Steve (and Ghosty): Here's a couple pics of the first vintage Lesney I tried to customize. It's the old 32b XKE and I wanted a rag top. No sooner than I had cut away the top of the model, I realized I might be in over my head (so to speak). Lesney had provided cut-outs in the interior to allow the wheels to protrude upwards and the model to roll. I had lots of work ahead of me to fashion not only a trunk/boot but also working fender wells.
I wanted the rear of the model to be metal and not all putty or resin and I did want it to roll. I studied the rear ends of real XKE's and went to work. The trunk/boot is made from thin aluminum sheet metal (called "coil" on this side of the pond). It was easy to cut and shape. However, it had to have not only the same shape of the rear end of the car but it needed to exactly fit the part of the model I had cut away and also allow the model to roll.
Once it fit and rolled, I secured the new sheet metal in place with epoxy. I was afraid putty would not bond the new with the old in a strong enough manner. The epoxy was more difficult to sand than putty and that took some time to get right. When I decided the sanding was done and the shape looked good, I was ready for paint.
British racing green was the color I wanted and I proceeded straight to paint without primer. Mistake number one. I simply dusted the model off prior to painting, mistake number 2. All that handling had left oils from my hands on the model and fish eyes quickly showed up. I set the model aside for fifteen minutes and then hit it with a second coat in hopes it would cover the fish eyes.
Partial success, some covered, some didn't. The real mistake was putting that second coat on a little too heavy. I thought about stripping the paint but worried what the stripper would do to the fresh epoxy. I opted to cover the remaining fish eyes with decals.
I had also constructed a tonneau cover for the imaginary folded down rag top. For some reason, I never painted and installed the cover (can't remember why). For years, it was the only Custom I held onto. I sold it when the last of my collection went out the door.
Even though it was never properly finished with the tonneau cover and the paint was too thick, the model looked pretty decent in hand and it did roll! I was still proud of the thing and as I got better at working on this scale, I was still happy to look over at the little XKE and remember the work and challenges it posed.
Those little white specs in the paint are not dust, they are some very small fish eyes in the paint.
