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Finally had the time to take some nice pictures of the Silvia. Simple kit, but looks real good on the shelf. Built completely box stock, painted Nissan Blueish Silver w/gray interior. Testament to excellent Tamiya models that can be built to look great out of the box.

Ferrari 206P Dino Salone di Parigi, 1965 ABC Brianza, 1/24th Kit Review here: http://italianhorses.net/Reviews/ABC%20Dino%20206%20Salone%20di%20Parigi/206PDinoParigi.htm Yes, its has been a long time fellas. Due to various reasons, I have not been building for a good 9-10 years now. Its time to put an end to this. This will be a box-stock+, minimal changes planned. I wanted to have this car built before I got injured, and all these years of building it in my head, really want to put this on the shelf now. Couple of real-deal photos to wet the appetite: There is absolutely zero meaningful detail in the kit itself, so I will try to add some eye-candy if possible. Since the kit is super-plain, I decided to put my best effort into finishing the body right, even though proportions are not exactly 100%. No desire to fix the flaws at this point. Despite my initial impression about the kit being quality (or maybe my perception of quality have changed over time, likely the later), there was a lot of flaws/bubbles/you name it on the main body piece. I have re-shaped the engine air intake a but, put on little PE mesh, re-scribed the panel lines. Honestly, it sucks to scribe when you don't feel a darn thing. Not the best job, but I'm done making excuses Filled all bubbles and imperfections on the bottom, made sure opening fro the engine bay vent fits the vent: Rear vent was emulated with this PE mesh, would have been a prime candidate to open up if I were to build this full detail, but as such, I had no desire to remove a bunch of resin just to make it see-through - will wash with flat black once painted. And finally some primer - still lots of little flaws to fix, but its a start. Next I was messing with the wheels - they are ok as they come in the kit (sorta), but the holes in them are somewhat wrong shape, and the tires are god awful truck tires so typical of Italian-made artisan kits from that period. Tire problem was solved rather quickly, as I has a set of tires from Ferrari 275 GTB/4 kit in my spares box, they looked much better, with correct shape and proper thread. But wheels turned out to be much tougher problem. Originally I decided I'm just going to copy the wheels that came with Fujimi Dino 206S Competizione kit, so I made few resin copies of these tires. But as some of you know, they are too big even for that kit, so in the end, while the shape was right, the size was not, so I scrapped that idea. Next, the Dino got painted. Used a really old bottle of Zero Paints Rosso Corsa over gray primer, the paint was still surprisingly fresh, and I'm pleased with the color. Cleared with Dupont 2K, polished with 3M compounds. Not the best paint job I've done, let's be honest, I have not painted in 10 years and I can't feel the BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH thing when I'm painting. Painted the underside as well, didn't mask, cause you can't see it once built - yes I'm lazy, but baby steps here. Made a few bits for the wheels. Decided to go with the kit rims, made washers from, well, washers, and copied Fujimi knock-offs cause they were infinitely better than PE ones from the kit. The little round bits are tops for the knock-offs. Headlights are given as a PE part with some engraving and a drop of clear epoxy on top - so very 90's I almost shed a tear. Well, sentimental as it may be, I didn't like the look, so I found this Modeler's set in my spares and decided to use these lenses for the headlights. Made bezel surrounds from the thin solder wire. Tail lights are same sad story here, so I made pieces from clear plastic and painted them, but not sure if I'm using this or some other solution for the tails just yet. I guess I'm not 100% sold on this. Rearview mirror is also from the spares box to replace kit PE 2D rendition. Finally I finished the glazing - what a freaking pain to glue PE frames to clear plastic, and then bend them to shape. Reminded me my I used to like Tamiya kits. Overall, I'm happy with the way it turned out, but PE itself is not 100% conforms to the body, so there will be some fiddling while putting this on the body. Dash was slightly wrong shape, but hte thing that bothered me the most was the fact that instrument binnacles were flat, while real car has gauges sort of embedded into the dash. Had to drill the gauge pods out. Now, the PE gauges do not fit in, but I will think of something later. Wheels were painted with aluminum metalizer, assembled, put on axles. Have not black-washed yet. Possibly will still add balance weights and stem valves. Overall, happy with how these turned out even though they are not exactly correct. With lots of cursing, I glued in the windows. The problem with PE framed windows, is that you don't even get a chance to make sure they fit just right, simply because they always flex, and even thought it seems they fit fine, they never do. Turned out ok, not perfect, but I'm not redoing it. Also glued in headlights, the size is just right, and looks much better than flat PE ones. Also attached the front plexiglass cowl. The cowl itself is of poor quality, not 100% transparent and slightly cloudy. But the only way to fix this is to make a buck and vacuuform a new one, and I wasn't about to start this adventure. Interior tub was painted, along with the chairs and the dash. Detail as such is completely absent here, and none provided in the kit, so I had to improvise. Shifter was made from bobby pin, shifter gate was stolen from some other kit and modified to fit. There is a reverse lock on the gate in real life, but it was too small to replicate correctly. Steering wheel is given as a PE part with two halves of the rim made in plastic. The problem is, in a typical manner for Italian kit makers of the end of last century, the rim is quite a bit larger than the spokes part. Umm...how? So, I had to fashion the rim out of thin wire. Also made new door pockets from tiny pieces of leather. Sourced pedals from the spares box. Next I need to make window cranks, door handles, floor mats, and detail the dash. Interior was assembled, I added some scratched door handles, cranks, pedals, floormats. Dashboard was detailed with a few switches, lamps, and gauges. I added small rings to the clocks, and of course, Pininfarina badge. Completed interior tub: Then interior was glued into the body, wheels attached and chassis plate installed. Not a lot of detail to talk about there. Blinkers were made with photoetched frame, and some BMF, and then I used Microscale window maker to make the actual lens. Taillights were assembled: And then back end was put together – taillights, exhausts, plate frame, plate light. The DINO letters were stolen from one of self-adhesive Ferrari sets made by hObby DesIgN. Door handles and Pininfarina badges: Added air valves and some weights to the wheels: Wiper and wiper arm were assembled from spare parts, I also added some PE quick-release fasteners and DINO emblem from Model Factory Hiro sticker set. And that concludes this build. A few quick photos next to my house, will do a proper photoshoot soon and post completed thread in the gallery!