jaymcminn

And more... Tamiya Ferrari 360 Spyder Fujimi Ferrari 365 Daytona Revell Ferrari 458 Italia Fujimi Ferrari 512bb Tamiya Ferrari F40 Competizione Fujimi Lancia Stratos Stradale Tamiya Mini Cooper S I have a TON of projects lined up for 2013... happy building, everybody!

Eleven this year... It's been a pretty productive one. See if you can spot the theme... Aoshima Lamborghini Countach LP400 Fujimi Ferrari Dino 246 GTS Testors/Italeri Ferrari 288 GTO Hasegawa Ferrari 328 GTS

I decided on gold for the Minilites- they really "pop" against the green and white. The driving lights were brush-painted Tamiya clear yellow. Masking the drip rail to paint it the body color was a challenge, to say the least. Behold the mighty 1275CC beast under the bonnet! Most of the small chrome trim pieces on this kit (gas caps, door/bootlid handles, windshield wipers) were not chrome plated and had to be painted with Alclad. The exhaust tip is aluminum tubing. Overall, this kit was a real pleasure to build. It's a bit fiddly, largely due to the small size of the subject, but goes together really well. I'm going to have to get one of the new Revell Minis to compare the two!

This is a kitbash of the Cooper S racing and rally kits. I used the smoothie rear bumper and front bumper with light bar from the Rally kit as well as that kit's more-detailed Minilite wheels on the Racing kit. I also added the second racing bucket seat to the interior. The paint scheme is the "Works" racing scheme using the kit decals- colors are Tamiya Racing Green and Pure White. The interior is Model Master British Crimson with piping made from white wrapping wire. If I were actually to own one of these cars one day, this is exactly how I'd want it to look! A couple of in progress shots to start... for the wood on the steering wheel and shift knob, I applied clear orange over flat tan with a drybrushed black pattern. The wheel itself, like most of the small chrome trim on the car, was done in Alclad Chrome. I really like the way the door panels go together on this kit- it makes easy work of reproducing the unique look of the real car's interior. Next up, some completed pics!

I love when manufacturers get on some design kick that they think "works", so they incorporate it into all of their kits. For Fujimi, it's the weird "seat bottoms molded with the floorpan" thing. Revell AG has the whole "inner and outer spoke wheels with goofy floating disk brake" debacle they've spread across all their recent kits, which makes it necessary to either perform major surgery on the kit wheels or source new ones to keep everything accurate. Not that the interior issues will stop me from buying at least one of these F12 kits- it looks absolutely amazing!

Great work so far, Matt. I've actually pilfered your carbon-fiber technique for a few of my own projects- it works really well. The Italeri Daytona, like the rest of their Ferrari kits, builds up pretty well, but the kit's solid engineering tends to be let down by their indifferent quality control and atrocious packaging. I have a 275 Spyder I'm going to be starting soon where the first step in the assembly process was piecing the windshield frame back together! I'm anxious to see how you get on with the GTO, as I've just bought this one myself.

Mike, the wheels are BBS 20" wheels made by Fujimi. They're molded in chrome, which I stripped before painting them in Tamiya Light Gunmetal. The center caps are Model Factory Hiro pieces that replace the BBS decals that came with the wheels. I got my wheels from a Japanese Ebay seller, but you can get them through Hobby Link Japan as well.

Frank, I'd give this one an 8. It's not as crisply molded as the Tamiya kits, but the engineering is excellent and there were no unpleasant surprises at all in the assembly process. It was a very enjoyable build.

Mauricio, I couldn't agree more. I'm really not crazy about the way the wheels on the recent Revell of Germany releases build up (which was a major reason for the aftermarket wheels) but overall this kit was really nice. I just bought the 599 GTO, and am pretty impressed with that one as well.

