jaymcminn

Here are a few more... I used carbon fiber decals for the front spoiler and rear wing. I limited the kit decals to the Ferrari decals and safety decals. I just noticed that I lost one of the Speedline decals from the wheels (aargh!).

The interior was given the carbon-fiber paint treatment, and the dash and center console painted flat grey. The dash decals really look great. I probably should have removed the rails for the passenger seat, though! The red steering wheel adds a little extra color and compliments the driver's seat really well. Ready for the body... And here's the finished product!

The engine was a really straightforward build- I used the same technique on the valve covers as the seat to represent the red crackle finish. Paint detailing in various metal finishes really made the engine pop. The heat shield and intercooler faces were on the kit PE fret. for the engine bay heat-shield, I used a product called "Wilton Fancy Foil"- you can find it in the cake-decorating section at Michael's. It's thin textured paper-backed aluminum foil- kind of like cigarette foil, but you get a whole roll for about five bucks with your 40% off coupon! Here's the rear subframe attached to the engine... The wheels are beautiful Speedline wheels with separate hubs. I sprayed the hubs with Rustoleum chrome and coated them with clear red to represent anodized aluminum. The brakes have photoetched faces and look amazing with a little detail paint...

The Ferrari F40 isn't just my favorite car in the world... it's possibly my favorite thing in the world. It's just so mean-looking and beautiful at the same time. I recently bought the F40 Competizione kit from Tamiya and spent a lot of time trying to decide how I wanted to build it. The kit comes with excellent Cartograf decals for the MonteShell livery in white, yellow and red, but I've never been crazy about that livery. I was playing around with phantom Gulf livery but eventually decided to go with plain, bright white- as if the car was delivered from the factory ready for the customer to paint it. The Tamiya kit, of course, is beautifully detailed- when it was reissued a few years back as the Competizione version they modified the body and added new wheels and tires as well as many racing-specific parts and a photoetched fret with the rear grille mesh and intercooler/oil cooler faces. One thing I decided to do was to open the side gills on the engine cover to install fine mesh. I drilled out the plastic and then finished the openings with riffler files. One of the things I love about Tamiya is their tendency to mold complex assemblies as a single part- case in point is the rear driveshaft-spring-spindle unit. The plus of this philosophy is that the lower parts count tends to improve parts fit- the downside is that the paint detailing gets a bit tricky! I painted the driver's seat with "Make It Suede" paint, then went over that with Tamiya flat red. I masked the rear portion of the seat off and used Matt Bacon's carbon-fiber technique to finish that. A Detail Master 5-point harness finished off the seat assembly.

When a hot glue gun is one of your "go-to" tools, you need to get out of the car customizing business. On the other hand, I still like it more than most of West Coast Customs' builds.

Duplicolor's another brand, but it's easier to find than Plastikote. I like Duplicolor better than Plastikote- it's got a trick fan-spray nozzle that seems to atomize the primer better. If you have Advance Auto Parts in L.A., they usually carry Duplicolor. I agree with Jonathan about the Rustoleum- I tried it once and didn't like it at all.

Very nice. You got yours to sit just right too, which is no easy task!

All four of those are excellent kits. The Imperial and Bugatti are both Italeri kits marketed by Testors and have very good detail. The only downsides to the Italeri kits are plastic tires and, at least in the case of the Bugatti, multi-piece bodies. The Monogram Packards and Deusies are absolutely outstanding kits, with beautiful chrome parts and vinyl tires with snap-in whitewalls. You really can't go wrong with any of the Monogram Museum Pieces- the Cadillac V-16 kits are breathtaking as well, and the Mercedes 540s. They also did a couple of Springfield-built Rolls-Royce Phantom II models with working steering. The Jo-Han Gold Cup Cadillac kits are pretty good, too.Just stay clear of the Lindberg/Pyro kits (Auburn Speedster, '48 Continental, Cord 812), which are primitive at best, and you'll be fine!

I love the Enthusiast kits. I've built the 365 Daytona Berlinetta... the Dino 246 GTB... and the "forgotten" Enthusiast kit- the Lancia Stratos Stradale. I still have a couple of Countaches, a Dino GT coupe, A Daytona Spyder, and a Porsche 356 Speedster in my stash waiting to be built!

Congrats on the score, Romell. That build with the Autograph kit is amazing! As far as my "grail" kits, I scored two recently (Fujimi EM Stratos, Fujimi EM Porsche 356 Speedster) and am keeping an eye out for a few more- especially the Italeri Ferrari 250SWB. I was really disappointed that Revell AG's reissue of that one fell through.

Very clean-looking. I love that clean unbroken fender line that sweeps all the way from front to rear- very elegant.

Matt, I'm definitely going to shamelessly rip off your carbon fiber technique! Great work so far on both builds!

My goal is usually to try to match the panel lines on non-opening parts to the ones on opening parts. Sometimes that involves closing panel gaps on opening hoods, doors, etc. with thin styrene to narrow the gaps. Others it involves slightly widening/deepening gaps on non-opening parts to even everything out. I usually flow a darkened wash of the base color into panel lines to bring out the detail as a last step in a build. Sometimes on kits with poorly-engineered opening doors, I'll glue the doors shut, block-sand the body smooth, and re-scribe the panel lines. I'd rather see a nice smooth line down the body than toy-like opening doors. Research is important,too- not all panel gaps should be the same size, and that should be reflected in scale as well.

Great detail, Derek. I really like the bronze wheels against the blue.

Me, too. There's just something so... right about a Daytona or early Countach with the big meaty tires. Thanks, guys- I really appreciate the response that this build has gotten. It's always gratifying to build something out-of-the-ordinary and get some really good feedback on your results. I've already started my next build and will definitely do it as a proper WIP this time- it's the Revell Ferrari 458 Italia with a set of mean-looking Fujimi BBS wheels and the Hobby Design photoetched detail set. Pics up soon!

I always paint, clear, and polish the body before masking the black trim with BMF. I then mask the entire rest of the car with blue masking tape before spraying acrylic flat black through the airbrush. This yields the best results I've tried. Since you're applying your paint over your finish coat, you can clean up any overspray using your polish of choice.

Won this one on Ebay. It's gonna be Tamiya Racing White with a red interior.

Beautiful work- even more so given how tough those MFH kits are to start with!

I use Meguiars #26 Hi-tech Yellow liquid wax on both my 1:1 car and models. I used to use the #7 glaze for polish, but I've switched to the new Ultimate Compound.

Great work, Jonathan. I love that MM Emerald Green. I've been contemplating picking one of these up and doing a Caterham for a while- might have to take the plunge!

Definitely looking forward to the Mini and the Ferrari 599 GTO- talk about opposite ends of the automotive spectrum!

If the Countach I just built is any indicator, Aoshima has really stepped up their game lately. I'm holding out for the Aoshima Aventador kit for the extra detail... I just can't see paying Fujimi prices for the product they've been putting out recently.

I have an '05 PT turbo convertible- the only year built before they did the unattractive facelift and the cheaper interior. Although I love my 'vert, I definitely recognize that it's a pretty polarizing design. It's definitely not like anything else out there, and you don't see them everywhere like Sebring and V6 Mustang convertibles!

I'm a little surprised that Tamiya is doing these as full-detail kits. I'm definitely interested!

I love the original cars too- somehow the shape is even more shocking without the wings and flares. It's just hard to believe that something like this ever made it to production. I'm probably going to build the Hasegawa Miura next, so I can display my three favorite Gandini designs (Countach, Miura, Stratos) together.