Brendan

Yes, paint can go bad. Lonewolf's way of adding thinner will work. Just be careful not to use thinner meant for airbrushing that Testors makes. I believe it has a chemical called zylene (sp), if I remember correctly, which can dry up your paint quicker. Be aware, though, that some paints might be too far gone, especially acrylics since they have a tendency to clump up. If this happens, just throw the paint away and buy new ones. It's always better to be safe than sorry. If there is any doubt, buy new paint.

Awesome job on the bike! The details sent from Top Studio makes it look like a real bike. I especially like the connectors. When you start your Ninja kit, post some pictures. That is a bike I'd like to see done.

Got the body painted. Did some light sanding and put a clear coat on it. Now waiting for clear to dry so I can decal the body. Not much left after that.

Mal and Paul, Thanks for letting us know. I kind of figured that's what was happening with the V8 Supercars. I figured the licensing was coming into it. Have you guys heard anything about what's happening with Ford? There's not much coverage of the races in the U.S. They just show the highlights, but I'd enjoy seeing what they do show of them.

Welcome aboard! You'll find that the people in this group are very helpful and easy going.

I do know they are 4-door sedans but you could make the GTO work. The 2003 Commodores very closely resemble the GTO. It would be a lot of cutting and sanding as well as adding the doors to the car. I do know people who are attempting to do it. As for the right hand drive, you can cut up the dashboard to make it work. My friend gave me a web site called www.biante.com.au/ He says that they make 1/32 and 1/64 kits that he knows of. He's not sure if they're die cast or resin. He doesn't know off hand of any plastic kits that are available. I'm hoping at some point someone makes a kit of both the Ford Falcon and the Holden as either as plastic or resin in 1/24 scale. I do see a market for them. But with Ford possibly pulling out of the series, it might be just a Holden affair for the next few years. Ford/Australia is having money issues since all the cars are considered to be factory-supported cars. The trend is now to be smaller displacement and non V8's in the production cars.

I know there are some 1/32 scale and some 1/64 scale resin kits out there but I don't know the makers of them. There are quite a few diecasts, though. You can always modify a Pontiac GTO and convert it into a Holden Commodore. I have considered doing this. I'll contact some of my friends who live in Australia and see if they know of any places that sell kits.

If you live in an apartment, that is the type to go with because they are extremely quiet. But it depends on what you are planning to use the compressor for. This type of compressor is only good for applying paint. There are a couple of areas that I see there could be issues with. One area is that it is a constant-run compressor and those types of compressors have the tendency to burn the motors up. If you have one with a tank, they end up lasting longer because you're not running the motor all the time. If you're like me, I do paint sessions for several hours. Another area that might be a problem is that it has a very low cfm which limits what you can do with your compressor as far as other tools. If you do decide to go over to an air compressor with a tank on it, good ones to get are ones for nail guns. They come with a 2 to 6 gallon tank and usually have about 1 to 2 cfm, which gives more versatility. The prices are usually anywhere between $80 and $130. Harbor and Freight carries some generic brands that are reliable and inexpensive. A problem with this type of compressor, though, is that they are extremely noisy.

Got a little more work done. The roll cage is in. Here's some pictures.

Page 67 is mainly talking about the Group 44 and the 962's and the Nissans. On page 68 there are 6 pictures, only one of the Corvette. Send me a message with your address and I'll send photocopies of the pages so you'll have a complete book. Don't have any pictures of the Corvette, but Model Cars took a couple of shots of it for the NNLWest coverage for the 2006 (?) magazine. The build is a real easy build. Tamiya's Gloss Aluminum in their TS line is an exact match for the silver. The tape up job is real easy to do. There are two different paint schemes for the black, white, and silver car, mainly on the rear end. Most of the time the striping went through the rear vents. And some of the cars ran with the striping just to the inside of the vents. That's the one I did because it was less common.

There's a good book called Corvette GTP by Alex Gabbard. It's out of production but you might be able to find it. If you can't find it, let me know. I could let you borrow my copy. I used it to build the Quick Skins kit.

I forgot one thing. Your air compressor needs to break in. To do this, do not have your hose and airbrush attached to the air compressor when you first start it. If they are attached, it can stall the compressor out and burn it up. I know people that it has happened to. It takes about 5 to 10 hours of running time for it to break in. The 5 to 10 hours take place over a period of time as you use it. It's not consecutive hours of running. It can be used right off the bat. Just attach the hose and airbrush after starting the compressor. I always have my compressor running before I attach my airbrush when I use that type of compressor. Hope this helps.

