tips for cars?

[atheosx]

anyone on here who focus mainly on cars have any tips for things like engine bays and mainly interiors.

ive noticed most threads and posts on here relate to tanks planes and jets which is cool and i still have a look and take some tips etc away from them. but anyone have any tips for doing interiors on cars, and engine bays on cars. etc

or just general reading/links/built threads on here that are car related.

im building a couple of Mazda Rx7 kits atm which are coming out pretty well for my standard atleast but im sure theres improvement to be made.

[ChubberLang]

I'm a newbie and I'm all about cars. Shame there are not so many car tutorials on the site. I love this site as I'm learning so much stuff and everyone's so polite, a good community which is super. Even I'm picking up tips and tricks that can help me for when I start and progress.

[JonMW]

Is there any particular info you'r looking for? I have tried to add some info to my GB thread for my 57 Bel Air http://intscalemodeller.com/viewtopic.php?f=226&t=5798 and there are other threads in that GB. The problem for me sharing info is that after around 20 years of building model cars it can be hard to know what people just starting in the hobby would like to know. I might take something for granted that someone with only a few models under his or her belt might find as really useful info.

So do you have any specific questions or are you looking for something more in the line of Paul's excellent Aircraft Modelling Techniques guide?

[atheosx]

actually just a link to thread was good help. its something to start looking at. might have to just start flicking through build threads and see what people are doing for for little bits of detail, see what i like and start giving it a try. if it works for me then im good, if not theres always other little ideas ill pick up that will be worth trying.

with the bel air engine, did u glue it together before painting or paint all the pieces seperate and then glue it?

im gunna pick up some alclad stuff soon as with cars or most models theres alot of metal parts to be recreated and it looks to give the most real effects. im using vallejo paints atm which came recommended through pauls videos and the model colors look good, and ill say some of the model air metallics look really good aswell, but some look average, not bad just average and they all look very similar so im just messing with mixing some to give different shades. ive got some jewellery wire that im gunna try using to do some detail in the engine as far as wiring and watnot.

i didnt think of spark plug cables at all when i got back into it but then i saw the hot rod cars doing it and i realised how much better it looks and its sort of a basic thing i never really though of adding. what do most people use for that type of thing? like i said i grab some super thin wire to see how that goes but it looks like uve used something else?

[JonMW]

I try to paint as much as I can before gluing part together I find it a lot easier then having to mask for all the different colors. On the bel air engien only the block where glued before painting. This was done as there where a big seam between the parts the rest of the parta where first painted then glued. One other reason fo4 doing this is that it easier to get good coverage in some tight places, like between the oilpan that is red and the gearbox that is silver and there is about 1 mm gap between the parts.

For wires I tend to use detail wire made for cars (or most likely made for something else and just rebranded as detail wire and sold for more money), I used to use thin solder but got tired of painting it and the paint coming off when you bend it. For the bel air engine I think I used detail master spark plug wire, it comes in a lot of different colors and is really soft and easy to get a natural sag to them. But more or less any wire will do as long as it bends smoothly and don't kink. For plug wires I tend to gi for 0.4-0.5 mm, with the thinner for stock engines and the thicker for tuned or race engines. For most other wires I use 0.2 mm.

[atheosx]

yeh ive just finished an engine and engine bay for what im doing atm. i finished off a tamiya rattle can for the engine bay because i wanted to use it up, i knew the color didnt match the exterior but i didnt it would be noticable but it was :/ and i didnt like how it came out but im just going to leave it, it doesnt look terrible so thats a plus. and it matches my car irl.

i painted all the engine seperate and then glued it, but i always wondered if people glue then paint, and i guess some do, might try it for the next kit and see if it i like it or not. im not going to bother wiring it up as its already glued, and i like how the engine looks as is. and frankly its too tight to do now.

may post some fotos if i can be bothered.

on another note is there anything worst than ordering a kit, getting it and finding the kit doesnt feature any engine detail at all and the hood isnt meant to be open to show off nothing inside. then checking theres an updated kit with a full detail engine. looks like i bought a kit of spare parts haha.

[Tomtom12]

Hi have a look at hiroboy web site they sale all sorts of detail parts for model cars, they all so make there own paints and gloss hope this helps.

[Sean]

Hi have a look at hiroboy web site they sale all sorts of detail parts for model cars, they all so make there own paints and gloss hope this helps.

Some excellent words here for us novice car builders.

And a part of me wishes I hadn`t just found out about hiroboy.com - good grief, my wallets just screamed for mercy !!

Its like dropping a crack addict into a poppy field. I seem to want almost everything they stock !!!

[Tomtom12]

Hi Sean you might like to try a dealer on ebay 5dimonds he sells similar stuff to hiroboy I have bright from him a few times and never had a problem