Sneak Peak at the Follmer and Allison cars!

[Zoom Zoom]

Here are some shots of the Follmer (Acid Blue) and Allison (Gulf Blue) IROC Porsches. They're ready for window trim and assembly, to be delivered on Sunday to Steve Linngren and Paul Wehner.

Here's Paul's Allison car:
http://images1.fotki.com/v6/photos/4/498566/3180662/AllisonGulfBlue-vi.jpg

Here's Steve's Follmer car, though I cannot get the deep cobalt/hint of purple color to look right on the monitor even with retouching-the model is slightly darker with a hint of purple, looks great on the model:
http://images17.fotki.com/v296/photos/4/498566/3180662/FollmerAcidBlue-vi.jpg

The two together:
http://images15.fotki.com/v231/photos/4/498566/3180662/FollmerAllisonBlues-vi.jpg

[Lug Nutzz]

Ah I see you got over the bird flu long enough to do some painting this week! I must say they are pretty stunning as is. Just imagine how good they're going to look finished.

[Steve_L]

Bob,

The two cars look super! I hope I don't feel intimidated by the great quality of the paint job when I am working on the rest of the car. Thanks for your terrific job on these two!

Steve

[Boxstock]

Bob,

The two cars look super! I hope I don't feel intimidated by the great quality of the paint job when I am working on the rest of the car. Thanks for your terrific job on these two!

Steve

Intimidated.....I always look forward to seeing what you have worked on in that they are great builds. I find that even though I like more of the 50's and 60's era models this club project has my attention is really turning out to be a great effort :D :D :D

[Glacier modeler]

Bob, thanks for doing the paint and polishing, as this is usually my stumbling block.

Now a question for the IROC authorities: what, if anything, do I need to do special to the kit wheels? They are already satin, and appear to match the reference pictures.

[Zoom Zoom]

The wheels may be satin plated but the finish isn't authentic.

http://images14.fotki.com/v249/photos/1/10258/2956283/DSCN6966-vi.jpg
Notice how shiny the finish is. Also notice the irregularities on the outer lip, and that I've drilled out the centercap area.

http://images15.fotki.com/v266/photos/1/10258/2956283/DSCN7120-vi.jpg
http://images15.fotki.com/v268/photos/1/10258/2956283/DSCN7121-vi.jpg
Notice that the finish on these isn't as bright.

There are a couple of ways to approach this.

Take a sanding/polishing stick and dress the outer lip that's always a bit rough, and then spray the wheels in a dull aluminum metalizer. The finish of the 1:1 wheels was dull enough that in some light they looked white.

Or if you don't have the metalizer of choice or don't want to airbrush the wheels you can apply a few coats of flat clear to the satin plating. This will tone down the satin sheen to a flat, bright aluminum. You can go over the newly-smoothed wheel lips w/some silver or aluminum brush paint or a silver Sharpie (works wonders) to touch up the appearance.

The hardest part of detailing this wheel is hand-painting the black areas of the wheels, it takes a steady hand to flow the paint into the recesses w/o getting it on the silver areas. It's best to use metalizers or flat clear paints that are lacquer/enamel based and use flat/semigloss black acrylic for the black details, you can carefully wipe away mistakes w/a Q tip soaked in water or Windex w/o damaging the aluminum finish.

Hope this helps!

[Glacier modeler]

That's exactly the advice I was looking for; thanks for the fast and detailed reply!