jaymcminn

The Hazards of Love is kind of a litmus test for Decemberists fans, in my opinion. It's a pretty challenging album in a lot of ways and it took me a while to wrap my head around it... I mean, it's a rock opera. With a Fairy Queen. And a dead children's chorus. And a guy that turns into a deer. And everybody drowns at the end. It also rocks harder than anything else they ever did, and the singer who does the Queen' s voice has the sexiest voice ever. It's not my favorite of theirs, but it's an interesting experiment by a band that rarely plays it safe. I like it better than The King Is Dead, but not quite as much as Castaways and Cutouts.

LOVE the Decemberists. Picaresque and The Crane Wife are two of my desert island albums, but they're all great. Colin Moloy' s voice might be an acquired taste, but so was Bob Dylan's, or Janis Joplin's, for that matter.

I don't much care for it either... I'm sure the craftsmanship is excellent, but the boattail roofline doesn't work with the "razor edge" first-gen styling at all. It looks alright from some angles but is a hot mess from others. The details are fussy as well... I especially don't like the chrome rear brake vents or the big chrome whatever between the tallights. The interior is interesting- I see a lot of Pagani influence in there. I'm sure it has more presence in person, and I respect the owner for his determination to actually drive it after the show circuit, To each his own, I guess, but that's not how I would have built it!

Since I tend to build mainly exotics, the challenge is to stay away from the "expected" colors... Rosso Corsa for Ferraris, silver for Porsches, etc. This makes me do more research to come up with cool and unusual colors for my models. As far as favorite colors goes, I'm partial to dark blue and bright green, such as the Tamiya green pearl on the Porsche 911 in my avatar pic.

I couldn't bring the same stuff to the same contest over and over again. I'd hate to be known as a one-trick pony. That having been said, a display-only table for previous winners would be a great idea to expose some new attendees to some great models.

This. Masking with BMF and airbrushing the black trim is by far the best way I've come across to handle this chore. It seems like extra work at first, but there's no better way to reproduce smooth black trim without wavy edges or brush strokes. And I've tried black BMF... I think the batch Mike used on his Subaru model (nice work, by the way!) was the exception, because I don't know of anybody else who has had any luck with the stuff.

I used to love the Evercoat, but it costs a fortune and I never, even when I was building customs and using what I thought was a lot of it, came even close to using a whole container before it went bad. The Bondo 2-part glazing putty is a lifesaver and works fantastically well. There's a learning curve due to the thinness of the putty (multiple coats are often necessary) but it works better than anything else I've tried. I don't think it's any cheaper on a per-ounce basis than the Evercoat, but in the quantities most modelers need it makes more sense.

I always prefer to have at least one good photo of the built model on the box. Often you can gauge a lot of things (ride height issues, poor parts fit, etc.) from the built kit and avoid some of the pitfalls the box-art builder couldn't.

When I built planes, I would hit my flat finish with Glosscote before applying decals. After the decals had set I would hit it with another coat of Glosscote to seal them and prevent silvering before applying Dullcote. I always wound up with a perfectly flat finish where the decals were almost indistinguishable from the paint.

The 599 GTO's roof is actually painted in a matte gunmetal from the factory. This is a fantastic build... I built mine before the Hobby Design wheel/tire/brake set came out and I'm thinking I have to retrofit mine with these parts... they really make a difference. The paint on this car is really amazing, too!

I had the pleasure of seeing this work of art come together over the better part of the last year. There are NO shortcuts on this beauty. Even so, I wasn't prepared for how incredible the finished model looks... amazing work, Tim! (now get back to work on that Ford GT!)

Pretty much all of the Revell of Germany exotics have ride height issues. I'm in the process of building the Revell Ferrari 575 Superamerica now. The kit is pretty nice overall, but the ride height is atrocious- there's probably 8 scale inches between the top of the tire and the wheelwell on the box art model. In addition the front track is waaay too wide, which makes the kit wheels look more undersized than they actually are. It took some fairly major surgery, but I was able to get the ride height down to stock spec and tuck the tires up where they belong. The wheels even look pretty much in-scale now that the car sits right!

Recently I switched from my old Paasche VL to an Iwata Revolution gravity-feed. As much as I love the new brush, I think I'd like something that's more of a "blunt instrument" that can handle a little more volume when painting bodies and interior tubs. I'm looking at this Master airbrush from TCP Global...http://www.amazon.com/Master-Airbrush-All-Purpose-Precision-Dual-Action/dp/B0026SHUMA/ref=pd_sbs_ac_6 . I like the idea of a trigger airbrush and the price seems right for what I need. Does anybody have any experience with this brush or trigger-type airbrushes in general?

