Cutting open doors and trunk on a 69 GTO Judge, Part 2

As promised, here is the second installment of my 69 Judge with working doors and trunk. We left off with reassembling the doors and now it's time to make some hinges. The simple hinge we will use requires some supplies which are very cheap. Well need a length of brass tube and brass rod, available at most hobby shops and about $1.50 each. We will also need a rotary tool to cut the tube. Using a cut-off wheel on the rotary tool, cut a small length of brass tube about a 1/4 inch or less. Now cut a piece of rod about 2 1/2 inches and slide the brass tube onto the middle of the rod and bend each end of the rod around the tube creating a sort of rectangle shape. Here's a pic.

Now we want to bend the two end downward to create a sort of right angle triangle with the ends.
Some more pics.

For the final bends, we want to make the ends of the rod to finish straight not angled down. What your left with should look like a little pyramid/triangle that can sit on a flat surface. More pics.

All that remains is to cut 2 more 1/4 inch lengths of tube to put inside the door, for this end of the hinge to fit into. Mount/glue this bent rod part of the hinge inside the gap in the body in front of the door. Glue it on the body side of the front corner panel, not the interior side or it won't work. The reason for this kind of hinge is so that when the doors open freely, the hinge allows the door to open without grinding or binding on the door edges and chipping the paint or worse because of the bent design and the fact that the rods can slide in and out of the the tubes. Again, during this process, door and hinge fitment is important to check and adjust often and if you need to grind or cut away some material to do so, then do so. Some re bending of the of the rod may also be needed to get the doors flush. I had to grind away quite a bit of plastic on the inside of the doors to get them to fit right and tweak the rods a little too. It should basically look like this when it's in there.

That's it, do the same kind of hinge for the trunk and you ready to decal, detail and clear coat the model (with the doors and trunk on). Mask or cover your windows to keep the paint out of the interior. Then all that remains is to build the rest of the model (engine, undercarriage, wheels etc.) Which is what I have to do now. Have fun!

Most advanced project yet, cutting open doors and trunk on a '69 Judge.

So I decided that I wanted to take on a challenging modeling project. Taking a normal 1969 GTO Judge kit and cutting open the doors and trunk and putting working hinges on them to have a model with working doors and trunk. The good news is, I did it. The bad news, it's not as easy as I thought it would be, but that is the point of a challenge isn't it? So here's a tutorial with pictures on how to do it. First thing you need to know is building this model is going to require some supplies: 5 min. Epoxy. An old No.11 hobby blade with an intact unbroken tip. masking tape and model putty (I use Tamiya Putty, Basic Type because it does not shrink, it's very light and mold able and it grabs onto surfaces and sticks well) Why no hobby saw? Because we are not going to saw the doors and trunk open, it removes too much material and the blades bind and break while sawing, it also takes FOREVER! That's why we need an old No.11 hobby blade. We are going to use the back of the blade tip to repeatedly score along the door and trunk lines, until we cut right through them. First off though your going to want to paint and assemble the model's interior, paint the chassis (do not assemble undercarriage yet) and do not paint the body exterior (interior: yes). The reason for this is the model is going to be built sort of in reverse of what you might be used to. Once painted, your going to want to glue the interior to the chassis and the body to the chassis using 5 min. Epoxy. The reason for this is if you tried to cut open the doors on the body you would be left with a body that is very weak in the middle and could/will break. If the model is already assembled, then once the doors are cut open and removed, the body will remain rigid because the chassis is attached to it. See why we painted the interior first? Once it's assembled you won't be able get a brush in there to detail anything. Here are some pics of what's been covered so far. Note, the model in these pics is an unpainted extra Judge I had sitting around in case I messed this one up.

My lines are on the outside, but you get the idea, glue the inside edges. Once everything is glued let it sit overnight. 5 min Epoxy does not dry in 5 min. it sets in 5 min, but takes over 12 hours to completely dry.
Now that the glue is solid, your ready to begin cutting. First, we want to tape the blade, except the tip. Your finger is going to be pressing down on the sharp side of the blade for pressure because we will be using the back side of the blade, so we want a cushion between finger and blade so as not to inflict a nasty cut on ourselves. Next, we want to score along the door lines with the back tip of the blade many times. Always score down the same groove. Start with the door sides going from bottom corner to top edge of door. Once that's done, score along the bottom of the door from the corners toward the middle. The reason for these blade movements/directions is to minimize the chances of your blade jumping out of the groove and putting a nasty gouge across the body. This way, if the blade jumps, it will likely land back in the groove and harm nothing. The easiest way to remember this is always be scoring AWAY from a corner, not into it. For the last few strokes though, it really doesn't matter though as the likelihood of the blade jumping, when it's that deep into a groove is minimal. Here's a few more pics.

So, now your doors are off (trunk is much easier) but now your left with the inside door panels to deal with, what now? Same deal, using your newly opened door edges as a guide, repeat the scoring procedure until the inside panel is off. Now you have 2 halves of a door, this is where the fun begins. We are going to use these halves to make the new door. The easiest way to do this is glue the top edges of the door halves together and stick a pen or something in between the halves to hold the halves open while it dries. After it's dry, we need to fill in the back and bottom edges of the door. Do not fill in the front edge of the door as we need this open later for hinges. Once the filler is dry, sand and refill where necessary and sand again until you have nice smooth, flush edges. Also fill in the gap behind the doors with putty and sand, but don't fill in front of the door (body side) again, hinges. Check your door fitment OFTEN during this process. Paint the dry putty to match your colors and now it's starting to look like the real thing. Here's some more pics.

