jaymcminn

Great color combination on a spotless build... what more could you want?

Good work, Matt. I broke one of the door pillars just taking the parts out of the box!

Every year in Naples the Ferrari club puts on a fantastic car show. 5th Avenue South, which is considered Naples' "main street" is closed off and the various local car clubs are all invited for the show. There's a little of everything here, from multi-million-dollar Ferrari 250GT SWBs to rat rods. I posted some pics on the Photobucket link, but here are a few choice images... The aforementioned 250 SWB.. A fantastic '73 Daytona... The prettiest '32 Ford ever... Mr. Vader, your Morgan awaits... And one of my favorite pictures of the day... Follow this link http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y37/jaymcminn/Ferraris%20on%205th/ for more pics!

There was an SLS in Gulf blue at the annual "Ferraris on 5th" show here in Naples last weekend. It's just the right color for this car.

Matt, having just bought this kit I finally have a real appreciation for what you've done with it. Great work!

Nice work on that engine- you scored a great deal there.

Nice chop. That's a good line on the roof.

Matt, I was actually going to try blending the TS-22 with the TS-16 yellow if necessary and shooting it through the airbrush. I should be able to get pretty close. The color on your Lambo may not be true Verde Germoglio, but it's a fantastic color for that car nonetheless!

A "clean build" can be executed at just about any skill level- I'd rather see a snap kit assembled well than somebody sticking aftermarket bits all over a badly-painted, poorly-assembled model sitting on three wheels and being proud of the thing because he dumped fifty bucks worth of aftermarket stuff into the build. I've been told I have a "clean" building style and it's just about the highest compliment I can think of. It starts with the basics- learn how to build without leaving big ol' glue marks everywhere, clean up your parts, and lay down a smooth paint job before moving on to the other stuff. This goes for the weathered/rusty/crusty stuff too- for me this... is just as clean a build as this. Neither one of these builds happens without being able to build a good, clean model first. Doc didn't build his first model and put a killer weathering job on it right off the bat. (or gloss paint job, for that matter- he does both equally well) I would never attempt to tackle a Fujimi Enthusiast build until I had a LOT of experience under my belt. On this site, and on that "other" site too, we see at least a few builders who probably need to take a step back and just go back to the basics. Becoming a skilled model builder doesn't happen overnight. It can take a long time to develop all the skills you need to become really good at this hobby. Patience is one of those skills, as is the ability to look critically at your own work, determine what you need to improve, and take steps to make it better. Fortunately there are a LOT of talented builders out there now that are willing to help.

That's a beauty!

Great use of color on a super-clean build. Well-done!

Thanks, Geoff. This color worked out great- it's a pretty good match for the color on the Top Gear car. One tip for when you build yours- you might want to take about 1/16 inch off the wheel hub pieces, which will tuck the wheels up under the bodywork a little better. I'm going to try it on my Spyder. Thanks, Doc!

Matt, I'm REALLY going to ruffle some feathers with the Dino. I have a color picked out... And no Ferrari shields or badges. I already have the RMCoM etched Dino scripts, and the Hiro badge sheet has Dino badges on it!

Very cool build. I've never seen one of these kits!

Great save on a really unusual piece of modelling history. Well done!

Curse you, Peter, for making me go on the HLJ site. Now I have a Daytona Spyder and a Dino 246GTS on the way.

That was classic- they broke a camera and May.

And a few more... The metal transfers came from Ebay. The emblems are from Model Factory Hiro. The headlight buckets were scratchbuilt to fit the kit lights. I decided not to do this build as a straight-up copy of the Top Gear car, so I sourced a California blue plate and built it as a US-market car. Overall, I really enjoyed building this beast. There are a ton of fit issues, and it took several hours worth of tweaking and adjusting to get it to sit as well as it does. I still think the track is just a hair wide, which I will address on the next Daytona I build- it's going to be a Spyder, probably in Fly Yellow, with the plexi nose and the five-spokes. I think I'm hooked on the Enthusiast kits now. I've got this on the way... ...wish me luck!

...And here are the beauty shots of the completed model.

Next came the various sub-assemblies, which were all primed and painted in a marathon airbrushing session... The headers were painted with Alclad Chrome, then airbrushed with Tamiya clears to replicate heat discoloration. The engine received basic wiring and detailing,

About a month ago, I was mucking about on Ebay and came across a Fujimi Enthusiast Daytona. This was a "Holy Grail" kit from my teen years and I had been keeping an eye out for one for a while. The kit was advertised as complete and unstarted, and the price was right, so I put in a bid. After winning the auction, I received the kit only to discover that the model was neither complete nor unstarted- the previous owner started painting the body, messed it up, tried to remove the paint, broke the cowl in the process, and finally packed it back in the box... after losing the parts tree with the body parts (save for the hood and front pan, which had been removed for painting) and the Campagnolo five-spokes. Fortunately the grey parts were still in their bag, as were the clear parts. After some back-and-forth with the seller, we came to a compromise on the price, which resulted in my getting this classic model for a total, including shipping, of twelve bucks. The inspiration for this build came from a recent episode of Top Gear where Richard Hammond raced James May down the French Riviera. May was a passenger in a high-powered motor yacht, while Hammond was behind the wheel of an amazing blue '73 Daytona coupe. Although May won, both hosts agreed that the Daytona was by far the more civilized way to get down the Riviera. This car sold last year at auction for north of three hundred thousand dollars. This is the Top Gear car... This is what I started with... After repairs to the body (stripping paint, re-scribing and sharpening panel lines, plastic reinforcements under the cowl, scratchbuilt headlight doors, new hood hinges from brass and aluminum) I applied Duplicolor Hot Rod Grey primer. The next step was to apply Tamiya Light Blue Metallic followed by Testors Wet-Look Clear.

If I had ten years to work on a model, I would spend nine years, eleven months, and fifty-one weeks watching TV and the last week pulling all-nighters trying to bash something suitably amazing together...

I've got to go with "real"- that front pan underneath the bumper gives it away.

Waaaait- is that a modified reissue of the old flared-fender kit in the Testors box?

That's what's disappointing to me- I don't care if a Nissan Silvia or a JDM minivan kit is a curbside, but exotic cars really deserve the Enthusiast treatment. Even if they released curbside and enthusiast versions of the same kit, that would seem to make more sense. It just feels like they took a big step back- I'm in the process of building an Enthusiast Daytona now and am loving every second of it! I understand that the Japanese modeling culture is somewhat different from ours, but it seems that there's an unfortunate recent trend from the major Japanese manufacturers (Tamiya, I'm looking at you!) toward simplification to the detriment of quality and detail. More curbsides, more one-piece engine units, higher price. Maybe it's okay with many modern cars, because when you open your average modern engine bay all you see is a big hunk of plastic anyway, but when Hasegawa kitted up a new Miura a few years back with that semi-detailed lump hidden under a non-removable engine cover, that was diabolical. (On the other hand, they turned around and gave us the 250TR, which has fantastic engine detail)