AMT Depth Charger custom car kit

He's something a little different from the normal round of boats and trains - a custom car.

I'll start by admitting that I only painted this model, which was built from an AMT plastic kit - my Dad used to build this sort of thing in his youth, as evidenced by a cabinet of such models, and fancied having another go. The kit can from the US for no more than it would have cost in this country and off he went.

Assembly wasn't completely straight forward. The diving helmet driving position is supposed to be supported on a pair of angle brackets. At least they are on the chassis moulding but the instructions don't show them. He cut them off as they raised the cabin up to a stupid height. A little packing with plasticard off-cuts sorted this out.

Painting was "fun". You can't hide anything with a bit of weathering so it had to be right. The gloss yellow enamel sprayed well but the black bits were done with Humbrol acrylic which refused to do gloss despite what it said on the tub - presumably the paint can't read. Some buffing with T-cut helped but in the end I shot Johnsons Klear floor polish on to give a shine. While this was a valuable lesson, I could have done without it. Just to add contrast, the air pipes are painted, by hand, in matt enamel to represent rubber.

It's an interesting looking model. You just don't get chrome like this on model train kits. What you do get is lots of alternative decals (American kit, we'd call them transfers in Blighty) so I have some goodies stashed away for future less-than-serious boat projects.

Postscript: I'd just written this post when on my blog reader came a mention of Matt Irvine's new Scale Model Car book, which has this very kit on the cover !