Brendan

Ed...Those were the only three Chaparals there. JIm Hall was there, but didn't get his picture. Wish I did. Hall drove the E and Gil drove the Indy car on a parade lap.

Here's some pictures of the ALMS Race. Would have had more pictures but it got dark because of the fog and I didn't bring my flash for my camera. Good race except for the GT3 Cup cars. Essentially they were moving speed bumps. I don't know how many close calls I saw going into the corners that these cars almost were hit by the other cars. Here's a link. http://s225.photobucket.com/albums/dd91/Ho...%20Saca%202009/

I can't believe nobody mentioned Steve McQueen in Le Mans, especially at the very end of the movie. It's a racing movie. I consider it getting chased.

I just got back from the race less than an hour ago. Been driving for over 8 hours so I'm tired. You guys don't even want to know how much faster the Corvettes were over the other cars. At one point the Corvette made up over 1-2 second a lap over the Porsche. Also the #66 Acura was extremely fast. The biggest problem with the race was the third class of the GT3 Porsches. Those cars were way too slow, but they were faster than the new Jaguar. I'll try to get pictures up in the next couple of days.

Yes. I'm personally not a big fan of enamels. I prefer to use bare metal foil on trim like that. I find it easier in the long run. If you have an air brush, you could try a product called Alclad. Alclad comes in a bunch of metal shades. But for trim, I would just stick with the bare metal foil.

On their web site, it says they are a water based paint. You could try thinning it with alcohol or just try using water. I have never used this paint before. Give it a try and see what works.

There's no real advantage in airbrushing on the primer. The only time I do it is if I have a lot of very tight spaces. As for the chrome and since it's an enamel, it is not compatible with Duplicolor Clearcoat since it is a lacquer based paint. The Clearcoat will just wrinkle or have the enamel bleed all over the rest of the car. The thing to do is to prime, paint, clearcoat and then paint on the chrome. Or you can just bare metal foil which you can put on a clearcoat.

As usual, another great art piece. I would love to see your take on a modern sports car. Or even a modern prototype race car.

Thanks for everyone's comments. This is a kit if you can find it, pick it up even if the decals are bad. Especially you, Nick.

Beautiful job on the car! Funny thing is I just picked up this kit yesterday. I was going to do it in a silver color as well. Hope mine looks as nice as yours when I get it done.

Thanks for the comments. As soon as Tamiya started doing the half engines with their Mercedes DTM cars, I knew that we weren't going to see many new models with full engine detail. I think the last one I did was the Ferrari Enzo. I was kind of expecting them to do a full engine with the GTR. It's just disappointing that Tamiya is going this way.

The decals should be fine. I've done this a couple of times where I was getting ready to place a decal and then had to not place it and just let it sit on the paper until it dried out. I had no problems using it a couple of days later. If you do have problems where it doesn't stick very well, you can use some clear acrylic to help stick it down. Or you can use thinned out Elmer's White Glue.

This is a Tamiya kit. Very hard to find nowadays. Was lucky enough to pick it up at this year's NNL West at a good price. Had some issues with the decals since they were old and brittle. Ended up having to paint on a lot of the red. Paints used were Tamiya's TS-26 for the body and TS-8 for the red. And for the inside was a mixture of Tamiya's acrylics to make the orangy color. This is what I wish Tamiya would start doing again...kits like this with a lot of detail, unlike the mainly curbside they've been doing now. Feel free to comment.

I used Evercoat for the first part and then used Tamiya's Basic Putty to fill in some small holes and divots. What I was running into wasn't shrinkage, it was small little scratches and nicks that I needed to keep on filling. Found a neat trip that I did with Tamiya's Basic Putty which was to thin it with denatured alcohol. Then either brush it on or use my finger and smooth it on. It's great for filling small hairline scratches.

Well, I finally finished the bump. (YEA!) Got so frustrated with it that I started working on a couple of other kits. (A rally SUV and a resin Trans Am Mustang) Had some issues with one side of the bump. I just couldn't get it to my liking. But it's good enough. Should have it in white primer by tomorrow and then paint by the weekend. I'll probably find some way to screw it up.

I'm with Dale. I usually use Alclad Jet Exhaust and Pale Burnt Metal over Polished Aluminum and highlight it with Tamiya's Clear Blue and Clear yellow. Dale, nice job on the Alpha Romeo.

I've run into some issues with the police pulling me over in CA for a "safety inspection" and also to see if I've done modifications to the car. I drive a Subaru WRX and it is box stock. The funny thing is the cops who pull you over don't know anything about the cars. I've had one say that my inner cooler was illegal and I've had another one saying that my turbo was illegal. The funny thing was the guy actually tried to touch the turbo and I kind of reminded him that I'd been driving for over 8 hours straight and wanted to be sure if he wanted to touch something that was probably well over 800 degrees and it was glowing. If they're going to try to enforce certain laws they need to know what the laws are that need to be enforced. I do know of some instances where people are buying cars in Oregon and saying that they're a resident of Oregon (registering the car with their family who live here). And then going back to CA where they actually live, especially in the Bay Area. Oregon doesn't have a sales tax and the registration fees are pretty cheap. It was especially true when CA did a heavy increase on registration of cars.

Other people on another forum I belong to have the same problem. Somebody said they finally got something after over a year of waiting. Another thing that came up is that his store front is taking up most of his time. And the internet side is taking a hit. I would just keep on sending emails to him until he responds.

Rustoleum is a thick paint to begin with and it looks like you may have put on too many coats. One was drying while the other was being put on and the bubbles are from the off gassing from the drying paint. Like said in the previous post, try to stick with automotive lacquers like Duplicolor and Plasticote. As for getting it off, soak it in either 90% alcohol or try using Castrol Super Clean. Another product I've had really good results with is called Scalecoat II. If you can find it, it works really well. I hope you're able to get the paint off.

It sometimes will ghost on you. But if you sand it down perfectly flat, you shouldn't have a problem.

Got it sanded down and shot a bit of primer to see the spots that I need to touch up. Which ended up being quite a few. Put a quick skin coat on this morning and will let it dry for a day. Hopefully get it primered by the end of the week. Lower wing element which I had to repair because they decided to cut the wing mounting slots too deep. It's a little rough but I'm not going to try to fix it any more because I'm afraid it's going to crack again. Upper wing elements painted Tamiya's TS-26. Wing end plates painted black and those will be taped off and the other side will be painted white.

If you have an airbrush, contact Jameston at Scalefinishes. He'll have the color. His paints are outstanding and easy to work with and will work with the Duplicolor primer that you use. Here's his website. http://scalefinishes.com/

It's taken me this long just to try to figure out the bump on the roof. I have a hard enough time dealing with small things. You think I can deal with a full kit? You give me too much credit. I'm not that talented. I couldn't even touch the stuff that you do. If I tried, I would be smashing it with a hammer I'd be so frustrated. I'll stick with the race cars.

Got some putty on the roof, but it's been so hot here that it's setting up too quickly. Also too warm to paint. It's drying before even contacting the resin. Ended up having to make my own side mirrors for the car. The kit's pewter ones are way too big and also the wrong shape. Took some Evergreen plastic card and starting building up the roofline. Got a small amount of putty on and will sand to shape. Ended up cutting the middle section of the scoop out as it was inaccurate for the car.

Why not go to an auto parts store and buy some window tinting material? That's what I used to do. You can also go to places that do window tints and ask for their scraps. Most of the places are happy to give it to you. Just explain to them what you're going to do with it.