jaymcminn

Good work on those builds,especially for only being six months into your career as a builder. That little Lotus is especially sharp!

On clear plastic? If he were to douse it in lighter fluid and set it on fire that would probably get rid of the Sharpie too. Seriously, though, I'd try a mild abrasive compound, like Meguiar"s #7 Glaze or Plast-X.

I tend to move from genre to genre- I got back into the hobby with aircraft kits back in the early '90's, then started building muscle cars, then rods, then traditional-style customs. I'm in a vintage sports-car phase now.

Steven, the procedure is almost exactly like applying BMF normally, except you remove it from the areas you want to paint. (for example, you apply it to the area of the window frame, trim around the frame as you normally would, and then remove the foil from the frame, exposing that area for painting)The BMF, being very thin, is very difficult for paint to bleed under and allows you to mask off more finely-detailed areas than regular tape. As a masking medium it's pretty expensive, but it definitely has its place.

The aluminum paint on the wheels and the engine block is from a Valspar spray bomb. The effect is great for cast-aluminum, but the color is a little dark. The engine detail, as I said, is a little basic, but responds really well to some simple detailing. The wire looms are just aluminum tubing painted black. The only real assembly headache with this kit was the fit of the engine cover- the instructions have you install the big hinge early in the building process, and pretty much the last piece you fit is the engine cover. Despite my best efforts, I wound up with a HUGE gap (about 1/16 inch) between the pieces. I wound up cutting the hinge assembly off of the nearly-completed model, attaching it to the engine cover, and then mounting the whole assembly in the closed position up against the rear of the body using epoxy to re-mount the hinge plate. This helped out the gap a lot. I also did some minor surgery on the rear pan to get the rear fascia to snug up to the engine cover better. There's still a gap there, but I can live with it. As far as finishing touches go, the Cavallinos and badges are from MFH and the metal transfers are from some Chinese vendor on Ebay. I decided to take the pictures of this car using red and green posterboard sweeps outdoors on a partly-cloudy day. The colors of the board really make the yellow pop and look almost like some of the brochure images for these cars from the '70's. As always, questions and comments are welcome... until next time, arrivederci!

So, I seem to be on a bit of an exotic kick lately. I decided to follow up my 365 Daytona with its actual follow-up- the Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer. This is the recent Fujimi kit of the late-70's 512bb, which comes molded in red (aargh!). The kit has a fair amount of detail where it counts and is rather simplified in areas where you're less likely to notice, such as the suspension. The result was a fairly, but not entirely, painless build. One area where this kit is really let down is the wheels and tires included- the wheels scale out to about 17-18" and just don't look right at all. The tires are the 15" Michelins from the old Enthusiast Porsche 930 that you are expected to force over the much-larger wheels. The result is, to say the least, underwhelming. I found the answer through Ebay, where a Japanese vendor was selling a set of five-spoke Campagnolo wheels from Fujimi. I crossed my fingers and purchased them, hoping that they might be the excellent set from the Daytona. They actually turned out to be the beautiful wide- and-narrow set from the Ferrari 330p4. The tires were too tall, but a swap for a set of spare Pirelli Cinturatos from a Countach kit took care of that issue. Trimming the wheel mounts back gave me a nice aggressive stance, and the kit's knockoffs worked perfectly with the new wheels. Other modifications from stock included replacing the kit's pop-up headlights for sheet styrene doors- I really don't care about working pop-up headlights and the unrealistic panel gaps drive me nuts. The engine was wired and I scrounged a coil from somewhere. I also scratchbuilt a little valve-cover detail- it's barely visible on the finished model, but at least I know it's there! On to the pics (and more commentary on the kit...) The interior was done in a color scheme I saw online when I was researching the build- dark brown hides with black "Daytona stripes" on the seats and a black dash over tan carpet. The look is perfect for this car's late-70's vibe and works great with the yellow paint. Here's an in-progress shot where you can see the interior better... The paintwork was a challenge on this model. It was first primed in dark-grey primer, then that was coated with DupliColor primer sealer in an attempt to keep the red pigment from bleeding through. The sealer is a medium grey color, which provided a good base color to tone down Tamiya's Chrome Yellow lacquer (TS-47) to an excellent representation of Giallo Fly. After polishing the paint, I masked the window trim and rocker panels with BMF and airbrushed Tamiya flat black. I then overcoated the rocker panels with Polly S satin clear to give them the right gloss.