The trickiest part of the photoetched detail set was the multi-piece windshield wipers- it was a lot of work, and they don't photograph as well as I'd like, but they really add a lot to the look of the model. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the Revell kit. Is it perfect? No. Is it as good as, say, the Tamiya Ferrari 360 or Enzo? No. But it goes together great, looks the part when finished, and is cheap enough (especially with that 50% coupon at Michaels) so you can add some detail stuff to it and still have a great model that won't break the bank. The Hobby Design photoetch set for this kit is excellent too- it includes everything necessary to really take this build to the next level at an excellent price. If there's anything to look out for on this kit, it's that front wheel positioning- out of the box, it looks like it sits a little high up front. Since I had to modify the spindles to accommodate the aftermarket wheels, it was no big deal to fix the ride height issue, but it's something to keep an eye on. I also had a few warped parts (windshield, engine cover frame) but nothing that wasn't easily fixed. All in all, this was a fantastic experience!

I've had the Revell Ferrari 458 for a while and was trying to decide what to do with it. I gradually acquired the bits and pieces I'd need for the build- Fujimi 20" BBS wheels, the Hobby Design photoetch kit, etc. but I was stuck on the color- I just wanted to do something different from the usual Rosso Corsa or Fly Yellow. I eventually decided on a rare color called "Rosso Dino"- a very bright red-orange that has been available on Ferraris since the late '60's. I used Tamiya TS-31 Bright Orange to approximate this color- it's a little too yellow, but the result is pretty close. This project took a few turns along the way- the brown interior originally planned wound up black because it looked terrible against the orange- but the result is pretty wild. Here's the inspiration... and here's the finished model! There are a few changes, of course- the BBS wheels, for one, and the carbon fiber sill covers which are optional equipment on the Italia. I might add a Cavallino to the rear panel at some point. Unlike most of my Ferrari builds, I didn't add Scuderia shields to the front quarter panels- I wanted to keep the look of this one simple and mean. Here's the engine compartment, with carbon-fiber paint detailing on the airbox as well as the photoetched plaques from Hobby Design.

The engine has received basic paint detailing- it's all going to be almost completely hidden under the engine bay shroud anyway. The airbox/intake plenum unit received the same carbon fiber treatment as the seats, The Ferrari scripts are from the HD set, as is the Ferrari plaque on the airbox. I've got the chassis set up and dialed in the track and ride height. It's going to be about 2 scale inches lower than stock, which will look really mean with the 20" BBS wheels. I also (hopefully) corrected the tendency of this kit to sit a little high in the nose. I've left myself some wiggle room when it comes to final assembly to get the ride height absolutely perfect. Here's the chassis... Next up will be assembly of the body/interior unit and all of the fiddly photoetched mesh screen involved in that. Should be fun!

So, I've been plugging away at this build, and there have been a few changes... the original plan was for a brown interior with black alcantara (suede) inserts. After painting the brown, I realized that it just didn't work with the bright orange paint, so I went with basic black. It looks so much better! I then masked off and sprayed suede paint followed by Tamiya flat black for the inserts. For the carbon fiber seat buckets, I sprayed them in semi-gloss black then masked them with mesh ribbon and airbrushed them with gunmetal metalizer. After a thick coat of semi-gloss clear, they really look like carbon fiber. The Hobby Design photoetched detail set provides air vents for the dash, "cavallino" for the center console, dash badge, pedals, and speaker grilles for the doors. The prancing horse on the steering wheel center is a Model Factory Hiro piece. Flocking is Ken's Fuzzi-Fur.

I love the F355. Yours came out great!

