JHDrew

The body parts for the 2011 factory bike were so different from the 2009 and 2010 that I had to order a resing upgrade kit for it form K's Workshop in Japan. His kit also had wheel and exhaust updates as well as the complete set of decals for the 2011. Here are all the body pieces ready to go to the paint booth. And here are the wheels, frames and swing arms that nees some semi-gloss black After the wheels were painted and inserted in the tires I needed to replicate the soft compund rubber identificaion white stripe for five out of the six tires. A new no. 11 blade was mounted in a compas and used to score the stripes out of white decal film. I cut the stripes into three pieces for ease of the applicaiton to the tire. Thanks for looking in. More to come...

Sorry, I've been away from the hobby for a few years taking care of some personal stuff. Don't you hate when life gets in the way of the hobby? Anyway, I decided to jump back in with a three bike display of Ben Spies' milestones for Yamaha. His first MotoGP race on one, his first podium and his first victory. I also wanted to do some detail work but only what will be seen with the bodywork in place. This build has been going on for a few months now so bare with me as I insert the updates. It will kind of look like I'm some kind of speed demon but a lot is complete. So, to get started... Here is a selection of aftermarket parts and two of the three kits to be used. Each bike will have a different muffler with different heat traces I also had to kitbash one set of wheels to get the 2011 bike correct. I drew up the pattern in AutoCAD then transfered the image to ABS plastic with thinner on the copy paper. After that it was all cutting, grinding, gluing and putty work. More pictures tomorrow. Lunch break here is over.

DJ I've loaded some of the detail shots on my Fotki page. A lot of what I use is in Dave Friedman's book "Shelby's GT40's".

I had a few hours to kill tonight so I decided to replace what Trumpeter called a carburator. Four pieces of aluminum tube, plastic stock and epoxy putty plus the end pieces of the the kit part and well it's a start.

Sadly a lot of the details I added will not be seen but I can't seem to help myself. There's therapy. Thanks Cato

Sorry it's been awhile since I have updated this build. Been super busy at work and life threw a few curve balls at me. So, I have had a chance to do some more work and as I was looking over the kit engine vs. the real one I was overcome with the need to fix it So I decided to update it a bit and at leaste make it look closer to the original but still have the ability to easily install it in the kit. I completely redid the entire back half of the transmission. The end cover was replaced with a scratch built version since it was all wrong. I filled the inside of the transmission with epoxy putty before gluing it together. I ground away all the excess plastic on it in order to give the top & sides more roundness and depth. Added epoxy putty to the underside and revised all the fin work with plastic strip cut to fit. The axle connection needed to be rounded. I also added the starter motor mounting connection with epoxy putty. I also replaced the exposed starter gear. The backside and lower outside of the heads were filled with epoxy putty and then sculpted to more resemble the real ones but still accept the kit pipes. I added flanges to the oil pan and front plate. The intake manifold was modifed with the Dremel and epoxy putty as well. A lot of Evergreen hex rod was used to simulate bolt heads as well as some that I had on hand from Grandt Line. There's more there that I did but I will let the pictures do the talking. I needed to show the before priming pics along with the primered ones so you can see the amount of work that went into this. It's still way off from the real engine but it will still look much better in the kit. As my friend Randy Derr tells me. You just can't help yourself but it's good to know that it's only a disorder not a disease. Enjoy the pictures

It's all straight out of the box. The markings are all decals that came with the kit. The stripes and crosses could be masked and painted on yours. Doesn't someone make a sheet of crosses in that scale? The camo stripe work was done with a primary base coat sprayed on and three differen't shades dry brushed. The cross areas were masked for most of the operation. The final dry brush was done with everything exposed. I used a wide flat brush for it all. Take your time an work with almost no paint on the brush an you will get it done.

Nice! I like all the effort you are putting into the details. Keep it up.

Always wanted to build this one when I was a kid. A liitle more detail than I could have done back in the 60's. Also, I got a chance to see what I could do freehand with the Iwata. Enjoy Jim

Thought I might share a couple Edward 1/72 Fokker DR1's that I built a few years ago. One is with skin on and the other was a partial photo etch version without the skin. Enjoy. Jim

The whole nose tilts as part of the kit already. As far as making the spare tire cover hinges work, I have not decided yet but probably. You can see the spare either way you open it. At LeMans, during a pit stop, the pit crew were required to open the cover, pull the spare out, set it on the ground and then put it back in. Pretty screwy procedure.

