Hoffman

Thank you, Helmut! Hope you're doing well. Yeah, the DM wheels and hub caps are nice, but I didn't like the wide-white tires, not for this particular car anyway. I adapted the Revell rat-rod '29 pickup tires. They look a lot like vintage Dunlops. I used the medium white-wall inserts from a Monogram XK120, which are a good fit and actually have 'Dunlop' lettering ~ a natural!

Earl Marischal, XYHARRY, Rattlecan Dan, Hard_2_Handle_454, Ace-Garageguy, 70 Sting, H.A.K., and Can-Con……. Gentlemen, thank you so much for your kind words and compliments! Glad you like it. I'm grateful we have this forum to share our projects and finished work with one another. I really enjoy seeing all the cool cars you guys build. THANKS!!

Basic Model: Danbury Mint, fender skirts from evergreen sheet Paint: Sage Green, Rust Oleum ‘Painter’s Touch’ Interior: Tamiya XF21 'Sky' green and white Wheels: Danbury Mint XK120 Tires: Revell ’29 Ford Pickup, ‘Rat Rod’, 4) Rears Engine: Scratch built distributor, coil, added plug wires This car was originally purchased just for parts, $20 on ebay. The more I looked at it, I thought, it’s actually pretty nice, but it really needs fender skirts, a color change, and better tires. So that’s what I did. The inspiration for the model was a semi ratty looking XK120 I found online in a Jaguar color I liked, ‘Fern Green’. That car, license number OSU193 is by no means a show car. Look closely and you’ll see worn upholstery, color mismatch between panels, etc; just a decent driver. While building this model, everything was going well with the repaint until I tried a coat of Testors ‘Extreme Lacquer’ for a nice, glossy finish. I was extremely pissed with the results! Lots of wrinkles. I’ve had great luck with it in the past, but I should have known better. Sometimes lacquer over enamel just really, really does not work out. My original idea was to get enough clear over the base color that I could easily cut and buff it without burning through the paint. I did try sanding off the clear lacquer, touching up the green base coat, and then a different clear. Still no-go. The lacquer had soaked into the enamel enough that more clear, even though it was enamel, started the reaction again. I could have just stripped it down completely and started over, but I kept wanting to save it. Eventually I was able to clean it up with more paint, then sand it smooth and polish it. The funny part is, because of these mishaps, the model ended up looking more like the full size car. It’s very smooth but not super shiny; a driver. I had similar issues with the interior. Danbury mint molded the seats and door panels in red, urethane-like plastic. Painting over the red molded parts in white and green was a challenge. After many coats, the red was still bleeding through slightly. To fix the white pleats, I laid down some Teflon tape. That hid the bleed through better than another coat of paint. On the green, it's not as bad. It looks sort of like worn leather, which is OK. Eventually I just decided I can live with it. I went ahead and gave the model a license plate matching the full size XK120 and called it done. The model is not an exact match, but it's pretty close. Thanks for looking, enjoy!

Phil, that turned out GREAT! Very tastefully done. ?

Very nice, '49 Buick! ?

Joe, I remember seeing your beautiful model about a year ago. Stumbled on it again today while searching for SSK photos. You really did an exceptional job on this one. Love it! Great photos too. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you, Helmut! I've got 5 more TR3's to build. Each will use Saico chassis. Two with Gunze Sangyo bodies; one small mouth and one wide mouth 3A. Three will use Entex bodies. They're a closer fit to the Saico chassis, with slight wheelbase changes. For the Gunze replicas I've had to shorten the length of the floor pans, widen the floor slightly, narrow the track and reduce the wheelbase. They'll all have complete drive trains and poseable steering though. Big improvements to the interior of the Entex versions too. Attached photo is the small mouth Gunze, sitting on a Saico chassis. Work in progress..... The wheels are Gunze TR2 centers mated to 1973 vintage Revell H1374 '55 Chevy wheel backs and bias ply tires. The shock absorbers are brass tubing with ink pen coil springs. For this one I actually narrowed the front of the chassis as well. The hood is not cut open yet on this one but will be. I've done that for my other Gunze 3A and one of my Entex 3A's. It was slow, tedious work but turned out fine. The Saico firewall fits these bodies with minimal massaging.

Thank you, Tony! My first car was a TR4 I bought from my Dad while I was in high school. Still have it.

Thank you, Gary!! You're the best, my friend. ?

