Brendan

I plan to be there. I'm going to be in the Bay Area for a model show. If someone could PM me directions, I will be in the downtown San Jose area off of 280 and 101. Or just send me the address and I can figure it out.

It's about time you got this done! Excellent job on the kit. The black came out very nice. As for your next kit, how about a Toyota?

Thanks for the comments. As for the Studio 27 kit, you're probably looking at about $160 for the kit and the body of the car is incorrect. Compared to M & S Hobbies kit, which is $120. The body is more accurate and was approved by Dan Guerney. I'm hoping I'll get my paint soon. It seems like everyone is having a hard time getting Tamiya spray paint in stock. So hopefully I'll have the other kit done so I can have these two displayed together at a show.

Finished the Toyota last weekend. It is an M & S Hobbies kit. Paint is Tamiya Acrylics and TS-26 and TS-49 decanted and airbrushed. Send the kit back to M & S Hobbies so he could use it as a display at the NNL East. So if you go, drop by and say hello. Definitely recommend this kit. Some small issues came up but they are easily fixed. You can follow along the build in the Workbench Section. Still have one more version to do. It should be done in a couple of weeks. Comments welcomed. Thanks for looking.

Beautifully done dragster. The decal work and paint is excellent.

How's your eyes after building this one? Very nicely done. One of my favorite cars of that era, besides the Porsches.

Got the windows in and the window decal on yesterday. The main window is a little frustrating to get into position. Also the headlight covers are not as clear as I would like. They are cast in clear resin which is a little bit foggy. After sanding and buffing, I ended up putting Future over them. It cleared them up quite a bit.

Gregg, I think he meant to say "muffin top" instead of "stud muffin"...

I'm on dial up and it's been taking me about 5 minutes to get onto the message board. And about 30 seconds to a minute to get into the topics. But all the other websites I've been to seem to be running at a faster speed. Maybe the aliens are coming to invade.

You'll probably see it come out as a race car first. Tamiya will probably do it as a JTC car. Would be my best guess.

Got the decals on last night. Had some issues with some of the sizing of the decals. But was able to make them work. Also had a problem with the red Toyota decals cracking on me. I think I just had a bad sheet. Ended up using the decals from my other kit. Those decals worked fine.

How could I have missed this being finished?! Excellent work. Though the blue is a little off.

Bill's tip is good. Be careful as the paint can get trapped on the back part of the needle. And it could affect some of the colors you're trying to use. I use that method all the time for going through multiple colors. Also to let you know, always start off with the light colors to darker colors and then to metallics. Metallics should always be sprayed though the airbrush last if you're spraying multiple colors. With the Pasche airbrushes, don't throw away the older needles and cones when you replace them. They only have sizes 1,3 and 5. As you use those numbers, they will start getting wider so #1 will turn into a #2 size needle and cone. And #3 will turn into #4 and so on. They will give different spray patterns which can be nice to have. I mark them with the higher # once they start getting older. The best advice I can give for airbrushing is prep and patience. The prep work is what will make the work look good. The painting is the easy part. Hope this helps.

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Thanks for the kind words. Those were an old set I had from a kit my neighbor's kid did. Somehow ended up down the hill. One of his cousins decided to play with it. It was so badly damaged that I just used it for a spare parts kit. Glad I could help. The paint that was used on the rims was Tamiya's acrylic and should come off with alcohol if you want to redo them. As for the question about the wheel nuts. They should be painted a flat metallic gray like gun metal. The center part of the nut should be a titanium silver. Show us the pictures when you get it done.

You can find a lot of the older Tamiya kits for under $20.

Nicely done roadster. Wish they would do some more of these older style Indy cars.

Jairus, If you need the caps any time in the future, just let me know. I will probably never use them. Most of the stuff I build is modern prototypes. They don't use those fuel caps any more.

I'm an F1 fan but I do not know much about this Benetton that you are doing. I would suggest contacting a web group called GPMA. Good group of guys and very knowlegeable about F1 and sports cars. Also I would encourage to join this group. Hope this helps. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gpma/ http://gpma.org/

Another idea is go to your local hardware store and see what they have in the screen section for doors. There are a bunch of different patterns out there. Some are metal, some are nylon. Also they are a lot cheaper. You can buy a square foot for less than it would cost for PE. I often do this for a lot of my projects.

Painted in the headlights and the side skirt. The side skirts will be getting a carbon fiber treatment, kind of a black-gray in color. Also painted in the red in the rear wing for the Daytona Winner.

There are some possible things you could do to help prevent this. First is to start trimming your decals; try to get it as close as you can to the printing. That way there is no edge to lift up. Second problem that could be occurring is that your paint is still not completely dry. Enamel paints can take months to completely cure. Third, you need to wait longer so that your decals are completely dry before you put on the clear coat. I usually give it 12-24 hours before I shoot my clear over my decals. Fourth is that you are using enamel clear which has a lot of solvent in it. The solvent could be lifting up the decals. Use a clear like Future Floor Polish which is an acrylic. Airbrush if possible, but I do know people who are able to brush it on and have good results. Another thing you could do instead of putting on a clear coat is to wax over your decals with a good car wax. The other problem is that your decals could be bad, which is not uncommon to have happen. Hope this helps.

The Iwata is perfectly fine for painting car bodies. It's a pretty standard spray pattern for an airbrush. You can change the spray pattern by changing out your needles and cones. Most airbrush companies tell you not to use solvent based paints in their airbrushes. Pasche also has the instructions not use solvent based paints. Their main worry is that the o-ring in the air valve will deterioriate. Just make sure that when you're cleaning your airbrush to remove the air valve. I have used both Iwata and Pasche. Both are excellent airbrushes. Iwata is better for doing fine detail. I have a Pasche, which is over thirty years old. It was a hand-me-down from my brother. And I am looking at purchasing an Iwata at some point in the future.

Also what hose on your airbrush are you using? Is it a vinyl hose or a rubber hose with a cloth wrapping? What type of compressor? I've seen some compressor hoses explode due to defects in the vinyl/rubber. Showing pictures (if you can) will help us see what you have as a set up. I usually shoot my paint anywhere between 15 and 20 psi. It depends on how thin your paint is. It should be the consistency of milk.

Finished the motor this morning. Fun, quick little project to go along side the Toyotas. Decided to put an inner cooler on. All the stuff on this motor came out of my spare parts box. I dinged it up a little bit to make it look like it's not a brand new motor.