AMT Raiders Coach detail?

[Dennis M]

Looking good'' I love the colors.

[chromecop]

Looking better and better....

[farmboy]

Holy Hubble, Batman! Are you aware of how hi a resolution is on this site? I couldn't believe what I saw at the 2nd magnification while I was logged in. I don't think my dog(s) can see that fine! I picked up one of the seats and squinted and sure enough, after a few seconds, I was just able to pick out verrrrrry slight black run between the cushions on the edge. Wow, I wear glasses, but even my magnifier didn't show that. Incidentally, that will be the Sharpie I used to even up the edge that ran from the clear. Repaint is on the way lol.

[kabdriver]

Those high-res pics are cool until you photograph something, look at it on a screen at 5 times it's real size and see a bunch of stuff you're not happy with

[farmboy]

Jim, you got that right, but I think it's good to see the small stuff. I think at the end of the day it helps to make one want to try being a better modeler by seeing things one may have overlooked...unfortunately, so can everyone else lol!

[farmboy]

a little update. I ran in to a problem with the curtains on the side of the carriage.  In retrospect, I should have painted them first and saved a LOT of masking.  To this point I had airbrushed the One Shot, but now, with brush in hand I ended up with....crap.  It just didn't go the way I had envisioned, mainly the straight seam between curtain and window frame looked awful and I had to deal with brush texture.  I was close to rolling the coach in catnip and giving it to the cat.  But then....an idea.  A new frame

I had just the ticket.  I bought this stuff at the Dollar Store a long time ago....for just this moment..

it's thin, black, and bends like a dream.

I made the 90 degree two sided frame, and oozed a drop of ca glue in the corner.  Easy peasy.

And this is what I ended up with

and here's where I'm at.  Corrected some paint edging on the seat, re-cleared.

Next will be the 'party light' over the doors.  I have a small sample of hi reflective white with a patterned design.  I think it will do.  This will be for the two side lights as well as the front and rear ones.  More later.

Comments and observations welcome.

[kabdriver]

That worked great! I love looking in the dollar stores near us for useful little bits and pieces

[farmboy]

and here's the mockup..'

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[41chevy]

Look great and more real with the fillers around the opening. Was in a local doll house store looking for things that will adapt to show rods, they had a few 1/28th scale drum sets in different metal flake colors that would fit in the carriage. Cost about 10 or 12 bucks. The lady said the company also does Fender guitars in the same scale.

[farmboy]

….aaaaaaaaannnnd we're back!! Back to bench time after a great summer. Pardon my lack of manners (for those following) for not checking in over the past while. I was back a couple of weeks ago, but one of my 2 old dogs passed on, didn't feel like building things...

Anyway, got a few hours in and managed to get a little more done on the coach. Almost done the carcass. Here are the decals applied, and a small strip to 3M hd reflective vinyl for the side lights. I'll be using the same for the front and rear lights as well

...and got the riveting done as well.  Got them fairly consistent.  I did so by shaking a bottle of Testor's silver (small 1/4 oz bottle) and dipping the end of a short length of small diameter solder into the overturned lid.  After a bit of trial and error on some scrap sprue and misc parts, I found that after dipping in the paint lid, if I tapped the solder end lightly on a piece of masking tape, it took the 'blob' effect away when touched to the top of the rivet.  Worked most of the time.  I kept a pipe cleaner with thinner handy to wipe away any really bad silver blots on the model.  Also brushed a light coat of matte clear to the curtains to even them out.  Turned out ok.

now to tackle the keyboard....

[farmboy]

It's a little tough to discern here, but I've airbrushed a coat of flat white on the sharps and the set of keys to the right of the lower keyboard.

As mentioned elsewhere, the Vox Continental keyboard as well as most of their other models had their keys harpsichord style, the sharps being white, full notes being black. My next plan is to protect the white with a thin coat of Future.  When this is thoroughly dry, the sharps keys and the white island of keys to the lower right will be masked and a thin coat of black airbrushed to cover the keys.  After removing the mask and using a pointed brush, I plan to apply thinned black letting it flow between the white keys.  The excess black will be removed from the white keys with a microbrush or a cloth with a small amount of thinner on it.  That's the plan anyway.  Should have more in a few days.  Comments and observations welcome.

[kabdriver]

Love seeing some more work on this one! Masking that keyboard is going to be a BEAR - I can’t wait to see how that turns out!