My wifes hobby is making greeting cards with rubber stamps, paint and all kinds of do-dads. I was helping her out with some paint work on a card and noticed some glue she was using. It dried as clear as glass and was very glossy. I borrowed her bottle to test it out on some windshields and gage glass. Well, I got to say. Throw out your Micro Krystal Clear as this kicks it's a##. It has better adhesive properties and does not concave in a gage bezel. Best of all it's also water soluable. Here's the web page to order it. Stampin' Up Thanks, Jim

I worked some on the dashboard. The KA detail photo-etch dials are designed to be attached to the front of the kit dashboard after removing the kit bezels.. I decided that this didn't look that great. My plan is to drill out the kit dash openings inside the bezels and then afix the PE from behind. This will give the gages more depth. The back side of the dash needs to be thinned some after making the holes. I made the mistake of thinking I would use the PE to replace the dash air vents. News Flash! Don't bother. Unfortunatley I removed the kit air vents and had to fabricate my own out of sheet plastic. I would just leave the kit ones in place or clean them up a bit if I had it to do over. Here are the dash and the new air vents I made. It's ready for the black paint. More to follow next week on that. I also painted the wheels. I used Alclad II pale gold overall and fogged in Alclad steel in the center area. After that I did a light fog of Alclad Polished Aluminum on the outside edge. Still have to add the blue line decal and I am waiting on some proper size Good Year logos to show up in the mail for the tires. Renaissance of France offers a spare tire in resin. I used Tamiya Matt Black and a wash of Testors German Interior Black and then clear coated it with Tamiya Matt Clear. It's all one piece so things have to be masked. I shaved away the black portion where the blue line goes with the back side of a broken tipped Xacto blade and then hand painted the blue line on the exposed light colored resin. Hope you are enjoying the build. Until next week... Jim

Looking forward to the completed pix. Thanks for the tip on the tire letters. Jim

Thanks Pete Any reference shot is appreciated. Have a great weekend. Jim

Cato, Thanks for the input on the KA detai set. Kept wishing the grommets were smaller during the install I bought the KA kit when it first came out. I also had a feeling there were going to be issues with it. I will do what I can with it and of couse bail out where needed. I will continue to post the corrections & work arounds There is plenty of potential to make a great display piece. Contest piece? No way unless you rebuild most of it.

This kit has a bunch of flaws. I'm not going to do a total correction to it. I just want to do a clean build with what I have. Thanks for the input. Jim

Well, after warming up with a couple of shake & bake kits its time to get down to a little more challenging work. I have decided to tackle the Trumpeter 1/12th scale GT40 MkII kit with use of the KA Models full detail set. My plan is to do the gold number 5, third place finisher, at the 1966 LeMans 24 hour race. I see that there is another gentleman on the board that started his a while back, but Im going to post my build up too. I wanted to get the most tedious portion of the project out of the way first. The seats. KA Models provide some resin cast seats that have far too many bumps and wrinkles to represent a fairly new seat the GT40. The first thing I did was take down all the high ridges with small Dremel cutting tool. I still left some in but the seat doesnt look 50 years old anymore. Next I drilled the small location holes a little deeper for all 228 grommets. After that I used the Dremel and a 3/16 inch ball cutter to add a recess to each grommet location. Then I drew a line vertically between each hole with a 3/32 inch ball cutter to give it more depth. Finished it all up with sanding sticks and then shot them with Tamiya Matt Black spray. Dont forget to remove any mold release agents. The installation of the grommets started out to be very cumbersome so I had to figure out a way to do it a bit faster. The grommets come mounted on a sheet and are all self adhesive. The following is a little tutorial for anyone who plans on using the KA Models detail set. Here are the seats after the rework, clean up and paint. First, you will need a sharp toothpick, pointed tweezers and another blunt ended toothpick. Start by peeling back enough of the thick clear film to expose three rows of grommets and cut that portion of protective sheet away with scissors. Bend the coated sheet with the grommets on, in order to lift the edge of one off the sheet. Use the tweezers to remove that grommet. Keep cutting portions of the protective film away to expose three more rows as you finish. You can transfer the grommet down to the seat with the tweezers and use the pointed end of the toothpick in the grommet hole to align it in place. After its aligned, use the tweezers again to hold down the grommet and lift the toothpick away. Tamp down the grommet with the blunt ended toothpick. After all the grommets are in place I shot the entire seat with Tamiya Semi-Gloss Clear. This seals in the grommets and cuts down on the ultra bright chrome look they have. Well after about four total hours, and the help of the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club playing in the background to keep me motivated, heres the results. Its really not that bad once you find a rhythm. I hope the car looks a little like this when it's done.

