jaymcminn

I'm glad the taillights say "Viper" because the rest of the car says "Hot Mess".

The irony is that he got rid of the huge REAL exhausts coming out of the rocker panels!

Thanks! I'm looking forward to my scale build. Biggest challenge is converting the early interior to the NA8 interior, especially since the 95M had low back buckets with headrests. I am probably going to base my build on the Tamiya Eunos because most of my collection is 1/24 and the '95 has a different engine to the '93 Revell kit so the Eunos being curbside doesn't bother me. I'll use the Revell mostly for detail bits. The Elan connection is a big point of contention in Miata circles. There are definite similarities in the suspension and chassis design. Early design proposals from Mazda's American design center looked more Italian than British. When the prototypes were being built in Japan Mazda had several "benchmark" sports cars they were driving as well, including a couple of Elans. The final models took on a lot of the Elan's styling characteristics, including the more rounded rear end and the "smiley" grille opening. What's funny is when you see a Miata parked next to an Elan you realize how tiny the Lotus is...the Miata looks huge next to it!

Thanks Jim! Rocker drains weren't bad, a little bit of sand/dirt came out but they weren't blocked. The rain rail drains were clean as a whistle. I unbolted the bottoms of the front fenders to get the crud that accumulates from the hood drains and there was a bunch of nastiness there, but no rust yet. (For those who aren't familiar, 1st generation Miatas are built with something like 13 drain holes to keep water from accumulating in the complex stamped steel structure and rotting the car from the inside out; keeping these drains clear is just one of the little maintenance tasks involved in keeping a 25-year-old roadster on the road) The auto trans is good, it allows the engine to rev out nicely and has a "hold" feature to keep it out of overdrive for in-town driving if you want to keep the revs up. If the auto trans ever craps out (unlikely, they're as tough as the engine) I might go manual swap. Good luck on your NA search, there are still good ones out there. As a previous owner you obviously know what to look out for, and I'm sure you'll find one!

Thanks man! She's an auto. I wasn't looking for an automatic, but the spec and condition were so good for the price that I couldn't pass it up, especially given that NA prices are starting to take off. The Merlot Mica is an amazing color that makes the '95M stand out from the rest of the pack. I was looking at NCs as well (never liked the NB generation) but I just can't pass up a nice set of pop-up headlamps! I'm already on Miata.net, same user ID over there. I used their buyer's guide when looking the car over (took a little chance on low idle issue, turned out to be dirty ISC, cheap fix) I'll probably cross-post my 1/24 '95M build over there as I'm doing it.

I decided to finally treat myself to something I've wanted for 30 years... '95 M Edition. One of 3500 made, only 89k miles. BBS wheels were standard, tan leather interior, one-year-only Merlot paint. Most of the heavy lifting (timing belt, cooling system, motor mounts, respray) was done by previous owner, leaving me with a lot of little jobs to do to bring her back to her former glory. She had been sitting for a while so brakes needed to be rebuilt. I will be fitting a new top at some point soon as well as new leather seat covers. THe original exhaust is a bit tired so it will be receiving a Racing Beat SS system. THe paint took about 5 hours to remove the worst of the scratches and swirl marks. I've also been going over the car from nose to tail tracking down missing push rivets, bolts and clips. It now feels solid and remarkably quiet for an old Miata. I added a twin-tone air horn to make sure texting SUV drivers are aware of my presence as well as E-code headlamps. She's insanely fun to drive (not fast, but fun) and it's the most engaging car I've ever driven. You have to be paying attention at all times behind the wheel, which is just how I like it! At the City Dock... What a rear end... Sleeping with the enemy... (pic taken in the garage at work) The 1:24 version will b e coming soon!

Love the Zonda. It started off Pagani's reputation for bonkers design and exquisite execution. Although Pagani does build the cars, the engines are Mercedes AMG V12s. I'd love for Aoshima to release a Zonda as a companion to the Huayra!

I can't buy into the hype around collector kits. The purpose of a model is to be BUILT. If you want a rare subject and the only way to get it is to build an older kit, have at it. If you want to use modern or aftermarket parts to create a more realistic version of the model you want on your shelf, knock yourself out. Kit instructions aren't scripture.

I've always used florist's foam, which works well except it generates dust after it's holed by enough toothpicks and skewers. A similar thread recently inspired me to pick up a cheap cat scratcher during one of my many, many trips to PetSmart. Cost about $6 and is basically the same idea as this only larger. I cut it down to 3 pieces and it's perfect!

Really beautiful Matt. The work you put into correcting the body is subtle but really paid off!

Alex Kustov taking on a crude transkit of one of the most beautiful cars ever built? Yeah, I'm following this one! I'm not sure about the Rosso Corsa, however... I'd love to see this car in Prugna!

Beautiful styling and immaculately executed. I love it!

