Brendan

I use denatured alcohol to thin acrylics. And shoot it at anywhere between 20 and 30 PSI. Like was said above, you need to do several thin coats to get the paint to look good. If I'm doing a gloss, I usually do two to three light coats and then thin it a little more and do a wet coat.

Any of the old 80's 4-cylinder from Toyota are good motors. Don't produce a whole lot of horse power but they last for forever. Find out if the person was using synthetic oil. If he was, stick with it. If he wasn't, don't switch to synthetic. The reason being is that synthetic oils are too slick and you can get oil leaks on older used motors. The Corollas have always had a good reputation. Things to look at are CV Joints as they have had problems with them in the past. Also the front wheel bearings.

Excellent job on the Nissan. Love the decal work and the detail you put into it.

Very cool! Love all the add ons you've done to the body. If you're looking for the Ferrari paint, try Jameston at Scale Finishes. He should have it or be able to get a close match for it. http://scalefinishes.com/

Yes, they are pricy but worth every penny. Unfortunately there's not many manufacturers that make GT/Racecar style rims. Most of the stuff that's out there is meant for normal street cars.

If you can it, there was a Curtis Midget made of resin made by Chris Edsel (I believe.) He also made an Offy 4-cylinder engine. Very nice work on your models. I've always liked these and the old-style Indy Roadsters.

Got a little more done on the interior. Still need to add some more electric boxes. Dashboard painted and added electrical connections that will run the wires when I get it installed in the chassis. The tail pipes for the side of the car...the kit's pipes are on the right, but I'm considering replacing them with the ones on the left. (which are from the Profile 24 911GT3 Porsche that I had spares of. They looked more correct than the ones from the kit.) They were painted with different shades of Alclad. This is the lead wire that I'm using as my electric wires. I sprayed them with primer and used the Tamiya's NATO Black and sprayed dull coat over them. Just make sure that if you use the stuff to wear gloves since it is lead. After painting, it's not a problem. I like using it because they can be bended and do adjustments when installing them in the model. The paint doesn't flake off. You can buy these wires through fly tying shops. (Fishing)

Here's a link to Strada Sports and a manufacturer called Scale Productions. He has wheels and rims that are very good. It's what I use when I don't like the kit rims when I'm doing prototype cars and race cars. http://www.stradasportsstore.com/page86.html

Beautifully done kit. Excellent job on the paint and the detail.

Got a little more work done on the car. Got the interior primed and waiting for paint. The body is waiting for primer. The weather got a little nasty here; a little too much rain. Decided on using the Tamiya wing. Cut about 10mm off the end. Went through my parts box and added a digital gauge to the dash/steering column. Seatbelts were made with cloth tape and blue paint. Rims were primed and painted Tamiya's TS-14 and then sprayed with Alclad Polished Aluminum. They're a little too shiny for me so I'm thinking of spraying semi-gloss over the top.

Like what you've done so far. That's not an easy kit to assemble. Was wondering about the motor. Is it the kit motor or an aftermarket resin piece?

The problem is the labeling issue. It's about it being a lacquer without the proper warnings on the side. This happens every couple of years with paints, especially Tamiya. Probably won't have any shipments for quite a while until they get the new labels on.

Cox has sponsored almost all the Chapparels. Tamiya and Kyosho have sponsored mainly Japanese-run race teams, mostly Japanese touring cars and LeMans cars. There have been quite a few die cast companies sponsoring LeMans type cars. There's usually a direct relationship with the model company and the team they sponsor. They usually end up having a model or die cast of the car at some point down the line.

The other problem you might be having is the panel lines are too sharp of an edge which is making the white show through. If you take some sandpaper and just go along the edges of all the panel lines, you'll soften the corners up just enough so that the paint won't pull away from the edges.

Most likely Tamiya will not release it as a separate item. What you could do is try to contact Tamiya and see if they will sell you the photoetch. But I would not hold my breath. You could try a company like F1 Specialties. They've been known to come out with 1/12 P/E for Tamiya in the past. I haven't looked on their site in a long time plus they are rather expensive. Hope you have luck finding what you want.

The new rules for sports cars require them to have it. All P1 Prototypes be closed coupe. The fin is there for high speed stability. It's what you would see on the Indy cars in the U.S. It is also there to prevent the cars from flipping over when they spin at high speeds. Saw this happen at Le Mans a couple of years ago with the Peugeots.

Started working on the Scale Productions Panoz GT1. It is an older kit. Not real sure which version I want to do. I'm looking at after market decals. The kit decals are for the FIA version, the all white Blend 37 car. If I do this version, I want to do it as the Doc Bundy car which drove in the U.S., either that or the Visteon which is the all silver car. The kit doesn't have a whole lot of detail in the interior to which I'm going to have to add some electric boxes. There's quite a few pinholes in the body which I'm in the process of filling. Will get some updated shots as soon as I get stuff painted. Here's some shots of what's in the kit. The black rear wing is one from a Tamiya kit that I'm thinking about using instead of the kit's wing. This car was also known as the Batmobile as you can tell by the way the body looks.

Here's a link to Mulsanne Corner. He has some better pictures of the car. I don't know if anyone has noticed but it looks kind of like a modge podge of the R15 and the Bentley. http://www.mulsannescorner.com/newsnov10.html

The only issue I've ever had was with the Revell C6R Corvettes. And it was on the hood. That was right when Revell switched to the softer plastic. And I went a little heavy on the primer.

I use Duplicolor Primer Sealer. It's thinned out automotive primer. Works well on plastic and resin kits. You might want to give it a try.

There having the same problems they had a couple of years ago with labels. even thought they're an acrylic lacquer like their other spray paints. Kind of expect it to take a while.

This is funny since I just got back from being on the pit crew for a LeMons Race at Button Willow Race Track. I was working for cars #96 and #102. 96 finished the race and 102 did two laps before it had a catastrophic failure of the engine. Like the rules say, safety equipment is not included in the price of the car. They include brakes as part of the safety equipment so you can update your brakes but not suspension. But this is Lemons Racing so everyone "cheats" so you'll see a lot of add ons after the car goes through and passes tech. Another thing to consider is to make the car look like it's had penalties such as writing on the cars "I will not spin my car on the track." or have things welded to the roof of the car by the dreaded Archangel. People think this is a cheap race but it really isn't. It's an expensive race; a couple of thousand dollars a race per team. Can't wait to see what people build. Should be interesting to see the ideas.

If it is the factory color, it is Mako Blue. It's very close to the Gulf Blue. As far as trying to get it, it's a brand new color and it may not be available yet. But I would try Jameston at Scale Finishes. He might be able to get a good match for you. Aston Martin is usually very tight lipped about their color codes.

You should be able to find a nail gun compressor for under $70. Just make sure it's an oiless compressor. Try to find one with a decent size tank so that way the compressor isn't on very long. There's really no quiet compressor when it's running. I would try places like Harbor and Freight. They usually have inexpensive compressors which should last 5-6 years before the motor burns up. That's with frequent use. But at the prices they have, it's worth it.

Looking good. It's going to be an interesting build of an interesting car with the modifications you're planning to put on. Can't wait to see the motor in the car.