That's all for now. All this is going to take you some time and this blog post is getting really long, so I will continue this in a second post. Next post will be how to make a simple hinge and paint this beast!

Ever found a color in a can you wanted to use in a jar or airbrush?

Today's topic will be transferring paint from cans to jars. Believe it or not there is a process to doing this to get better results. Typically, when transferring paint from can to jar for brushing purposes, the paint is too thin to brush on and even airbrush. The secret? Decant your paint just like you would wine. When you spray paint into something, it usually ends up being the cap from the can, which is fine. It has a wide bottom and top to keep your paint shallow and for good gas and air exchange. DO NOT transfer the freshly sprayed paint into a bottle just yet. Leave it sit in that cap for about 1 hour for airbrushing and 2-6 hours for brushing depending on how much is in the cap. Slosh or wiggle it around every 20-30 min. to get the paint on the bottom, on top for more gas exchange. Some paints need to be left for longer than 6 hours, sometimes overnight. Eventually your paint will thicken up. If it ends up too thick, you know what to do.

Have you ever wanted a tiny sander for cheap?

Have you ever found yourself wanting a tiny sander, similar to an electric vibrating palm sander? Now you can have one, by modifying a simple electric toothbrush. Here's how it works. Go buy a cheap battery operated electric toothbrush or make use of an old one. You don't want one of the little sonic ones, your looking for the ones that oscillate (the round spinning kind) it doesn't matter if it has one of those extra wedge brushes under the round spinning head, your going to be cutting all the bristles off anyway. Once you have cut-off the bristles, glue a round piece of thin foam or foam rubber to the round head (this will act as a cushion between the head and the sandpaper for even pressure during sanding) on top of the foam glue a round piece of velcro. Use strong glue for this whole process like super glue. Now all you have to do, is attach an opposite piece of sticky backed velcro to the back of a round little piece of sandpaper and velcro it to the head and your all set with a mini sander for under $10! The velcro serves as an easy way to change out old sandpaper or change grits very easily. I love my little sander and use it quite often.

Is there a way to simulate chrome with paint?

In short, the answer is yes. Not by using "chrome" colored paint, which is just really shiny silver. It looks ok, but let's face it, for realism sake, it doesn't quite cut it. This is where Alclad Chrome paint comes in. Alclad is not just a paint, it's a system and the results are amazing! It starts with a base coat of Gloss Black, and the finish has to be perfect, otherwise, even the slightest imperfection will be mad worse once it's chromed. After that it's a simple case of spraying VERY light coats and lots of them. At first it won't look too special but as you add more and more coats it begins to blend with itself and create that seamless shiny chrome look. There is only one catch to this method of chroming. You can only do it with an Airbrush. Alclad is only available in a 5 oz. bottle. This is for good reason I suppose, as only an airbrush would be able to accomplish the light enough coats to make it work, spray cans only spray at one speed.

Ever painted a model with color changing paint?

Here's a project for you the next time your looking for a unique paint job for your model. Dupli-Color makes many different color shifting paints and they are not that expensive. Dupont Chromillusion paint will cost you big bucks! The Dupli-Color stuff is a 3 part kit that includes a flat black, the color changing paint and a can of clear coat for about $25. All three cans are used in that order and when broken down to price it works out at about $8 a can! That's about the average cost of any can of lacquer out there if not less! I did a 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery with this paint (purple to green color) and let me tell you, the repeat view factor for that model is way more than any other model, not because it's a particularly great build or kit, it's just the cool paint dude!
Have fun!

Polishing damaged plastic glass to brand new.

Ever screwed up a window with glue and don't know how to fix it? Let me first start by saying that white glue (normal craft past, ie Elmer's) is the best thing for attaching windows on models as it is washable and if you get it on a window, you just wash it off and no damage done. For those already damaged parts that you used cement on and it ate into the plastic, here is your solution. Rub it out! If it is not too badly damaged and can be sanded out then go ahead and start sanding and when you've smoothed each damaged layer, change to finer, and finer grits until your using triple and quadruple digit sandpapers, until you've buffed it right back to clear, then wax it with your favorite car polish and it should look brand new (after some work). If you can't find fine enough grit sandpapers in your area, try rubbing compounds or polishing compounds for cars, they work awesome on models too!

Looking for a cheap alternative to Bare Metal Foil? Try this.

So, you've graduated to the world of using foil to simulate chrome on models have you? Good! The benefits of using Bare Metal Foil for trim etc. on models is the realism and ease of use. It looks way better than silver/chrome paints and if your having trouble applying it, watch a few YouTube videos on the subject and you'll be a pro in no time! The problem with Bare Metal Foil is, it's kinda expensive. Here's a cheap solution, aluminum foil tape! This stuff can be found at any hardware store (and some Dollar stores) and is used to seal seams in heating and dryer duct work. It also has many other applications, and as I found out, one is modeling! The best tape to use is the cheapest, thinnest stuff you can find. Good quality aluminum tape is too stiff and thick for our use. We want similar to the Bare Metal Foil brand, thin and strong with good adhesive. If you can find a tape like this you'll be in luck as I have put it next to Bare Metal Foil on models and nobody can tell the difference. Happy hunting!