I'm starting to get reference materials together for my 1/12 Airfix/MPC build. This would be a huge help... maybe if I slipped someone at Bentley a twenty?

My biggest inspiration was some of the unrestored cars in the Revs Institute museum locally as well as online pics of an unrestored 8C Touring in the Simeone Collection. I respect the work that goes into a total restoration but there's real beauty in the wear and patina of an original car and that's what I was hoping to replicate here. Thanks!

Thanks Bruce, I thought I might be going a bit heavy on weathering the individual assemblies but it came out exactly how I had it in my head when it started coming together. I built WWII planes for a while in the 90s before moving to cars and the weathering was my favorite part of military modelling... My next big-scale build will be similarly weathered with the added challenge of a fabric body. Those who know their pre-war cars probably know what this will be!

Thanks Matt. I can't wait to see how yours turns out... you do some amazing work!

Thanks Wayne!

The corrugated cardboard idea is genius... a cheap cat scratcher would work great for this. I've been using florist foam for mounting toothpicks and craft sticks but it produces dust. Going to give this a shot!

This was my big coronavirus furlough project- Italeri's new release 1/12 Alfa 8C kit. The kit is extremely well-detailed right out of the box., but I added floorboards made from thin aluminum sheet, some underhood details such as braided ignition wires, and lots of styrene rivets and bolts from Tichy Train Group. I also added safety wire using more Tichy bolts and silver-painted thread. The rear-view mirror was scratchbuilt. My concept for this build was to depict a weathered car a few years into its career, so I pulled out every trick in the book to represent a well-maintained but battle-scarred classic racer. Paint is Tamiya maroon over red oxide primer. To keep the shine down and give the finish a faded translucent look I applied mist coats without the final wet coats. Weathering was done with Testors acrylic and enamel washes and drybrushing with Tamiya flat aluminum and metallic grey. Final weathering was done with Tamiya's excellent Weathering Master powders. I used a crackle medium to represent the cracked leather on the seat. There is a WIP thread under the Road Racing WIP forum. This kit went together extremely well... my only fitment issues were due to some of the modifications that I did and were easily fixed. A lot of this kit goes together with screws and bolts. I did decide to skip the screws that attach the body to the chassis after a near-disaster with the first screw. On to the pics, and any questions or comments are welcome!

Under glass... When I had everything pretty much done I was going through my reference photos and saw a rear-view mirror on one of the Scuderia Ferrari cars I really liked. I scratchbuilt one out of a 1/24 license plate frame from the parts box as well as a mirror bracket from (I think) a 1/12 '67 Corvette, some styrene and Tichy Train bolts. The original. And the final result... And a couple of pics of this monster finished! Just noticed that I never cleaned the plastic out of the interior from the holes I drilled in the cowl for the mirror... it's done now. More pics in Under Glass soon!

Great color combination, Alex. That interior is incredible!

The motor meets the chassis... I decided to go with Tamiya Metallic Grey for the backing plates and brake and steering system instead of body color. Washes on these parts were done in Testors black enamel stain for its oily look. The stencil on the radiator is from the same set as the side stencils... 13 is definitely the best number for a racer. Since I took these pics over the weekend, I have basically buttoned this build up... finished pics, including one final detail I decided to add in literally when the thing was done, should be up tomorrow. As always, questions and comments are welcome!

Excellent work, especially given the Protar origin. Beautiful!

On to the motor... lots of finishes here. Engine/Transmission were airbrushed in Tamiya Metallic Grey, the intake manifold/supercharger were assembled as a unit and painted in Flat Aluminum. I used Testors black enamel stain for the weathering on the engine/transmission... it has an oily black look as opposed to the flat dark grey of the acrylic wash I usually use. I did use the acrylic wash on the intake manifold, steering box, etc. I also used the acrylic wash on the plated cam covers... I applied it thick and then used a makeup applicator to blot it off, leaving a nice discolored effect that matches up well with pics I've seen of these motors online. I picked out the bolts in Tamiya chrome silver. Ignition wires were done with braided cord. For the various data plates attached to the engine I decided not to apply the decals directly to the cam covers and engine mount, choosing rather to mount them to the same thin aluminum sheet I used for the interior floor before mounting them to the engine. This adds just a little dimension and detail. The air cleaner (brass bit at the front of the motor) can be built two ways- either a kit plastic part or a photoetched part with nylon screen. Neither of these is ideal, so I used the kit photoetched part under some fine brass screen that I formed over the plastic part to get the correct shape. One thing I have realized... when you take on a weathered build like this you have to commit to weathering pretty much every single part of the model. The old adage "treat every single assembly as a model in itself" really applies here. It's a challenge and it's a fun one. On to pics! Finally a quick stance check now that the backing plates are on the chassis. Four wheels touching... bingo!

Beautiful paint work. I need to try Zero paints at some point...