jaymcminn

Very cool. With the new proportions it"s begging for a rear/mid engine layout!

Great work so far, I don't think I've ever seen the 1/16 F40 built up. The detail you've added in is excellent, and I think blue is an excellent choice for the F40. I could see this looking really good in Tamiya Mica Blue!

Thanks guys, it's this stuff: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FY5HCW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It's always cool when you can repurpose something that isn't specific to our hobby with good results!

Latest update... I finished the instrument panel and the firewall. Instrument panel detail is very nice, with excellent decals under clear lenses. I used Molotow Chrome to highlight the instrument bezels. The firewall was painted in Tamiya Gunship Grey . Depressions were washed with a black wash and highlights were drybrushed and then everything was blended with gunmetal Tamiya weathering powder. Next came the safety wire on the removable body panels... I used square-head bolts from Tichy Train Group and silver cotton quilting thread to closely approximate the look of the fasteners and safety wire seen on the 1/1 cars. If it was perfectly accurate the wire would pass through the bolt heads instead of under them, but I wasn't able to figure out a way to make that work without driving myself completely nuts. I could never have drilled all of these holes without the Tamiya Handy Drill I purchased for this project... it's the perfect tool to drill several dozen little holes in plastic without causing any damage to either the kit or yourself. I can't recommend it enough. I installed the firewall and instrument panel, which involves adding the tubes that run from the instruments and ignition to the engine. The tubing supplied with the kit was hopeless, but I had some better-quality stuff in the parts box. Body shell is done except for a few details that'll go on later... on to the motor next!

Your work on this kit is fantastic. I built mine in yellow with a French blue stripe a few years back. This kit was probably the most enjoyable experience building a model I've ever had... It goes together so well and looks amazing when done right, as you have with yours. Awesome!

What a beautiful build of one of the most iconic Ferraris. Thanks for sharing it!

The crackle finish is cool but a little unpredictable. Thin coats give you finer cracks, which would work best in 1/24, but if you go too thin the cracks won't happen at all. And of course it's tough to see them at all until the final paint coat and weathering so you aren't sure what you've got until the final step. In addition the finish is extremely fragile, which works out well if you've got the right base color under the crackle medium because anything that flakes off will show more of your base leather color. I'm looking forward to playing with this stuff on future builds, because I can see lots of uses for it... checked and peeling lacquer or clear coat, rusting steel, etc.

Thanks guys! I've done a rat rod or two in the past, but this is the first time I've tried for that balance of weathered and maintained that you see on old race cars. I've started the process of adding the fasteners and safety wire to the body... pics to come soon. It's pretty tedious work, but the fiddly bits are kind of my favorite part of a build like this.

I like Plastruct Bondene for the bond strength and how quickly it sets, but I use the Model Master stuff in the applicator bottle if I need a couple of seconds before the cement evaporates to join my parts together.

Can't wait to see your touch on this one Alex. I'd love to find one of these kits for a reasonable price someday.

The scale tells the story here. I'm guessing AMT reboxed one of the motorized Japanese kits or possibly even an Airfix kit. I'd go with the whole gutted interior theme and do a LeMons racer or something. Have some fun with it.

New update... first some better shots of the completed front and rear suspensions. I will say that this thing is going together wonderfully... the detail is a little on the primitive side, but it looks the business with a little work. Next I decided to tackle the seat... this is probably the biggest downfall of this kit. It's featureless and lacks any sort of texture. I was limited in terms of how much I wanted to mess with this piece because I'm guessing Italeri's parts replacement program isn't exactly robust, so I didn't want to do anything too drastic. I found a crackle medium on Amazon, applied it over primer and let it sit overnight... Followed by an airbrushed coat of Model Master Acryl Leather... And the final product after a dark gray/brown wash. The result is a nicely cracked leather, but not overdone. I applied a thicker coat of the meduim on the driver's side, which produces more and bigger cracks where you would expect them. Next I sanded the fuse box bases and wires off of the firewall and added scratchbuilt fuse boxes as well as drilled holes for the wiring... much better than the molded in detail. Finally I've started on the engine... more Tichy Train bolts for the transmission bell housing. To be fair, they'll be pretty hard to see once everything's together, but I'll know they're there. That's all for now, more to follow soon!

