[Revell] '70 Plymouth AAR 'Cuda - WIP

I started Cuda. 

Washed. 

I tried assembling it, but the parts didn't fit together properly, so there were a lot of places that needed to be fixed.
I decided to start with the bonnet. Because the bonnet is loose and moves a lot within the housing, I plan to modify it to make it easier to center. 

First, I dug a shallow hole inside the bonnet. 

And then I put the neodymium in. 

Then, I placed the bonnet on the body, centered it well, and secured it with masking tape. 

And I dug a shallow hole inside the body and inserted a neodymium into it. 

Now, even if you roughly place it, it will automatically be centered.
Next, I need to fix the problem of the slightly shorter area in the upper left corner and the space divided on the right being too large. 

Attached a pla-plate of appropriate thickness. 

I accidentally spilled some glue.
The square shape of this bottle makes it seem like it wouldn't tip over, but it seems to tip over more easily than I expected.
And maybe it's because of the plastic material, but Tamiya's anhydrous adhesive didn't stick well, so I had to use GSI's SP glue. 

Anyway, I fixed the problems. 

Next, we'll be modifying the face, which will likely require the most work. At first glance, it looks like everything fits together well, but there are subtle fits not well. 

The biggest problem is that the split line in the chin area is different from the actual one and needs to be fixed.
Is this the design because it shares a mold with the Challenger? I guessed so and looked it up, but the Challenger's jaw was also split in the same location.
Ultimately, I couldn't understand why this part was split up like this.
And this kit has canards that I won't be using, so I'll need to fill those holes as well. 

So I glued only the necessary parts firmly and then cut them at the correct jawline position. 

A thick plastic plate was added to the slightly missing space of the wheel arch. 

The steps were so severe that I used UV resin instead of putty. 

I cut it with a panel liner, but the gap at the split line was too large. So I added some thick plastic to make up for it. 

Sanded. 

There's still some space left, but it's an area that's not very visible, so I think this will be fine.
I also have a Dodge Challenger that shares this kit and molds, and it's frustrating to have to do this again when building that one. 

Holes were drilled closely together to cut out the grill. 

I removed the grille.
And this car appears to have mesh where indicated, but I ignored it and just sanded the embossed mesh away. 

It can be finished by attaching PE mesh, but it feels empty as it is, so it would be better to add a horizontal bar. 

I thought it was a bit sloppy to just cut the horizontal bar, so I put it in a mini vise to trim it a bit. 

I sanded the visible side so that the cross section was round. 

The rear under cowl also doesn't fit well; if you don't hold it in place with force, one side gets pushed out and becomes crooked. 

I sanded it down a lot so it would fit well without using force. 

I soaked it in Clorox to remove the plating. 

As expected, when the level kit is soaked in Clorox, only the plating is removed, and the primer is not removed at all. 

So after soaking it in leveling thinner for about two hours, the primer became soft and flaky like an insect's molted skin and peeled off. 

The door handle was an old-fashioned design and I thought it would be a hassle to paint, so I removed the protruding detail and dug a deep groove into the door frame. 

All the modifying was finished, so I sanded the entire surface to smooth it out. 

Painted black surfacer. 

Sanded once more. 

Painted black surfacer again. 

This kit doesn't have front wheel steering so I'm trying to modify that.
And while we're at it, it might be a good idea to lower the ground clearance a bit. 

Since we will be using the original pin on this part as the rotation axis of the wheel hub, we made another pin to secure it. 

Next, I drilled a hole that would become the axle of the wheel hub and prepared a thick insect pin of an appropriate length. 

Before I worked on the steering axle, I cut the wheel axle for lower the ground clearance. 

Then, I drilled a hole about 1.5mm lower and inserted a steel wire and glued it back together. 

The back was modified in the same way (the right side was lowered).
If it were a real car, it would be a ridiculous structure, but since it's a model, it doesn't matter. 😉 

I cut off the steering shaft. I decided to cut off and remove any parts that would impede movement. 

I cut a clothes pin and put it in at the joint of the shaft so that the head was slightly raised. 

Next, I cut the insect pins and rolled the ends into a circle. (x2) 

And then I put them on both ends of the shaft to match their original position and length. 

Now, all that's left to do is cut the wheel hub in the appropriate location and reassemble it. 

So now steering is possible. 🙂 

The exhaust vent was blocked, so I unclogged it. It was difficult to trim because it was oval in shape. 

All the trimming is done.
Now I painted dark metalic. 

Masked. The bumper shown is planned to be painted gloss black. 

I did the first overcoating. 

Additional overcoating was painted 'Clear Black'.
I want a 'blue black' where it looks black but the parts that reflect the light look blue, so I need to make it a little darker. 

I screwed up. I tried to make it darker by applying 'clear black' again, but it got so dark that it just became black. 

I was thinking of just leaving it black because the black 'Cuda' looks cool, but I felt bad about the paint job I had done, so I worked on it a bit more. The color looks a bit cloudy now, but... 

When coating with glossy clear, the color becomes clearer and darker, so you need to be careful about this when expressing the color with overcoating.
It's actually a bit darker than the picture.
In the end, I finally got the color I wanted. 😄 

As I was trimming the tires, I thought it would be better if they were a little wider. 

