# AMT Tiger Shark



## 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...


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## djnick66

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


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## tolenmar

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


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## djnick66

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


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## falcondesigns

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


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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!


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## tolenmar

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


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## Zombie_61

fire91bird said:


> 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!


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## tolenmar

fire91bird said:


> 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.


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## fire91bird

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


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## scottnkat

sounds interesting, tolenmar - looking forward to seeing pics


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## tolenmar

A Duurr!! I just remembered the hood. Hopefully I can get the colors to match. Once I get three layers of color on the hood, I'll mount it on the body and continue from there. Maybe the color match won't be so bad since I have a ways to go yet...


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## fire91bird

Don't forget the doors. You may also want to look at the lower body part because part of the rear wheel area is on that.


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## tolenmar

Yeah, I have several pieces waiting for this flood to end so I can go out and get them all caught up.

Somebody in the weather department upstairs needs to be fired. Keeps us hot and dry all summer and then gives us all of it at once?


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## djnick66

With that chameleon paint its real important to paint body parts all at once. Getting a match painting them one at a time is harder than you might think (don't ask how I learned this). I haven't used the Duplicolor stuff but have used the Alclad type, which is good.


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## tolenmar

I know it. It was just forgetfullness on my part. Since I have not achieved a 'finished' level of paint on the body, I think I can cover up the gaff by spraying the other parts with three coats, and then taping them in place. After that, the whole thing will get three more coats, so it should level out any incosistencies (even if I need to do more than three to do it).


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## tolenmar

Ok, after a week in the hospital, I finally got a chance for working on it. then it rained for two days. Now it's too humid. So I'm spraying outside, then bringing it inside to dry. Here we are after everything has been brought up to four coats of paint:
















Not sure how much of the color change you can see here, but it is very apparent IRL. It does take several thin coats to build up to this, and each coat lightens the color of the car. In addition, as the paint cures, the color shift becomes more pronounced. Coming along quite nicely, I think.


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## tolenmar

So, I've used most of the color paint on this thing. I got a kind of metalflake grey (it isn't quite silver). To get to this point required such a thick layer that it is very easy to score it. Having taped the pieces in, when I removed them, parts of the paint came away from adjoining sections (one hazard of a thick layer of paint). It isn't terrible, but annoying all the same. It also didn't look terribly impressive. But I finished the black top, used a silver leafing pen to trim up the doorframes and windshields, and put on the clearcoat that came with the kit:


















Then I polished and waxed. IT's subtle, but after all of that, I can see a color shift. I'll take subtle over guady any day. I do wish the change was more obvious, though. At any rate, on to the interior!


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## tolenmar

Ok, this kit just became a big PTA.

One tire is deformed, it won't fit on the rim correctly. The way the front steering is supposed to hook up won't work, because there is no room for the tie rod to go around the front of the engine like it's supposed to....

It's just not a good day in the workshop. I'll fix the problems, but right now, it's time for a break. Before I break something.

I can't even show you pictures right now, because my camera's battery died.


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## tolenmar

Okay, so here we go: I put the headers on the normal way (facing the back), and had to break them back off and reglue them because the exhaust system is funky. They point forward and have a u bend in the pipes to bring them out under the doors:









Here is the interior, two shots:
















I put down felt carpeting. Once I got the white on the seats, I noticed the fern pattern. So I dug through my box of paints to find the funkiest '60's style paint I could find. the pattern repeats on the inner door panels, too.

Here's the frame almost complete:









And I thought I'd give another attempt at showing off the color change. The paint apparently is still curing some, because the change effect is becoming more pronounced. I noticed that on my sample, if you let it go for a while, it deepens.

And that gets me caught up on my pictures for the day.


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## scottnkat

looking good, Tolenmar


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## djnick66

really nice work. I might have to get one of these based on your job here...


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## tolenmar

Well, it's finished. But there were issues. One of the front wheel axles broke. The repair leaves it sticking out too far. I'll have to break it off again, file the ends down until it fits. The hood won't properly close, either. I'm not sure if it's the paint being too thick, or the radiator mount sitting too high (I had troubles getting it to set in place, and the instructions aren't very good in that regard). A little grinding will be necessary I think. 

Other than that, it looks pretty fantastic. The paint does shift colors, though it is kind of hard to see in some lighting.

I assembled (but haven't painted) the rotating display stand to test it out. There was no capsule of lubricant in the box. But without the lubricant, if you wind it up very much at all, the thing spins so fast, it looks like the car is about to be flung off. Of course, if you wind it less...well it doesn't run long. But the high speed does make the color change very obvious!


Now for the real bummer...Photobucket is being a pain tonight. They claim it'll be fixed tomorrow, but until then, I have no pics for you.


I can give you a hint about my next project, though:

"To the moon, Alice!"

1: no, it has nothing to do with the honeymooners
2: it is a car...


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## CorvairJim

tolenmar said:


> I can give you a hint about my next project, though:
> 
> "To the moon, Alice!"
> 
> 1: no, it has nothing to do with the honeymooners
> 2: it is a car...


Hmmm... "To The Moon"... Is it a Saturn? Say, a Saturn FIVE?


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## tolenmar

Ok, Photobucket seems to be working again.

That said, what a freaky little car this turned out to be!









Notice the headlights right next to each other:









A single taillight, and look at the four exhaust tips...









The color shift is much more effective in person as compared to still pictures, unfortunately.


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## scottnkat

Nice job - I'm sure you'll fix the wheel and hood problems - it looks good


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## fire91bird

That color looks good on it even without the color flip. Nice choice.


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## tolenmar

The sample was actually more white than grey/silver with a prismatic color change on it...of course that was advertising, after all.


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## CorvairJim

To get the full effect from color shift paint, it has to be as smooth as possible. A very high shine. Also, in person you can look at it from different angles and in different light, so photos hardly ever show it to best effect. The photo of the motorcycle gas tank shows your paint to pretty good effect because of it's curved surface. It's clearly a very subtle shift. I have some color shift paint that I want to try out some time myself. For that matter, after looking at your build, I'm very tempted to get a Tiger Shark model myself to try one of them!

The Tiger Shark was a popular car on the show circuit in the early to mid 1960's, and it showed a lot of the customization trends of that time: both headlights on one side along with other features offste to one side, for instance. It was issued by Hot Wheels in it's original run of cars, I believe under the name "Python".


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