Florida Marine Patrol

[Rich]

I did several generations of the Florida Marine Patrol decals on my latest FHP sheet. I wanted to make a couple of models for myself. Here is a shot of the painted bodies. I will do the Greenlight Monaco first. All that has been done so far, is fill the lightbar holes in the roof, and paint it. The way Greenlight did the Monaco/Fury, was to make the front clip chrome, and mask off the area that is body color. It is a real pain to try and paint them, they require such careful masking. Its easier to get one that is the body color you are working with. The paint wont match 100%, but at least you dont have to deal with the masking, and risk something going wrong. The Caprice is a White Rose and it is a 9C1 police model, not a civilian Caprice Classic like the Greenlight Caprice. I got the Greenlight Caprice stripped, and decided it was not worth the effort to try and make it in to a police car. It has full body length side molding, and molded in Caprice Classic rocker panel trim. Not to mention in my previous postings, the grille is about 1/4 inch wider than the recess it fits in to. You can still find the White Rose models for about the same or less than the Greenlight. The holes in the roof were filled in like the Monaco. I also drilled out holes in the doors for mirrors.

[Rich]

Here are the basic parts of the Monaco. The chassis is simple. The interior is good. In the photo you can see the grille is chrome with black where the body color should be. The bumpers are really nice, as are the rear lights.

[CCFR-45]

Nice Crisp lines on the painting. Something I'm still trying to master.

Thanks for sharing!

[Rich]

Steven, the single best piece of advice I can give you, is to cut a new edge in your masking tape. The edge of masking tape is not even close to straight. When masking tape is cut in to rolls, the edges move, giving you a bad straight edge. I lay a piece of tape out on glass, and cut a new edge with a new X acto blade and metal ruler. I do this for everything that is taped off. It just works so much better. When I painted the black after taping off the gray, I painted it with the roof up, so none of the first "mist" coat would seep under the tape via gravity. I do this for the next couple of light coats. Anything you can do to prevent seepage helps.

[CCFR-45]

Good advice! I never thought about cutting my own straight line on the tape, but it totally makes sense.

Thanks for the info

[Sirentoys]

I agree with Rich. I always cut a new edge. I also will spray a coat of the base coat color after masking. This was if it seeps it is the same color and not noticeable. Especially when going masks along irregular edges like door seams etc.

[Rich]

As things may go, this Monaco has had its fair share of trouble. I forgot to drill out the spotlight hole. In drilling a new hole, my Dremel took a chip of the black fender paint. An easy fix. I use a make up brush to dust off the particles. In doing so, the glue for the windshield was not dry and I ended up with glue on the windshield and back windows. Popped them back out, and used a polishing kit to bring them back to life. Hope that is it for problems. Its back together now. I cut out the driver side plastic window. It just looks better without the window. Decals are on. The side marker lights are strips of silver decals. They will get Tamiya clear red in the back and clear amber up front. The spotlight is from an FRR Dodge Charger.

[CoolCopCars]

Cool looking car (OK as always, dang your good). Hey are you by chance able to post a picture of the original vehicle?

Thom

[Rich]

And in an instant, the Monaco is ruined. I went to put the roof light down, and it slipped. It got way off center, and the attempt to lift it, lifted clear coat, paint and primer. No way it could be salvaged. Its been taken apart and stripped already. New plastic for the holes in the roof. I will post a photo before I sand off the plastic, so you can see how I do it. The Monaco has been problematic since I started it. But, I get right back to it and strive to make the next attempt better.

[Chariots of Fire]

Sometimes bad things happen to good projects!! Been there; done that so I sympathize how you probably felt when that happened. FYI think about using 2 part epoxy next time you attach the light. That way you can slide it around a bit if you have to and you can wipe the excess epoxy away before it sets up without damaging the paint. (Use the epoxy sparingly as a small amount goes a long way.)