[farmboy]

My apologies for the long delay to anyone following. Onward and upward....

At last post, the idea was to do the reverse white/black keyboard.  Here's what I ended up with as seen now mounted to the coach.  If one were to mess around with it for another few days one could probably do a better job, but to loosely quote someone in a model mag editorial...."sometimes good enough, is good enough".  So here we have it.  The procedure was as planned earlier.  Spray the sharps white, cover with Future, spray with black, use a rag with paint thinner on it tautly pulled over the end of a pencil eraser and gently remove600  the black from the white keys.  Worked in theory lol!  Stripped, did the same thing again, this time not so ham fisted and it sort of worked out.  I'm sure there are better jobs out there but I guess my skill level isn't there yet.  Anyway, notice also there is some 600 grit sandpaper applied to the floor of the rear section.  Makes sense to me there would be something for Mr. revere to stand on.  The different shade of black adds to the interest.

Also, I added a blocker or sorts to the upper section above the front and rear facing seats.  If not, you can see the rear of the amps and the organ whilst looking in the coach.  Just a couple of rectangles cut to fit, sprayed black and glued on.  Problem solved 

Just a couple of shots to show the 'top on' version.  I've notice there are a couple of raised 'divots' on either side of the front side panels.  These were for banana jack guitar plug ins.  Think I may add a few coiled cables to the coach before I'm done, adding also to the rear seat area. 

As always, comments and observations are welcome.

[farmboy]

Moving to the suspension....any of the photos I've looked at don't seem to give me a real color. I went with gold. Enuff of the yellow already. I sprayed the gold, then masked the shackles and leaf banding for painting

what wasn't gold...went black.

A little touch up later on the model and life should be good.  I'll do the rear springs next in the same gold/black livery.

Comments and observations welcome.

[kabdriver]

Looking really great! Super clean, and you did a nice job on the keyboard!

[farmboy]

Here's a pic showing the rear of the coach, the vox organ with reverse keyboard, and the light bar. This rear light bar is usually shown as white, but the front light bar is the only white unit on the coach.

On my build, I blocked off the see thru sections of the coach both front and rear.  Here it's plainly obvious that this area was in fact open.  I thought it was a corner-cutting move by amt.  Anyway, I think it looks better closed off imho.

[farmboy]

...last I'll bore you with the carriage. Well, maybe the odd one to come. Anyway, here's a shot of the bottom. I will be adding a brake cylinder to the brake 'arm' then split at the rear axle.  speakers next.

[rodsnracin]

This is turning out to be a very impressive build! Thanks for all the pictures, both model and reference, please keep them coming.

Brian

[farmboy]

While there's still a few details to finish on the coach, some of it like cabling and electrics, fuel and other sundry stuff can't really be done until the tractor unit is at least assembled. Time for a change anyway. On to the speakers. I should mention here that the light boxes front and rear have no backs on them so I added some sheet styrene to the rear, sanded smooth and painted them. the speakers have backs thankfully.

These look imposing to do but with a bit of care they turn out ok.  The first thing to do is get the diamond ribbing and frame done.  I discovered Krylon Chrome spray a couple of years ago.  I swear by it.  Bonus, if you coat it with clear, it turns metal/aluminum color.  Two for one.  Not many of them around.  Anyway, here's the speaker front sprayed with Chrome. 

Now it's time to do the black fronts.  I used good ol' $1 craft paint.  Water based.  I applied it liberally by brush, and using my fingers,  lightly swept across the ribbing.  It takes some care but the nice thing is that WHEN you wipe paint from the recesses, it's easy enough to add some paint, wipe it off the ribbing again, and again, and again, till you get it right.  Then when it's dry, just touch up areas that don't look as good as the others, finger wipe, and you end up with something like this.

Now to paint the cases.  Sit the speakers on their faces (ribbing side down) and lightly spray the back and sides.  Two or three coats should do the trick.  Light spray doesn't let paint creep under the edge and ruin the chrome trim.

This isn't the only way to do it but it works for me.

That's all I have.  As always, comments and observations welcome.

[kabdriver]

Those Vox’s look great - your technique worked out perfect!

[farmboy]

Only 1 set of brakes to worry about on this kit so here goes. The rear dual wheel connection is a loose copy of the way it's set up up on the Hawaiian funny car in the vintage article Unraveling the Snake pit. I used a stiff piece of black floral wire, and made the wheelback connectors from a couple of lengths of wire insulation painted gunmetal. The "t" is the same thing just from two pieces.  It's loose enough to slide to where I want the brake line to join up to it. Note the 'fittings' need a 2nd coat.

