jaymcminn

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.

Thanks, Monty. I went back and forth on the molded wires- they do look a bit thick, but I wanted to try something different. You'll see another Hasegawa kit pretty soon, thought- I just received the Ferrari 348tb. Thanks for all the positive words, guys... I really appreciate the input!

The only drawback at all on this kit is that the engine cover is removable instead of being hinged. The cover can be glued in the opened position with an accurate set of scale hinges, however. The texture on the airbox is Make-It-Suede paint coated with semi-gloss black. And finally, a pic with its "big brother"... the 288 GTO.

The fit on this kit is fantastic... assembly is a little fiddly in spots like the rear suspension, but the end result is really worth it.

I didn't do a WIP thread for this build, which has been an on-again, off-again build for the last four months or so. I recently got a wild hair and decided to just finish the thing already. This actually turned out to be one of my cleanest builds ever. The kit is the Hasegawa kit, which is fantastic. The detail is excellent right from the box. There is a nice photoetched fret which includes badges, mirror faces, mesh for the engine cover, and a 9-piece front grille that replaces the kit's plastic grille. The engine and exhaust are all satin-plated (although I stripped the satin plating from the engine in favor of a cast-aluminum color) as are the excellent wheels. The only non- kit details on the whole model are flocking and a piece of textured-foil heat shielding between the passenger compartment and engine bay. I went with Tamiya light gunmetal for the paint color, which is a pretty close match for the Grigio metallic that was available on the 328. To keep the grey from looking too dull, I decided to go with a bright red interior. The red/black combo I went with was a factory combination that looks great against the gunmetal. Anyway, on to the pics...

Aww, maaan... Dennis was the first online vendor I ever bought from, and definitely the one I bought most consistently from. It always amazed me how quick he got stuff to Florida from the Great White North!

Wheeler Dealers is the second-best English motoring show, right after Top Gear. It's unfailingly entertaining and informative. Edd and Mike are the best!

In terms of 1:1 cars, I would take drivability over originality any day... I'd rather have a '78 Trans Am with a modern crate motor or a '67 Mustang with four-wheel disc brakes. It doesn't compromise the character of these cars to make them drive better. Rare or exotic cars are another thing, however... there's an old Ferrari 330 on Ebay with a small-block crate motor installed. That's a bit over the line for me!

Who would have thought that Aoshima would become the Japanese model company to beat these days... just look at those crazy door hinge pins!

Just... wow.

Building old kits is... a great way to expand your horizons as a modeler. If a builder limits himself to the stuff that's come out over the last decade or so, he's cutting himself off from a lot of great modeling. The Fujimi Enthusiast kits were all tooled around 25 years ago now and are absolutely fascinating (as well as frustrating) to build. The Monogram and Italeri/Heller classics, Italeri Ferrari 250/275 kits, Aurora/Monogram Aston DB4 and Maserati 3500, and most of the great Tamiya F1 kits are all vintage models that build into great replicas, with varying degrees of massaging. I remember building that 1/20 Lambo kit in Jota form when I was a kid, and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I painted mine in Testors clear blue over silver base with gold rocker panels. Build it up, do your best with it, and enjoy that you don't have to worry about putting as much time in on it as that Tamiya Enzo!

Hmmm, I'm in on this one. I've actually been thinking about building this one in bare plastic for a while...