jaymcminn

This is some next-level OCD stuff. I'm getting a headache just looking at that engine bay. Awesome work!

Thanks guys! I wanted a cool vintage vibe for this model- '50s Porsches look best in muted colors and I think the dark grey suits the lines really well. Thanks David! The EM Porsche 356 kits are really impressive pieces of engineering, They look a lot more intimidating than they actually are... it's really down to test fitting EVERYTHING. The only issue I found was that the "frunk" insert needed to be sanded down to match the curvature of the body, which allows the interior tub to fit properly and the front end to sit lower. Other than that it's a seriously nice kit without the stance/track issues that plague the 911 kits. I'm probably going to build my coupe as a slightly ratty, lowered "outlaw" style car. Of course, with that Carrera engine, that would be one expensive outlaw...

This is the Fujimi Enthusiast Porsche 356 Speedster Carrera. I've built my share of the Enthusiast kits, so I was pretty sure I knew what to expect... lots of parts, lots of detail, dodgy fit, and plenty of surprises, both good and bad. There is a large number of building options as well... top up or down (with side curtains and windows for the up-top) as well as a tonneau cover and optional pieces for a 1957 or 1958 car. The body shell took a bit of massaging to get it to look right... it was a bit "lumpy" around the rear quarters and had some pretty wicked mold seams to deal with. In addition, the bulkhead of the front trunk needed a bit of sanding to get the front end down and the interior to fit right. The stance looks great, but I would have liked the front to sit just a little lower... maybe when I build my coupe kit somewhere down the road. The engine is truly beautiful... it's a shame you can see so little of it through the tiny engine cover. I wired the twin-plug Carrera unit and scratchbuilt the twin coils. Interior detail is fantastic, but the stamped detail on the floor pan posed a problem for flocking... I wound up scratching floor mats from Evergreen v-groove siding. I used some Scale Motorsports Gullwing plaid decals for the front buckets. Most of the chrome pieces, including bumper guards, hubcaps, and headlights, were chromed using my then-new Molotow chrome pen. Exterior paint is Tamiya Gunship Grey with Testors One-Coat Clear. Interior color is Tamiya Dull Red. Flocking is custom-mixed to look like the "salt-and-pepper" German carpet of the period. So, downsides of the kit? Well, I wish the opening panels fit better. It's not terrible, but the engine cover still doesn't fit as well as I'd like despite a lot of massaging. The decals, however, ARE terrible. If I could get a hold of P/E emblems (and believe me, I looked!) I'd replace them in about 10 seconds. The upsides are obvious- the proportions, overall look, and detail are excellent. In addition, despite the complicated and fiddly nature of the kit, it was just plain FUN. Here's a better look at the interior... What's in the frunk? The mat the tools and jack are resting on is more of the Evergreen V-groove and the tire hold-down strap is an extra P/E bit I had lying around. Never throw anything away, kids... I wish I had better engine pics... Thanks for looking, and as always, questions and comments are welcome!

Looks good regardless of the problems. I'm pretty leery about jumping into this one...it looks overly complicated and pretty tough to get all the opening panels to fit. Wild color!

I took about a year off from building before returning to the workbench. When I jumped back into the hobby, I picked something that would be a fun and quick build- Tamiya's Abarth 695 Esse Esse. Of course I'm terrible at leaving things alone, so it wound up being somewhat more involved than a quick box-stock build of a simple kit! The kit itself is fantastic, with the only flaw (in my mind, anyway) being the separate fender flares that have to be molded in. They required a little bit of finessing to sit flush with the body and a thin coat of filler to blend in perfectly. I then started on the one ambitious modification to the kit... the propped engine cover that is a trademark of many 695s and really gives the little car an aggressive look. The propped engine cover started out as a way to improve cooling for the air-cooled 2-cylinder, but was soon discovered to act as a rear wing, adding stability and improving traction. The props were scratchbuilt from styrene rod and sheet... they look a little "chunky" but that's largely due to the diminutive size of the model. I also scratchbuilt an intake manifold for the engine and mounted an oversized Weber carb with aluminum intake trumpets. Just for kicks I used medical tape to mimic exhaust wrap... since the engine is permanently visible, I wanted to make sure it had plenty of visual interest! Paint color is Tamiya AS-5 Luftwaffe light blue... it's a pretty close match to the Abarth blue on the box art model. A couple of coats of my preferred Testors Wet-Look clear added a nice shine. I polish out my finishes with Meguiar's Ultimate compound and polish- they work great on my 1:1 too! The Tricolore roof insert was painted in Tamiya Bright Red, Pure White, and Racing green. Roundels and fender flags were from a VRM decal sheet. Wheels were painted in aluminum metalizer and detailed with The Detailer black wash. Bolts were picked out in Testors Silver enamel. The interior was left stock, with the addition of custom-mixed flocking in a dark blue-grey and Scale Motorsports clear/black plaid upholstery decals over red seat inserts. I'm on a bit of a plaid seat kick lately... A better view of the engine bay. Lots of P/E bolt heads. Overall, this was a great little slump-buster!