I would recommend for paints that you start with water based acrylics, such as Tamiya. You might also want to try some inexpensive acrylic art paint just to get the feel of how the air brush works. I use Tamiya which I thin with denatured alcohol. Any alcohol above 91% will work. (Do not use rubbing alcohol because it contains oil.) Thin to the consistency of milk. As for your air compressor, if it is the one that Paasche sells, it is a constant flow compressor when it's running. Which would be about 15 psi. The only thing I would suggest is to get an inline moisture trap. I'll try to get pictures of one up later. As for cleaning, completely disassemble the airbrush. The valve where the hose is attached will come undone, leave that separate. It does not need to be cleaned. It does have some sensitive rubber o rings that can be damaged by solvents. I use a 3 mm pipe cleaner that can be purchased at any craft store. Clean all the holes with the solvent that matches the paint, such as if it's acrylic, clean it with alcohol or warm soapy water. If it's enamel or lacquer, clean it with lacquer thinner. Wipe down parts. If you have questions, please contact me. I used to sell these. I've had mine for well over 25 years and have not broken a single part on it. You do wear out needles and cones and you do need to replace the valve periodically.

Strada Sports carries Replicas and Miniatures. I also believe Island Collectibles does too. You might check with both of them. Hope this helps.

Got the chassis and the underside of the chassis painted. And the door panels as well. Some before and after shots. The kit provides a nice PE grill and a nice template. The lettering is a mixture of flat black and gun metal (Tamiya's Acrylic) The gun metal gives it a touch of bare metal look.

If you're looking for one of the kits, look at HLJ.com under Fujimi. They have quite a few of the older Porsches. They were just reissued not that long ago. Most of them are about $22-23. With shipping it will probably be around $30 total. Hope this helps.

You want the wax applied with 600 grit sandpaper. Right?

Got some work done over the past two days. Got all the small interior stuff finished. Next I need to get paint on the body and chassis. Tires and rims together. Disc brakes painted. Some very light weathering added to them. Electric boxes and air conditioning box painted and ready to be installed. Dashboard finished in Tamiya Acrylics. Seat ready to be installed with belts. Body in Tamiya's white primer. Light sanding and it will be ready for several coats of Tamiya's white. The first coat should be applied either tonight or tomorrow.

Ismael, I don't know what you're talking about. The Corvettes are already sitting in my driveway.

Chris, I emailed Mark from MS Hobbies and he said that Quick Skins is no longer producing kits, but maybe in the future. I'll let you know if I hear anything else. It's a real shame, too, because he made some really nice kits.

Very nicely done kit. You got to love the Listerine green-blue paint. I built this kit a few years ago. I don't know it you're aware that Quick Skins and Strada Sports have a resin kit of an M3 based off of this car. The Quick Skins used this kit as a donor kit. And then Strada Sports paid Quick Skins to do a full curbside kit of the Red Bull M3. I have done both of these kits and if you like BMW's, they would be good kits to do.

Got some parts painted yesterday. After the gloss black, rims were painted with Alclad polished aluminum. Rims are 3 pieces; outer rim is a machined aluminum; center and outer rings are cast resin. The center part is very delicate. The disc brakes are Alclad White aluminum and the exhaust tips are several different shades of Alclad. I'll add more weathering to the brakes and exhaust tips once the paint has cured. After putting a light coat of primer on the body, I noticed some areas that needed to be fixed. They're very subtle mold imperfections, but would become very noticeable once paint is applied. Some small pinholes are in the front which are easy to fill in. So far everything is going smoothly. Hope to get the first coat of paint on by the weekend. That's if it ever stops raining and blowing 50 mph+ winds around here.

Lyle, Thanks for showing my pictures to Harold. I sent pictures to my customer. Both he and his wife were really pleased on how it looked and how it turned out. He is looking forward to receiving it in March. He did give me permission to show it at the NNL WEST this coming year.

Like what you've done so far. The decals turned out really great. Also I really like the subtle weathering you did. Not too much; just enough to bring out the right look. You're building one of my favorite cars of all times.

Jairus, Thanks for sharing these with us. I've seen some of these, but most of them are new to me. Great idea for showing these for the Twleve Days of Christmas.