Brendan

Thanks for the comments. As for what's next, still working on 6 Toyota GTP's. I'll get those finished as soon as I get my paint and supplies from Japan...ordered several months ago. And if I stop screwing up on the bodies. Ismael, check your references for decaling the car. The instructions for the Sebring version of the decals was telling me to put some decals on that were not run on the car during the race. Don't know about the car #33 version. Raul, as for Milt's NNL...unless it's the weekend of the race at Laguna Seca (Oct.), don't count me in.

Just finished up the Revell kit. Started building it during Le Mans. Screwed up the paint job twice. Decals are from Speedline (Strada Sports). Pretty much box stock. Did add some wing mounts that I made out of aluminum. The paint is Cobra Colors. Feel free to comment.

The Porsche knock each other out because of the Risi Ferrari slowly down suddenly. The Lola AER is out. The driver walked away from the car which automatically disqualifies the car. ###### Risi Ferrari!

They are a very good company. I've done business with them several times. But there is an easier way to get seat belt material. Make your own. I use white cloth tape that used for bandaging athletes. Lay it down flat. Paint it the color you want (I use acrylics.) and get a ruler and cut the strips to the width and length you want. It's much cheaper than buying material plus it will stick to where you are putting it.

I mainly use Tamiya Acrylics. Mainly because there is a lot of moisture where I live. I used to use enamels, but did not like the finish of them after they dried. Acrylics are better for flat colors. Big advantage with acrylics is that they usually dry within a day. Enamels are better for the glossier colors. The big disadvantage with enamels is that they can take a week or longer to dry. If I have to paint anything bigger than my thumb, I will airbrush or spray paint it. But if it's smaller, you can use a brush and the brush strokes are not as noticeable. Another thing, be sure to use a good brush for painting. I prefer natural hair brushes for my painting. They seem to flow the paint better. Not uncommon for me to spend $20 for a single brush. I also have several brushes that I use, like fine point brushes that I use for detailing and flat brushes that I use for covering area. Get a couple of paints and just experiment to see which ones you prefer. Just make sure you stir them up thoroughly before you use them. Don't shake them since that is how you get air bubbles into the paint. When you use a brush the air bubbles will come up. Hope this is helpful.

Another way to get a worn look on the tires is after you sanded the tread, take some dirt and rub it all over the tire. It will tone down the black and give the tire a worn look on the tread as well as the side wall.

Gregg, Both me and Mr. Bauer are still waiting for you to get the Jaguar done. You brought it to the NNL so I figured you would have had it done by now.

The paint you're using is a Nitrocellular base paint. Lacquer can be used to thin it. This type of paint is mainly used for wood finishes and is not usually very good on plastics. But they do work. You could have a problem with the paint not wanting to adhere to the plastic or to itself. You might need to rough the area up before putting another color. It might help the paint bond better. I would suggest trying to find something like Duplicolor or that type of spray paint which is an automotive lacquer. You'll definitely have better results.

I don't know what you mean by Industrial Paint. Do you know if it's an automotive acrylic lacquer or enamel or water based acrylic? Did you shoot a clear coat on the body before you painted the window trim? From the steps you said you took, everything sounds okay. You don't need to worry about curing time between coats if the paint is still wet. When I paint, I'll put 3 coats of paint on in about 5 to 15 minute intervals. And then a wet coat. The only thing that I think that could have happened is that sometimes even though you're using the same paint, it will react with each other and not adhere to each other when dry. I usually use an acrylic lacquer on the bodies and then use a water base acrylic for my detailing. That way if I mess up, I can just use alcohol to wipe the paint off without hurting the body.

Most of the damage from the track has been caused from letting the NASCAR race on the track. They had the problem last year where they started to tear up the track because the cars are so heavy. I'm really hoping that they take points away from both Hamilton and McLaren. They also need to put him on probation since this is the second time he's run into someone. But knowing Formula 1 and since he's the "Golden Boy" they won't do anything. The driver knew that the pit lane exit would have been closed. And you see the cars stopped ahead of you. It looked like he purposely aimed for the back of the Ferrari after he knew he wasn't going to be able to stop in time.

I'm a little bit confused by what your question is...If it's the tape lifting the paint off the window trim, then the way the people above told you is the way to go. I'm getting the sense that your question is the paint is lifting off the actual body and not the trim. If this is the case, you need to allow your paint to cure longer, depending on the type of paint that you use...before you mask. Enamals take an extra long time to dry sometimes as long as two weeks to a month plus. Acrylic paints dry quickly but still can be tacky for about a week. And then you have the lacquer paints which you can mask up the following day. Hope this helps.

