Dodge Challenger SRT8
Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2020 8:24 am
Finished this one on January 2nd, just to make sure that 2019 stood a non-completion year. 
Intention
An easy out of the box-build to learn some car modeling skills, especially on high gloss finishes. I tried to put my demands in a pocket and to build along without being a perfectionist. Yeah, go figure...
The kit
(Revell 854220, 1/25 Scale) My first car kit since.. dunno, the war? So can't compare to other car kits, but I'd say it's typically Revell. The body is nicely molded with very little flash and a small, easy to remove parting line. Front and back inserts are crisply molded, too. The interior not so much. Dashboard is ok, but steering wheel and seats look like from a 60's tooling. Some parts like the rims and rear bench showed some protruding scratches that might be a result of damaged molds. Finally I want to mention that stupid white plastic. Before priming you can't see nothing you need to start your preparation work, like sinkholes, scratches, parting lines.
The build
Fit was ok. Very good in some places like undercarriage, engine and the three main body parts. A bit imprecise in other places like the interior. The marriage of body and undercarriage was horrible. Basically I don't have a problem with a snap fit connection. But if you go for it as a manufacturer, your tolerances have to be tight and your instructions precise. Revell skipped both. As a modeler I'm used to touch my models with the strengh of my fingers. I'd never dare to really use my main arm muscles to press something in place. But this model demands exactly that and I can tell you that a lot of sweat and swearwords left my body during the process. Also paint got scraped off in four(!) places and there's no chance to avoid this. A guidance on one side and one or two screws on the other would've been a much smarter and nonviolent solution.
The painting
...ended in a disaster, unfortunately. The main color (Alclad Dark Aluminum) sat on a coat of Alclad Black Primer and was protected by a layer of Alclad Aqua Gloss. Every layer had at least a week of drying time. Until this point the metallic paint looked great with a nice and evenly pigment structure.
For the gloss finish I opted for Mr.Color GX113 thinned with MLT. Two dry layers first followed by three wet layers with 10 to 20 minutes of drying time between. Despite the attentive layering the thinner managed to infiltrate the Aqua Gloss and to reactivate the metallic paint beneath, provoking some kind of rearrangement of the metallic pigments. Spherical in some places, creased in others. Those effects are quite visible in the lateral view below.
Some additional bloopers couldn't be avoided, as usual. One of the front turn signal decals got partially ripped off by tape. While attaching the wing mirrors the super glue frosted the surrounding gloss paint. And those two are just the most obvious.
The pictures
Thank you all for following along!
Intention
An easy out of the box-build to learn some car modeling skills, especially on high gloss finishes. I tried to put my demands in a pocket and to build along without being a perfectionist. Yeah, go figure...
The kit
(Revell 854220, 1/25 Scale) My first car kit since.. dunno, the war? So can't compare to other car kits, but I'd say it's typically Revell. The body is nicely molded with very little flash and a small, easy to remove parting line. Front and back inserts are crisply molded, too. The interior not so much. Dashboard is ok, but steering wheel and seats look like from a 60's tooling. Some parts like the rims and rear bench showed some protruding scratches that might be a result of damaged molds. Finally I want to mention that stupid white plastic. Before priming you can't see nothing you need to start your preparation work, like sinkholes, scratches, parting lines.
The build
Fit was ok. Very good in some places like undercarriage, engine and the three main body parts. A bit imprecise in other places like the interior. The marriage of body and undercarriage was horrible. Basically I don't have a problem with a snap fit connection. But if you go for it as a manufacturer, your tolerances have to be tight and your instructions precise. Revell skipped both. As a modeler I'm used to touch my models with the strengh of my fingers. I'd never dare to really use my main arm muscles to press something in place. But this model demands exactly that and I can tell you that a lot of sweat and swearwords left my body during the process. Also paint got scraped off in four(!) places and there's no chance to avoid this. A guidance on one side and one or two screws on the other would've been a much smarter and nonviolent solution.
The painting
...ended in a disaster, unfortunately. The main color (Alclad Dark Aluminum) sat on a coat of Alclad Black Primer and was protected by a layer of Alclad Aqua Gloss. Every layer had at least a week of drying time. Until this point the metallic paint looked great with a nice and evenly pigment structure.
For the gloss finish I opted for Mr.Color GX113 thinned with MLT. Two dry layers first followed by three wet layers with 10 to 20 minutes of drying time between. Despite the attentive layering the thinner managed to infiltrate the Aqua Gloss and to reactivate the metallic paint beneath, provoking some kind of rearrangement of the metallic pigments. Spherical in some places, creased in others. Those effects are quite visible in the lateral view below.
Some additional bloopers couldn't be avoided, as usual. One of the front turn signal decals got partially ripped off by tape. While attaching the wing mirrors the super glue frosted the surrounding gloss paint. And those two are just the most obvious.
The pictures
Thank you all for following along!
