-A Scale-Master Project-
“Jackhammer” AcceleRacer Mellowed into a Retro Boulevard Cruiser
Author: Mark D. Jones aka Scale-Master
Vehicles Needed: HWs Jackhammer AcceleRacer
Special Tools: Scale-Master Decal Sheet – See bottom of page
Rating: Beginner/Novice
I really liked the wheels on some of these AcceleRacers so I picked a couple styles up cheap when I found some with damaged packages.
The first step was to drill it apart. The body is plastic so it was a breeze to drill the rivets with a 3/16 drill bit. Go slow, it only takes a couple seconds to remove the plastic lip.
Here’s what you get.
I sawed off the junk that stuck out the top of the roof with a small razor/hacksaw.
I’ll keep the two larger pieces.
To remove the tampos, first I tried Mineral Spirits, it wasn’t quite strong enough (to remove them fast enough), so I added about 10% Lacquer Thinner to the Mineral Spirits and the tampos came off without damaging the paint or the plastic.
I traced through the roof opening on to some sheet styrene and cut out a filler panel and sanded it to fit.
I bent it to match the shape of the roof and cemented it in with CA.
Here is how it looked after sanding the seam.
The same approach was used to fill the hole in front.
And the engine was sawed out same as the rear stuff while the CA dried.
Here is the front after sanding.
I thought it needed something so…I found this in my junk plastic. It was an aircraft fuel tank half. I sectioned off the nose and tail.
And attached them to the hood…
And sanded them into a power bulge.
The grille area was sanded to shape…
And another filler panel was made and installed to the nose.
The wheel arches were sanded off as were the mold lines.
A base coat of Krylon Gray Primer was applied. After it dried and some minor touch up sanding, a second thin coat of the same primer was sprayed on.
Then a coat of Tamiya Light Blue was shot over the whole body… And allowed to dry overnight.
The roof was masked off with regular masking tape and airbrushed Testors White.
The top of the grille was fine sanded and re-chromed with Bare-Metal Foil.
A piece a little larger than needed was cut from the sheet and applied onto the top of the grille.
Then it was burnished and trimmed with a sharp knife. Once it’s re-assembled it should blend right in.
The side trim was masked off …
… and airbrushed white.
The interior was brush painted black before I decided to do it in blues, so it was loosely masked…
… and shot a dark blue.
The seats were shot a light gray-blue.
Some fake carbon fiber-like sticker material was cut to be the same length as the rear area of the interior, extra material was left on the sides.
After it was applied the sides were cut flush with the plastic.
Oops ….. Forgot to cut out the keyhole.
Taillights were painted Tamiya Clear Red and Clear Yellow.
Now it’s time to put the chrome on the body. Bare-Metal foil is again used. Thin strips, slightly larger than the area to be chromed, are cut from the sheet and applied to the desired parts, in this case, the fender trim.
Carefully trim away the excess with a sharp knife in one pass per edge and remove the waste.
Here the windshield frame and B and C pillars are foiled.
The top and bottom side window strips are put on and trimmed at the same time as the windshield.
For the side trim, foil is measured and cut with a straight edge and applied as a border between the colors. No trimming after application on these parts.
The rear window bars are done the same as the other window trim, (still a little more clean up is needed).
The headlight buckets were paint Chrome Silver and allowed to dry for an hour or so.
Decals from Scale-Master decal sheet #6201 were used for flames and headlights.
First the flames, one side at a time… The large blue pinstripe flame was applied to the side after allowing it to become nice and loose on the decal paper, I let it set on a clean plate for about 3 or 4 minutes after dipping it in water.
After blotting out the excess water and waiting another 3 or 4 minutes, I carefully, with a sharp knife, cut the decal along the top of the top piece of chrome trim. Then with a wet brush, I slid the lower part of the decal down and lined it up with the lower edge of the lower chrome strip and wrapped the extra decal in the rear into the notch in the body and blotted it dry.
Then a little decal solvent was used to soften the decal around the wheel wells so they could be wrapped under without damaging the decal. I let it dry for an hour and did the same procedure on the right side.
For the headlights I cut an X in two of the decals with a knife to accommodate the bullet molded into the inside headlights.
After putting the decals in place, a drop of solvent was applied and blotted out a minute later with a Q-tip. A little touch up on the bullets with silver paint and it was ready for the clear coat.
I airbrushed one coat of an automotive two part urethane called EuroClear. Testors TopCoat enamel would have worked, but it also would have taken a week to fully cure and it probably would have tinted the white in a warm direction. After allowing it to dry 24 hours, it snapped right back together without even gluing it.
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