Revell Corvette Stingray with New Tooling
This is the sixth part of the Revell 2022 Corvette Stingray Z51 Coupe New Tooling 1/25 Scale 85-4556 14556.
About five years ago I had the chance to talk to a real professional car modeler from Japan. It was a brief conversation but I asked him several questions on how he achieved such flawless paint work with his models. One of the things he told me was that he sprayed his paint thinly and in light coats. Obviously, this modeler had a method for painting and he was really good at it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I will be equally as good when I follow the same directions.
Both of my parents are professional artists, and one day while I was struggling in art class my Dad tried to explain to me that everyone has a certain style that makes each artist unique. At the time I was too frustrated to properly understand what he was telling me, but over the years of modeling I’ve come to understand that I have my own style.
I can and will follow the painting advice from that professional Japanese modeler, it was good advice and an excellent way for me to begin, but as I go on I will learn what works, and doesn’t work for me and hopefully through trial and error I will gradually adapt and learn my own style. And it’s my hope that you will find your style as well.
Before I began priming the body, I still needed to take care of a few things. One of these was adding Tamiya Putty Basic Type to the ejector pins under the rear hatch. This model is fairly clean and free of ejector pins, but this hatch somehow got a double portion of them.
There were only two faint seam lines running down the front of the car near the headlights. I sanded them using Tamiya Sanding Sponges. I really love these things as you can apply pressure to the parts and the sponge will follow the profile of the surface. It makes sanding a lot easier.
I began using 400 grit to remove the seam lines, and then I progressed up to 600 grit to smooth out the scratches. Lastly, I used 1000 grit to finally smooth out the plastic. I decided to also sand the rest of the car body with the 1000 grit as this slight abrasion on the surface would allow the primer to grip the plastic better.
The panel lines on this kit were thin, so I decided to use my new Tamiya Engraver (2.0mm) to carefully care out and deepen the panels. This was my first time using this particular tool, and I highly recommend it to you. It has a learning curve, but this is the first scribing tool that feels comfortable, and that I feel in complete control of.
There is a wide selection of engraver sizes to choose from, and they are tungsten carbide, so the tips will last you a long time. I also appreciate how light this tool is, and it’s not as big and clunky as other scribers can be.
I forgot to take a picture of this as I was eager to begin masking, but I painted sections of the back of the car with Mr Color 92 Semi-Gloss Black. I was going to paint this inner section of the back with Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey, just as I had done for parts of the interior. But that paint has proved to be very fragile. The jar I have is over a decade old at this point, so I instead used Mr. Color UG 15 MS Phantom Grey, from the Mr. Color Gundam paint line.
And here are all of the main body parts all masked up and ready for a coat of primer.
I primed the body with Mr. Surfacer 1200 Grey. It gripped into the plastic, and I’m almost ready now to begin painting the main color.
I needed to smooth out the primer a bit more, and get rid of a few specks that had landed on the body while the primer was still wet. I used some 1500 grit Tamiya Sanding Sponge, and I carefully and with very little pressure sanded the primer. This left the surface smooth and free of any blemishes.
For the body color I wanted to create a Metallic Orange, so I mixed some Mr. Color 10 Copper, and 49 Clear Orange into an empty mixing jar. I also added some Mr. Replenishing Agent to the mix to help the paint flow smoother when I added thinner.
And here is the result of my custom Metallic Orange. I sprayed this on in 3 light coats. I used Mr. Levelling Thinner and added about 65% of the thinner to the paint. As the Japanese Master Modeler had explained to me, he thinned his paints down a bit more than you usually would, and he applied the paint in 3 light layers, giving the paint time in between to dry.
I painted on the first layer, and you could slightly see the sections of the primer showing through. About an hour later I returned and I added a second coat. This coat showed promise as it had completely covered the primer and was becoming a more radiant color.
Later on, I came back and I applied the third coat. This coating went on very wet compared to the previous coats as the gloss of the paint really came through here. It didn’t take more than a few passes and I had a beautiful uniform color.
As pleased as I was with the success of this painting venture, I wasn’t as pleased with the overall color. I wanted something more orange, and so I decided I was going to fix this to be more of the color I had envisioned.
Now this is the color I had in mind!
I had to be careful with my Clear Orange as I didn’t have a lot of paint left. But I painted this in the same process as before, three light thin layers. By the second layer, I was already seeing the color that I wanted.
Once the third coat was applied everything was nice and uniform, and I was really blown away by how beautiful this color is. Turning it around directly under my lamp and watching the light bounce around all of the different panels was incredibly satisfying.
As I admired this new color I thought further if I should continue on and add a gloss coat to complete the body. In many ways, I’m really pleased with the gloss that the Clear Orange provided. But I think for the purposes of this build demonstration I will add on the gloss coat as I had planned.
I removed the masking from the bumper and unfortunately, some of the Orange-Copper paint bled through the tape. This will be an easy fix as I can carefully paint on some more Gloss Black to these sections.
Before I add on the gloss coat there are still a few things that I need to add to the model first. I also forgot to paint the spoiler that will go on the back. Thankfully it will be gloss black and not Metallic Orange like the rest of the car. This is very important as I’ve run out of Clear Orange, so I need to be careful with the rest of the car.
I also need to add on some of the smaller decals that will go on the body and need to be covered up with the gloss finish. I will address these details and more in the next post.
I’m really grateful to that modeler from Japan, as I found his directions and guidance to be incredibly helpful to me in understanding the process of working with gloss paints. I now better understand why car modelers prefer to use lacquer and specially formulated car lacquer paints. They are a lot tougher than acrylic and enamels, and you really can’t beat the results that lacquers provide.
I’m getting pretty close now to completing this model, and painting that body was a big undertaking, and I’m a lot less overwhelmed than I was when I took on this project. So much so, that I might build another car before this year is done.
To be continued…
Jared Demes is a modeler from southern Alberta. He has been building models since he was 4 years old when his Dad first introduced him to the hobby. He has written for several magazines including, Fine Scale Modeler, Scale Aircraft Modeling, Phoenix Scale Models, and others. He has an interest in all modeling subjects, with a focus on WWII Japanese aircraft and Science Fiction.
Jared has won several IPMS awards for his modeling, and currently operates his YouTube channel rebelsatcloudnine, where he showcases model builds and product demonstrations.
English