I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK !!!!!!!!
Posted by Dr Diecast at 9/16/2008 7:12 AM and is filed under uncategorized 
Well....... I know its been over a week, probably closer to 2 weeks since I have posted anything. I have said before I just haven't had, nor wanted, to spend the time posting the little BS crap I have to deal with on a daily basis sometimes but here is a load of stuff that has been getting worked on. Basically paint work that was prepped last week and painted over the last few days.
Actually there are 10 cars that got painted though a couple are not shown. On top of this was the 4 car Nascar project which took an entire week to complete. To those who have projects in house let me explain how the Nascar thing works.
These are filler projects that I have always regarded as extra money. Projects that are, for the most part, so simple I can do them in a couple hours over a weekend. This was not the case with this 4 car set as I thought I could use a wrap method like the way the real cars are done. That wasn't the case here and between shifting gears on the application process to having to order more decal paper and these being a completely different kind of Nascar body the project took a week of my time. I did still make sufficient money for that time spent so I won't complain about loosing money but what I thought would take 2-3 days did take 6 in the end. This car was actually raced earlier this year in the Nextel Cup series.
So here we have a couple things.... first is the 4 car Nascar set (above). Then a little (only took 6 hours) 2 car Nascar blank set. These are a special deal I have with a customer in which I actually strip all the decals off the car (normally same ones every time) spray can the car White, do the detail paint and decal work (headlights, taillights, grill, hood pins, spoiler, rocker trim) and spray can clear them. They then apply their own decals to attract different sponsors for there Nationwide series car. I always do 2 at a time and they just want something in plain White every time so this is relatively easy.
Next we have a Lambo...... yeah, Lambo... which they make in most every color but Red.... this is actually Anniversary Red which I could not get the paint code from Dupont for. The customer actually sent me a sample and I matched it from there. This is an Auto Art car..... many parts..... many plastic parts... some parts that are cast in clear then sections are painted the color needed, so I have much liquid mask on this car. It is though finally painted as its been her over a year. Yes, over a year.... just for paint...... though it was a combination of things it is what it is. At least its finally painted.... now I can attach the couple decals, clearcoat it and its done.
Now we have an Escort...... yeah...... but its a Euro version by Sunstar. What a pain though.... very involved parts wise for a Sunstar and probably the hardest one I have yet to take apart. This is Sunburst Red.... looks Orange in the pictures but its the sun..... in person it does look a Redder.
One car I was kinda happy to get to do is this 70 Challenger R/T convertible 1-6 promo car Chrysler built back then. The car is pretty cool as its got things not on the production Challengers from 70. The color is Ralley Red... something you rarely see on a Chally since most are Hemi Orange. Add to that his car has a lower rocker trim piece in chrome and a luggage rack.... plus a couple other things I'm not remembering. Anyway....... once done it should look sweet.
Next we have this 69 Coronet R/T which if you have followed the blog showed the hood buildup.. literally, LOL. This car is Mother Mopars Med Blue which looks beautiful in the sun..... though this was an early morning shot as you can tell by the shadows coming off the bodies. This car will have a White vinyl top, stripe and interior I believe. Anyway.... its getting closer.
Here we have a stock old boring 67 Corvette....... which for some reason I shot the passenger side of.... LMAO. If you follow my blog long enough you know I normally shoot the drivers side... but in this case it must of been how I took it out of the box I carry these in for picture taking. Interesting thing about this car is they make this car in diecast..... just like his. Though it was a 1998 release and upon searching for a month or so on Ebay their were none to be found so the customer said just make me one and here we are. Mine I think will be much much nicer then the off the shelf one but for the $300.00 or so he is paying it should be.
Lastly..... picture wise that is...... we have a couple T-Birds.... yes 57's, LOL. First is the custom color "Elvis" Pink one and then another color that has not been made in diecast, Coral Sand. This Coral Sand was interesting as Dupont has formulas for it, one lighter then the other. I mixed the lighter color then did some cross checking with pictures on the internet and tweaked it since there is no way of knowing EXACTLY which color is perfect. I think it looks great and again the angle of the sun tends to wash it out a little...... guess thats the problem with using natural sunlight.
