jaymcminn

I hear that if you thin Behr Premium Plus with kerosene and cat pee you get a really amazing finish, but only if you set the airbrush at 120psi.

As much as I like "yearbook season", it means that builds like this get "buried". I'm glad I (finally) noticed this. What a fantastic build!

Karmann Ghia, VW Beetle, Fiat 500/695, Citroen 2CV, Jaguar Mk2 all come to mind immediately as Tamiya kits that would look really good with proper weathering. As would all of the rally cars, of course. The Alpine A110 would look great a little beaten up as well. Tamiya has a big back catalog. If I have any complaint it's that they underutilize it and don't rerelease their greatest hits enough.

I built one of these several years ago and, for a kit from the early 70's, it's pretty nice. There is some stuff to be aware of, however: The interior is largely made from a weird soft-touch rubbery material. I didn't want a black interior so I used adhesion promoter followed by flexible primer and acrylic paint. It's been holding up well. The same rubbery stuff is used for the windshield and rear window seals. I was able to install them with Kristal-Klear. Running a line of black paint around the edge of the glass on these parts will make the rubber seals "blend" better. The door fit is fine, but the panel gaps need tweaking. I added styrene strip around the outside of the doors and sanded back to get even gaps. I also used magnets to help them stay "latched". Link to my build thread below: And a couple of pics of the finished product... it's a really nice kit.

I guarantee you will see many more spectacular results from practically any other paint manufacturer. The 2x stuff you're using is, as pointed out above, basically an enamel. It doesn't like to be coated with lacquer, even if it's had weeks or months to cure. Enamels, even "big box store" ones, can produce decent finishes... when properly cured they are rock-hard and non-metallic gloss colors can take polishing well. Most modelers have moved on to synthetic lacquers like Tamiya and Mr. Color for ease of use and not having to wait a month while the paint on a body dries. I have to ask, why are you trying all these weird combinations of paint and primer when pretty much everybody who responds to your threads is trying to steer you in a direction that works? If you don't have a decent hobby shop nearby you can order Mr Color and Tamiya online as well as any number of companies like Splash Paints, who do a fantastic range of airbrush-ready lacquers.

Great selection of wide-ranging subjects, all beautifully done. What's not to love?

Incredibly creative builds on display here. The patina on that Chevy truck really turned out well too!

Beautiful work all around. The '32 Sedan is especially nice and the color combination is fantastic.

Great builds this year. I love that Grand Sport!

Those are three pretty fantastic builds. Definitely quality over quantity.

Thanks Tom, the red car is Italeri's Fiat Mefistofele, also in 1/12 scale. It's a reissue of an old metal-body Protar kit. This one involved replacing all the plastic "wood" with the real thing as well as a fair amount of weathering and my first use of real leather on a model for the bonnet straps. A couple of pics below...

Pretty good class of 2023... Tamiya Nissan Z. Tamiya IJN green with pearl clear coat. Ebbro Citroen DS21. Tamiya Pearl Green and Black. Lots of scratch building to correct the interior. A great kit and enormously fun to build. 1/12 Caterham Super 7 BDR. This is an interesting kit... a passion project for Tamiya in the 90's and largely regarded as the "best model kit ever produced". It's certainly impressive, and builds into a great model. The body and floor panels are all aluminum. Paint on this one was Splash Paints Bentley Racing Green and Tamiya Camel Yellow. Built OOB except for scratch built wind deflectors. The "Big Project", Italeri's new tool Bugatti 35b. Bookbinder's leather on the seat and other leather appointments. Salt weathering to replicate a "barn find" paint finish. Wire locks by Unobtanium with 30 gauge wire. Last pic shows the spare tire I ordered from Italeri mounted in the carrier a few months after the rest of the build was finished. Finally, the Italeri Ferrari 275GTB. Wheels and tires replaced with Fujimi parts. Tamiya Light Gunmetal paint.

They're not as intuitive or as easy to shop as HLJ, which is oriented more toward Western customers, but I've ordered from Hobby Search a lot (as well as reviewing instructions and sprue pics for potential purchases) and never had a problem. I've gotten some screaming deals from them.

Haiku for a Ginger Cat Tawny tiger basks Sunlight slants through open blinds It's belly rub time.

Ugh. I dodged that bullet until last February. It was really unpleasant, but the worst was over by about the 4th day. At least the photos are cute!

Best of both worlds right here...

Just received 3 sets of these. The detail is staggering, so much better than any photo etched wheel could manage. I'd love to see a slightly deeper set with Michelin XWX tires for Ferrari 275s and 365 Daytonas!

Bandit posing on his new favorite chair.

Well, "most difficult" can be taken many ways. If you're talking about "most difficult to build correctly due to awful fitment and poor engineering choices" that would definitely be a tie between two early 90s Monogram kits... the Callaway Corvette Speedster and the Lotus Esprit 300. Both featured decent-to-impressive detail and great proportions but were let down by monster-truck stance and abysmal parts fit. I wrestled them into submission and wound up with two builds I'm proud of. In terms of actual difficulty, that was probably Italeri's reissue of the old 1/12 Protar Fiat Mefistofele racing car. It's a complicated kit originally engineered in metal back in the 70s. The drive chains assembly consists of layering 4 trees of plastic parts on top of each other and heat-welding each individual link! To that I added real wood, real leather, metal, plastic rivets to replace the molded-in ones, etc. This became my favorite build of all time. The kit itself was challenging but straightforward, and adding an extra level of difficulty to it brought it to the next level.

Great work so far! If you're not familiar with carbon fiber decals they can definitely be a challenge. Micro Set and Micro Sol decal solution and a hair dryer can be a big help. Apply Micro Set to the surface of the part, then slide the decal into position. Blot with a paper towel and apply low heat with the hair dryer. The heat will help the decal conform to the surface. If that doesn't work, apply Micro Sol over the decal. Micro Sol will soften the decal and cause it to wrinkle. As it dries it will settle down and conform to the surface. The hair dryer can also come in handy at this stage to speed drying and help the decal settle down. Whatever you do, resist the urge to blot the decal after applying Micro Sol. You can easily tear or ruin the softened decal.

A couple of emails to Italeri's spare parts department and 15€ will get you a spare wheel and tire. I just received mine last week and got it painted and installed, which makes the model finally feel complete, see the below pic. Agreed it should have been included in the first place, but the Williams 1929 Monaco winner (#12 BRG car) ran with the empty spare tire carrier and that's what Italeri is replicating. I'm sure, based on the Monza rerelease of the Alfa 8c, that they will be issuing a fenders-and-lights version at some point, which I will build as a shiny restored version.

I've got 3 sets of these on the way from Jason as we speak. They look really great. Excellent work on that engine!

I've used the Tamiya Panel Liner quite a bit, and the solvent is pretty aggressive for acrylic undercoats. A shot of clear lacquer will help to protect the finish. Since you already use Vallejo's excellent Metal Colors, have you thought about trying their washes? The washes are designed to dry slowly which permits them to be manipulated over the drying period for a variety of effects. Even when dry, they can be removed from highlights with water or a mild alcohol solution and a craft swab. The 1/12 Bugatti engine below was done entirely with Vallejo Metal Colors and washes...

Someone call the ASPCA, the human is mopping the floor and I'm NOT happy!