jaymcminn

Thanks, Tom! I could give you a link, but it's pretty easy to just explain what I did... 1) apply your base color- should be a shade lighter/brighter than your desired final color. 2) if your base color is acrylic, clear coat with Testors Dullcote to protect it from the next step. 3) mix a "top color" two shades darker than your base color using acrylics. I used a custom mix of Testors acrylics. Mix this 50% with Micro Satin (Testors acrylic satin clear would work as well) and thin a little with water. This is what faux-finishers call a "glaze". 4) Using a large brush, apply your glaze over the base color in a heavy, wet coat. The glaze dries quickly, so don't do more than one part at a time. 5) While the glaze is wet, use a lint-free cloth or paper towel (I used blue shop towels) as a blotter to remove some of the glaze from the surface. Just dab it against the surface lightly... you want to leave some of the glaze on. This is what gives the part the leather texture.The glaze will also tend to remain in the recesses, adding further dimension to the part. Let the part dry- you can finish with dullcote if you want, but using the Micro Satin gave me the perfect leather sheen. The key to this technique is experimentation-once you've tried it a few times, you'll have no problems. The key is mainly to make sure your base coat is protected and you do NOT allow the glaze coat to dry before blotting. Good luck!

The engine bay was detailed out with crackle-finish paint on the valve covers and some wiring and plumbing. It doesn't take much to bring the engine bay to life. The interior received a fair amount of work... I found a decal for the battery and wired it, and used the fantastic instrument panel parts from the Studio 27 PE set as well. I hollowed out the spokes on the steering wheel and used fine wire for the turn signal stalk and gearshift. I used a technique adapted from a faux-finishing tutorial online to reproduce a natural leather interior. The headrest cushion was scratchbuilt from sheet styrene and fine detail wire. All panel lines were darkened with a mix of Tamiya yellow and smoke acrylics. The star of the show here is undoubtedly the Hasegawa aftermarket wire wheels. Five layers of photoetch make up the spokes, with plastic parts for the inner and outer rim and the hubs. The result is stunning, and fits directly to the kit without modification. All in all, this was a really fun build of a car that I've been wanting in my collection for a while. As always, questions and comments are welcome!

This is a build I just finished of the Hasegawa Ferrari 250 TR. Paint is Tamiya Chrome Yellow with the scallop in French Blue. This kit utilized the Studio 27 photoetched detail set, the Hasegawa aftermarket PE/ plastic wire wheels, MCG boltheads and Model Factory Hiro badges. Every good thing you've ever heard about this kit is absolutely true... it's a real joy to build and looks amazing when completed. If I had built this one box-stock it would still be a really nice model, but the additional details (especially those wheels- I have another set that will be going on my upcoming 250 California build) really make this one stand out. The "story" behind this car is that it's a former racer that was imported to California and street-driven by its second owner, who had it repainted in the yellow/blue color scheme. I think the bright colors work on this body shape and the scallop really makes it feel period-correct. There actually were a few street-driven Testa Rossas... even one that had a Ford V8 swapped in when the V12 blew up!

Here are a couple of mine...

Great work on that Aperta (as well as the others), Tom. Those Revell 599s are excellent kits!

Well, I'll just throw this one in here. I entered this a couple of years back in Pembroke Pines and thought it would have done a little better than it actually did. Not that I'm complaining or anything, as I did take home my share of hardware from that contest, but I had pretty high hopes for this little sucker...

I did exactly the same thing on my recent Porsche build- I reached for what I thought was a can of clear and wound up shooting a nice blast of pearl white right down the top of the car. Since it was pearl white it took me a second to figure out what was going on... I thought the clear coat had fogged! Fortunately I was able to polish out most of the white and respray a thin coat of metallic green to cover my f-up, but there were a few moments there where the body of my 911 almost made forcible contact with the nearest wall.

Thanks, guys. I'm glad the oddball color scheme on this car turned out as well as it did... it was a bit of a risk. Thanks, Bill. That stance took more time to get right than anything else on the model.

That is really shocking. It's a shame that the Tamiya 1:24 kit has this one beat hands-down in detail. You're doing some amazing work turning this into an accurate replica!

