jaymcminn

VERY pretty. It definitely has that coachbuilt look!

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I'm really pleased with how this simple build turned out- it's not perfect, but it does photograph well. I'm well under way on my next project- I'm going to start a WIP thread on it soon, as it's a bit of a rare kit. All I'm going to say now is that it's very weird, and very green...

No problem, Geoff. I reinforced the joint with brass strip underneath to add some stability.

And a few more... Overall, I was really pleased with how this one turned out. A word of advice, though- the wheels are beautiful, but the mounts on the backs need to be trimmed back by about 1/8 inch, or the wheels will really protrude from the sides. Overall, this was a great trip down memory lane!

The body received several coats of Model Master Italian Red lacquer followed by clear. After polishing, I masked the black trim off with foil and fired up the airbrush. After the masking was removed... And finally, some shots of the finished product...

I've been thinking about building a Ferrari 288 GTO for a while now, and decided to try the old Testors/Italeri kit. I scored a really good deal on a sealed original issue on Ebay ($20- I was the only bidder!) and felt like a kid in a candy store as I cracked open the 25-year-old cellophane. For those who are unfamiliar, here's the box. I built this when it came out and remember being pretty proud of it- it had a decent rattle-can red paint job and looked pretty good for being built by a 16-year-old in 1986. The GTO was pretty ambitious for Fujimi in the '80's- the engraving was pretty good and the level of molded-in detail is reminiscent of period Tamiya, if not as sharp. The only drawback to the kit is the enormous number of ejector pin marks which required a serious amount of cleanup- certainly that was the number-one chore while prepping this kit. One of the weird things about this kit is that the engine cover is molded in place- to display the engine the cover needs to be cut away and the edges cleaned up. This leaves huge gaps on either side of the cover. In order to fix this, I installed some thin sheet styrene, as well as braces for the engine cover to rest on. Next, I cut the front section of the rear deck away from the interior tub and attached it to the body assembly... Next, I brush-painted the red-and-black "Daytona" pattern on the seats. The engine was finished in several different metallics and received basic ignition wiring, which wound up being basically invisible on the finished model. Oh, well...

Great color, and nice detail. I like your background, too!

Excellent work, Matt. The glowing ceramic brake discs are a great idea!

Thanks, Don! I'd rate it probably about a 7.5/10. I love the look, and it's pretty quick. The exhaust note is really nice, and the build quality is surprisingly good overall. The reliability has been excellent, too- the only real drawback is the sub-20mpg fuel economy, which isn't helped by my lead-footed driving style!

Had it about six years- 2005 PT Touring with the 2.4 turbo motor. Since these pics were taken, I've shaved the side and trunk badges.

So, I just got this.... and am trying to figure out exactly what to do with it. I'm not especially crazy about the Monte Shell livery, so I'm down to two options. One is to build the car as a "body in white" car ready to be turned over to a privateer team- this appeals to me because I love the lines of the F-40, and without the decals you can really see how beautiful the car is. The other is to create a phantom racer- I was thinking of going in an unusual direction (for Ferrari, that is...) I want to do the F40 up in Gulf livery, but something similar to this McLaren, with black below the beltline and the orange stripe over the top. I need to kick the idea around a while- in the meantime, what do you guys think? No livery or phantom Gulf livery? Or any other ideas?

I'll swap off between the two. If I'm doing a solid color on the body, I'll tend to use a spray can. I'll also use the Testors Wet Look Clear straight from the can. For graphics and for detail work, I almost always use the airbrush.

I'm pretty sure the Anglia and the Thames panel van were in the Hot Rod series as well.

Very nice. The Tamiya kit builds into a really nice model without all the drama of the Fujimi version. The BBS wheels are great, and that white interior is fantastic. Can't wait to see this one done!

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.