Expendables in Model Construction of the Meyers Manx Dune Buggy US Army Version

These are Meyers Manx dune buggies by Hot Wheels, and this is their story.  I stripped the paint off the original and primer painted it with Rust-Oleum 2X Flat Gray Primer.  Then it got painted Rust-Oleum 279175 Camo Deep Forest Green spray paint.  The glass bottle is a bit of decanted Camo Deep Forest Green paint in a jar.  I use it to touch up spots that got missed or to touch up where I over paint with some other detail color.

This Gunze-Sangyo number 302, semi-gloss Green FS34092 is a very near match for Rust-Oleum Satin Hunt Club Green which I use to paint Post WWII US Army soldiers uniforms.  They are very close matches for the Imex and Revell dark green that they use for their WWII Revell US Army sets and Imex Korean War US and South Korean Army sets.

One of several Flat Flesh colors I use by Tamiya, XF-15.  Gunze-Sangyo #27 Gloss Tan works well also, along with Tamiya Flat Brown XF-10, Tamiya Flat Black XF-1, and Tamiya Red Brown XF-64.

This Flat Olive by Testors is one of the oldest colors in my inventory.  I have used it for as long as I have been painted models, so at least since about 1975.  It is a perfect WWII Olive Drab and matches Testors spray paint, 1265T Flat Olive Drab perfectly, their former model 1911.  I use it for WWII US Army vehicles and for post WWII canvas.

I mark most of my jars of paint with a sticker that has the name and number of paint on the top of the jar.  I store them in a drawer and it makes it so much easier to find what I am looking for.  Get the stickers from Staples or similar stores as price stickers.

This Model Master Light Gray is a decent substitute for a white primer if you want a brush on primer for a small job.  This is a very old jar so the current version may be different but it is FS 36495.

I do buy cheap acrylic paints at Hobby Lobby, WalMart and Michaels.  This Apple Barrel 21885E Jet Black works well for tires I think.

For glues on this project I used Goo by Walthers sold in model railroad stores or online direct.  It is good for gluing things that don't take glue well, it is a type of contact cement.  Put some on each piece, press them together, then pull them apart, let the solvent dry for 30 seconds and then press the parts together again.  I used it to glue the figures into their seats.  It is not the strongest glue but it is very sticky.  I used it to glue in the figures because they are two dis-similar types of plastic and will have very little stress applied to them once dry so it should hold just fine.

Bob Smith Industries makes a massive line of epoxy glues, I like the 5 minute Quik-Cure version.  Mix equal parts of it on a bit of aluminum foil with a toothpick and in five minutes it is holding and in about an hour you can sand it, file it, drill it, paint it, hard as a rock.

When in use epoxy I keep it cap on, nose down inside this old Pyrex bowl.  It keeps the rather thick epoxy near the top ready for instant use and prevents spills if the cap falls off.  I wipe down the nose after every use, a Q-Tip can help clean the cap out if needed.

Here are the Hot Wheels dune buggies in their US Army configuration.  Figures are cheapo 1/75th (sic) scale figures from Amazon with head swaps from Imex Korean War sets for Ridgeway Caps and helmets.  Both the figures and the heads take regular model glue so that was an easy conversion.  Legs had to be amputated to fit inside the passenger compartment but sometimes sacrifices must be made.  The legs were retained for further use on other projects.