I love the color combo. I have the 1/24 in the stash. Got a laugh out of the license plate too. Great work!

Thanks Scott! I'm thinking about picking up the Mefistofele at some point. I know the Mefistofele and the Fiat 806 are ex-Protar kits and this is a new tool (although I'm wondering if it might have been a Protar kit under development when Protar shut down, it just doesn't feel like a state-of-the-art new kit) but the Mefistofele seems like a pretty fun challenge. I will say that the Alfa is going together brilliantly, but Italeri is pretty stingy with the screws, nuts and bolts. Don 't lose any, because you don't get extras!

That does look awesome. I'm actually going to try a crackle medium by Ranger. The results I've seen look good and if I don't like the results it won't attack the kit plastic. I'll post up some trial pics in the next few days.

I'd love a Ponton Mercedes. A Heckflosse (fintail) would be nice as well.

I'm a modest watch collector myself (about 15 watches, some very good vintage pieces, mostly automatics) and even if I had 280,000 spare dollars this monstrosity would never come anywhere near my wrist. I appreciate the technical achievement but just because you can do something doesn't mean you should!

Whoa. That is exactly what I was looking for. Did you airbrush or brush the Tamiya acrylic? Was the paint still wet when you hit it with the dryer? I see that working really well with a tan base coat and a leather/brown top coat for the effect I want. Great paint on that Chevy (and the coffin, too)!

I'm going to play around with what I've got around the house to see what I can get to happen. It's weird trying to intentionally screw up a paint job. Thanks for the tips and keep 'em coming!

The holes in the body that don't have rivets in are going to have fasteners for removeable panels with safety wire. I actually kind of like the sink marks in the body at the rear since the aluminum bodywork on the real thing isn't exactly laser-straight. I next got the wheels together. The wheels build up from three layers of spokes, and look good. The spokes are a bit thick, but I'm not too concerned. Detail is nice with valve stems, and the kit tires are excellent. The knockoff, like pretty much all the kit chrome, was washed with brass acrylic and Testors acrylic black wash to replicate the look of patina on chrome with the brass starting to show through. Weathering on the wheel itself was done with the black wash and Tamiya weathering powders. The chassis went together very well and I was faced with the most fiddly job of the build... the friction shocks. These build up like the real thing, with all of the arms and friction plates sandwiched together and secured with screws and bolts. This is what you start with... And this is the end result. Attached to the rear axle... The chassis as it stands now with the painted and weathered body sitting on top. The number is a stencil from a company called Orlee. There was an actual car that ran this number, but this isn't it. I just thought it looked cool. Next up was the interior floor, which needed some help. I drilled out the side rails and used aluminum printer's sheet for the floor panels. I embossed the lines into the sheet using a pizza cutter and straightedge. I then scuffed the floorboards and aplied a thin wash of Tamiya Metallic Grey.

Now that I have some extra time on my hands for a while, I decided to get stuck in on a big, involved project... Italeri's new release of the Alfa 8c 2300 Monza. My idea for this build was a weathered, slightly beat-up car a few years into its career. I didn't want to build any specific car, instead taking inspiration from a little bit of everything. I decided on Tamiya TS11 Maroon as the color, over their red oxide primer. First was to sand the awful rivet blobs off the body to be replaced with .040 plastic rivets from Tichy Train Group.

Building the Italeri Alfa 8C kit now. The idea is a weathered car a few years into its racing career. The problem is the seat... it has no sort of detail or character whatsoever. I can do a decent faux finish to give it a worn leather look but I'd like to simulate cracking in the leather. Any ideas?

So you left those bunnies alone and they multiplied, huh? Great work on those builds!

Least favorite would be sanding ejector pin marks and filling/sanding sink marks. Most favorite is pretty much everything to do with finishing/polishing and all the fiddly little detail stuff.

Scale Hobbyist has the new 1/12 Italeri Alfa 8c for a better price than any other US vendor. Shipping, especially given the size of the thing, was very reasonable and I got it in less than a week. I'd use them again.