Nacho Z

She is a beauty! Great color combo for this car, really looks the part. Nice job!

Thanks, Jim! I appreciate it. Thank you, Pierre, I’ll be posting another little update soon. These 1:12 kits lend themselves to some extra detail.

Now that I had the basic drivetrain assembled it was time to start adding some detail. The kit provides red wire for ignition wire but this does not appear to be period correct. Most evidence points to yellow ignition wires. I found a museum display engine with red ignition wires but that was all that I found. I had to source yellow wire as I didn't have any on hand that I liked. I added boots to the ignition wires on the cam cover end of the wire. To make the ignition wire boots I bought a cheap heat shrink kit and used the smallest size in the kit. Each boot is 3mm in length and 1mm ID. I inserted each wire into its respective hole so that the wire was taut. I marked the wire at the hole, removed it and then slid a piece of heat shrink up to the mark. I used a wood burner to heat the heat shrink. This was a very precise way to apply heat. I then reinserted the wire. And the final results. I'm currently working on the fuel lines and the electronics package. The electronics were minimal and basic, a box or two on top of the engine. I have added a few details to the kit provided items. I hope to share that with you next week. As allways, let me know what you think. All comments, questions, suggestions, and critiques are welcome.

I always enjoy seeing your models, Rich, and this one is no exception! It is a shame that there isn’t more of these cars kitted.

This is amazingly cool!!

I just took the time to go through this build thread for the first time. I really enjoyed all of the updates. You are doing some great work on this model. You are in the home stretch. I’m looking forward to seeing your next update.

Thanks, Mark! I made the screens and did a lot of modifications to the funnels. There are some good photos and descriptions towards the end of page 1 and the beginning of page 2. The screens aren’t perfect but I think they do add a little something to the engine. I left them brass for the simple reason that I like them like that more than silver.

I appreciate it! Thank you! Thank you for the kind words, Pierre! Thank you!

Thank you as always, Mike. This was one of those kits I wanted but could never find at a decent price. When I saw that they were going to reissue it I immediately pre-ordered it. I told myself I would build it and not just stick it in the stash. You don’t see this one built very often and I want mine to be more than a box stock build. Get yourself a 1:12 kit. They really do lend themselves to extra detail.

A bit of a milestone for me. She is beginning to look like a proper drivetrain! It was a bit nerve-racking to install 12 air funnels and get them lined up in all axes, (yes, axes is the correct plural of axis ?). I have already began adding the ignition wiring but will save that for another update. I did minimal detailing of the front of the engine. It sits pretty tight against the driver's compartment bulkhead and will not be visible. Let me know what you think and thanks for looking!

You are much too kind! Thank you for following along! This subject is not everyone's cup of tea. As mentioned yesterday I will be posting a quick update right after I submit this reply.

Thanks, Mark, I appreciate it! I hope to post an update tomorrow night.

Love it!! How cool is this model?!?! I really like the first couple of pictures on the sandy beach display.

As others have said, beautiful paint and great foil work! I’ll tell you something that keeps catching my eye and that is the door panel lines. They look so clean and to me they really add realism to the model. Great job, Tom!

Fandamntastic!! I absolutely love that color! Coupled with the black parts and accents makes for such a cool combination. Really, really nice Cobra, Craig!

There is not much that I can add to what has already been said about this model. You should be extremely proud of yourself for what you have accomplished and the finished product. What an absolutely gorgeous model!! Like some others have said, I followed your WIP thread and was impressed with how you tackled each problem. Congratulations on a job well done, Pierre!

Thanks for the kind words, Trevor! Thank you, Michael!

Thank you, Trevor! Much appreciated as always, Andrew. I am not in the same league as you, not even close! You give me something to shoot for. Wow, Pierre, that is high praise coming from a guy who crushed that Corvette build!! That model is absolutely gorgeous! If my Matra turns out half as nice as your Vette I will be pleased.

I'm still able to jump around and work on various sub-assemblies at this point in time. This update is on the transaxle and the rear engine cover. As I have said in previous posts, and will probably say in future posts, this is a late '60s tooling and a little disappointing in some areas. Note on the 3rd picture how the bump outs where the bolt would go do not line up. Also note the molded in bolt head detail is more of a round shape rather than a hex shape. I decided to replace the bolt heads with aftermarket ones. For the transaxle that required 36 individual bolt heads of various sizes. For the rear engine cover there were 22 individual bolt heads. Each one of the 58 bolt heads were taken off with a 1mm wide chisel, sanded smooth when needed and replaced by separately painted Meng ones.

Very nice, Tony! I’ve always liked the Kodak liveries. I used that Tru-Match paint on a Kodak Monte Carlo. I thought it was good paint.

Andrew, this may not be what you are looking for but I thought I would try to help. The color is Dark Cherry, not Black Cherry, but it may appeal to you. The Dark Cherry is the middle spoon.

Peter, I believe that is correct. When I was looking for actual examples of the paint the Impala SS showed up. I may be weird in the fact that I will buy paint before I have a particular model picked out for it. This is especially true when I am paying shipping from overseas. I do the same thing with Zero Paints.

Gravity Colors - Spain - sells a General Motors Dark Cherry, #GC-283. Beautiful color. I have some spoon tests, white primer and silver base. I’ll try to post pics later tonight if you would like.

Wow, Andrew, I somehow have completely missed this build thread. That is some very nice work you have going on. I greatly admire guys like you that do this level of scratch building. My hat is off to you!

Now that the throttle plates are done I started on the cam covers. I primed them with Gravity primer and then airbrushed them in Tamiya's yellow lacquer. This will be the base. I will shoot Tamiya acrylic over this. Once cured I will remove the acrylic paint and hopefully not hurt the lacquer paint. Next I shot them with Tamiya X-18 Semi-gloss black. I then took on the tedious task of exposing the underlying yellow lacquer. I used Tamiya's acrylic thinner on their swabs at first but found this to not be to my liking. The black would smear and I went through a ton of swabs in no time. I ended up scraping the ribs and words with a #11 blade. I was worried that the black paint would chip as I did this but it did not. Once all of the yellow bits were exposed I added PE bolt heads on top of the poorly molded kit bolt heads. Here is a picture of an engine in a museum, (I believe). Not an action shot but the details are the same. I wanted to add the red circles and the white bits where the spark plug wires go in. The white bits may actually be the spark plugs. I honestly don't know. There was no way that I could neatly paint the 4 red discs on the cam cover. I punched out 4 discs from sheet styrene and painted them red. I did hand paint the silver parts. Next I sliced 2mm solid rod into .44mm pieces. I hand drilled out the centers. This is where the ignition wires will pass through. Those pieces were glued to the cam covers. Here is the final product. I may add a fitting to each cam cover once I figure out some of the plumbing that I would like to add. I would love to hear some feedback. I am open to all suggestions and comments. Thanks!