jaymcminn

You'll love the Tamiya Enzo kit. Just take your time and proceed with caution and you'll do fine. it's a very challenging but very rewarding kit. if you go to Alex Kustov's site at www.italianhorses.net he's built a couple of Enzos and details his building process very carefully.

The Fujimi Italia and Enzo are reasonably nice kits but not terribly complicated... both are curbside kits with engine detail mostly limited to what can be viewed through the clear engine cover. They build up into nice shelf models for an intermediate level builder. I wouldn't worry too much about availability... they're always available on EBay. Another excellent Italia kit is the Revell kit, which is a full-detail kit that is more readily available at a better price than the Fujimi. It was originally tooled by Revell Germany and is outstanding in pretty much every way.

Beautiful work so far. I have two of these kits... one came with the correct narrow body. the other with the Procar flares. It's pretty much a total crapshoot as far as what came in the box- I gather that ESCI's quality control might not have been the best back then. Looking forward to more of your build!

I'll play. Revell Ferrari 458 Italia- Spyder version. All it would require is the retooled body and engine cover, and it would sell massively well. I can't believe they haven't done it yet.

Nice, JC. Can't wait to see the pics in Under Glass.

Definitely going to be there. The turnout was excellent last time, the models were great, and the swap meet was really good too. See you next weekend!

BRE 240z for the win! My 510's gonna get a baby brother!

This is seriously nice. I know it will look good with the decals, but I would have a hard time covering up that perfect white paint. Excellent work!

Definitely. Not sure if I'm using the 14" big n' littles from the '73 or the 15" from the Cabrio. They'll either be red centers or the whole wheel painted red.

I decided to remove the oil cooler box from the '73 front fascia. Here's the stock part... after cutting out the box... and after being repaired with sheet styrene. Plans for this build include light blue paint with red Carrera stripes and wheel centers. The interior will be black with red plaid seat inserts and a scratchbuilt roll bar. I'm a little torn on going with the ducktail spoiler or the smooth engine cover... I might do both so I can swap them out!

One of the most popular trends in the Porsche world right now is to take a later-model first-generation 911 and modify it to represent one of the earlier-model cars before the big impact bumpers that started in 1974. The early-model (1965-73) cars are called "long-hood" cars because the 1974 impact bumpers necessitated a shorter hood and changes to the front fenders. This conversion is usually done with coupes and occasionally targas. Once in a while, however, somebody converts a Cabrio. Since Porsche didn't make a factory Cabrio until 1983, this represents a phantom body style. The idea is to take this... and modify it to look like this. The changes are subtle but they do make a big difference in cleaning up the 911's shape. I started with two Fujimi/Testors 911s, a '73 Carrera and the '85 Cabrio. The Carrera was a parts kit with a badly mangled bodyshell, but all the parts I needed were intact. Here's the stock Cabrio body... and the modifications done to backdate it to '73 Carrera spec.

Definitely the Lexus ES sedans or RX crossover SUVs. They're all over the place here, all driven by women "of a certain age" generally at about 5mph under the speed limit while the right blinker endlessly flashes...

The BMW 2002, DS19/21, and the p1800 (especially the ES shooting brake) would be instabuys for me. I can't figure out why Revell Germany hasn't kitted the 2002 yet... it's only the iconic German sports sedan that started the whole sports sedan genre. Maybe now that they've kitted a MKI GTI they'll get around to it. As for something iconic and funky I'd like to see a kit of, how about a Saab 900 Turbo SPG?

Cato, it's been a week or so since I checked in on this build and I can't believe how much progress you've made. Just amazing getting the body panels to fit as well as they do. The stance looks good, actually... it might be a touch low up front, but if anything that makes it look better!

Guess this got moved to Big Boyz. Back in your corner, you!

Thanks, guys! Bruce, this is the 1/12 scale kit. It measures about 15" when built. John, I really appreciate the comment... your Lotus 78 build inspired me to pull this one out of the "someday" pile. This was a really great kit, especially given that it was engineered some 40 years ago. This won't be my last 1/12 scale Tamiya F1 kit either... I have Niki Lauda's Ferrari 312t waiting in the wings. Next up, however, will be a few relatively easy 1/24 builds. It's been a while since I've done a "shelf model", and I have a few projects in mind.

I got a hold of a vintage Tamiya Driver Figure to go with this model. It is supposed to be a "generic" figure but really seems to be modeled closely on Fittipaldi. Here he is painted and decalled. And here are some shots of car and driver together... I played around with some filters here.

Here are some more pics... The tire decals are NOT easy on this kit- I ordered another set from Tamiya after botching the first ones. Turned aluminum valve stems are from RB Motion.

This is Tamiya's Lotus 72D in classic JPS (John Player Special) livery. This is the latest issue of the vintage kit, which includes a really nice photoetched fret with details like the radiator and oil cooler faces, racing harness, brake discs and fasteners. What it doesn't include is the JPS sponsor decals, which are apparently omitted these days due to the ban on tobacco advertising. Fortunately, the aftermarket has solutions... a Japanese company called F'Artefice provides an excellent set of replacement decals. Paint is Tamiya Black with Tamiya Gold accents. No clearcoat was used on the finish, which was polished out with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound and Polish. The engine bay responds really well to some fairly basic detailing. The clear lines are from the kit. Ignition wire is from an old USB cable, with the boots made from the too-thick tubing the kit provides for the wires. The battery was detailed and wired as well. The exhaust pipes were stripped and painted Alclad Chrome and heat-stained with Tamiya clear acrylics. PE hose clamps are from Tremonia. Up front, the kit tubing was used to plumb the master cylinders. Plastic bolt heads were used to detail the front suspension joints. The back of the dash was detailed with various colors of wire and cable... I couldn't find any really clear pics of the back of the dash, so I just tried to make it look good. I just realized I forgot the brace between the dash and the body... gotta add that! The printed racing harness is from the kit as well. It's really beautiful with the PE hardware.

I actually just finished this one up... got a little carried away and didn't update WIP pics. I'll get some good shots in the next day or two and post them up. This is a really impressive kit that responds well to some pretty basic detailing.

Meguiar's Ultimate compound followed by the Ultimate polish and a light coat of their High-Tech Yellow wax gives me excellent results. Not only on my models, but on my 1:1 cars as well. It's not cheap, but you absolutely get what you pay for!

That's... unexpected, to say the least. Very cool!

Harry, I've had this kit for years. I did the wheels first and put it back in the box for "later". Periodically I'll take it out, look at it, and put it back. One day... in the meantime I'll just have to ogle yours. At least I know you'll actually finish it!

So, I've definitely been busy on this one. Once I got paint and cleanup done, I was floored by how nicely everything goes together. Even an ancient kit like this one shows the characteristic Tamiya attention to detail that I've grown to respect over the years. Here's the engine most of the way through the assembly process, with the fuel lines already in place. The ignition wiring came out of an old USB cable and is the perfect diameter. I used the too-thick tubing that Tamiya would have you use for boot material! The intake trumpets were stripped and painted with Alclad, as were the exhaust collectors and pipes. I then heat-stained the collectors and pipes with Tamiya clears. With the exhaust and ignition wires in place... The header tubes were texture-coated with Make-It-Suede before being dusted with Aircraft Interior Black acrylic. This is a Testors color and is by far the best dirty black I've used. The transaxle was assembled with the PE brake disc faces.... ...and the two components were assembled, after which the movable suspension was added piece by piece. It's really fascinating as it all comes together. Next up will be assembling the monocoque and the front suspension... more pics soon!

Maybe if you don't get the plates and you take your model to a show you'll get a 1/24 scale ticket for improper registration?