Herbie the Love Bug

[philp]

Just finished my second model of the year, the Polar Lights snap kit in 1/24th scale.  Please remind me to think real hard before doing another car kit (though still have several in the stash).

Think Herbie still classifies as a What if so will post him here.









The build thread is here if you care to peruse it.

Finishing the body has caused me no end of grief and further added to my "why in the world would I build a car model" issue.

Some of my problems were first the replacement decals I ordered didn't come printed on white (Herbie is an offwhite body color) and were a bit translucent so I decided to put some white down and mask it for the decals.  After about 4 coats of white with some sanding and colorful language in between I finally got a coat I could live with.  So measure the decal stripe and it was exactly 5mm wide, same as my Tamiya tape, happy days or so I thought.  Obviously I can't measure in metric because after masking and getting a decent coat of my final color the decal stripes were just a little thinner than my masked area.  :oops:

So, looking at the model and following the motto "Finished is better than perfect" I decided you can't see the extra color on the body too much but the rag top needed some touch up so out with the spray can grey, make a puddle on a lid and touched up with a brush.  Hey, that isn't too bad, from 3 feet.

Next fun was the moulding and window frames (which were molded to the clear part instead of the body).  How am I going to get them shiny?  Real Metal Foil would be the car guys go to but I didn't have any.  My son had been trying to use some Chrome tape on a wooded sword (he finally gave up and painted it) so I checked a piece and seemed thin enough.  Let's test on a small bit.  Hey sticks great, a little too great.  Yep, up came the body color and the bit I cut didn't even have the decency to stay put.  Ok need another option.

I did have this nice silver paint pen.  Not quite chrome but should pass.  A quick 10 minutes and that doesn't look too bad.  Gave everything a day to sit before trying decals and see how it goes.

Ok, got to sand the paint ridges from the masked areas but have some thin sanding pads, no problem. Uh, what is that discoloration on the body?  Oh, look, the paint pen hasn't really dried and every time I touch it I am smudging it all over the place.  A little water and a paper towel and luckily it cleans off ok but would haunt me the rest of the time putting the decals on and adding the last bits to the body.  Not sure how many times I have cleaned it off and still think I see smudges in the pics.

Anyway, she is done now and on the shelf.  Just got to remember to watch out the next time I pick it up.

So, what's next?  Oh, look, I am signed up for the What If GB that has already started, it is Blitz month and I am in a small airforces GB over on Britmodeller.  And I still have one more review kit to get to.  So, better clean off the workbench and grab another kit.

[Go4fun]

I am a car modeling guy and I think you did a great job with a not so great kit.

[Captain Canada]

Looks really good despite all of the problems you had Phil ! Beep beep !

[Paul]

Well done Sir! Congratulations!

[zenrat]

Looks fine to me.
Good job.

[NARSES2]

Looks good to me mate 

[McColm]

Looking good

[TimJ]

Great looking Herbie.