Monday, May 27, 2019

Beetle built

Having finished sticking the Beetle together, I've a few thoughts about the build and the Revell kit.

At the start, I was really getting into it. Pre-painting was fun and seemed to go well. All the parts fit together well enough and the car is a good shape. I'm pleased with the chrome trim, although it looks better in real life then the photo.

Towards the end, things weren't so good. The headlight fit is hopeless and the glue has smeared the paint on the chrome. I can scrape this off, but on the third go, can't be bothered. You get the paint off but push the headlight out and have to take the car apart (the floorpan clips into the body fortunately) to re-glue it.

In fact, the chromed parts annoyed me most of all. There's a shiny rear numberplate light that had to be painted. Despite masking the rubber strips on the bumpers, this isn't very neat. In hindsight, I should have sanded them flat and used vinyl strips stuck on. In fact, I should have removed all the chrome with some sort of vicious kitchen cleaner.

Never mind, I did this for fun. The end result is OK and at least a different sort of project from the trains. The trick is to stop getting hung up on perfecting and just enjoy the ride I suppose.

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