes, I know above I said to avoid these, but this new can kept pretty well and the paint atomized enough to work).

Design was quite different from the other cars I built. Where the others had an interior that came molded in a square bay, this one's interior was a square platform and you added in the sides. The sides had better detail than the sides on the other kits. I found it a bit funky at first, but it did go together very well and its details were easier to paint.

The engine was actually quite fun to build. I sprayed the red color instead of using a marker as I did for the 70 Challenger, so it looks much better. I was able to use the last bit of the dark red Testors enamel that didn't work for the Challenger body but did ok here. I was worried the red was too dark, but over the white primer I used it looks ok. I deviated from the instructions in one way; the custom engine was supposed to use chrome head covers; I elected to use the stock ones because they had the word "Chevrolet" embossed on them, and I brought that lettering out by gently painting on with silver from
an acrylic marker. It looks nice and you can actually read the letters. It's a great touch even though it might not be accurate.

I used two different varnishes on the cab, the hood, and the bed. The bed and hood got shot with Testors Extreme Lacquer Wet Look Clear, which was great. I had a can of Humbrol gloss acrylic varnish that I wanted to test and it was horrible. It went on and dulled the natural gloss on the green enamel paint. So I let it dry then added a light coat of the Testors Wet Look Clear and that helped a bit. But very disappointed in the Humbrol, which I know now should be treated as a matt. What a disappointment from a major name in modeling paints.

The only real issue the kit gave me was the usual wiggly dance you have to do to get the body (cab in this case) onto the chassis. Getting the interior tub, engine, and cab all aligned was pretty tough, but I got it and overall the truck looks pretty close to the picture on the box cover. 

There was one area where I actually improved it over the cover build. The front of the cab body has a part you have to add in. The fit here is quite loose and there is a noticeable gap around the part even after gluing it in. The instructions don't really identify this part until later in the build when you are finishing up the cab so initially I'd painted the cab shell by itself. Even the cover model shows the gap. But I didn't like that look, so I affixed the front piece to the cab, then filled and sanded it, then hit the front of the whole assembly with the paint. It worked great and my build has a smooth front that I think is even better than the box picture. 

The last step was the decals and wow, what great decals Revell put in here. The custom scheme calls for white flame decals around the hood and wheel wells. They all went on beautifully. I'm not sure if it's because the paint was glossy, or because the decals were of high quality, or both. Probably both; the decals behaved really well, no silvering. Not once did they fold up or tear on me, even the long curved parts of the flames. Just a fantastic experience; well done, Revell.

I have to decide if I want to prop open the hood to show off the engine or just glue it closed and join the Society of the Hidden Paint (on Reddit). It might be easier to just shut it. I'll be gifting this one to a local auto shop that did some body work for me. 

M998 HMMWV (1/35, Italeri)

This kit came from the armor lot I picked up summer 2025 from an army vet that didn't have time for modeling anymore. It was an expensive bundle but there were some great kits in it. Since I'm not an armor guy I sold off several of them and made a small profit, but I kept the HMMWV and I built it in desert sand color. 

It's an OK kit. There are fit issues, especially in adding the roof section to the main body, but overall it was fun to build. The kit was missing the clear sprue, but I found a replacement on eBay and was able to get the front windshield and headlight glass that way. I'm only missing the back windows on the rear enclosure.

This was technically my second car after the 280Z but the first military armor I've build in my return to modeling. I accidentally started weathering it when I sprayed the sand color on the wheels and excess went on the tires. That overspray formed the foundation for sand-colored dirt on the tires that I enhanced with a bit more paint. I need to add some weathering to the rest of the body.

This kit will be gifted to my neighbor, an ex-marine who said he liked the HMMWV.

Navy Planes

Got work done on a couple planes I'd started earlier as well. 

PV-1 Ventura (1/72, Academy)

This is a kit I got in a stash a mom was selling that she'd collected for her kids when they were younger. They dabbled in a few of the kits but on the cusp of heading to college now, she needed to get rid of a couple boxes of models that were just collecting dust. I sold off a few of the collectible items, but the bulk of the bundle was 1/72 aircraft, which is my main jam, so I will keep and build most of the kits. The Ventura is the first kit I started.

This kit hails from 1987, a decent molding that's middle-aged rather than vintage, and I found it to be a good kit overall. Form seems mostly accurate, and fit is decent. There were a few tricky parts in building up the fuselage and I was fortunate to have found an Eduard mask set for its several windows and especially for the birdcage canopy. 

