[tolenmar]

So I was cruising the bay looking for a likely next project, when I stumble across this:

My wife and son both dig it, so it looks like I've found my next project. I'll keep you updated (as always) once the box arrives...

 

[djnick66]

Cool find... its an oooold MPC kit http://www.showrods.com/showrod_pages/tiger_shark.html

 

[tolenmar]

That is so cool. If the re-issue has half the features the original did, it'll be a fun build.

 

[djnick66]

It looks neat. I remember the reissue but never paid much attention to it. I thought it was the Monkeymobile actually.

 

[falcondesigns]

Saw the real car a few years ago at the Cow Palace,it looked cool.

 

[darkwanderer]

It's an interesting car, but the Tiger Shark is a rebuilt Car Craft Dream Rod.
MPC produced the original Dream Rod, but when the car was reworked into the Tiger Shark, MPC felt the need to butcher the original mold and now that it's done, the damage can't be undone.
Everything in the model is original to the Dream Rod, but for the body and maybe the rims.

 

[fire91bird]

The Tiger Shark is a neat car and I hope your family enjoys building it. A little more trivia: the Tiger Shark was adapted as the Python to be one of the original 16 Mattel Hot Wheels back in 1968. By the way, didn't AMT release the Dream Rod originally? Anyway, it's another example of a fun '60s show car.

 

[tolenmar]

Well, the box arrived today, and tomorrow, the paint I want to use will arrive.

Unpacked everything, and saw all kinds of goodness in it. Including ball bearings and rubber bands. It has a (sort of) functional rotating display stand that rotates the car. The downside, the instruction sheet mentions a capsule of lubricant for the turntable that seems to be missing from my kit.

Apparently, you wind the table up, set the car on it and watch it turn!

 

[tolenmar]

Of course, I think we can make that battery powered instead...

 

[Zombie_61]

A little more trivia: the Tiger Shark was adapted as the Python to be one of the original 16 Mattel Hot Wheels back in 1968.

That's why this car always looked so familiar to me--I had all 16 of 'em back then. Thank you!

 

[tolenmar]

the Tiger Shark was adapted as the Python to be one of the original 16...

Now that's cool. A quick Google showed me some history of the Python, and it looks like I picked a very appropriate paint color for it. Actually, It'll be a Dupli-Color 3 step product. If everything works out, it'll be one of those color chainging paint jobs, and it'll be kinda like I built my own redline model with spectraflame paint.

We shall see, at any rate.

 

[fire91bird]

Hope you share your build here. Show cars are a lot of fun.

 

[tolenmar]

I always do. This is so far an interesting build. The engine halves don't really match up well, requiring putty (a first for me), There are no 'official' painting instructions anywhere in the instructions (I do my own paint anyway, but it's still interesting that it isn't there), and there are no part numbers anywhere on any of the sprues. The parts are numbered on the instruction sheet, but only so you know which piece to put on in what order.

Not much to show, though. A couple of engine halves glued together, all the wheels glued up. Nothing special. Tomorrow I'll snap some pics and show you what I have in mind for the paint job.

 

[tolenmar]

So, as I said, not much done at this stage, a few engine pieces, the wheels, and a bunch of primer.

But here is the paint I special ordered to finish it in:

It's supposed to be a "color changing" paint. In other words, as the model turns, the colors should shift and fluctuate. The brand has multiple colors, I bought "Ice". I wanted to use it on the Model T coupe I built not too long ago, but it costs as much as the models, so I had to finagle a way to afford it.

A quick google search turns up this image as an example of what I hope to create:

It's a three step process: Base coat, color coat, clear coat.

So, I'll spray the top with black pearl from Testors. Once it's dry, I'll mask it all off, and start the color changing effect.

 

[tolenmar]

I'm also doing a test on some of the sprue to see if 1) the paint will eat up the plastic, cause you never know (it doesn't) and 2) what it will look like when finished.

So far, it went from a black base coat to a pale grey, not white with color effect. If you take it out into the light, it returns to black with lots of glitter. On another forum, someone described ICE as "funky bass boat". That's not a terribly incorrect description as of yet.

 

[tolenmar]

After 6 or 8 light coats, I have something approaching the color of the sample. It looks pretty good. It does in fact change colors, but it is very glittery in appearance. It looks much better now that the clear coat has gone on, that helped a lot.

 

[tolenmar]

They weren't kidding when they said fast drying either. I just sprayed a wet coat of clear on it, and five minutes later, it's dry enough to move around.

 

[scottnkat]

sounds interesting, tolenmar - looking forward to seeing pics

 

[tolenmar]

Here it is after I sprayed the roof with Testors black Pearl, masked it off, and applied the base coat. As you can see the abse coat is a bit of a satin finish, and I think it would look good as-is for a good "stealth" paint job.

 

[tolenmar]

And here we are after three coats of the color layer. It's starting to show a pale silver/aluminum metalflake color. In addition, when you move around it, you can see the beginning of the color shift happening (lots of red and green in this case). I plan at least three more layers before clearcoating.