The simplest answer is to use chrome paint and touch it up. What I usually do is strip off the chrome and use Alclad or use bare metal foil. Or you can use Duplicolor Chrome Spray Paint but it takes forever to dry.

Your best bet is to find a fly tying shop (fishing). They actually have a very good selection for fine wires and thread that are useful for doing detail work. They also have other tools and assorted products that would work for making detailed pieces.

They've been trying to get these cars to be legal for several years now. They would have to cut off almost a foot off the back of the car to make it fit the rules for length. But they would be severely handicapped with the air restrictor if they were allowed to run. Here some pictures of my FIA GT Maserati.

April 1

I believe there are a couple of 1/43 scale kits available, but not 100 % sure. I've been trying to talk MS Hobbies into making one for his next kit. There are so many possible decal options for that chassis. Those cars were powered by Chevy, Ford, Mazda, Accura/Honda, Porsche, and you name it, Spice ran with the motor.

Jairus, you need to come down where I am. The police are not coming out to the rural areas any more. There was an article in the newspaper talking about all the new concealed weapons permits being handed out and they couldn't figure out why. I always assume that many people have a gun on them in some the backwood areas here. They actually put in the newspaper that the police were only on duty from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. which is just an invitation for criminal activity. A lot of the locals said that if you come onto the property at night, be prepared to be "shot". The police quickly changed their minds and decided to have police on active patrol at all hours. A friend of my brothers who worked for the FBI was told that whenever they went to the south, assume everybody is carrying a loaded firearm.

They're accepting Hybrid SUV's for trade-ins. Maybe you could put some batteries in the back of your truck and call it an electic hybrid. It sucks to hear, though, that they won't take it. Around where I am, a lot of people drive trucks and SUV's. You're not seeing as many of them on the road any more. The car dealers in my town have had SUV's sitting on the lots for several months. Not seeing anything new coming in for a long while.

The LMP2 cars are lighter and have less horsepower but you have to look at the power to weight ratio. So if you have a really light car that's producing 600 HP versus a car that weighs alot and only produces 800 HP, the horse power difference kind of gets canceled out. Then the lighter vehicle will have the advantage in acceleration and braking distance, ie they can dive into the corners deeper because they don't have as much mass to slow down. That kind of ended up being the downfall of the GPT cars because you had cars like the Toyota Eagles using a small motor and the car didn't weigh much. It was "destroying" these cars with the big V-12's and Turbo powered engines. Another thing you saw was the old Accura Spice that ended up beating a lot of the bigger teams even though they were in the Camel Lights class. This is the issue I have right now with the ALMS that they are letting the LMP2 cars be competitive with the LMP1 cars. As it stands now, it's a disadvantage to try to race in the LMP1 in the US. It's going to end up killing the series. The whole idea of class separation was that there was a class of fast cars, slower cars, and the production cars. Le Mans is one of the few races that you see the LMP1 cars really dominating the field over the LMP2 cars.

The ACO has allowed both the Peugeot and the Risi Ferrari to change their chassis and are allowing them into the race. Even though under their own rules if a chassis is damaged beyond repair, they're supposed to be disqualified. It will be interesting to see if they get put in the back of the field for the race day. Like they did for the Porsche last year.

The Penskes don't fit under the rules for the 24 hours of Le Mans. The Accuras don't as well. The Porsches that are in the race are ELMS spec cars and they are 100 to 200 pounds heavier and also have a smaller air restrictor to fit into the rules of the LMP2...from my understanding. The ALMS allows the Penskes and Accura to run a bigger air restrictor and less weight to make them more competitive with the LMP 1 cars. Basically, they don't want Audi to win all the time. As for the Mazerati, the only reason they raced in the US is because they wanted a bigger GT1 field. It doesn't comply because it is too long of a car and too wide of a wheel base. As for Aston Martin, they are supposed to have a car in every single category within the next couple of years with factory support to privateers. Should be a good race.

That would explain why all the new Subarus look like Prius. Not a very good looking car. Thanks for the clarification.

GM must still own part of it because I get letters from them wanting me to buy a new Suburu every once in a while. This isn't from the dealer; it's from the factory.

Your complaining that GM doesn't have a good 4-cylinder motor. I have a '93 Saturn with a 4-cylinder motor and it gets on an average of anywhere of 27 and 30 miles a gallon. And this is not highway driving; this is driving in town. I also have an '04 Suburu Impreza WRX which is a turbo charged 4-cylinder which averages about 30 miles per gallon. And when I drive long distances, I can get close to 40. Suburu is owned by GM. There are good 4-cylinders out there. It's just that most people do not know how to drive their car properly to get good gas mileage.