I LOVE Make-It-Suede. I have a can in a beige color I've used for years. It works great for everything from crinkle-finished engine parts to Alcantara interiors. I just paint over it with whatever color I need. Good to know that it's still around for when I need to replace this can (although I've had it for ten years now!)

And a few more... Eventually I'll add license plates- I'm torn between euro plates and 70s California plates at this point. As always, any questions or comments are welcome!

This model was built from an original '80s issue of the Fujimi/Testors 911 Carrera RS. The basic idea was to build it as an "outlaw" or "hot rod" 911- sort of a retro-style competition inspired machine like this one from 911 builder Magnus Walker: I started this project several months ago but it stalled mainly due to the terrible quality of the kit decals, which were not sharply printed and were badly registered. Hobby Design came to the rescue, however, when they released a set of beautiful Carrera stripes in different colors a couple of months ago. When I received my decals, I got back to work. The color scheme I picked was Tamiya Metallic Green with orange stripes and orange front and rear valances. It's a pretty striking treatment that has a great vintage vibe while not looking like anything else out there. To go with the whole road racer theme of the model, I kept the interior floorboards and rear seat area body color. I built a rollbar from styrene and painted it body color as well. I custom-mixed a brown for the interior that replicated natural leather and applied washes with the airbrush to give it a distressed appearance. The kit chrome was stripped and Alclad chrome was applied. Engine mods were pretty simple- ignition wires and fuel injection lines- but a fair amount of effort went into the suspension to get it to sit just right. I even raised the front suspension by a hair at the very end of the build to get it to sit a little bit better. This was a fantastic build overall- I highly recommend the Fujimi Enthusiast 911 kits for a builder looking to stretch his skills a little and try his first Enthusiast kit. They're a much easier build than the Ferrari Dino or Daytona while still being pretty challenging, and the results are pretty impressive. Here's the build thread...http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=75594 Anyway... on to the pics!

A couple more progress pics- this one is done and I'm posting the finished pics in Under Glass soon. Here's the interior installed with four-point harnesses- I like the brown leather against the body-color floorboards and roll bar. I decided to keep the stock 911 steering wheel. And the final assembled chassis/interior. I didn't add the trunk detail up front... I never cut the trunk lid off the body! Here's a shot of the finished model... more will be added in Under Glass soon!

I haven't abandoned this one... I finally sat down long enough to download some pics and post an update on this one. I built a street-style roll bar from Evergreen styrene using some on-line 911 roll bar pics as a guide... here it is mocked up in the body shell before being painted body color: Various bits and pieces mounted for priming and painting... And here are some of the interior panels, with the distressed leather finish applied using washes over a custom-mixed saddle brown. I used my natural aniline-dyed living room sofa for inspiration! Finally, here's the (mostly) completed engine... I did the airbox in a crackle finish and painted the engine shield in Tamiya orange. F.I. lines are silver beading wire. Finally, I did a quick mockup of the painted body on the chassis- since I took this picture I actually raised the front ride height by about 1/16 of an inch. It looks much more "right" now. Next I'll finish up the interior, finish and install the engine, and get some Alclad applied to the exterior chrome trim. More updates coming soon!

Tamiya bread, huh? Probably costs $27 per can, but it's the best bread you'll ever have. You also can't get it in the States because California doesn't approve the label. And the cans are recommended to be only opened by Tamiya Super Can Tool, available separately for an additional $15.

Beautiful. Great detail work... I always like a blue Ferrari!

Lowering the suspension on the Fujimi Enthusiast 911s is pretty easy due to the modular nature of the kits. The brake/hub assembly is designed to be mounted at different heights on the upright to accommodate the different ride height of the variants. By gluing the hub assembly higher on the upright, you can lower the ride height. The main thing to watch out for is not going too low- the mockup in the original post has about 2 scale inches of ground clearance! Fortunately all 1/24 roads are flat... It's also necessary to narrow the track to tuck the wheels up into the wells. Due to the design of the suspension, it's easy to take about 1/16 of an inch out of the hub spacer to get the wheels tucked. The swing-arm rear suspension is easy, too- by cutting the tops off of the rear shocks and repositioning the hub assembly on the swing axle to center it in the well, you can get the rear end down. It's also necessary to narrow the rear track as well, I found that I needed to grind out the wheelwell lip and the interior tub to get the wheels not to rub. Here's the modified front suspension... and the rear suspension, showing how much the hub spacer needs to be shortened to tuck the wheels into the fenders. Before... After... And finally, a pic of the body shell now that it's been cleared and polished...

