Brendan

The car is almost done. That's if I don't break the rear wing again. I decaled and cleared the end plates on the wing and a little bit of dust got into the clear. Will have to do a little bit of sanding.

My brother's team was in that race. The car is a red Nissan 300Z with a rooster welded to the roof after the car spun out for the first time. The dreaded Archangel got them.

Unfortunately there's not going to be much out there for those kits. It's an unpopular scale for F1. If there is anything available, try F1 Specialties. If they don't have anything listed, contact to see if they know of anything that's out there. http://www.f1specialties.com/main/index.php

Got a little more work done. The color scheme is pretty simple. Mainly black and silver on the inside. The reference photos I have aren't very clear. On the dashboard, I ended up having to make my own gauge display from a silver decal I had. I also added a couple of photoetch pieces that are hardly noticeable. I'm planning on doing some wiring, but not a lot. Little yellowing on the clear parts. But it turned out decent after putting several coats of Future over. Tail lights were painted with Tamiya's transparent paints with a foil backing.

Had a day of decent weather a couple of days ago and was able to shoot the clear. Just need to wait for it to cure. Masked and painted the window. I wish they would have given a decal for this. Would have made my life easier. Taping the window took me about two hours. And I still had a little bit of bleed through under the tape. Luckily it didn't harm the vacform. All that's left is to paint the inside and fix my wing problem.

I've had good success bending plastic rod by placing it into a metal container of hot sand. But not so hot as to melt it. Once you start bending, it will cool down. Then you stick the rod back in the sand, repeating the process till it's the way you want. This also works well with metals. Of course, you heat the sand more. I heat the sand in a metal container in an oven. It keeps the heat for quite a long time so be careful. It's easy to burn yourself which I have done several times.

I use 3M tape that you can get from any automotive store that sells paint. They have a whole bunch of different sizes. The downside is it is expensive. $10 to $15 per roll. But there is quite a bit. A roll can last me 2-3 years. Here's a picture of what it looks like on my Mazda. I think it's 2.5 mm tape. They do make smaller.

Bob, thanks for the "heads up"... I remember some of the downfalls of the kit since this will be my second time building one. I did the German version the last time. A friend of my brother's who used to race an A4 took it from me. They do mention, though, in the instructions about some of the fit issues. The main problem that I had with the last build was the roll cage height, which had to be sanded down. There was also a fit issue with the front window and the dashboard. I wish more companies would make kits like this. One of my favorite racing series was the old Firestone Firehawk which was the U.S. equivalent of a touring car series. Had to be based off a production based car. Nova-SS, I'll try to get more pictures up in a day or so.

Have him order Tamiya's Clear TS-13 through Tamiya or a place like Hobby Link Japan. If it's shipped by UPS, FEDEX, or DHL, you won't have any problem. I get spray cans all the time from overseas through a package delivery service. The only thing that might happen is they may inspect the package, which would it delay delivery by about a week. I have also shipped aerosol cans to England with no problem.

While I'm waiting for the weather to get a little better to finish the Jag, I've started on the Quik Skins Audi. It's a rare kit. If you can find it, pick one up. I was able to get this at the Sacramento NNL from a good friend. I'm going to be using Scale Finishes Aluminum Silver Audi paint. In the kit you are able to do two versions. Either the BTCC or the German Touring cars. I'm choosing to do the BTCC. Clean casting of the body and two-piece chassis. I pinned the two-piece chassis with some brass rod. Left the rod a little long so I can get a clamp on it for painting. Outstanding two-piece roll cage. Rims and other small components painted with Alclad.

I've never had any real problems with Clearcoats yellowing on me. Tamiya's sometimes reacts with certain decals. That's why I test it on spare decals. I used the Floquil before Tamiya came out with theirs. I prefer the Tamiya's since it dries quicker. As for Future, I've never had very good luck with it in Oregon. Too much moisture in the air has a tendency to fog it. The reason why I'm clearing these decals is that they are not sticking too well. On top of that, my cars get handled quite a bit. The clear coat adds some protection to the decals.

Thanks for the comments. I'm just glad I didn't have any big paint issues with this kit. That's all I would have needed. This is the second time I've had issues with the decals for Studio 27 not liking Tamiya's Clear. It's usually with the older kits. I don't know who printed their decals, but I'm figuring with this kit these were decals that were left over since this was a limited reissued kit. Curt, good to see you at the show. You had some awesome models on display. Picked up a good kit at the Sacramento Show of Quik Skins Audi A4. Prepping that right now. I still need to finish the Mustang Trans-Am. That should be ready for decals in about a week or so.