The last several builds I have done have been in pretty subdued colors- the Ferrari 328GTS in gunmetal grey and the Ferrari 360 Spyder in California blue- so I decided to shake things up a little for my current build. The Ferrari Italia doesn't lend itself well to subtle colors, in my opinion- the sharp angles and curves of this car beg for a really striking color to show them off, Probably the most striking is Rosso Dino- a historic Ferrari color that made its appearance in the late '60s. Despite its name ("rosso" is Italian for red) the color is a bright, vibrant red-orange. Here it is on an Italia Spyder... I am replicating this on the Revell Italia kit with Tamiya's TS-31 bright orange. The color is pretty close... To go with the bright orange paint, I decided to replace the Revell kit's iffy wheels and tires with a set of BBS 20" wheels from Fujimi. The wheels were chrome plated, but Easy-Off took care of that. I painted them in Tamiya gunmetal and added Ferrari wheel centers from Model Factory Hiro. They look pretty mean. I am using the Hobby Design photoetched set with this build- for less than ten bucks, this set includes all the stuff that really makes the kit come to life, such as the mesh pieces for all the intakes. The interior will be dark brown with black carpets and black Alcantara on the seat centers and headliner. More pics and progress to follow. So far, I'm liking the Revell kit- the engineering's a little clunky, and the detail is pretty simplified (mostly where it won't show) but the proportions look spot-on and the fit, from my early test fitting, seems really excellent. As always, any questions and comments are welcome!

That is excellent. Beautiful work!

Geoff, this is excellent. I can't imagine that anyone has ever taken the pains that you have to get this old kit right. Can't wait for the next update!

This is really cool... it's definitely a different take on the whole "C" cab thing. Awesome!

Very sharp. It's a nice change from the usual silver or Guards Red.

Thanks, guys. I enjoyed this kit so much I'm definitely going to be doing the coupe at some point in the future- I'm even thinking of bashing this kit with the Fujimi curbside F430 to create a proper full-detail 430 Challenge. I love doing Ferraris in some of the more unusual color combinations available when they were produced. The next project, however, will be something a little less subtle...

The engine bay detail is fantastic. I used suede texture paint as a basecoat for the intake plenum and airboxes. This is my favorite trick for reproducing sand-cast and wrinkle-coated finishes. The resonator was airbrushed in a mix of Tamiya clears over the satin-plated part to reproduce the copper/brown heat discoloration that I noticed from online pics. Not the best interior shot, but you get the idea... Thanks for looking... as always, any questions/comments are welcome!

This is a box-stock buildup of the Tamiya Ferrari 360 Spyder. This is, quite simply, the most amazing kit I have ever built. The fit, the mold quality of the parts, everything is simply amazing. It's rare to be able to build a kit out of the box that so closely approximates the look of the real car. The color scheme is an unusual but factory scheme... California Blue (actually Tamiya TS58 Pearl Light Blue over grey primer, but the color's very close) over a two-tone interior in cream and dark blue with a dark blue top. Yellow calipers compliment the yellow Scuderia shields nicely. I went back and forth between leaving the wheels in satin chrome or painting them in gunmetal- I think I went the right way. I have an extra set of wheels for this car that I might paint in gunmetal so I can swap them out. My only criticism of the kit would be the metal transfers... they look fantastic, but it seems almost impossible to get them to stick properly to the surface- whether it's gloss or flat, they just don't like to lay down. I finally wound up brushing a coat of thinned Micro Krystal Klear over all of them to help secure them. Overall, I can't recommend this one enough- it's a challenge for the experienced modeller due to the high parts count and fiddly detail painting as well as the transfers, but it looks absolutely amazing on the shelf. Anyway, on to the pics! here's the car that was the inspiration for this build... And here's my interpretation...

I caught the English Beat (with Fishbone) in concert at the State Theater in St. Pete last year- it was an amazing show. Just saw the Psychedelic Furs Saturday at the same venue- another great show. I'd rather see a show at a small venue with a bunch of people my own age (40-ish) any day as opposed to going to a big stadium show with a bunch of twenty-year-olds. And yes, there were many libations involved during (and after) both shows, and there was much staying up late and consumption of greasy Waffle House cuisine after. And I definitely paid the piper the next day, but it's the occasional late night that makes you appreciate actually getting eight hours sleep all the other nights!

Man, is that nice. You'd never guess that was 1/32 by the detail!

Thanks for all the positive words, guys... I really appreciate the input! Rob, this is one of my favorites too- it's one of the prettiest shapes ever to take to the roads. I'd love to see Hasegawa backdate this one to a 308.