jaymcminn

All of these will wind up in large car collections- mostly in the middle east, some in Indonesia, some in Russia, etc. The kind of person who will buy this car will pretty much have his own racetrack to drive it on...or is in a position to not worry about getting pulled over.

Excellent work on this one, Matt. Great use of a not-so-great kit!

A very incomplete list of groups which the Top Gear presenters (mainly Jeremy) have singled out for ridicule over the years: Australians, Germans, the French, Russians, Albanians, Italians, Greeks, Americans, Mexicans, Koreans, Yorkshiremen, the Swiss, the Scots, the Welsh, the Irish, people from Essex, fat people, short people, old people, women, BMW drivers, Audi drivers, Vauxhall drivers, Prius drivers, caravan owners, footballers... and above all, themselves. Great job on May's Caddy- now get to work on Jezza's Camaro! (and I vote for cow!)

Here's a finished shot, as well as a link to the "under glass" thread of this build... http://www.modelcars...topic=50576&hl=

That's really sharp. On one hand, I wish this kit wasn't a curbside, but on the other hand there's not too much to see in a 911's engine bay either. Those wheels and tires are gorgeous.

Alriiight- I can't wait to see how this one turns out! The Pocher does look pretty toylike out of the box, but I'm guessing that's nothing that an expert builder and a few thousand dollars worth of fine German aftermarket parts can't fix. So, Romell, do you give this project one week or two?

That looks pretty close to Tamiya Light Gunmetal to me- I'm painting a Ferrari 328 in that color now. I'll snap a pic when I get time.

Building these two together really illustrates the difference fifty years has made in the automotive world- the 458 looks like something out of science fiction when put next to the 250. Great job on both builds- I built that GTO many years ago (wish I still had it now!) and can definitely relate to the difficulties involved. Your 458 build has me chomping at the bit to start on mine!

Can't wait for the GTO. Less enthused about the Aperta, however...

It doesn't hurt to have several colors of posterboard on hand to create different "moods" and to accent your builds. For WIPs I'll usually just take pictures on my messy workbench.

If you didn't clear over the Phoenician Yellow, it will react badly to any sort of compound or polish you try to use on it. The Custom Lacquer colors are VERY soft and are not meant to be polished, or even handled, without clearcoat. It will never achieve the hard finish of a Tamiya or Testors One-Coat lacquer because it isn't meant to. Any oils from your skin will soak into the porous surface and cause it to come off on your hands as well. Not priming the surface might make this even more noticeable.

It's my go-to for any sort of Alcantara/suede application these days. The trick is to overcoat it with a good dead-flat paint, such as the Tamiya. Thanks!

You could do a replica of Chris Evans' F40- white with a blue interior...

Aaand a few more... I couldn't resist a few shots with "big brother"... This was a blast to build- it's been a while since I've tackled a Tamiya kit, and this just makes me want to tear into that CLK-GTR that I've had sitting around for a decade or so! The hardest part of this build was the photography- it's not easy to get good detail pictures of a white car.

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.