jaymcminn

This is looking fantastic so far! I was really excited when I saw the parts breakdown of this kit because it pretty much guaranteed that a factory stock version would be coming.

Excellent work so far. The sum total of all the modifications you're making here will be breathtaking!

Model Roundup has great service and an excellent selection. I like Spot Model (Spain) for aftermarket stuff and HLJ as well as Plaza Japan for Japanese kits. Micro Mark is my go-to for tools.

I bought my Iwata Eclipse used on EBay for about half the price of a new one. Brush was in perfect shape and still gets a fair amount of use a decade or so later. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

Thanks Trevor, for me that's kind of the "sweet spot" as well. Thanks Matt! That's a great article, I love how they show the stabilization of the original paint finish. Referring to it as a "fine art restoration" is spot on. It's going to be cleaned-up, but not too clean. There will be some washes and pastels added in a few strategic areas... the chrome needs dulling down, for example, but I don't want to tackle that until I'm in the home stretch. I have a few days off coming up, the next steps will be priming and painting the 3d printed Borranis from Jack's Modeling and modifying a set of parts box seats into passable representations of the stock racing buckets for the interior. More to come soon!

The numbers have been painted onto the roundels by dry brushing slightly thinned black acrylic for a patchy, faded look. I then added Cavallinos to the fenders. I applied BMF to the trim as well, which I'll dull slightly with a Vallejo wash before adding the glass. I'm starting to feel a bit better about the direction this build is taking now...

This is the uber rare Italeri 250GT SWB Berlinetta. I've had this kit for ten years or so and have worked on it in fits and starts while trying to come up with a "vision" for it. Will it be a lovely Rosso Corsa concours queen? Maybe a privateer racer in USA white with blue? I've never been able to make up my mind... until now. I've been very into the concept of mechanically restored "Barn Find" sports/racing cars lately. There's a growing preservationist movement in vintage car circles to leave the age and patina in place as part of the car's history. A great example of this was the Baillon Collection Maserati A6C, which was found in a French barn several years ago. The car was restored mechanically but the patina and missing paint on the alloy body was celebrated and left alone other than cleaning and conservation. The result was fantastic. So that's the idea for the Fezza. The backstory of the car is a Florida barn find Ferrari 250. The "Competizione" cars had an alloy body, and I will be using a salt weathering technique to expose the aluminum underneath the dull and faded paint. Racing roundels and numbers will be painted on and cracked and weathered. The interior will be cracked and distressed as well. First pics show the salt weathering going on. A base coat of Vallejo flat aluminum has already been applied. Areas of the bodywork are then moistened with water and a little dish detergent and salt is sprinkled onto the lightly moistened surface. Once everything is dry you're ready to paint. Next apply your top coat, in this case Tamiya Maroon lacquer. Once the lacquer has dried you scrub the salt off the body to expose the layer underneath. After a coat of flat clear and a polish with Meguiar's Ultimate Polish to bring a low gloss back, I used my trusty Amazon circle cutter to mask the roundels. After painting the roundels with Vallejo flat white I used a scribing tool and a flat toothpick to add cracking to the paint. This is where it stands as of now, next I'm going to mask off and dry brush a nice easy number "7" in the roundels and foil the trim on the body. Once that's done it's time to crack on with the chassis and the beautiful Jack's Modeling 3D printed Borrani wheels!

The real thing lives about 5 miles away from me at the Revs Institute here in Naples. It is really imposing (but no prettier) in person!

This thing is breathtaking. Props to Audi for bringing it to life, even if it's more than 80 years later!

Salt weathering. You apply your base color (on the Bugatti it's dark aluminium, on the Alfa exhaust it was a mix of Model Master acrylic rust and another red brown stippled on for texture). Once the paint is dry lightly moisten the surface with water and a tiny bit of dish soap and then sprinkle with table salt. Once that's dry apply your top color. If airbrushing use as low a pressure as possible to keep from blowing the salt off. Once the top color is dry, brush the salt "masking" off to reveal your rust/bare metal color. You can also use rubber cement or liquid masking but I like the randomness of the salt effect. I also like Tamiya weathering pastels to add rust staining for a final touch.

Just chilling on the couch.

Not the best pictures, but I have the Ikea Fabrikor cases. I bought several acrylic risers that allow me to display my large-scale builds at different levels.

These guys are alright but the service is awful. Like legitimately, objectively terrible. But they do have a decent selection and fair prices. Unfortunately you're going to be on the wrong coast, but K&K Hobbies in Port Charlotte is very good as well as Family Hobby Center here in Naples.

That is amazing. Beautiful detail and great photography. The fabric you used for the carpet looks exactly like German square weave!

Pippa would like to speak to your manager...

Zut alors! Can't wait!

Sweet. Have to pick one up to restomod since I built one stock way back when.

Tamiya TS-17 Gloss Aluminum is good stuff. Fine metallic flakes and doesn't mind clear coat.

Day off today, so grocery store and other errands this morning. It's 78 degrees out so I put the top down on the Miata and gave her a bit of a workout. Right now I'm watching Grantchester while the cat takes a nap and laundry is in progress.

The GSW looks great. Vallejo's Metal Color Chrome is loads better than the Model Air, but still does a better job of representing polished aluminum than actual chrome.

Some good stuff coming out this year. The 1/12 Stratos that was supposed to be released in 2023, the welcome "fenders and lights" version of the 1/12 scale Bugatti 35b, a rerelease of the old Protar-based 1/24 Alfa Giulia Spyder, and modified rereleases of the 1/12 Fiat 500 and 1/24 Bugatti Royale. Link below... https://www.italeri.com/en/article/830

Brie can't decide whether she's a tortie, a calico or a tabby!

I think the Monogram 1/24 1965 kit had a release in red that included the Vector Wheels. Here's a shot of the chrome tree from the original "street machine" issue showing the valve covers and air cleaner...

I used the old "hole drilled in a block of wood" technique when I was using Plastruct. I've since moved on to Tamiya Extra-Thin, which has a great bottle design.

Bandit prefers nature programs...