Great work- very subtle touches that add up to a fantastic mild custom.

Hear, hear.

I feel a little weird bringing builds I've already shown before to a show. But I do understand that if you're proud of something you've done, you want the widest audience possible to check it out- otherwise nothing would ever get posted here in "Under Glass".

Great work. Those baby Birds look really good with the rear skirts removed.

I built one of the AM kits shortly after getting back into the model car hobby in the '90's. It got swiped from an unlocked case in a local hobby shop where I had it on display. I just wonder if it's still going to have the fiddly-but-cool photoetched hood louvers.

Great work on this big cat. It's funny- I didn't care too much for this design back in the '80's, but it has aged remarkably well. Your build really nails the look!

Great work. I can only imagine what it's like building a race car with Fujimi's (in)famous Enthusiast Model fit issues!

Don't worry too much about primer hiding surface detail. I use DupliColor sandable primers and primer-sealer and have never had to worry about it- lacquer primers shrink down to the surface, so you can lay down a few coats before losing any detail. I usually use DupliColor primers straight from the can. As far as Tamiya paint goes, I've never tried it without primer, but it's good stuff. I clearcoat it with Testors One Coat Clear after about two days drying time. The Testors lacquers, both OneCoat and Custom Lacquer System, also work well. As far as polish goes, I've used Meguiar's Number 7 Professional for years, although I've recently started playing around with their new Ultimate Compound. One of the biggest advantages to using lacquers, be they hobby or automotive, is the ability to use high-quality automotive polishes on the paint.

Hmm, for me it's all about color and form. I believe that paint should showcase the best features of the car and that custom work should only improve the shape of the vehicle. When I build factory stock I try to go with colors and options that stray from the expected. I try to incorporate detail, but I try never to add so much detail that the build starts to feel "cluttered". I don't view myself as a "rivet counter", but I do like my work to look like something that could actually work in the 1:1 world. Even though I build in lots of different genres, I believe that my style is pretty easily recognizable by other builders.

Masking. Masking stinks. My current build is the Fujimi 1/24 Ferrari 512bb, which has the rocker panels in satin black and flat black trim around the windows. I masked it all with BMF before shooting it with the airbrush. It turned out perfect, but masking it took longer than painting it!

It's just a hazard of this hobby. I've gone fabric shopping (lace for lace paint jobs and cotton flannel for polishing cloths) at Jo-Ann, "sanding stick" shopping at Sally, and stood in line behind twenty little old ladies with carts full of fake flowers at Michael's to purchase one little bottle of Testors yellow to complete a project after the hobby shop was closed. I've bought beading supplies, scrapbooking supplies, and beauty supplies, even though I neither bead nor scrapbook, and my beauty tends to be of the internal variety.

That's definitely got the vintage look. Nice work!

One does not drive oneself to the Oscars. One is driven to the Oscars.

When I get around to building mine, I have the RMCoM Ardun heads and the SCoT blower waiting for it. It's probably not going to have a hood. It's nice to see that you can actually shoehorn the Ardun motor in there!

Great work so far, Mike. Needs a bigger motor, though.

Very sharp. I love early MGBs.

Got a "grail kit" from EvilBay... The Fujimi Enthusiast Stratos in 1:24. It's an interesting kit- Fujimi basically kitted this one up in the mid-90's using a lot of the old Ferrari Dino tooling for the drivetrain with new tooling for the rest. There is a photoetched fret included... So far, I have mixed feelings about this kit. It should go together pretty well, and the Dino parts are beautiful, but the Stratos-specific parts are pretty primitive by comparison. It definitely shows a dropoff in quality from the mid-80's to the mid 90's. Also, this kit does NOT build an authentic race/rally Stratos. the decals for the Chardonnet car are included, but this kit represents a factory-stock Stratos Stradale, and the Stratos door scripts are included on the decal sheet as well. I was aware of this going in, but I could see someone being disappointed. I'm happy about it, as I really wanted to build a Stradale. This will probably be my next project.

"Geoff" looks fantastic (right down to the mustache), as do the others. Great work!

The metalflake on that green looks perfect for a late '60's drag car. Great builds!