With the new Viper coming out, it gives a good base to make the Woodhouse Viper that runs in the SPEED GT Series. The Corvette looks really good too.

I get mine through Great Models. You can often find it in places that carry model trains. If the place carries Testors Paints, they should be able to special order it since Floquil is part of Testors. Here's a web site for Great Models. Hope this helps. http://www.greatmodels.com/ http://www.greatmodels.com/~smartcart/cgi/...m_num=FLO110004 The prices seem to have gone up quite a bit since the last time I bought it. They have it listed as just under $5. I'm sure if you shop around, you can find it for cheaper.

Finally got the decals on. Talk about a "pain in the butt"...when they reissued the kit, I don't think they printed new decals for it. The decals had no sticking ability whatsoever. Got them all down and did the cuts for the side Bud Light decals. Will need to do some touch up painting on the blue in a couple of spots. Got the side dive planes on the front. There was some mis-sizing of a couple of the larger decals. But not too noticeable. Waiting for the weather to get a little better before I shoot the clear. Shot a test spray over some of the red striiping to see if Tamiya's Clear would work. It immediately ate the decal. So I'm going back to my good old standby which is Floquil Crystal-Cote. Here's the pictures of the car before clear is put on.

The stuff I use is from Floquil. It's called Crystal-Cote #F110004. I haven't had any problem putting in over the top of different types of paint. The only time I've had a bad experience is over enamal silver and it tended to take off the shine from the silver. The downside to it is that it does take a long time to cure. I haven't had any yellowing problems with it. I mainly use it for when I'm shooting over the top of decals that are very sensitive. And it doesn't harm the decals. Usually you can find a 1 oz. jar for under $2. I can usually spray 4 or 5 1/24 scale models with one bottle.

I think your engines leaking oil. Might be a gasket problem. Great job on it.

Well, started putting on the decals last night. To my surprise, the red striping doesn't fit. So I ended up painting it on. I used TS-8 and airbrushed it. Right when I was finished painting it and was about ready to clean my air brush, the power went out so it was extremely dark. My stumbling around with my gloves and respirator on trying to find a flashlight. The paint did turn out well. I've already started putting on the main decals and will get pictures up soon. That's if I don't run into any more problems. I had an incident with the rear wing, having to repaint it.

The reasons for the big differences between the two cars was a rule change. The rules used to be that the car had to run the same tub and roof line as well as the doors had to be off the production car. Later on they changed it so only the tub and roof line had to be off the production car.

Between my going to a show this weekend and two days of traveling, I figure two weeks is about right. I still have to do some small detail painting and have to let that dry. I'm also a little hesitant on the main decal on the side. I have to cut it to fit the radiator scoops on both sides of the car. I figured I would have been done with this car a week ago, but I keep starting on other kits, like the Mountain Dew Trans-Am Mustang.

I heard the same thing you did about the kit. Tamiya does this quite a bit with a lot of their Formula 1 kits. They make it a generic car so people can modify it to the right race they want. This is my kit that I did with after market decals with the Marlboro on it. Pretty much box stock except for the decals. I'll see if I have any other references on the car in my books.

Very nice job on the two kits. Was wondering about how good is the kit for engine detail on the Corolla. Is it a full or half engine?

Got the car painted. Used Tamiya's TS-26. But I had a funny thing happen. Brand new can and the white yellowed quite a bit on me. It turns out Tamiya had a bad batch of paint. Luckily I had another can. Ended up spraying the bottom of the car with Tamiya's TS-29. Then looking at other reference photos, it turns out I need to do a small line right in front of the front wheels in black. Will end up doing that tonight. Looks like the only thing I need to do now is put on the decals. Hopefully I'll get that done in the next couple of weeks.

I didn't get any good shots of the interior of the Corvettes because of the way the pit structure is at Laguna. It's like Formula 1 pits for some of the teams. And it's harder to get access to the cars. I almost always wait till they get lined up to go out on the track to get shots. As for finding references, it's either this month's or last month's Corvette magazine had a really good article on the GT2 car. If you can't get it, let me know. I might be able to pick up one.

I was in the pits when they went out but I didn't see the 2A go out. Though I guess it did go out.