jaymcminn

I'm thinking it"s the Fujimi kit- it was also released by Testors.

Matt, that grille turned out great. Good luck on those 250 windows- if all else fails, you can try Future! Does this kit come with the white metal suspension bits like a lot of the Gunze kits or is it more conventional?

Excellent work. I remember drooling over this car when it debuted a couple of years ago.

Excellent work on that etched grille, Matt. I thought the etched louvers on the hood of the AM Corvette Grand Sport were a PITA when I built that kit years ago- that was nothing compared with this! I'm going to be starting my Italia build soon- I actually did order a set of Fujimi 20" BBS wheels for it, as well as the Hobby Design PE set and window masks- and am looking forward to your buildup of this kit. I've been toying with something a little unusual for the color scheme...

I guess not... the chassis breakdown, etc. look really similar to the old Gunze kit, but it's been a few years since I've seen one of those. Rob seems to have a better handle on this than I do... it's a welcome addition to Fujimi's lineup in any case.

The new Fujimi kit is actually based on an old release available from Gunze in the 80's that did have the fat fenders. They pop up frequently on Ebay. This pic is of the Testors release.

I might have to try this stuff- I generally swear by Kristal Klear, but it doesn't hurt to try something new once in a while.

Great work, Matt. That's incredibly sharp. I'll bet that plate would probably cost nearly what the car does!

It's the bane of '70s Italian cars- great design and fantastic engineering brought down by poor quality control and steel with all the structural integrity of wet lasagne. Fortunately styrene doesn't rust... unless you're Dr. Cranky.

That is just impossibly pretty- reminds me a little of the Eagle E-Type speedster. It's a nice clean build, too. Where did the wheels come from?

A while ago, I changed gears from building rods and customs to vintage sports cars. One of the cars that any sports car fan must have in his collection is the Lamborghini Countach, but there are a ton of them out there to choose from. I have the Fujimi Enthusiast LP500S and LP5000 kits, but I've vowed not to build them up until I've come up with a proper solution for the non-prototypical opening doors. I was thinking of getting the Tamiya LP400 kit just to get one up on the shelf, but I got a fantastic deal on the recent Aoshima release on Ebay. I've never seen one of these built up (aside from pics of built-up test shots on one of Hobby Search Japan) and was anxious to see what came in the box. The body is extremely well-supported. This is crucial due to the thin A-pillars of the Countach- I've never seen a Fujimi Countach where they weren't a little bent. As if that weren't enough... that black thing in the windshield opening is a plate that Aoshima provides to reinforce the body during painting and initial assembly. They recommend to tape into place, but I used Micro Kristal Klear to hold it. That plate doesn't come off until the windshield goes in. Now that's attention to detail. Everywhere throughout this kit you'll see the same attention to detail. The wheels and tires are beautiful, and the tires don't even have mold seams! Speaking of which, I haven't managed to find any on the body yet, either... how do they do that? One of the more terrifying aspects of building a Fujimi Countach is spreading the body out over the interior tub during final assembly. The body tucks under at such an extreme angle that it's pretty much a one-shot operation. How does Aoshima resolve this issue? Separate rocker panels with perfectly prototypically-correct panel gaps. In fact, everything fits so well that paint thickness might be an issue. I'm actually thinking about not priming this one. Here are some of the body panels cleaned up and ready to go, as well as those beautiful Campagnolo wheels. As far as color goes, I've narrowed it down to four... the French Blue is the most likely at this point, with the white interior. The gunmetal grey is an unusual (and non-factory) choice, based on a car I saw online at a high-end exotic car dealership. Of the oranges, the lighter shade is closer to the correct factory color... if I do that color it'll have a brown interior. More to come soon, and as always questions and comments are welcome!

Harry, those are definitely the kit wipers. They're not chromed, which is why they're so delicate. I sprayed them with Alclad.

Thanks, Cato. There was actually a ton of positive camber built into the kit's rear suspension- of course I found out about that pretty late in the assembly process. I straightened it out as much as possible without tearing everything back down- I'll factor that in when I build the coupe in the future. I greatly appreciate the input from someone familiar with the 1:1!

Simon, somehow I missed your build of the Dino with the MFH detail set. I just checked it out- amazing work!

I'd love to see the Fiat Dinos kitted up. the Spyder is especially beautiful.

A few more shots- I left the shroud off in the bonnet to show more of the detail up front, such as the master cylinder. I haven't installed the battery under the spare tire yet. Rather than hinge the covers, I just decided to make them removable to better show off the kit's impressive detail.

I didn't really take a lot of WIP shots of this one- it's a simple buildup of a complicated kit. The color is Testors Emerald Green Metallic from the custom lacquer line- it's an excellent match for Ferrari Verde Pino Metalizzo (Pine Green Metallic) which was an available color on the Dino GTS. The only deviations from box stock were the Dino GT script from RMCM, the Dino badge up front from Model Factory Hiro, ignition wiring, and craft-ribbon seat belts for the kit hardware. The old Dino builds up extremely well- the only gripes are the extreme fragility of some of the incredibly thin kit parts and the large number of mold lines and sink marks that need to be cleaned up. Everything goes together with less drama than you'd expect once the prep and paint is done. The stance and ride height are excellent, but the camber at the rear seemed a little off to me- it took some minor adjustments to get the rear wheels to sit perpendicular to the ground. Overall I'm very happy with the kit- to be honest, I'm not 100% sure about the color, which looks better in pictures than it does on the shelf. I'll definitely go with a brighter color when I get around to building the coupe version. On to the pics!

In a word, no. In more words, the ESCI kit has poor body proportions but does feature partial engine detail and the Entex/MPC kit (I'm pretty sure they're the same thing) is a typical '70s motorized Japanese kit. The body shape is okay but the details are sorely lacking. The Hasegawa kit is much more recent and should be more readily available anyway.

I'll shoot some photos against a dark background once in a while. It can look pretty good if done right. The trick is in the lighting and exposure- if you just go outside and take some pictures using the flash on your digital camera at night you won't show off your work to its best advantage. The best part about digital photography is the ability to play with the settings on your camera and to instantly see what works and what doesn't.

Not 100% sure about the kit the OP got, but all the other builds here are of the Hasegawa kit. It's curbside, but really nice.

Haven't gotten around to building mine yet... the color has me somewhat stymied. I'm leaning toward a yellow-orange with silver rockers and wheels, kind of like this one. But navy blue with a white interior looks pretty good too...

Excellent work. I always loved that livery.

These are the Modelhaus wire wheels- they're excellent.

The best? Probably the MM blades, but I have good luck with the Excel blades too. The worst? Stay away from the Revell blades- they're incredibly flimsy. They actually flex under normal cutting pressure!

Nothing better than a great builder showing all of us who aspire to that level that even the best builders struggle sometimes. Great work on this model, and this thread!