Well, after warming up with a couple of shake & bake kits it’s time to get down to a little more challenging work. I have decided to tackle the Trumpeter 1/12th scale GT40 MkII kit with use of the KA Models full detail set. My plan is to do the gold number 5, third place finisher, at the 1966 LeMans 24 hour race. I see that there is another gentleman on the board that started his a while back, but I’m going to post my build up too. I wanted to get the most tedious portion of the project out of the way first. The seats. KA Models provide some resin cast seats that have far too many bumps and wrinkles to represent a fairly new seat the GT40. The first thing I did was take down all the high ridges with small Dremel cutting tool. I still left some in but the seat doesn’t look 50 years old anymore. Next I drilled the small location holes a little deeper for all 228 grommets. After that I used the Dremel and a 3/16 inch ball cutter to add a recess to each grommet location. Then I drew a line vertically between each hole with a 3/32 inch ball cutter to give it more depth. Finished it all up with sanding sticks and then shot them with Tamiya Matt Black spray. Don’t forget to remove any mold release agents. The installation of the grommets started out to be very cumbersome so I had to figure out a way to do it a bit faster. The grommets come mounted on a sheet and are all self adhesive. The following is a little tutorial for anyone who plans on using the KA Models detail set. Here are the seats after the rework, clean up and paint. First, you will need a sharp toothpick, pointed tweezers and another blunt ended toothpick. Start by peeling back enough of the thick clear film to expose three rows of grommets and cut that portion of protective sheet away with scissors. Bend the coated sheet with the grommets on, in order to lift the edge of one off the sheet. Use the tweezers to remove that grommet. Keep cutting portions of the protective film away to expose three more rows as you finish. You can transfer the grommet down to the seat with the tweezers and use the pointed end of the toothpick in the grommet hole to align it in place. After it’s aligned, use the tweezers again to hold the grommet down and lift the toothpick away. Tamp down the grommet with the blunt ended toothpick. After all the grommets are in place I shot the entire seat with Tamiya Semi-Gloss Clear. This seals in the grommets and cuts down on the ultra bright chrome look they have. Well after about four total hours, and the help of the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club playing in the background to keep me motivated, here’s the results. It’s really not that bad once you find a rhythm. I hope the car looks a little like this when it's done.

OK, after being away from the hobby for about two and a half years I decided to get back in slow. After going through the storage shelves I came across an old SMTS Lotus 56 in 1/43 scale. The kit decals were pretty rough so I ordered some decals from Mike at Indycals for both the car and the tires. After cleaning up all the soft metal parts I shot the whole thing with Tamiya white primer and wet sanded that with 3500 grit. I masked off the nose and then shot it with three coats of Tamiya Fluoresent Red. I created some white decals to lay down first before the 70's and STP's were done in case of ghosting through the white area. Other than the Indycals it's pretty much out of the box. Enjoy!

Durapore medical tape by 3M is the best fix for this. The weave is tighter than the sports tape. You can get it at any drug store.

I believe Gregg said that he heard a hi-detail one was going to be done, but couldn't say who.

I just wanted to let everyone know that our good friend Bud LeFevre passed away at 6:00 am e.t. today. Services have not been finalized but will be at Trilby United Methodist Church, 5918 Secor Rd, Toledo, OH 43623, 419-472-2103. Memorial Service is at 11:00am Saturday the 24th. Please lift up his wife Ginger and the rest of his family in prayer. Jim

I visited Bud yesterday in the ICU. He has been intabated and is on some pain meds so he fades in and out. Docs wouldn't tell me much. Keep him in your prayers as it doesn't look good. Jim

Will be there Pat. Have nothing to show as it's been a crappy year. The house will be open Friday night as well. Tony Packo's chicken chilli...