beeRS

The detail on those carbs is insane! A very nice build.

This is coming along nicely. I think you got the interior colours spot on. With regards to the fuel filler, is that going to be attached to the body shell, just underneath the engine cover? IIRC Tamiya missed this small detail out of the kit.

Very nice indeed. My favourite era of Camaro.

Such a cool idea

Fantastic work on the carbon fibre.

Nice build ??

Doh! Thanks for sharing this information. I wish I could unlearn this fact now. it’s not too bad, I can paint a carbon effect on the discs. At least the upgrade to carbon won’t cost me the £5000+ it would on a 1:1 car.

This C3 is epic. Love to see more some day.

The one sticking point for this build has been the windscreen. It's not the sheer thickness of the plastic - its the variation in thickness that makes the screen look so distorted once in place. It's a shame as Fujimi engineered the piece to fit flush into the aperture, so the outside surface is correct to the 1:1 car. It's the inner surface of the screen that is too curved. To fix this, I literally scraped plastic thickness away around the outer edge of the screen using a curved Xacto blade. Once scraped away, the entire screen was sanded progressively through grades ending with a micro polishing kit. It's one of those things that really shows up well in the flesh, but difficult to photograph. Anyway, here's the pics... So, despite still being a thick plastic screen, it is at least a uniform thickness across it's surface now. I think, with this annoying job out of the way, I can finally crack on with this build.

A very small progress report on this one. Various parts air-brushed in bright silver. I fitted the PE discs to the plastic Tamiya parts then mounted the assembly on a micro drill and sanded the surface. This gives the PE surface the appearance of a real brake disc with radial marks. It didnt photograph very well, but looks good in my eyes. It's a shame that I get such little modelling time these days. This is such a nice kit (as you would expect from Tamiya), and it deserves a bit more of my time to finish off. Hopefully, I'll post some more progress on this one soon.

Great work Urs. With regards to overspray in areas that will be covered up with carbon decals, are the decals fully opaque?

This looks like a complex build. You’re making fine progress though. I’ll be watching with interest.

Hi Ron, I'm sure different modellers have different approaches, but I seldom use the colours suggested on a kit instruction sheet (if shown). I prefer to look at google images of 1:1 cars. Kit instructions can sometimes be wrong with regards to colour and sometimes limited to just colours available from one particular paint brand. Thanks John for sharing those real world measurements. Both of your '57s look stunning. The Tamiya Orange Metallic really suits. Is that a '65 Mustang I see in the garage too?

Just a quick update. I've made a little progress with the boot lid (trunk?). For some reason, it would not seat flush with the rear quarters. I shaved a little material all around to achieve a better fit. The AMT hinges appear to work in the open or closed position, but not in-between. They are not a functioning hinge. I decided to try and make a working hinge. I'm pretty pleased with how that turned out. Now I have a trunk that swings open nicely!

Agreed Rusty. I think the front needs to come up level - same as the back. Thanks for the advance warning Dave. I was thinking I might make a boot mat that would cover up the shock tops. Otherwise it'll be the smoothed over approach.

It’s a shame about those few areas where the paint has sanded through. It’s not so bad though. It’ll still make an impressive model. Are you still planning on using the stripes ordered from Germany?

You’re very nearly there. It’s looking great. I built this AMT kit back in the 80s. I found it wickedly difficult, but I was a kid at the time. It didn’t look anywhere as good as yours does. I believe the original tool for this kit was another manufacturer. Frog or Aurora maybe?

I like the ‘sprue goo’ technique you’ve been using to fill panel lines. Nice job with the paint so far. I would never have thought of using black as a way of unifying the body colours. What a great idea. Keep up the good work.

Lovely work. I’m loving the slammed look and those Pegasus wheels are cool. Would they be a scale 20”? Who makes this kit? are there two different types? I remember having a full detail kit of this with a Turbine engine when I was a kid. I think that was a JoHan. Such an interesting kit, and I was too afraid of building it so sold it to another collector.

Very nice paint. I really think This version of Rosso suits modern Ferraris well.

Love the look and stance of this ??

Such a cool custom. I love that paint!

This is going to be a cool Beetle. That open roof kit is really nice, especially the helpful template.

Thanks for that valuable information. Very useful to know. I’ll be looking out for that kit.

A long overdue progress report on my project '57! First off was a mock up to check ride height and stance. Out of the box, I think this sits a little high. Looking at pictures of 1:1 cars, its hard to know what stock height should really look like. some cars are modified and others may have 60+ year old saggy suspension. I also noticed something odd about the way the wheels and tyres fit together. Below, on the left is the kit tyre. On the right is a Satco tyre that I've had sat in my box of spare parts for near 30 years. I think I'll put them to good use here! The wheels seem to sit better inside the tyre, whereas on the kit tyres they sit proud. Its the same on the inside of the wheel. Looking at the way the rear suspension goes together, the kit has the leaf springs attach directly to the floor pan. I'm sure they should attach to the chassis. I want to build the rolling chassis completely separate to the body, so this was up for a little fix. I looked up some images of 1:1 rear spring shackles for a '57 and knocked these up from plastic sheet. This won't be 100% accurate, but at least better than the kit and it will allow me to attach the leaf springs directly to that chassis. I cut the ends off the leaf springs and made new ends that depict one end rolled. One end is rolled upwards, and the other end rolled down. I'm lowering the front end by changing the angle of the A-arms slightly. A little cheat - I've added a small shim to move the upper arm upwards. I think I have the stance just right now. From what I've seen on 1:1 cars the top of the front wheel arch seems to be in line with the top of the white wall, and at the rear the top of the wheel arch seems to be in line with the top of the wheel. Combined with the Satco tyres I think this is sitting just right now. Let me know what you think. The rolling chassis.