[mmc757]

So I'm staying in a hotel for the foreseeable future and in an effort to do something more interesting than staring at my phone in the evenings, I ordered one of these 1:43 scale minichamps Cougars and I'm going to try to clone my project car.

The big ticket mods are the paint and fabricating a roush spoiler. I would like to fabricate a KAM style hood too but that's secondary since I don't actually have the hood yet. I don't think I'm going to attempt to fabricate new wheels.

I started with the front license plate. The Model has a european style front plate frame and rear bumper indent. I removed the front plate frame, it was just installed with a couple of posts so it came right out. Then I cut the posts off and glued them back in the holes, and filled them with a drop of glue on top. Next I'll sand it flat, do any filler work needed before paint.

For the rear, I filled the whole void with glue, then I'll sand it flat and call it good. This car probably wont have a rear plate void at all. I MIGHT try to carve one out but probably not.

I separated the body from the chassis for access to the interior, and for easier painting. I was really shocked at the level of detail the put into the interior of this car! Everything is accurate all the way down to the cup spiller and the little grab handles in the B-pillars.

Its hard to capture it in photos, but its really impressive, especially for a car with no functional doors to ever see this stuff.

My project car will have gray leather if I ever get a chance to install it, so I put a 1st coat of gray on the seats last night. It was a little dark so my second coat will be lighter.

Masking for body paint will be a tedious process due to the high level of detail so I might take a couple of sessions to do that, although I think I can pop the headlights and tail lights out so that will help.

I did paint the wheels bronze but forgot to get pics so I'll try to get those next time. They are passable. The dark color makes them kind of ambiguous looking so it wont be so obvious that they are the stock 16's.

I suppose I'll have to figure out a dual exhaust with CF tips too...not sure about how I'll do that.

Right now my working theory for the spoiler is to carve it out of the edge of a plastic putty knife. I asked my wife to send me some good photos of the spoiler so I can model it, hopefully she comes through. If anyone has a Roush spoiler and would be willing to send me some good photos and maybe even some dimensions, I would really appreciate it.

 

[mmc757]

Writing that post out made me wonder if I could order wheels...Turns out I probably can! I'll have to measure my existing ones to make sure I get some that will fit but its pretty cool to find those.

 

[mmc757]

That would be pretty spectacular.

 

[mmc757]

I didn't have a lot of time last night but I got a little masking done and the seats painted. I do think the lights could come out but I find myself nervous about how much pressure I'm putting on them to do it so I'll just leave them in place.
The glass could probably be removed too but its held in place with some rivet-style mushroomed over nubs so I would have to do some permanent damage in order to pull it out so I'll just leave it.

 

[mmc757]

Have you considered doing one of the larger 1/18's next? It has opening hood, doors, and hatch. Detailed nicely on the interior too.

Yeah, that would be a lot nicer, I just didn't want to spend that kind of money and then potentially wreck it. The 1/43's can be found for as low as $35, but the big ones...not so much.
I have one of the 1/18's at home so maybe if this one goes well I'll reconsider in the future. Maybe I'll do the 1/18 as a Zn...

 

[mmc757]

I spent a little time last night playing around with trying to fab a spoiler. I cut the tip off a putty knife, then I tried heating it with a lighter to get the curve. None of my multiple attempts were really good enough. Bending the plastic just results in too much deformation, and its not predictable enough. I got pretty close after reheating and re-flattening multiple times, but I still need to physically carve the shape in order to really get it right. I'm resisting the urge to buy a dremel just for this purpose but that's probably the best answer.

 

[mmc757]

Finished masking the body last night. There are a few really tiny bits like the front grills, the mirror plastic, the 3rd brake light, and the wiper fluid spray nozzles that are just too tiny to mask so I'll repaint them by hand after spraying. I thought about maybe dabbing them with candle wax or hot glue but that's probably more trouble than its worth and I'm not sure it would even work.

I've been having trouble finding the right color green spray paint, but I've got one more store local I can try. If that doesn't work I might have to go on a road trip to get the paint.
Also, the glue I tried to fill the license plate void with didn't work so I might have to try something different there. I don't want to buy a whole can of Bondo but maybe some JB weld would work.

 

[mmc757]

I've heard of modelmakers using a small amount of Vaseline to mask things.

That's not a bad idea, maybe I'll try it.

 

[mmc757]

I haven't found one yet. Its a pretty small community I'm staying in right now. They don't even have a Home Depot or a Lowe's. The Internet tells me there's a hobby shop downtown but I haven't gone looking for it yet. There's a Hobby Lobby 35 miles down the road that I can try next, or maybe I can just order the right stuff from Autozone. We found an off-the-shelf rattle can at AZ that was perfect when we were doing odd and ends on the real car but I cant find it in stock here.