As only my second kit in my return to modeling and my second one using an airbrush, I learned quite a bit while applying the navy tri-color camouflage (bottom: white, middle: intermediate blue, top: sea blue).

• Because I was worried about how to mask the turret guns while painting, I ended up masking off the dorsal and ventral turret areas and not installing them until after painting the body. This worked ok and I didn't have issues completing the construction afterward, but the bottom turret's canopy frames didn't get sprayed with the rest of the bottom so the paint isn't homogeneous, and I didn't realize until late that there was a gap that needed filling and sanding here. I have to figure out how to assemble the guns and mask them so the whole thing can be painted together.
• The airbrush affords much better control than the spray can, so I didn't mask everything, thinking I could freehand it. I had only masked the bottom white part of the fuselage when painting the intermediate blue layer, then removing it and free handing the sea blue layer. It actually worked OK, but I was premature in removing the white mask, which would have protected that area from any overspray from the blues (and from my damn fingers tracking paint). I should have also masked the intermediate blue layer after it dried because some of the sea blue lightly covered it and darkened it. It was not so bad that I felt I had to strip it or repaint the intermediate blue area, but I won't be entering this one into any competitions.
• The Iwata Eclipse was used to paint this and I really like the way it sprays with the Squadron paints.

After applying decals, this one is not bad and is pretty close to the box picture. I did not varnish it, but I might and then also try adding some weathering. Both this kit and the Dauntless below are intended as cheap paint mules, but I think I did ok in making them presentable.

SBD Dauntless (1/72, Testors)

This is a super cheap kit with all of about ten parts. It is intended for beginners and the In Scale and Detail review absolutely lambastes it for being terrible. But it cost me all of about $4 and was a great choice to use as a paint mule and a platform for practicing weathering.

As you might expect, it built up really fast. I didn't prime it; just went straight with white spray paint on the bottom, Squadron intermediate blue for the middle, and Squadron sea blue for the top. The tri-color scheme is actually incorrect; based on the decals this is supposed to be an early Dauntless, so it should be blue gray over gull gray. But I really wanted to practice the tri-color scheme. As I had with the Ventura before it, I did not really mask well, but this time around I was more gentle with the sea blue application and the final result is decent. I'm particularly pleased with the way the birdcage cockpit masking came out as it was fully scratch made by me since there were no third-party masks for this kit.

I still have to paint and affix the bombs and then I will practice some weathering. I already added some silver paint with the markers to simulate chipping around the cowl. This is a very easy technique that requires little setup, though the effect isn't quite as good when the paint is applied with a jagged sponge piece. I think practice adding some engine exhaust and some fluid leakage. I may also test some post-painting techniques for adding tonality to the wings.

So far, it was as great choice to cheaply practice. I also did a bit with weathering, which is something I'm new to. I experimented with different colors for panel lines. On the left wing and fuselage, I used a blue gray wash. It didn't really show up very well and the panel lines are very subtle. That's not wrong, but generally pro modelers I see like to make lines with greater contrast although I personally find that simultaneously unrealistic and more aesthetically pleasing.

Then on the right side I used a darker gray panel wash and this, especially on the intermediate blue, provided greater contrast.

The final bit of practice was to also use panel washes on the bottom. The results were the same as before. The blue gray wash didn't really register much, the dark gray was much better. A lot of modelers use black, which I know will create a better contrast, but I wanted to experiment with something different.

PBY Catalina (1/72, Academy)

I started this one but it's a big boy, even at 1/72. I have finished most of the construction and painted the white and intermediate blue layers of the camouflage. I still need to finish the sea blue on top and finish building out the engines and props.

So far one improvement in my technique is that for the Dauntless and Ventura, I went ahead and assembled the props during the construction phase since they way they were designed, you had to have them on to put on the cowlings. And you typically would want the cowlings on before painting. But that meant I had to create these goofy masks around the props to keep them from getting painted (and I didn't want to mess up the black props with yellow tips I'd already done). It worked but did leave the front edge of the cowlings not painted well.

This time I was a bit more creative and used blue tac poster putty to hold the cowlings on the Catalina's engine nacelles. I'll paint the plane, then afterward pull off the cowlings and affix the engines and props.

Pictures to come in a future post.