Ok...... so there are the pictures and stories.... the other cars painted were a 68 Camaro and a 40 Ford. Nothing unique, just Silver but there was no room in the box so they didn't get shot. I also had to re shoot the Yellow on the front of the 34 Ford where is flows into the Orange. While spending hours upon hours trying to detail the outline of the flames in Blue I kept going back and rubbing the excess off and discolored the Yellow on the front of the hood.... so the grill (also Yellow) didn't match the hood and the hood then didn't match the fenders (also have Yellow on them). I did a quickie mask and trim and re shot some Yellow across the whole front of the car. Hopefully its good enough as I wont know until I remove all the masking tape. This car has been a royal pain since the owner is an idiot who has actually threatened action against me if I don't get this car done in 2 weeks. That, for my readers was 3 weeks ago, LOL. I will not go into the long post about this...and his ignorance at what I do and what it takes to do this but lets just say that the car will be done soon then the shoe will be on the other foot since he still owes me money upon completion. Sad too...... this is going to be one sweet car though his attitude has soured my enjoyment in building it.
Couple other tidbits....I have had to deal with some virus problems on my computer.... I did however find a huge problem that I got corrected so now I have restored about 50% of my hard drive space but I am still battling a few little problems. Business and this economy have me worried as I have stated, since this is a want and not a need business, when the phone doesn't ring I start to panic and since were are in Xmas order mode right now and the phone isn't ringing im starting to panic. Remember..... yes I have projects in house and plenty (on the surface) but this business was built on the in and out theory. New projects (and deposits) in and old projects (and final payments) out to build a balance. Lately its been out, out, out though I have secured 3 new projects in the last 3-4 weeks though its just nowhere near how it needs to be.
At least the weather is cooling off here so hopefully I won't have anymore $400.00 electric bills, LOL. That my friends is with it set at 79 degrees though 79 inside when its 109 outside is cool, LOL.
OK..... as I haven't said in about 2 weeks...... I'M OUT !
Actually there are 10 cars that got painted though a couple are not shown. On top of this was the 4 car Nascar project which took an entire week to complete. To those who have projects in house let me explain how the Nascar thing works.
These are filler projects that I have always regarded as extra money. Projects that are, for the most part, so simple I can do them in a couple hours over a weekend. This was not the case with this 4 car set as I thought I could use a wrap method like the way the real cars are done. That wasn't the case here and between shifting gears on the application process to having to order more decal paper and these being a completely different kind of Nascar body the project took a week of my time. I did still make sufficient money for that time spent so I won't complain about loosing money but what I thought would take 2-3 days did take 6 in the end. This car was actually raced earlier this year in the Nextel Cup series.
So here we have a couple things.... first is the 4 car Nascar set (above). Then a little (only took 6 hours) 2 car Nascar blank set. These are a special deal I have with a customer in which I actually strip all the decals off the car (normally same ones every time) spray can the car White, do the detail paint and decal work (headlights, taillights, grill, hood pins, spoiler, rocker trim) and spray can clear them. They then apply their own decals to attract different sponsors for there Nationwide series car. I always do 2 at a time and they just want something in plain White every time so this is relatively easy.
Next we have a Lambo...... yeah, Lambo... which they make in most every color but Red.... this is actually Anniversary Red which I could not get the paint code from Dupont for. The customer actually sent me a sample and I matched it from there. This is an Auto Art car..... many parts..... many plastic parts... some parts that are cast in clear then sections are painted the color needed, so I have much liquid mask on this car. It is though finally painted as its been her over a year. Yes, over a year.... just for paint...... though it was a combination of things it is what it is. At least its finally painted.... now I can attach the couple decals, clearcoat it and its done.
Now we have an Escort...... yeah...... but its a Euro version by Sunstar. What a pain though.... very involved parts wise for a Sunstar and probably the hardest one I have yet to take apart. This is Sunburst Red.... looks Orange in the pictures but its the sun..... in person it does look a Redder.