Beautiful, super clean buildup of this model. I have the Charleston sitting in my stash waiting patiently... I only hope it turns out nearly this nice!

Very nice work, especially given the challenges you faced with the A-pillar. I'm actually working on mine now (silver blue with navy interior... I'm using the Scale Motorsports plaid upholstery decals and the HRM Rudge wheels) and am treating the body like it's made of eggshells! I see lots of test fitting in my future. The color combo you picked out is perfect!

Thanks everybody! I love taking on a challenge like this one once in a while... it's really satisfying to work through the issues of the kit to unveil what the designer had in mind in the first place. It can be frustrating at times ( I actually walked away from this one for about 6 months after the initial chassis mockup and modifications) but the results are really worth it! Thanks Dann! I'd love to see a full-detail Series 1-3 Giugaro car... I'll probably break down and buy the Fujimi curbside kit at some point. I'm with you on building unique and unusual subject matter. I love a nice '32 Ford or tri-five Chevy as much as the next guy but I like some variety in my display case! I can't wait to see your Esprit up here and you can always PM me if you have any questions or get stuck!

This is the "300 Sport" issue of Monogram's Lotus Esprit Series 4. It's an interesting kit... it's like the Morton Grove boys wanted to compete with the Fujimi Enthusiast and Tamiya kits of the time. The molded detail is nice, the parts count is high, and it has a lot of forward- thinking engineering (windows that mount from outside, for example). Unfortunately, none of it fits together very well. One of the best things about the internet is the ability to see a lot of builds of a kit you're interested in, which made me realize that the stance is particularly tough to nail down on this kit... most buildups I've seen tend to sit way too high and with a nose- up stance that ruins the lines of the car. Extensive test fitting showed that the front spindles needed to be repositioned and a lot of work needed to be done to bring the chassis down on the interior tub. I also trimmed the rear springs and replaced the inboard rear discs with outboard ones. Even with all the test fitting I was continuously having to tweak things as every single assembly step kept trying to push the ride height up! In addition, this kit does NOT build an accurate Esprit 300 Sport- the ruched leather interior is a carryover from the earlier Esprit Turbo release and does not reflect the lightweight racing buckets of the 300. The 300 has a prominent cross brace in the engine bay that isn't reflected in the kit. In the end, I decided to keep the inaccuracies as they were... in my mind, it's an earlier Esprit Turbo with the 300 bodykit on it. I stripped the terrible "satin chrome" parts and refinished the beautifully-molded OZ wheels in Alclad Polished Aluminum. The clear roof panel and rear windows were tinted with Tamiya smoke. The paint is Tamiya Mica Red over white primer and the interior is Tamiya Gunship Grey with a custom-mixed light grey for accents. Flocking is Ken's light grey. On to the pics! One of the best uses I've found for the Molotow chrome pens is for reflectors for headlights and taillights. The rear bumper took a LOT of finessing to get to fit right. Panel lines were washed with a mixture of red and black acrylics. The engine bay detail is fantastic, as is the interior with that '80s fantastic leather! The tinted glass looks great against the bright Mica red. I'll definitely be using that color again! Overall, this was a rewarding and challenging build that I'm glad is in my case as opposed to my workbench. Thanks for looking!

Thanks guys! I'll be posting up several other builds I've completed over the last few months during the coming days. I finally stepped back from the work bench long enough to take some pictures!

