Nacho Z

Thanks, Anton! I have almost all of the Tamiya kits of these racecars. The ones that I don't have are ones that I didn't really care for. As with all things Tamiya, these really do build up nice. On to the next update. As the clear coat was curing I worked on other bits and pieces. One thing that always amazes me is the precision fit of Tamiya's parts. For example, the next picture is a piece of PE for the front grill opening. Tamiya has you bend a couple of tabs to 90 degrees. Look at how perfectly level the part fits in the opening. Awesome! How they handle the taillight panel is pretty neat too. It is a clear piece and they give you masks to keep the two lenses clear while you paint the rest. At this stage the clear had cured and I was able to polish out the body. Once the body was polished I masked it and painted all of the black trim around the windows and windshield as well as the leading edge of the front fenders. This was done with Tamiya LP-5. Next, I painted a few areas silver. This was mostly for the taillights and headlights. I did the panel lines and began to decal. In the last picture the paint / metallics on the rear wing look quite stark. They are not to the naked eye. One thing I will mention is the finish. I did not give this a mirror finish nor do I plan on clearing over the decals. This is a racecar not a show car. Let me know what you think. Thanks for looking!

I really wish they would do more cars like this. So much to choose from. You did a nice job on this, Bruce! She really looks the part.

That is one nice Mustang! Great job!

Oh I like this one, Misha! Very cool!

She is gorgeous!

She is a beauty, Tim!! What a gorgeous model! Who's decals did you use? Tabu or Shunko, someone else?

Update time! The back "window" was painted Tamiya LP-5 - Semi-Gloss Black. As before, it laid down very well. I used Tamiya's tape for curves and it did a wonderful job. Does Tamiya make anything that isn't rock solid? After everything had a day or two to cure I cleared the body. I had planned on airbrushing Mr. Color GX-100 Super Clear III but when I opened my brand new bottle of it, it was very, very thick. I have read others say the same thing. I thinned it with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner and tested it on a painted spoon. I wasn't happy with the results. I need to do some more testing of it before committing to a model body. I ended up clearing the body with Tamiya TS-13 right out of the can. I also did the windshield trim. Window trim is one of my most dreaded things to do. This was also shot with LP-5. That is it for this time. I notice that these foreign racecars don't always get a lot of love but I sure do think they are pretty cool. Next up will be polishing out the body, painting the rubber trim on the window openings, painting some small areas on the body in silver and then adding decals. See you next time!

I will be following along with this one. I have a love affair with these cigar cars. Like Rich said, I have (almost) all of the Ebbro kits but have yet to build one. I hope you do a lot of updates on your progress. Good luck!

Thanks, Anton! Green wouldn’t be my first choice on a car but this shade sure is gorgeous.

It has been a few days since the last update. The body was prepped by drilling holes, sanding seams, re-scribing all panel lines, sanding down the entire body with some well used piece of sanding sponge and then washing the whole thing. I primed everything with Gravity Colors Spain - Dark Surface Primer. It laid down very smooth. Next I shot the bottom half of the body with Zero Paints Pure Brilliant White. After that had cured for a few days I masked the lower half and shot 5 coats of Gravity Colors Spain Honda Takata Effect Green. Once again, everything laid down nicely. This is how she sits at the moment. The back "window" will be painted black and then I will clear the entire thing and apply decals. Thanks for looking! Comments, critiques, and advice are always welcome.

I have been making good progress on this. Wheels and tires are done. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the tire decals / transfers did not want to stick very well. I believe that due to their age they have lost some of their adhesiveness. I had what I had and did the best with what I had. Actually, to the naked eye they look fine. A first for me was to use a Sharpie to highlight seam lines on the body. The seams are barely existent on the Tamiya body and I thought it would be easy to miss some of them. It worked out nicely. My shipment from Gravity Colors Spain came in. I bought a bottle of their Dark Primer which is a very slight dark shade of gray. It laid down so smooth. I then shot the Honda Takata Green. It also laid down as smooth as butter. The first pic is just paint and the second picture it has been cleared with Tamiya TS-13. One last thing for this update. Again, something new for me. I shot the body pieces that needed to be semi-gloss black with Tamiya's LP line. I used Mr. Color Leveling Thinner and holy BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH, I couldn't have asked for better results! If you haven't tried these lacquers I can't recommend them enough.