One car I was kinda happy to get to do is this 70 Challenger R/T convertible 1-6 promo car Chrysler built back then. The car is pretty cool as its got things not on the production Challengers from 70. The color is Ralley Red... something you rarely see on a Chally since most are Hemi Orange. Add to that his car has a lower rocker trim piece in chrome and a luggage rack.... plus a couple other things I'm not remembering. Anyway....... once done it should look sweet.
Next we have this 69 Coronet R/T which if you have followed the blog showed the hood buildup.. literally, LOL. This car is Mother Mopars Med Blue which looks beautiful in the sun..... though this was an early morning shot as you can tell by the shadows coming off the bodies. This car will have a White vinyl top, stripe and interior I believe. Anyway.... its getting closer.
Here we have a stock old boring 67 Corvette....... which for some reason I shot the passenger side of.... LMAO. If you follow my blog long enough you know I normally shoot the drivers side... but in this case it must of been how I took it out of the box I carry these in for picture taking. Interesting thing about this car is they make this car in diecast..... just like his. Though it was a 1998 release and upon searching for a month or so on Ebay their were none to be found so the customer said just make me one and here we are. Mine I think will be much much nicer then the off the shelf one but for the $300.00 or so he is paying it should be.
Lastly..... picture wise that is...... we have a couple T-Birds.... yes 57's, LOL. First is the custom color "Elvis" Pink one and then another color that has not been made in diecast, Coral Sand. This Coral Sand was interesting as Dupont has formulas for it, one lighter then the other. I mixed the lighter color then did some cross checking with pictures on the internet and tweaked it since there is no way of knowing EXACTLY which color is perfect. I think it looks great and again the angle of the sun tends to wash it out a little...... guess thats the problem with using natural sunlight.
Ok...... so there are the pictures and stories.... the other cars painted were a 68 Camaro and a 40 Ford. Nothing unique, just Silver but there was no room in the box so they didn't get shot. I also had to re shoot the Yellow on the front of the 34 Ford where is flows into the Orange. While spending hours upon hours trying to detail the outline of the flames in Blue I kept going back and rubbing the excess off and discolored the Yellow on the front of the hood.... so the grill (also Yellow) didn't match the hood and the hood then didn't match the fenders (also have Yellow on them). I did a quickie mask and trim and re shot some Yellow across the whole front of the car. Hopefully its good enough as I wont know until I remove all the masking tape. This car has been a royal pain since the owner is an idiot who has actually threatened action against me if I don't get this car done in 2 weeks. That, for my readers was 3 weeks ago, LOL. I will not go into the long post about this...and his ignorance at what I do and what it takes to do this but lets just say that the car will be done soon then the shoe will be on the other foot since he still owes me money upon completion. Sad too...... this is going to be one sweet car though his attitude has soured my enjoyment in building it.
Couple other tidbits....I have had to deal with some virus problems on my computer.... I did however find a huge problem that I got corrected so now I have restored about 50% of my hard drive space but I am still battling a few little problems. Business and this economy have me worried as I have stated, since this is a want and not a need business, when the phone doesn't ring I start to panic and since were are in Xmas order mode right now and the phone isn't ringing im starting to panic. Remember..... yes I have projects in house and plenty (on the surface) but this business was built on the in and out theory. New projects (and deposits) in and old projects (and final payments) out to build a balance. Lately its been out, out, out though I have secured 3 new projects in the last 3-4 weeks though its just nowhere near how it needs to be.
At least the weather is cooling off here so hopefully I won't have anymore $400.00 electric bills, LOL. That my friends is with it set at 79 degrees though 79 inside when its 109 outside is cool, LOL.
OK..... as I haven't said in about 2 weeks...... I'M OUT !
Yaaay! missed you, dude. Gorgeous color on the coral bird, Paul. Going to look great in the bird house.
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A very good, easily read 'status' report. Thanks for taking the time to describe your progress on all these fine models. I hope your work load does pick up, as you are a unique talent in your field.
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You have the air conditioner going while we have the fire place flaming, go figure. Right, I’m 3000 miles north of you and 1000 miles south of the artic circle. Any way thanks for the updated, looks good.
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