Pete J.

Tamiya kit 24048(Austin Mini Cooper Rally) sprue's C & D. C for the buckets and D for the lenses. This will give you 2 pair of 1:24 scale driving lights. Period correct. Call 1-800 Tamiya A and ask for parts, or if you can find one just by the kit. Lots of great rally car parts. Also if you just want them with covers you could try the Alpine A110 - It has the covers with correct decals. For rally car stuff, Tamiya really has some great kits. You can also probably find some heavy tread rally tires as well.

I'm going real on this one - The give away to me is the little shaft holding the passengers head rest up. I have yet to see a head rest that is off the seat back and exposing the shafts that hold it up. A little point but one that most modelers wouldn't consider. Ya, I know - its a small part to hang your hat on - But thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

And now for something completely different in a wagon!

I have built 2 of them with SMS parts. See this thread "Tamiya 935 with SMS parts" under WIP. The Tamiya kit is about 70% by volume and 40% by number of parts. It really comes down to having good bones. For the most part, you have to have good bones or you can't make it look right. The basics of the engine are all there and SMS just enhanced them. Examples would be the fuel injection pump. I started with the Tamiya part and added nuts, bolts, and screw heads. I removed the plastic injection line connectors and replaced them with stainless tubing and aluminum compression fittings. It was not difficult but the shape and the correct items were already there and it was just enhancements. There are not a lot of things that are completely replaced by SMS parts. A list would be, suspension adjuster, gear shift, turbo boost, rims and break assembly, 80% of the rear suspension, and shocks. The basics of the engine were for the most part enhanced but not replaced. The interior was mostly enhancements as was the front. It was adding better looking or more precise pieces to existing parts. SMS is not into taking a poor kit and bringing it up to speed. For the most part they start with good kits and make them great. We will see if the GT 40 fits that category. If it has basic accuracy, then Matthew will tackle it. If he has to recreate important parts, then most likely, he will pass.

Ah, ok we now have progress. Fingerprint oils are easy. 50/50 mix of alcohol and distilled water. The alcohol cuts the oil and the water keeps if from harming the paint. Just a little on a piece of teeshirt material and a quick couple of wipes. Hit is immediately after with some dry teeshirt. It will also work on the super glue fog with a Qtip one end wet, one dry. Or you could polish the whole thing out with Tamiya polishing compound. I thought you were talking about fingerprints embedded in the paint. The other thing that works for the finger prints is a little Pledge furniture wax on some teeshirt. Just a little bit brings out a nice gloss. I use the liquid out of a spritzer bottle, not the aerosol.

Nope, Tamiya polishing compound will not take care of the issues by themselves, only make them shiny. To take care of the issues you talk about you need to get some fine sand paper(I suggest you get some micromesh) in multiple grades and progressively sand it down to level and then you can polish it out with the fine compound.

Almost no chrome?? I just reviewed my photos from January and there is no chrome at all! Well, you might call the instrument bezels chrome, but that is it. Everything else is natural or polished metal. There are some anodized bits but not a lot. I was very concerned to see all the chrome parts also. In a kit of this caliber, all the sprues should be pure white styrene plastic. A few black parts, but that is it. Also noticed foam inserts for the wheels?? Nice idea, I just hope they aren't there because of problems with the tires. I noticed on the test shots that the centers of the tread were slightly concave. OH PLEASE, don't let this be a disaster!!

Frankly, I use a little bit of everything. I have three airbrushes that I use all the time, an Iwata HVLP 50, and two Tamiya HG's. I also have several boxes full of spray cans, mostly Tamiya's with some Testors. I use what is easiest to get the finish I want. For instance. Tamiya rattle cans of fine white primer, work just fine for laying down a nice coat of primer. Since most of it gets sanded off as part of the leveling process, why bother with an air brush. Also, their semigloss black works just fine out the the can. For gloss paints though I use DuPont automotive Lacquers and Urethanes. They need an airbrush to get right. Also for fade jobs and Alclads, you just have to have an airbrush. Get what you need and if you get good quality, you can grow into it. A better situation than growing out of lesser quality. Good luck

Interesting! I always preferred the back of the the MkIIs. I liked the slightly more aggressive look of the air intakes, the slightly more squared side body panels and the Halibrands. Looked slightly more muscular. Also like the sound of the big block better. Just my personal preference.

You all know I'm on the list! Here is the site http://www.scalemotorsport.com/merchant2/

Harry - Ya got me good with the last one! Great model. I got to go along with the gang again and vote real. If it is a model, the artist who built it(and I do me artist) got a lot of the small details right. Interesting that it has a current California plate. I would think a collector would have a period correct plate. Well, who knows

Mark - Only you would start a motorcycle model with a wheel and brake and design it from there! What will it be? 7 cylinders, 7 carbs, seating for 7, 77" scale inches long? Looks great. I can't wait to see where this goes.

Gregg - Considering the source, that is about the best complement I've had. Thanks. I am glad everyone seems to be enjoying this one. It has been a long build and I have learned a lot. It is nice to know that until a 6" tall driver gets in the car and drives off, there is always something else to learn. Thanks again.

Here are a couple of more photos. The front end has a far amount of scratch built pieces. I turned the three fuel pumps, the firebottles, the battery connectors, and all the compression fittings on the hoses. I orignally messed up the plastic fire bottles, trying to use the lathe to take the straps off so I turned a new set from aluminum. The suspension parts are all SMS but the brake lines were a real challenge to route and set.

Here are some of the engine photos. It was a real challenge to figure out how to display it as the engine as it can't be well seen when the body is on.

Thank you Matt. Now you know why I am interested in your transkit!

Thank you! Yes I did mean machined on the lathe. The parts I did are the fuel shutoff, the electical relay switch and the compression fittings on the hoses(the orange colored thingees on the end of the hoses) and the gear selector pivot. The machined bolts and flairnut fittings are courtesy of RB Motion. All else is either Tamiya or Scale Motorsport. Pete

Here is the interior on a Porsche 935 interior with the SMS parts attached. There are a lot of pieces that I turned myself, but for the most part the credit goes to Matthew as SMS. Pete

If he's got us, he's got us good. This thing looks very real. Got to go with the herd. Real.

I concur! I get all my wire from Michaels/Value Craft/Radio Shack. The craft or beading section has a lot of wires. I use 22, 24, and 26 gages. I try to get solid core and not braided because I holds a bend better and the internal wire has a lot of uses and brake/fuel lines etc.

Man, I love the suspension! I guess I need to go back to school on my building. I love the use of small scale nuts and bolts. Very nice!

One simple tip. If you can't see an open end such as a roll cage or plumbing, don't use tubing. Use solid rod. Just because a piece on a real car is hollow, doesn't mean your model has to have hollow tubing. If you are not planing on actually making a running car, rod bends much better than tubing. The only time you need tubing is on exhausts and intakes where the open end is seen. Same thing with wiring. Small diameter tubing, painted black is easier to manipulate and get to droop just right than than small diameter braided wire.

If you are planing to do a lot of soldering, you may wish to invest in a resistance soldering unit. They give you extremely fine control of heat and allow you to solder two pieces, very close together without one being de-soldered. You can also solder very small pieces of photo etched together. They are not cheap, but then they do things you just can't do with a soldering iron. Check out the info at Micro mark on them. The model railroaders use the heck out of them for building their brass engines.

Yea, a bit like putting a smiley face on the Mona Lisa!

Five lug chromes??? As a minimum they should be some form of modern Halibrands with at least a fake knockoff. Real with a working knockoff would be better Just not good enough