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After building the Fujimi Porsche 356, I thought I would be build something a little less complicated, for a few years now I've been putting off building American models, not because I don't like them, because the opposite is correct, I do, but getting my hands on the paint that was the correct shade was near impossible, but now that I can get paint shipped over from MCW Automotive Finishes http://mcwfinishes.com/ I can now safely order paint from them, and have it sent over from the U.S.A

This one is going to be painted in Chrysler Copper bronze metallic.

I know some AMT kits are a bit hit & miss, you either kit a good well molded and detailed kit, or one with badly molded parts and hardly any detail, luckily this one is one of the good ones, with very good molded parts, and plenty of details, the interior builds up with separate side panels, and front bench seat, the rear seat is also molded as a separate part, unlike a lot of american kits.

Above Photos :- Bodyshell sanded to remove ant mold lines, and all the panel lines were rescribed so they don't get hidden under a few coats of primer paint and clearcoat, when I ordered the paint, I also ordered the photo etch detail set for it, bottom photos show the interior dry fitted together, 

Sadly a few of the suspension parts were broken in the box, this isn't a fault of the kit itself, and was probably done before I bought the kit, a bit of Tamiya liquid cement and a few clamps soon got the problem sorted, another problem with this kit is that the rear bumper had been stripped of it's chrome, I'm really not sure why this was done, it's been half painted with grey primer, it will get chrome using the K Colors chrome paint I bought at the Telford show last year.

My usual method of building a model is to first prepare and paint the bodyshell and body coloured parts, but this time I had to do things slightly different, as the paint I've ordered from MCW (http://mcwfinishes.com/) is as we speak winging it's way across the atlantic, and should hopefully be with me soon, so to get the build going, I've started with the engine, chassis and the interior.

The instructions tell you to put the exhaust system in before mounting the rear axle and suspension, but after doing a dry fit, it is possible to fit the exhaust system afterwards, it means the suspension and axle can be glued into place and painted along with the chassis, making for a cleaner build

After the dashboard was airbrushed in satin black, it was masked up so the light tan could be airbrushed, looking at photo's of the real car, Humbrol 103 was found to be a very close match, so that was thinned and airbrushed on, once dry the white parts were hand painted and then the chrome trim pieces were picked out using a Molotow liquid chrome pen, once all that had been done and left to dry up, the decals were added.

Once the engine had been finished, it was fitted into the chassis and held in place using a rubber band wrapped around the front axle, the exhaust system had been fitted before the engine went in, and although my idea of putting the exhaust in after the rear suspension and axle and the front torsion bars had been fitted worked, it certainly took a little bit of time and a lot of patience, but it was worth the extra hassles, and it did make for a better, cleaner finish.

The air cleaner element was picked out with some flat white acrylic, and built up as per the instructions, then fitted to the engine after it had been fitted onto the chassis, with just the decals to be fitted.

Now the paint had arrived from MCW Lacquers, I could now get the body primed and then airbrushed in the Chrysler Copper Brown metallic, luckily there are only a few dust nibs to deal with, these will be wet sanded before the body gets a few coats of clear lacquer.

Once the bulkhead had been painted body colour, it was masked off so the heater box could be painted gloss black,and then the bottom of the floorpan and bulkhead , which had been painted in body colour were masked up so the interior floor could be airbrushed in flat black, for this I used some VHT flat black, as I've found this paint to have the best flat finish I've found, once all the paint had dried, the rubber mats that are molded as part of the floor were hand painted using Tamiya semi gloss black,the base of the floorpan was masked up so that the fuel tank could be airbrushed in steel, for this I used Testors metalizers enamel, the underside of the bonnet was masked up and painted in the same VHT matt black as used for th interior flooring.

The side panels were first airbrushed in the same shade as the seats and then masked up to paint the bottom part  satin black, the chrome trim and winder handles were done using chrome Bare Metal foil, the arm rest and central panel was done using aluminium Bare Metal foil, once these had been finished the interior could now be built up,the rear and front seats were glued into place using clear acrylic craft glue, and clamped in place and left overnight to dry up.

Once the seats had dried up the side panels and the dashboard could be fitted, and all held in place with Tamiya masking tape, again, this was left to dry overnight, the heater blower motor and brake booster were fitted to the bulkhead after being hand painted in their required colours.

Luckily the paint finish wasn't too bad, with only a few dust nibs to be removed, this was done using 4000 grit paper followed by 6000 and 8000 grades, then the body could be clear coated, for this I used single pack acrylic lacquer, the photos below show the body after being clear coated and polished.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the rear bumper that was supplied in the kit had been stripped of it's chrome and partly painted in grey primer, I later found out why, as I had bought another one of these kits to convert into a 'New Yorker', the rear bumper is mounted on the parts tree by two tabs at the top of the bumper and there is no way to remove it from the parts tree without leaving two unsightly marks on the top of the bumper, after sanding the bumper smooth and primed it using Hycote grey plastic primer it was given a few coats of the K Colors black base, this then has to dry out for at least 72 hours, and then the chrome can start to be applied, which needs to be done in light coats until the finish on it looks more like chrome than silver, once the right finish has been achieved it was put aside for it to dry out.

The wheel covers are supplied on the chrome parts tree and the finish is very good and nothing more than painting the centres in gloss red to replicate the ones found on the real car, for this I used water based acrylic as it made getting any paint that got on the chrome where it wasn't needed easier to remove, once dry the whitewall trims, although supplied molded in white, which looked too much like white plastic was given a couple of coats of white plastic primer, the wheels could then be built up and fitted onto the axles, using 5 minute epoxy glue with a few sert squares put in place to hold then square while they all dried up.

The battery, which has quite a bit of detail molded in, was first primed and then airbrushed using gloss black lacquer, then the red tops were picked out using Tamiya red enamel, and the metal parts were picked out in aluminium enamel.

I could now start work doing the Bare Metal foil on the bodyshell, before putting on the BMF, I always run masking tape around the trim being covered in bmf, it not only gives two edges for the blade cut up against, it also stops the blade from slipping and ruining your paint finish, I always use a brand new # 11 scalpel blade, as using an older blade doesn't give a clean cut, and can, if the blade is not so sharp, will actually tear the bmf, once in place and burnished down it can be trimmed to size, the masking tape can be removed and further burnishing with a new wooden handled cotton bud gets the BMF a nice deep shine, a little automotive polish gives it that real metal looking finish.

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Although the bodyshell has got the 300C scripts molded into it, even if I had masked off the emblem before airbrushing the paint and tried to pick it out using a brush, the results would have, at best, been a bit unrealistic, luckily, the photo etch detail sheet I had ordered, had the scripts on the sheet, while not a straightforward task to complete, the efforts were well worth it.

To start with, the backing plates were removed from the sheet and cleaned up with a fine metal file, then they were airbrushed in white primer, then masked up twice, to airbrush first the red, followed by the blue, left to dry up overnight, the 300C script was added using a little clear lacquer on a small brush, once that had dried, some more clear lacquer was added to the emblem until it was slightly raised, to replicate the actual badge in real life, once dry, it was fixed in place with a small dab of clear acrylic glue.

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Although I have already written about building the interior, I'd thought I would show in pictures the process of doing the Bare Metal foil on the interior door panels.

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Headlamp bucket after being masked up and airbrushed in body colour

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Interior roof panel painted satin white and trim picked out using chrome Bare metal Foil.

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Rear light fitted into the chrome housing, back up lamp picked out using some satin white mixed with clear lacquer

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