Wheels on

I didn't get as much done over the last two weeks on the Anti Pesto van as I'd hoped to, but now that I'm back maybe this will move along a little faster. At least it's up on its wheels. That's always a milestone with a car model.

I'm not a big fan of chrome, although the quality of chroming on the parts is quite good.

I soaked the two trees of chromed parts in Super Clean. After an overnight dip, they were chrome free. My Super Clean bath is looking pretty dark in this photo since I've been using the same stuff for about a year to do the odd bit of chrome removal.

After stripping the chrome, the trees were washed with warm water and a mild dish soap to prep them for spray painting. One of the bumpers had a little bit of chrome still attached where it wasn't submerged in the bath. No problem, if it survives the spray paint I'll just chalk it up to being the only place where Wallace polished the bumpers :-)

The trees were sprayed with Krylon Nickel-Silver.

The wheels were sprayed with Krylon White, and when dry, the Nickel-Silver hub caps were glued in place.

The chassis was painted with flat black and once the various parts were glued in place, loose washes of muddy and rusty coloured painted were slopped on. It's a very simple build and the steel axles allow the wheels to turn so kids can push it along. It's more of a fancy toy than a 'model', but it's fun to build and I'm impressed with the quality of the parts: they're crisp and well moulded. And no, the wheels aren't on crooked as the photo suggests. I held the camera too close and the perspective is distorted.

And this instalment wouldn't be complete without a gratuitous veg photo.