 

As for the brake cylinder I let creative license take over on this one.  The plunger (black part) was a brake pedal.  Though hard to make out, it has a horizontal piece that will connect to the kit's horizontal brake rod that connects to the brake lever.  The cylinder itself was a parts box find that started out as a Stromberg carburetor.  The end was snipped of, glued to the plunger and painted gunmetal.  The copper brake line will come from the side of the cylinder, follow the frame, then connect to the T on the horizontal rear brake line.

I'll do the two piece brake line next.

Comments and observations welcome

[farmboy]

This is the brake line setup. The copper line runs from the brake cylinder to a line support at the rear frame member near the axle. I made the support from a 'flag' on the sprue, trimmed it and drilled a hole. This allows me to change from copper line to an armored rubber brake line. The one here is obviously not to scale, still looking for the right size.  I'll probably use styrene rod, but you get the idea.

...and here's the home made cylinder/actuator assembly it connects to.  I'll put the brake handle on when I'm done working on the underside so I don't keep knocking it off. 

Next to install is the steering link.  I'll be adding two super small seed beads to the side of the cylinder for power steering lines. 

As usual, comments and observations welcome.

[kabdriver]

This is really coming together nicely - and I’m really enjoying seeing your clean, detailed building style! Really nice work!

[farmboy]

A few profile shots. Pardon the noisy bench.  I was doing some mockup and decided to take a few shots.  A little progress made...

This is the stance I'm after.  May have to trim, or shim the pivot to get it.

Here are the two Pontiac engines and where they will approximately sit.  I'm using the conjoined (?) oil pans for mounting the engines as the center piece will not be visible, and will be painted red anyway to match the frame.  Somewhere in the '60's, some groovy way out cat called the paint Candy Apple Red.  Any photos I've seen show it was enamel, solid red.  I'm curious though if the engines were painted the same color or a gm engine red.  I may lighten the red on the hood just to make it a bit different from the engine blocks, but not too much.

Here is the guage cluster, tachs, and steering column.  Funny the instructions refer to the gauges as a light bar, and the tachs as spotlights.  Anyway, did the dial faces in black and Future.  I'll bundle wire these as 2 each of tach, oil, temp, and voltage.  One set for each engine.

The rear is finished but for the speaker and stoplight.  They were on the bench assembled, I installed them a short while after this shot. 

I also have the steering link completed but didn't think to shoot it.  Oh well, next time. 

As usual, comments and observations welcome.

[stevielewis]

Looking great. It's really coming along nice. Your attention to detail is above par.

[flounder]

I have really enjoyed watching your progress on this one. You have been really crushing the details and accuracy. Of course, the quality is also way up there. Great work!

[farmboy]

Thanks for the kind words everybody. Looks like the tractor unit is next.

[41chevy]

That section is just wicked cool! The added details and your out come is just perfect. Paul

[farmboy]

I was researching Pontiac engine colors and discovered that for the most part, Pontiac V8's were different blues from the mid 60's on, so there's a bit of leeway as to the (red) engine color on the Raiders Coach. I don't believe they are the same color as the hood, but more on that in a minute. The tractor unit hood is a red enamel.  Digging a little deeper, I found the factory color to be Carousel Red for the GTO, ergo, the GTO on the kit's grille suggest it's probably Carousel Red (later named Hugger Orange), guessing 10 parts red, 2 to 3 parts orange mix? If you look at color shots of the show rod, it certainly looks like it. That settles that, at least for me. As for the blocks, I'm going to use a straight red with a drop or two of black mixed in for contrast. Hope to get started on the tractor unit frame next.  Comments and observations welcome.

[farmboy]

Something to correct. Earlier somewhere, I had mentioned I was possibly going to add jacks and cables to what appeared to be banana jack plug ins on the front sides of the coach. Made sense to me.  On the model they seem more diamond shape. Quite by accident I found a picture I could enlarge of the real McCoy...it appears to be a Barris escutcheon. George put his mark on his work, including the Batmobile -- though I think it was added years later. The photo's resolution doesn't permit decisive detail, but it looks to me almost like a Bentley crest  not a guitar jack. Here's one of his crests....

 Darn. My apologies.  Oh well, win some lose more.