Great looking model, Rich! I love all things JPS and that last photo put a huge smile on my face!

You are off to a great start! I’ll be following along for sure.

That is a real nice Camaro, Tom! Great color. Nice job on the engine bay too!

This thing is absolutely gorgeous!! You’ve done a great job on this, Simon. The color is sweet on this. I’ve seen SMS advertised but I haven’t seen it used very often. They need to use your model in their advertisements!

That is very, very nice, Marco. Great job and thanks for sharing it!

Thanks, Rich! There are some great tips in your post and I appreciate them. Yeah, that was the first time seeing that harness material. It stretched ever so slightly on me while I was cutting it and that caused the strips to not be a uniform width. Tamiya spec’d 2.4mm wide. The longer shoulder belts were the ones that gave me trouble. I received my Gravity Colors Spain shipment yesterday and shot a test spoon tonight. I am using their Dark Primer for the first time. It laid down so smooooooth! I’ll post some pics tomorrow.

Thanks again, Anton! Thank you, Josh!

Another small update. So far everything is going very well. I was able to complete the interior this weekend.

Time for the first update. This will bring me up to nearly real time in this build. I have been working on the rotors, wheels and tires as well as the interior tub and various bits that go in it. I have struggled trying to find any photos of the interior of this car or even its sister cars. For this reason I am pretty much following Tamiya's paint guide. The dash is fairly simple but looks good when completed. The rotors and wheels are done as well as one tire. I had a little trouble with the tire decals. I think because of their age they are not adhering as well as they should. At least this was the case with the first one. For the next update I hope to have all 4 tires mounted to the wheels and to have both wheels and tires decaled. I also hope to have the interior tub completed. Thanks for looking!

Thanks, Anton! I guess I can understand why they did it but I'm still not sure if I am a fan of this type of chassis plate. As for the belts, it took me a while to realize that this Takata is the same Takata as the airbag debacle and it was the harness decals that made the light bulb come on...lol.

She does look good in green! Sharp build, you did a great job on it.

Up next on my workbench is Tamiya's 2005 Honda Takata Dome NSX. This will not be a pure box stock build nor will it be a super detailed build, somewhere in the middle I guess. I will be using Tamiya's PE set for this car and Gravity Colors - Spain Takata Green. This is one of the models that Tamiya decided to use a metal/diecast chassis plate. I have never built one of these before so we'll see how it goes. Here is what I am starting with. The Gravity Colors - Spain paint is absolutely beautiful in my opinion. I took it to work to show some of my coworkers how nice it was. I was giving it a shake as we were talking about it and it slipped out of my hand. Sigh. My shop smelled good for awhile...lol. I've already placed another order. While I wait for my new bottle of paint to arrive I went ahead and started work on the other bits. Another new one for me is how Tamiya has you make their racing harness. There are decals but I did not want to use them. The PE set has all of the required pieces and this weird vinyl material that you need to cut to 2.4mm wide. I used my Infini cutting mat for this. It took several attempts because this material stretches as it is being cut. Next up will be more interior updates and wheels/rotors.

Wow!! I’m pretty sure that I had placed an order with Internet Hobbies a number of years ago, when they were relatively new. I didn’t get my order and I got the run around for a bit. I honestly don’t remember how it went down but I did get my money back. Might have been PayPal? Anyhow, I stayed away from them from the point on. It is a shame that there are people like this out there.

Oh yeah!!! What’s not to love?!?! Great looking Ferrari, Gary. And like Josh said, that first picture could pass for the real thing.