Yeah it is Friday and the weekend is here, so here is my end of the week update. This week was mostly work on the Plymouth, I painted the body and then weathered it up a bit:
Can you break down the weathering process?
Yes, i base coated the body with some rustoleum brown that i had. Then aibrushed vallejo’s chipping medium followed by vallejo sky blue. I let everything dry for about 24 hours. Then i used water and a toothbrush to rub off a good portion of paint. Then i used red rust, brown rust and dessert yellow pigments to liven it up.
That’s some great progress this week.
Thanks, just a little each day. I guess it adds up though.
Excellent job of weathering on that Plymouth. I’ve got to get some of that Vallejo chipping medium.
I hear ya, did a little this morning since it’s raining outside
Outstanding details on your engine build… looks realistic and fantastic. Well done Sir
Thanks, comes with some years of experience of working with the real things
There’s less blood working on scale model engines 
Looking good 68GT. What gauge wire do you use for spark plug wires? I am looking to wire an engine for the first time. Was thinking about 24 awg.
Not sure since it doesn’t say. I bought this in black, red and yellow. Measures 0.018” in full thickness
Outstanding engine work. Your detailing is awesome. keavdog, there’s still blood involved working on scale model engines if your fingers don’t work as well as they used to, if you’re using a X-Acto knife, and if you’re all thumbs like me. I keep a well stocked tin of gauze & Band-Aids by my workbench.
Hmm, i have some .025 inch wire, think i will give it a go with that first.
I haven’t heard of that brand of wire. I buy my wire from Detail Master or something. I forget the name.
I have been searching and searching for wire this thin in bulk. I’m sure we are getting sharged through the roof for a couple feet of the stuff.
In terms of wire that size or close, land line telephone cords and cat5 cable have various colours of individually coated wires inside them. Just remove the outer plastic sheath and you are good to go.
Edit- as discussed below, this source of wire is too large for spark plug wires in 1/24 and 1/25, but may be useful for other detailing.
I have a spool of phone and cat wires. They are too big. Close, but look too big on a scale model.
@ctruss53 you are totally right - almost twice as thick as needed.
Current 1:1 scale wires are 8 to 8.5mm or 5/16 to 11/32”
1/25 scale equates to 0.32 to 0.35mm or 0.013 to 0.014”
Earlier 1:1 scale wires were 7mm or 0.28”
1/25 scale equates to 0.28mm or 0.011”
It’s been a while since I’ve wired an engine, I went digging and realized I posted the wrong wire above. What I normally use is 0.5mm or 0.020” (just a bit bigger than 1/64”). Still a bit too large, but close enough for me. I picked up 3 spools of different colours years ago from a Radio Shack (electronics store with DIY section).
I’ll modify the post above so as not to cause confusion…
It’s ok.
I found some very small unshielded wire. But I can’t make it look right.
I wonder where all these scale model parts companies are getting their wire. I’ll keep searching I guess.
And the thing I want to find even more than wire that is the right size are fittings and wire boots that are the right size.
RB Motion is about as close as you can get, but their fittings are still too big. Studio 27 makes some 3D printed fittings that are the right size, but they are male, so you have to insert them into your wire, which makes them look wrong. And since they are 3D printed, they break when you look at them wrong.
This is where boots that are the right diameter would come in. You use a Studio 27 fitting, it looks dumb because your wire is on the outside. So you slide a boot over it that is the right diameter and it looks right.
If anyone finds these mythical materials, let me know.
For those in Canada I found this…. Didn’t find a matching product on the U.S. Amazon unfortunately.
