Nacho Z

She is a beauty! I built this kit a good while back. I had trouble getting the rear cowl to fit. I do love this livery. It is gorgeous IMHO! You did a very nice job!

Thanks, Phil! I hope to do it justice.

Hi Michael, thanks for the heads-up! Unfortunately, I destroyed the blue body. There is no recovery. I will update that next time. The guy that I'm building this for said the car came from Europe. A doctor bought it and brought it back stateside. I'm not sure how my friend's friend ended up with the car. I'm also not sure of its heritage. Was it a racer or just an everyday street car? I will have to check with him. He did say that it hugged the road like a go cart and had plenty of power. I can't imagine that it weighed very much.

As Monty Python would say, "And now for something completely different". Over the last several years of attending model contests in my neck of the woods, I struck up a friendship with a very accomplished figure builder. During our conversations it came up that he and a college buddy used to cruise around in a Renault Gordini. I'd never heard of such a thing...lol. After several conversations about it he asked me if I would build a model of it. At first I was just going to paint, decal and polish out the body. It evolved into me building the entire model for him. He brought me an original Heller kit from 1968, (maybe 1969?). Now, this is a car and a model that I would never give a second look at. I still don't like it...lol. It is a Heller kit of a French car. Nope. But, he is a friend and I couldn't say no. I thought I would share my WIP with everyone, not because it is going to be anything special, but because it is a unique car and model. Today's post is mostly an introductory post. Here is what I started with. The instructions are one big sheet and are in French. They included the written instructions in English on another large sheet. You have to jump back and forth between the two sheets to build the car. The decals were waaaaay beyond saving. I was going to paint the two white stripes that run down the length of the car. More on that later. I started work on the body. The vents are molded open but there was a lot of flash. I used a PE saw blade from Scale Motorsports to clean out the flash between the ribs. I wanted a squared off appearance between the ribs and the PE blade was just about perfect for this. You can see the difference between the cleaned up area vs. the untouched area. Job complete. Keep in mind that this photo is magnified a good bit. To the naked eye these ribs look pretty darn good. 1968 molding technology. Although these will not be very visible I just could not leave them there. Not perfect, but an improvement. OK, check out this photo. This is the rear of the car. This is where the engine sits. It has a working hinge and my buddy wanted it to work. Notice the large bow on the dutchman's panel?, (at least I am pretty sure that is the proper name for it. I would be more than happy to have someone correct me if I'm wrong). Anyhow, disaster, and I do mean disaster, struck because of this darn thing. That will be covered in the next update.

Another great looking model from your bench!

Models like this take me back to my high school days. This is what you would see in the school parking lot or dragging Main on Friday night. I'm not sure anyone had quite as nice of a paint job...lol. Great looking model, you nailed it!

Frank, I've only used BMF so I can't answer for the Hasegawa stuff, but I bet it would be fine too.

Frank, do you have any Bare Metal Foil? That is what I used on mine.

Chris, it really wasn’t any different from shooting any other paint, IMHO. I thinned it with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner and shot it like I would any other paint. As always, guys, your comments are truly appreciated!

That is such a clean and smooth build! Beautiful!

Thank you, guys!! I really appreciate the kind words! This particular model will always hold a special place with me as I have always wanted to paint a car in fingernail polish and it was the first!

Here she is, my Tamiya Porsche 911 GT2 painted in OPI fingernail polish. This is the first time I have painted a model in fingernail polish and I am pleased with the results. It is built box stock as that is the category I want to enter it into at upcoming shows. Below is the link to the WIP. I took a lot of pictures of it because each angle gave a different result. I hope you like it as much as I do!

David (karbuildr) gave the answer I would have given you. Tamiya's TS paints spray great and behave great.

Thanks, Carl! She is done and has been photographed. I’ll be posting pics in the Under Glass section soon.

Thanks, Mike! Thank you, Bruce! You are absolutely correct, Sonny. Just as another precaution I shot the trim in Tamiya acrylic. I figured that would be easier to clean up and shouldn’t bother the lacquer body color.

This will be the last update before I post the finished model in the Under Glass section. The update will be on my least favorite task of building a model.....masking. So much time is spent on masking for such a short amount of time painting...lol. I understand that my masking on this car may be a little over the top. My buddy James jokingly busted by balls about all of the tape that I used. I didn't want to take any chances with overspray. I have had this Tamiya masking tape for a long time. I just ordered a refill of the 10mm wide tape. It cost me a whooping $2.49. Anyhow, I digress. The window trim came out great and I had no overspray whatsoever. This is the last update in this section. I will post the finished model in a day or two. Thank you to all who took a look and those of you who commented. I appreciate it!

Another great looking NASCAR race car from your bench, Jonathan!

Very nice, Jonathan!

That is a great looking model, Wayne!

Another beauty, Rich. I had not heard of nor seen this kit before. Interesting for sure.

Doggone, Steve, that is a beauty for sure! It really looks good!

Paul, she is a absolutely beautiful model! Just an outstanding job!

Thanks, Steve! As with almost all of my WIP threads, this one is further along than what I have posted. I have polished out the body and wing. She has been completely masked and the window trim has been airbrushed and the panel lines have been done.

Monday night update! Good Lord this is a nice little kit. So far it has been a joy to build. I moved on to the interior. This will be a box stock build. I am doing that because that is the category that I want to enter it into in future model contests. One big drawback with this decision is that I cannot use aftermarket racing harnesses. The kit decals are nice but there is nothing like a 3 dimensional replacement. I always dull coat my seat harness decals. I usually do this by hand brushing Humbrol Matt Coat over them. I left the door panels off for picture purposes. The chassis and roll cage are painted body color but they really don't show the color in these pictures. It should be noted that the wheels are painted copper and not gold. I felt copper was a better choice for this car color. I will have to say that it appears gold in the pictures but it isn't. And finally, I couldn't pass up a quick mock up. I swear the wheels aren't gold...lol. Please note that this is prior to the body being polished and panel liner applied. Thanks for looking! Let me know what you think.

Wow!! What a beauty! You did such a great job on this!