Excellent, Matt. Can't wait to follow along with these two. I've never thought about doing simultaneous builds before (I have enough trouble getting ONE off my workbench sometimes) but you really make it work!

Black primer will probably create a slightly darker brown. Keep in mind that the Root Beer Brown is a custom-style paint with very large gold metalflake... great for a 70s style hot rod, maybe not so much for a replica-stock build. Definitely spoon test before applying.

Nice to see one of these rare birds being built up. I've always thought I'd like to do one of these using the Minicraft flathead and steelies. Looking really good!

I start off with a red-brown base color, such as Testors Acryl Red Earth. I then mix some black into the base color and dry-brush the dark "grain". I finish up with a coat of Acryl Clear Orange to blend the colors and add some depth. It's actually a pretty quick and easy process. Thanks!

Family Hobby Center near downtown is my LHS. It's been there for 40+ years. Recently they remodeled and doubled the size of the store in the process. It's a very good store overall except for their steadfast refusal to carry Tamiya paints. There's also Paradise Hobbies about half an hour away in Ft. Myers, which does carry Tamiya supplies and has a decent selection of kits as well... I just scored the Tamiya Karmann Ghia there.

Gap-filling CA with accelerator for gaps that need extra strength reinforcement. Bondo professional (2-part) glazing and spot putty for sink marks and contouring.Sometimes I'll "weld" thin styrene strip into wide gaps using Tenax. It all depends on the application.

Grazie!

Chinetti was a truly fascinating figure in Ferrari history... Enzo, especially in the early days, just didn't get that rich people would be lining up to buy his noisy, cramped, hot, impractical machines. Chinetti, on,the other hand, understood the mystique of Ferrari's cars better than Ferrari himself did.He not only showed Ferrari that that an American market existed but was directly responsible for some of the finest examples of Ferrari road cars... the 250 California Spyder, the 275 NART Spyder, and the Daytona Spyder were all his idea, as well as any number of custom-bodied early cars.

Absolutely amazing. Doubly so given that the transporter started off as a resin body!

I switched to spray adhesive several years ago and never looked back. It makes a HUGE difference in the quality of my flocking jobs.

Thanks, Sonny! (and everybody!) Those wheels are part # HRM-407. I got them through Strada Sports. I agree that they add a lot to the model... I'm probably going to have to order another set if I ever score a Berlinetta. It never fails to amaze me how rough Italeri is in packaging their kits- half of the prep work in building one of their models is cleaning up the scratches/scrapes/ broken bits from just throwing a bunch of unreinforced parts into the box! I actually bought that Dark Bronze paint to use on a 365 Daytona Spyder, but I thought it suited the 275 better after seeing online pics of a Berlinetta in that color. It's really close to the Nocciola color.

This is the excellent Italeri kit of Ferrari's 275 NART Spyder. I won the kit in an Ebay auction a while ago. It was sealed and complete, and, like all of these I have EVER seen, the windshield frame was broken into two pieces and completely separated from the body. I repaired and reinforced the windshield frame with brass strips as the first order of business, and then set to work on the kit. I had a set of 275 Campagnolo alloys from Historic Racing Miniatures that I used to replace the terrible kit Borranis. Although the Borranis are more common on the Spyders, at least a couple were delivered with the alloys, and I like the look.The HRM wheels are a direct swap for the kit wheels with no modification required. They're painted in Tamiya Gloss Aluminum with wire valve stems.The nifty resin Pirelli radials came with the wheels too. Bumpers and most of the kit chrome were stripped and painted with Alclad chrome. I was pretty close to shaving the bumpers on this car, but i'm glad in the end that I didn't.The paint is Testors Custom Lacquer Dark Bronze Metallic. It's actually a pretty good stand-in for Ferrari's Nocciola Metallizzo (Hazelnut Metallic). None of the NART Spyders was, to my knowledge, painted this color, but I think it's perfect for the period. Panel lines were washed with a dark brown custom mix. The Interior is Tamiya semi-gloss black, flocked with Detail Master flocking. I added the scratchbuilt passenger's foot rest. Engine detail is largely stock with basic wiring and texture painting on the exhaust headers and air cleaner. I had to carve the prancing horse from the front grille as the real cars don't have one there. Lots of photoetched bolt heads went into the interior and the top boot. The kit vent windows were ridiculously thick, so they were replaced by clear styrene. On to the pics! Sorry about the lack of in-progress shots, but I was on a roll after my 250 California kit and didn't really want to stop while building and shoot pictures. WIP pics of my next project, I promise! As always, any questions or comments are welcome!