Red paint is very attractive. The lime green decals were looking cool too. Despite the unpopularity of the Side Draft, it took a few tries to finally commit to giving it a paintjob. And boy am I glad I did. I went beyond the paintjobs and wheelswaps, and made adjustments to improve the casting's design.
There was no plans on altering the green, but I did want to give green wheels a try. Why didn't I go through with it? When the black sat with a green-tinted window on its own, it looked like something a super hero or villain would drive. OH5 wheels don't look serious enough. Combined with the lifted chin, it softened the car's look entirely. On top of which, that ground clearance desperately needed to be reduced.
Here's the biggie. One of my biggest gripes I have with fantasy cars is the design being botched in one area or another. The back panel is completely vertical, which to me contrast wit the diagonal lines of this body, especially the roofline! It kills all '70s race car appeal, but this car could use a bit more aggressiveness. So I made a partial cut on the base and tilted the panel upward to create a downward slope that helps continue the roofline towards the ground. I think the shape now has similarities to a Lamborghini Aventador. Also, look at that ground clearance now!
Here's the rear panel at different angles.
The D-Muscle has a very good chance of being in the collection. It is definitely closer to a real car than most other fantasy cars. I wasn't liking the overusage of the Crower tampo... or the yellow/black body with red-rimmed wheels scheme.
It had a fictional look enough to warrant a wild paintjob. I sought this opportunity to try the polish again. Not being satisfied with the Corvette Grand Sport, this next attempt aimed to remove all the imperfections and smooth the surface down further. I was inspired by another hobbyist who get mirror-like finishes and that's something I wanted to accomplish as well.
Unlike the Corvette, I pulled out sandpaper of grits 200, 600 (wet), 1000 (wet), to 2000 (wet). I wanted the imperfections gone as well as the scratch marks. Unfortunately even after a first round of polish there was a scary number of scuff marks under the lamp. No photo was taken of the second round of polish, but it seemed it didn't have that great of an effect. Here's the finish.
Made sure to scrub gently with the soap to take off as much silicone as possible. After sterilization, it got 3 very light coats of Duplicolor's Anodized Metallic paint. It's the same paint used to paint this Surfin' School Bus. What a difference it makes when you use the product to its fullest potential.