This was a fun, rebuild project. I'd bought a box of Saico TR3's for $25. Seven total cars in the box, six with crumbling bodies, one good one in red. They have kind of toy-like wire wheels stock. I wanted to replicate the Triumph steel disc wheels with hub caps. I used the centers from an Entex TR3 combined with Revell front rims and Welly backsides. The Welly pieces were sourced from an Alfa 2600 die cast. The windshield frames and tops are a little tall and narrow on these Saico TR's, at least in my view. The top represents an aftermarket fiberglass top covered in vinyl. The solution I came up with the modify the proportions was to add sort of a built in visor at the front of the top, then lower the visible chrome frame below. It also had heavy windshield wipers molded in. I ground those away, added an acetate windshield, then covered the frame in chrome tape and molotow.

Basic Model: Saico Triumph TR3 diecast Chassis: Saico, painted Tamiya TS 29 semi-gloss black Front Suspension: Hubs modified for replacement wheels and to narrow the track slightly Rear Suspension: Drums modified to narrow the track, lowered. Wheels: Back half from Welly Alfa Romeo, centers Entex TR3 with Molotow hub cap, front rim Revell Ford ’29 steely. Tires: Welly Alfa Romeo 2600 Engine: Detailed painted, upside-down SU carburetors corrected. Under Hood: Inner fenders painted red to match body, firewall details painted Interior: Carpet flocking added, upholstery painted, seats moved back Body: Stock Saico, Molotow trim, Testors ruby red taillights, printed license plate. Modified top, modified windshield frame.

Another beauty from your stable, Gary! Very nice. I've got one in route from the UK right now.

I saw these at the Cunningham museum in Costa Mesa, CA, in about 1982. Amazing machines. ?

Thank you, Pierre. Jason shared some of the photos with me. I agree, it's looking fantastic. Just by changing the knock-off and the finish of the wheel, they become infinitely appropriate for Mercedes, Maserati, Ferrari. The best part is, being 3D prints, the details are so fine, clean and consistent from batch to batch. Very much looking forward to hitting 'Buy Now'. ?

Gary, the interior is great! The sheen on the upholstery looks very convincing. Nice and smooth too. Did you airbrush it? The foil work on the seats and other interior parts is very clean and the detail painting on the dash, console and so forth looks very good. Looks like you flocked the carpet too? Very nice. ?

I see it, Matt. Agreed. It's probably safe to say you can replicate 'A' 250 GT SWB, as opposed to 'THE' 250 GT SWB, as they're all hand made with each slightly (or greatly) different from the next.

Interesting how the gray car has the later, deeper wheels, the red car has the earlier shallower wheels, and the white car has later deep on the front and early shallow on the rear.

Pierre's got it covered! ?

Beautiful work, Pierre!!

Pierre, we always love to see your work in progress. Your craftsmanship is top notch! ? Something else I notice, looking at the shape of the rear wheel openings themselves. On the ESCI rendition, towards the bottom of the openings at the rear, they begin to encircle the tires the farther down you go. On the fullsize GT SWB and the Italeri rendition, past mid point, the openings become larger as you go down the fender. The radius is expanding slightly. On some of the full size GT SWB's that line almost becomes an angle leaning towards rear of the car at the bottom. The Burago diecast does this quite nicely and looks very authentic. Anyway, modifying the openings on the ESCI/AMT rendition in this way would help as well. I plan to do that on mine. Larger diameter tires to fill up the expanded openings will look better too.

Pierre, I'm with you; seeing potential in the AMT/ESCI version and analyzing what it needs. The biggest differences between the AMT and Italeri versions is in the tail section. The rear fender hump is rendered taller with greater amount of material above the rear wheel lip on the AMT version. Compared to the full size example, it appears too tall. Notice how the height of the fender lips compare on the full size versus AMT. The rear lip should be slightly higher up on the body, compared to the front. The way the bottom of the rear fender angles down to the same level as the rocker panel looks off as well. Raising the rear fender lip slightly is the first step, I think. Taking much of the angle of the bottom of the rear fender out, leveling it out more, and raising it makes it look much better as well. In the final photo, comparing a modified AMT/ESCI body to an Italeri body, they now look much more alike and accurate.

Duke, thanks for posting these links. Yesterday I was checking out Revell vs. Burago 250 LM models on evilbay and initially thinking the Burago cars didn't look quite right. Then I realized the difference between short nose, Scaglietti cars vs. the long nose Drogo cars. Most of the full size cars I've seen online are the shorter nose, which now makes sense, as they were built that way originally. The Academy curbside kits are a nice rendition, but the going price is just nuts. I'll probably end up buying both a Revell and Burago instead and rework them. I could use the Burago as a base to create a replica of the #21 winner of the '65 Le Mans race. I've seen people try to do that with the Academy kit, and now I know why they don't look correct ~ it's the Drogo nose.