Here's the engine bay with the Empi-esque twin Weber setup. A couple of shots of the interior- love those plaid seats! This was one of the most fun projects I've ever completed, and I couldn't be happier about how it turned out.

If I were going to build a 1:1 Karmann Ghia, this is how I would do it... low (but not too low) and sitting on some well- chosen Fuchs wheels. Paint is Tamiya Dark Yellow and Black under Testors One Coat clear. Interior is Testors MM Leather with Scale Motorsport plaid upholstery decals. The carbs are AMT Webers with scratchbuilt linkages and manifolds and the Fuchs wheels are 15" pieces from a Fujimi Enthusiast kit... I also adapted the hubs and disc brakes from the Fujimi kit. I narrowed and lowered the suspension all the way around to get the wheels to tuck in nicely. Front seats are early Porsche 911 units and the steering wheel is a Porsche 356 Speedster Nardi wheel. I'm particularly proud of the luggage rack... it's scratchbuilt from Evergreen styrene and wood veneer and painted in Spaz-Stix chrome. Even with all the mods, the Tamiya Karmann Ghia just falls together and was a real delight to build! The color looks a little more green in photos than in person, but it has a great retro feel to it. Wish that engine cover fit a little better... Here's a better shot of the luggage rack. I might add some P/E screws to the slats. This was actually rack #4- good thing styrene's cheap!

Beautiful work, Matt. I'd love to get my hands on one of those coupes to go with my Spyder. The semi-competition look with the bumper delete and mesh grille suits the coupe lines perfectly, as do the Dunlop wheels. Good to see you back at the bench!

Great work so far. I have one of these (and the p/e set) that I have been waffling back and forth on between the Martini livery and a simple red paint job like the prototype car. Can't wait to see how yours turns out!

What a beauty. I love those old big-scale Tamiya kits and you did justice to this one. I have the 934 sitting in the box just begging to be built... your 935 is kind of starting up that itch again!

I've found myself using mine a lot. I ordered the 1mm size, but can definitely see myself using the 2mm size for larger areas. The finish is closer to kit chrome than I've ever gotten from Alclad or Spaz-Stix, but it is pretty fragile. Like most chrome paints, it doesn't like any sort of clear coats either. I've actually used it to go over bumpers I did with Alclad and wasn't too happy with. The ease of use is what is truly mind-blowing, however. It doesn't need a special base coat, can be used over flat paint on interiors, and flows out seamlessly on larger areas once you get used to laying it down wet. I'm sold!

Sheer randomness. I'll buy a model, let it gather dust for a few years, and finally get a wild hair and build it. The Porsche 356 Speedster I just finished is an example of one of those. Sometimes it's a case of buying a kit and starting it the same day... my previous build was the AMT Sunbeam Tiger, which I finished within about a month of buying it. (Pics of both soon... Windows 10 install bricked my built-in SD card reader and I haven't gotten around to buying a new one yet!) I like having a big stash of kits on hand so I can build what I'm feeling at the time. Next one will be the Aoshima Pagani Huayra... or maybe the Hasegawa Lancia 024... that Ferrari f50 won't build itself, though...

Great work Geoff. Love that color combo, and your photography really shows off your skills. Just got my Molotow Chrome pen... that thing is amazing!

Grandma's going to be pissed that her Altima doesn't have lights anymore.

Beauty. The color is perfect and your work is top notch... in fact, I've finally decided to get started on my 356 Speedster now that you're finishing your Cabrio. I just ordered one of those Molotow markers... any tips on using them?

This is soooo cool. I love the exhaust and the projector lights. Awesome!

Beautiful work. Your decal work and detailing is really bringing the generally so-so Fujimi kit to life. Well done!

Sweet deal on that Scirocco! I'm kind of planning on using the US release Revell Rabbit for this conversion and ordering up some of Clearly Scale's engine parts and wheels. I like the Golf GTI's decal sheet more, but not enough to justify cannibalizing an expensive kit. Good luck on your project!

Any thoughts on swapping the superior-looking engine, engine bay and chassis from the Revell Golf/Rabbit into the AMT Scirocco? I know there's a 1/24 to 1/25 scale difference between the kits, but does anybody have any idea on the actual dimensions? Anybody try it yet?

That's like finding a real one in a barn for $10,000! Great job!