So I started cutting it in half. 

I was having a hard time cutting it with a saw, so I used a power tool, but I ended up bleeding.
So I ordered a bag of finger protectors thimble. 

The cut surface was smoothed with electric sandpaper. 

I placed it on a 1mm pla-plate and drew several of them. 

After cutting it to an appropriate size, I roughly drilled a hole in the center. 

And I glued 3 on the front wheel and 4 on the rear wheel. 

It was so thick that I had to tear it off one sheet at a time. 

I glued it between two halves of tire and then roughly cut it with a ceramic bit. 

This time I trimmed it a bit more with file. 

And finished with sandpaper.
I bought a dust collector for my nail art work and it's pretty useful.
I need to make a tire pattern, but I don't have the time to do that, so I'm just going to paint it like this. It won't be visible anyway 😉 

The transparency of the headlamp and fog lamp covers is too low, so I need to coat them with clear.
You can soak it in a solution like Gauzy or Pledge, but I find that more cumbersome. 

Final airbrush painting. The body was coated once more with clear. 

I used Vallejo Mecca primer on the wheels.
The lack of tire pattern is a bit disappointing, but it's not unbearable. 😉 

I was planning to use the wheels that were already plated, but I changed my plans to paint them and ended up stripping the plating off. 

I painted it glossy black with excitement.
It's okay because the paint shrinks as it dries, and for wheels like this, it's better if you don't show any signs of rough painting. 

I finished the brush painting. I painted the CUDA logo on the door with a extra fine-tip brush, and dry-brushed the instrument panel. 

Sanded. 

Polished.
Youtube Video 

Masked to paint the rubber frame of the windshield. 

I painted the fog light frame attached to the front bumper with chrome paint. 

The front and rear turn signals didn't have transparent parts.
So, I cut thin strips of chrome tape and attached them. And... 

I mixed clear orange into UV resin, filled it in, and then hardened it. 

The tail lamp was also worked on using the same way. 

The car is a dark color and the wheels are black, so I thought it would look monotonous, so I painted the edges of the rims with an AK marker. 

Ready to assemble. 

Assembled engin 

Mounted. 

Assembled bathtub. 

Another view. 

Suddenly, a tiny pinhole-like thing appeared on the back of the body for some unknown reason, so I sanded it down a bit. 

Upon investigation, it was found to be a convex embossing rather than a hole.
It is presumed that when air was expelled to prevent the opening from clogging after applying instant adhesive, fine particles were carried away and adhered.
But if I sand it any further, the clear black layer will wear off and the color will lighten, so I guess I'll just finish it by polishing it. 🙁 

I lost the windshield part and spent half a day searching for it. It was stuck between the lids of a box. 

By the way, I was missing the side window part, so I searched for it for a while, but there was no description of the side window in the manual. So I searched and found out for the first time that there are vehicles without side windows at all. 

Custom-made metal stickers were attached to the room mirror and side mirror. 

I'm not sure what color this part was originally, but I painted it clear orange. 

There were a lot of scratches on the windshield, probably because it was a product that had flown in from across the Pacific. 

It was polished with Compound and attached to the body. 

There were no instructions on how to insert the bathtub, so I tried this and that, and found that I had to push it in from the gap in the rear wheelhouse as shown. 

Attached the accessories inside the engine room. 

Attached logo of metal sticker. 

I thought the side looked a bit empty, so I added the CUDA logo. 

Since the wheels are thicker, I measured the length because I was worried that they might interfere with the fender. 

Fortunately, there was plenty of space in the front so it was fine, but as expected, the width in the back was about 1mm longer. 

So I cut off the part of the tire that was hitting the wheel well. Since I'm not going to be rolling it around and playing with it anyway, I don't really care about stuff like this. 😉 

Anyway, I finished assembling the lower body like that.
The steering also moves well. 🙂
Youtube Video 

The marked spots interfered with each other, making it difficult to fit, and there were no instructions on how to attach the upper and lower plates.
It was easy to fit one side first, then spread the other side apart. 

Fortunately, the rear wheels fit perfectly without protruding beyond the wheelhouse. 

This is the only decal I used, but the printing condition is not good. 

Attached the butt. 

Assembling face. 

I put on a grill. 

Assembled face and bumper. 

The antenna was made with metal stickers and insect pins. 

Just like the last time I made 306, this time it happened because of static electricity. The moment I tried to apply the instant adhesive, it spread out like a bang!
scalemates.com/profi..120478&i=103#103
Now that I think about it, it was winter when I was working on 306 too. 🙁 

After it was completely dry, I sanded it. 

After polishing, I found that some glue particles had flown in and landed again. What the... 🙁 

This time I used Clear Parts Cement of Testors. 

Finally, the work was completed by attaching the side mirrors. 

Come to think of it, I should have made a bonnet mount like this. 

Anyway, I finally finished it. 

This kit is unfriendly and crude, but the proportions seem nice. 

It would look pretty cool at this angle if the steering could turn a bit more, but it's a shame it can't. 

Thanks for watching. 😉