Scale-Master

Tamiya 1/24th scale kit. One of the many factory colors offered was Fire Red Pearl; it looks a lot like Tamiya Mica Red so I'll use the LP paint for the exterior. The kit is molded in a dark charcoal metallic so I used Tamiya AS-12 Bare Metal Silver as a barrier after doing the normal clean-up. I decanted it and reduced it with Tamiya lacquer thinner. It took two lights coats to cover fully, but when it dried I was really happy with the smooth and thin finish. The LP-42 was also thinned with Tamiya lacquer thinner and airbrushed in two coats. While the finish looked smooth and uniform, after it fully dried it wasn't as glossy as the Pearl Blue I used on the NSX. It may have been polished out, but with the more predominate flake this color has, I thought I'd use the Tamiya LP-9 Clear Gloss to bring up the shine. Again it was reduced with the Tamiya lacquer thinner for better flow and smoother gloss. This clear works very well and is quite forgiving. It also dries as quickly as the colors in the LP line. This is how it looked about 12 hours after clear coating. (If you are looking for a good clear gloss and have not tried this yet, it is well worth looking into.)

Yes, I have been using them since 2017 and found them to be very user friendly. The more I experiment with them the more I like them. Highly recommendable.

The last few details to go on were the wipers, wheels and mirrors. I made decals for the little lights on the mirrors. This is a great kit although a little patience is good to have, and I was very pleased with how well the Tamiya LP paints worked, especially the Pearl Blue and Gloss Black on the exterior which did not need any clear coat to get a nice shine.

The interior is mostly visible, that's good enough for me on this one.

The body and chassis fit together tightly at the four locating points and being that the front and rear fascia's are molded to the body it is not a problem. However, to get the two belly pans to fit perfectly flush to the body at the nose and tail, a small drop of cement was used just inside the front and rear wheel wells at all four corners.

Final assembly of the body is time consuming with some of the parts/sub-assemblies being on the delicate side, and the real car having some complex lines and features, but they all fit very well. The trick is to just take time to install them and let the cement for each addition fully dry before moving to the next. Excuse the dust… It will get a wipe down and waxing before being mated to the chassis.

Yep, even without the body at least 90% of the engine is obscured from view.

The roof was airbrushed with LP-1 Black reduced with the Tamiya lacquer thinner. I hand brushed the bases of the A pillars and the trim above the taillights with the same paint.

The are plated parts from the kit. And you have the choice of LHD or RHD. I agree Matt, the potential reflections could be very distracting. One of my Corvettes has high gloss carbon fiber on the console and just driving next to power lines is still very distracting.

The are plated parts from the kit. And you have the choice of LHD or RHD. I agree Matt, the potential reflections could be very distracting. One of my Corvettes has high gloss carbon fiber on the console and just driving next to power lines is still very distracting.

I don't think much of the engine or chassis will be visible once the car is done, but I went ahead and detail painted every part as called out in the instructions just for fun. That was quite a bit of drill time for the brake rotors. There are indentations molded in that help with the pattern. So far every piece fits great.

I used Tamiya LP and acrylic paints for the interior. Pearl White and various blacks and grays. Since I brush painted the acrylic colors, and it was pretty warm here, I used the Tamiya paint retarder and was very pleased how it worked and made the paint flow smoothly.

Tamiya 1/24th scale kit. I'm building it in the Nouvelle Blue Pearl exterior with Orchid interior as offered in 2017. I started with the body so it could cure while the rest of the car was being built. I used Tamiya LP-47 Pearl Blue, it covers well and glosses up even better.

Replica of the TR4 that Bob Tullius raced at Sebring in 1963 as it is in modern times. I started with this die-cast and created all the graphics.

All the graphics are on it including the new badges and scripts. I designed and printed the decals.