Part 2 of building a resin model by Gerhard van Vuuren.
After the paint prep was done in last month’s article I have gone ahead and painted and finished the body. A few coats of Tamiya Pink Primer were applied, followed by Tamiya TS8 Italian Red. Before I started, I covered the “Ford” scripts on the bonnet and tailgate in Bare Metal Foil. After the paint had cured it was polished out with Tamiya polishing compounds. Then it was waxed with the last detail model wax.
I then removed the paint from the “Ford” scripts with a toothpick dampened with lacquer thinners to reveal the foiled letters in chrome. Finally, I used the Molotow 1 and 2mm Liquid Chrome Markers to detail the chrome trim on the body (Fig 1). The next task was to paint, detail and assemble the primed resin interior, dashboard and steering wheel.
Just a word of note before I continue:
Regular model glue does not work on resin. So I used Bob Smith Industries 5-minute epoxy for all the resin to resin and resin to plastic glueing chores.
The insides
After the load bed’s inner wheel arches were painted TS8 Italian Red, I painted the carpeted floor in Tamiya Red Brown. The interior tub door panels and the seat was painted in Tamiya Light Sand and the carpet in Red Brown. The tops of the door panels received a coat of Tamiya Italian Red to simulate the painted metal parts of the doors. Then the window cranks and door opening handles were detailed with the 1mm liquid chrome pen. The moulded pedals and driver’s floor mat were painted in Semi-Gloss Black. In Figure 2 you can see the finished interior tub and load bed.
The dashboards in these cars were body colour painted steel affairs. Therefore, the dashboard also received the Italian Red treatment. The steering wheel and column were painted, Semi-Gloss Black. The gauge cluster bezel, dash knobs, turn signal stalk, horn ring and column shifter were detailed with the liquid chrome pen. Lastly, I added a photo-reduced copy of a 61 Falcon gauge cluster I got from the Interweb. It was resized, printed and cut out to the dash glued on with some white glue for a bit of realism.
In Figure 3 you can see the finished dashboard with two printed spare gauge clusters just below it. The steering column and dash were glued together. As well as the dash epoxied to the interior tub (Fig 4), resulting in a realistic assembly.
Next up was the trimming of the Ranchero window glass to fit the Courier. The kit glass was trimmed with a razor saw to separate the windscreen from the rest of the assembly. In Figure 5 you can see the kit glass on the left with the cut line added in black. And on the right you see the trimmed final product, ready to be installed.
The shiny and round bouncy stuff
Next up are the chrome parts. Being an annual kit with tooling from the early sixties the Ranchero donor kit does not have any clear lenses, but is moulded in lenses. Chromed together with the bezel and grille. I added a little custom touch to the rear lights by jazzing them up with some clear red bullet lenses from my spare box. In Figure 6 on the left, you can see the taillight from the kit in the centre with the red bullet lens. And on the right, is the completed assembly with the bullet lens installed in the taillight.
The front bumper/grille and rear bumper had some ugly mould seams on their edges. So I stripped the chrome with some household bleach, sanded out the seams and polished the plastic. After this, I re-chromed the parts with the 2mm Liquid Chrome Marker. I then treated the grille to a black wash to detail the texture. I then added the parking lights in white paint and painted the moulded headlight lenses in flat aluminium to add some contrast to the sea of chrome. In Figure 7 you can see the kit grille/bumper at the top and the refinished one at the bottom.
Next up was the rolling stock. I decided to stick to the original wheel and tyre combo of the donor kit namely billet aluminium rims with nice low profile Good Year Eagle GSC radials. I scuffed the tyre treads with an emery board to give a used look to the tread and painted the raised “Good Year eagle GSC” lettering on the sidewalls with a fine brush and Tamiya Flat white acrylic paint (Fig8).
Final assembly
Now the time-consuming process of assembling started (remember, 5-minute epoxy takes 5 to 10 minutes to harden enough). First of all, I secured the windscreen in the body with “spot welds” of superglue just to set it in place. Then I added a bead of epoxy all around the perimeter of the join between the body and the windscreen on the inside.
Next, the interior tub and load bed were epoxied in place to the inside of the body after which I epoxied the front grille/bumper and rear bumper and taillights in place. Finally, the chassis was epoxied to the body after I fitted the wheels and as a finishing touch, I added some period license plates from the spares box and a scale surfboard in the back, hanging out the rear window. Voila, the red surf wagon is finished! In Figures 9 to 12, you see the finished wagon.