That was actually a lot of my inspiration for this build. Magnus's cars are wild!

Bill, I'll post up some pics of the modified suspension parts tomorrow. It's actually pretty easy to get this kit to sit low due to the way Fujimi designed the suspension to accommodate the different variants of the 911.

Yes, it's the Fujimi Enthusiast kit. It's actually the Testors re-box from the '80s.

Next came the color choice. I was originally going to do Gulf livery, but that's reached the point where it's completely played. I was also limited by the stripe color choices in the Fujimi kit- red, green, or navy blue. Fortunately, Hobby Design released a set of Carrera stripes last month in colors including white, yellow, orange, red, and black. The stripes are beautifully registered and look amazing! The original plan was to do bright green with the Carrera stripe in yellow, but that looked a little too "agricultural" (think John Deere!), so I went with something a little different... The color is Tamiya Metallic Green. THe orange fascias are Tamiya Brilliant Orange... they're a pretty good match for the orange stripe. Since these pics were taken the paint has been cleared and polished and it looks amazing,. I'm going to wind up doing the window trim in chrome rather than black (went back and forth on that one a while) which should look really hot with the green. The interior will have body-colored floorboards and rear shelf with a rollbar I'm modifying from the Revell '68 Firebird kit. I'm going to do diamond-plate floormats and kick plates on the interior as well. The competition seats and door cards will be finished in saddle tan- I want to try a finish on them that will look like distressed leather. I'm thinking about doing aluminum velocity stacks on the engine as well. Keep an eye out for updates and, as always, questions and comments are welcome!

Porsche is unusual among sports car marques in that there has been a thriving mod scene for decades. In the 70s there were the "canyon carver" 911s that were modified to handle like they were on rails. The 80s brought flat noses, whale tails, and big flares. The 90s saw the tuner market explode as the water-cooled engines started to come into their own. The big trend now is toward that 70s retro design. The look is usually inspired by the '73 Carrera RS, with its "ducktail" rear spoiler and smooth front fascia. Paint colors range from vintage racing livery to wild original color combinations. Interiors tend to be Spartan, even by early 911 standards. Engines generally receive modest tweaks to bump up power- it's all about getting the whole package, and overpowering an early 911 ruins that package. Fuchs wheels are almost mandatory (Minilites or BBS are okay, too) and the suspension needs to sit LOW. These cars are generally referred to as "hot rod" or "outlaw" 911s. Here are a couple of examples... I started my build with the Fujimi/Testors '73 RS kit. The nice thing about the Fujimi Enthusiast 911s is that you receive parts in the box to do a LOT of different touches to the car- three different types of mirror, a couple of different headlights, racing and street seats, etc. The first order of business with the kit was to set up the ride height- out of the box these tend to sit like Bigfoot. Fortunately, the design of the suspension allows for a lot of tweaking to get it to sit just right. I narrowed the spindles to tuck the tires into the wheelwells and moved the brake/hub assemblies up to get it sitting just right...

Curtis, that is really sharp. I'm going to be starting my build of this kit soon and I hope it turns out as nice as yours. Great use of color, too... it really looks period correct without imitating any existing livery.

I've never really understood the mentality that causes people to throw up their hands and say "yup, no more good music. Gonna go listen to my 8-tracks now". There are a lot of great artists out there in virtually every genre producing fantastic music. Like blues rock? Check out the Black Keys. R&B? The debut album by Michael Kiwanuka is one of the best debuts of all time. Alternative? Silversun Pickups rock like nobody since Smashing Pumpkins. I'm a fan of everything from country to classic rock but there's a thrill in discovering and sharing new music that that I can't imagine ever growing tired of. And yes, the Beeb sucks. But bad music is as old as music itself and it isn't going anywhere... just like the good stuff.

Hmmm, the "Real Sports Cars" series is a bit of a mixed bag. with everything from curbsides to cars with a fair amount of detail, like the recent Lambo Aventador and Ferrari F12. Looking at these pics, the door gaps seem a but big, which might indicate opening doors... hopefully there will be full engine detail. Either way I WILL be buying one of these!