JohnnyK

There is no way that this is a model car. I think that you are building a 1:1 car from scratch. Can I drive it when you are finished?

This is a photo of the engine on a 1:1 car. It is a supercharged straight eight. The engine block and oil pan have really nice molded details. I added some dirt using AquaLine Brown Mud. IMHO, there isn't enough dirt. I'll add some more later. This is a large engine. Note the comparison with a 1/24 scale V8.

Your build is coming along nicely. Great color and detailing. When I was in college a friend of mine had a '66 GTO with a 389 engine and tri-power. That thing was insanely fast. He would rev the engine, drop the clutch and floor the accelerator. The car would lift off the ground and shoot forward like a rocket. Amazing car.

It is possible to to install the front axel backwards, which would cause a big problem when installing the shocks. You need to look at the instructions very carefully to understand which way the axel is installed. The gold arrows point at two molded screws. These screws need to point toward the front of the frame when the axel is installed. This is easy to miss. The red arrows point toward two parts that the shocks are screwed into. These parts must point to the front of the frame. I used a screwdriver from an eyeglass repair kit. The rear axel was installed without a hitch. The metal screws and bolts add a nice touch. The rear axel was installed without a hitch.

WOW. That is one fabulous looking model.

Fernando told me that five wire wheels are about $145. I need to figure out how to send him the money via PayPal.

I assembled the springs and painted the coolant pipes while I waited for the enamel paint on the friction shocks to dry. The springs are composed of a leaf spring, shackles and steel bolts. I added dirt and dust to the springs using AquaLine Brown Mud. The Brown Mud is water soluble and it can be reactivated after it dries by using water. The spring shackles are attached to the frame using steel bolts. I added a drop of clear paint onto the bolt threads to prevent the nut from getting loose. Per the instructions, the frame is painted with Tamiya Mica Red. I dirtied the frame with the AquaLine Brown Mud. The pipes were painted with Model Master Aluminum Metallizer. I buffed the paint using a paper stump. The rubber hoses were painted flat black and the clamps were painted Testors' Chrome.

Those are nice looking wheels. I will look into those. The real wire wheels would vastly improve the look of the finished model. Thanks for the tip.

Next up are the friction shocks. There are six sets of these and each set has 12 parts. Each part needs to be painted and the paint needs to dry overnight.

The wire wheels are molded in plastic. Yep, the spokes are a bit too thick. Maybe there are real wire wheels for sale somewhere on the internet. But I'll bet that they are a fortune.

The plastic parts are covered in mold release oil. In fact, the oil is visible. The parts need to be washed in something like Dawn Dishwashing detergent prior to painting. The wire wheels are plastic. I'll provide a photo tomorrow.

I really like building 1/12 scale cars. They are ripe for adding tons of detail. I have never built an Italeri model, so let's see how this one goes. The kit comes in a big box, much larger than a 1/24 scale kit. The box contains about 290 parts on black, red, clear and grey frets. There is very little flash on the parts. Included in the box is a nicely done 38 page instruction manual. There are a lot of frets in this kit. I mark each fret with masking tape and a black marker for easy identification. I'll start by building the frame. All the parts fit snugly, so there is no need for clamps. I'll let the glue cure overnight.

IMHO, Tamiya car kits are the best. Great fit, detailing and engineering.

The decals that came with the kit were so old that they fell apart when placed in water. I had to order aftermarket decals which didn't stick very well. The decals that outline the side pods are really thin, similar to pinstripes. I could not get them to stick properly, so I left them off.

You can see the finished model here:

Wow!!! I must have had a serious version of brain fade. I finished that model a while ago. I'll post final photos tomorrow.

Great work!! I love detailing these 1/12 scale kits.

That's a great looking model. It looks like the real thing. I really like those Tamiya 1/12 scale kits. It's a nice scale for adding lots of details.

This should be interesting. Once I tried to use lacquer thinner to strip paint from a plastic part. Not only was the paint removed, but the plastic part dissolved into goo. Live and learn.

I'm interested too.

Your model is the Trumpeter kit from a few years ago. Compare the wheels to the wheels on my build below. What are you going to do with your model?

The 1/12 scale engine looks very similar to the 1/8 scale except that the 1/12 scale engine does not have pistons, crankshaft and camshafts. Also, the 1/12 scale kit has plastic wire wheels instead of real wire wheels.

I started building the 1/12 scale Italeri Roadster version of this car. So far, not too much fun.

I haven't worked on this one in a long, long time: The problem is the exhaust headers. They have these huge depressions in them. Keep in mind that this kit has four engines, so I would need to either fix, or replace, 32 headers.

Those are great looking models. The dark blue finish is outstanding. I used to own each one of those cars in 1:1. My first RX7 was brown, very similar to your model. My second RX7 was black, but looked similar to your model. The brown car was faster than the black car. By the time that the black car was made it had gained a lot of weight. Regarding the black car. It blew the seals on the rotor when it was about 600 miles after the warrentee expired. Mazda refused to do anything for me to help cover the cost of fixing the engine. They told me that I should have revved the engine higher to burn off the carbon on the seals. I asked if that was clearly covered in the Owners Manual. They had no answer. They offered me a $500 discount on a new Mazda. Needless to say, I never owned a Mazda after this experience.