Tommy124

I've experienced that as well. That is why I often reduce the detail level of a build. Otherwise, I tire of it, put it on the shelf and move on to another project. When I get back to some of them, they no longer interest me. Fully agree... It's good to make a commitment to oneself at the start of a build to define how detailed the whole thing is supposed to be. You cannot plan the build 100% and ever so often you will find things that need improvement. But you should have an idea about what you expect of yourself at least. If then later you feel you are getting tired of the build, in my experience it's better to put the kit aside and finish it later on. I've done that a couple of times this year and believe it was the right way to go. Nothing worse than trying to force oneself to finish a build... Dann, as regards your progress - simply OUTSTANDING. Just some glass to be put in (well maybe a lot more, if I know you...) and then this one-off showpiece will be finished!

First off, the Vette is looking great! Looking forward to see it finished soon... Exactly what I was going to say! I like to use these small "floss sticks"... https://www.aliexpress.com/item/50pcs-Floss-Sticks-Tooth-Flossing-Head-Hygiene-Dental-Plastic-Interdental-Brush-Toothpick/32757629526.html I wet one of those with a drop of water, then push it into the panel line to be cleaned and pull it along the line. Works pretty well and you don't have to use a real toothbrush which is actually much too big for the job...

I would definitely agree with Nathan about this being the Toyota 88 wheels. Note that there is another kit of that car from Hasegawa. If you look for similar wheels (so not necessarily require the exact same ones), you might also go for those from the Hasegawa/ROG Porsche 962 kits. They might be better available, depending on where you look...

Good ideas and great work here as in all of your WIP's, JC. Looking forward to see more...

Tesa products are widely available in German DIY stores, they have dozens of different tapes for any purpose. The (solvent-free) tape I was referring to is called "Precision indoor". https://www.amazon.de/tesa-Malerband-Qualität-Promo-Pack-Rollen/dp/B00B9DDB7G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543234412&sr=8-1&keywords=tesa+precision+indoor Tesa cloth tape shouldn't be a problem though, found it on Ebay.com...

Looks good so far JC. Looking forward to see more... I'm not sure about the meaning of this - can you please explain?

I too have that booth... Some comments on that from my side after some years of experience with it. First off, the filter material is consisting of two parts. The outer part (blue on one side, white on the other) and the inner part (black filter). That is, if the product is sold the same way as in Germany. However, the black filter is only for using without the vent pipe. If you DO use the vent pipe, the black filter is NOT required (as per the user's instructions) which will result into a better airflow performance! Speaking of which, some people complain about the airflow performance being poor but 3 cubic meters/ minute of suction capacity aren't that bad. And it's not only about those specs, it's also about the right size of the booth. I found that out after I built a much bigger DIY spraybooth from a plastic box which had a much stronger suction unit in it. That didn't work half as good as this one because of the size of the booth, it actually took much longer for the fumes to be absorbed. If you are using some really toxic stuff like e.g. Zero Paints, there may be no doubt that despite using this booth you'll additionally have to ventilate the room for at least an hour or so. The booth will help you catch the spray mist and some of the fumes, but a lot of that unhealthy stink will still be in the air! Personally I am using the booth with a rather long vent pipe (around 5 meters), with the pipe being connected to a wall vent. This is because my spraying table is that far from the wall vent. With regards to the long vent pipe I have installed an additional circular in-line fan at the end of the vent pipe, close to the wall vent. This way it works fine for me but as I said, it still takes thorough room ventilation after the paint job.

Fully agree. When it comes to those super-fine double lines on the hood of a '69 Camaro, I'd go for BMF aswell. And it doesn't have that "time factor" to it... Agree here too, Dann, Tamiya is a good tape. BUT: once you use it on Tamiya acrylics or TS colors and leave it for a longer period, the solvents will leave their mark on the paint, the longer - the worse. That's why I switched to a (guaranteed) solvent-free Tesa tape for these kinds of paints... By the way, I always use a small hairdryer on a lower temperature setting to warm up masking tape before removing it from the painted parts. This significantly reduces the tape's adhesive power on the paint - and the risk of pulling off paint instead...

That kit is on my list aswell... I'll follow your WIP!

Thanks Ray and Phil! Yes, it appears so but that was actually a modified Countach...

Looks like a good kit and it's coming along nice... I hate those plastic pins. Have you considered cutting them and replacing them with pieces wire of the same diamater? My guess would be that this part is supposed to be used for a German highway police version that is probably a (future?) option for this kit. Here's an image of the original (convertible!) car: https://www.classicdriver.com/de/article/autos/als-die-polizei-noch-porsche-fuhr

Will, better don't mix those two up... The 959 (road car) is a nice, fully detailed Tamiya kit. The 961 that Brian built (LeMans race version of the 959) is a rather awful kit originally designed by Tamiya to be an RC car (under the "Tamtech" brand). Just like those terrible Tamiya 962's... it has molded-in glass parts (!) and it has decals for headlights... https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10144974 I really like the original 961, but to this day I have not figured out how to make a proper model out of this kit... (well, actually I did, but that would take "butchering" a 959 kit...).

Don't know if I can give you advice but here are my thoughts on this... First off, I would definitely go for the Tamiya finish for reasons of realism. I saw the 2k varnish on your beautiful Ferrari 330 P4, which was "brilliantly" done but turned out too much of a sheen for a 60's car IMHO. Now we are talking about a 50's car... Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about the red plastic because silver does cover very well, doesn't it? Some modelers even use silver as an intermediate cover layer before applying "sensitive" basecoats. Example (at 3:54 mins): There is also a new kind of primer designed by Tamiya for this kind of dilemma, I believe: http://www.tamiya.com/english/products/85101/index.htm I have not used it so far, but imagine this could help... Finally, I think using ZP base coats does not necessarily mean you have to use ZP clear too. I'd image you get a glossy finish from Tamiya TS-13 aswell. I used Tamiya LP9 (which is the same stuff, only bottled for airbrush use) on a flat white ZP basecoat for my Porsche 962 and it worked nicely...

I guess you mean the Entex kit? Listed on Scalemates (https://www.scalemates.com/kits/208463-entex-industries-9048-porsche-924) but only general information there. Google images show open-box images (Ebay, Worthpoint) based on which my guess would be that the kit contains around 80-100 parts...

Looking good! And by the way... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Hi Brian, I sure like your kits! I've always been wondering how to turn that awful Tamiya Porsche 961 into something nice - you did it! The best would be to let me know which tools exactly you are looking for. I bought all my tools through regular webshops, most of them basically selling the same stuff that's available throughout the world (Tamiya etc.). Here's a shop though selling some stuff apart from the mainstream. One good example being the JLC saw... https://www.rai-ro.de/instrumente-werkzeuge-c-21.html?osCsid=9dca0c835cea4bc5d8674c9d41be36ad Any questions or comments, I suggest you send me a PM!

Thanks Gerald, I agree - it is! Thanks Brian. Yes, so did I. The Boomerang - along with the Monteverdi Hai and the Alfa Romeo Carabo - was my favourite play toy (die-cast) car already when I was a kid. Matchbox and the others really did a lot of cool cars back then. Such as one-off concept and rare exotic cars... Thanks Will! Being presented in 1972, this was even before the introduction of the Countach! Parts of the Boomerang's design later were to be found in other cars designed by Giugiaro, mostly in the Lotus Esprit (yes, that 70's Bond car!) and the DeLorean DMC-12... Thanks Mark, appreciated.

Oh sorry, I checked for the kit but didn't look into that thread...

Thanks for showing, JC. I was thinking you'd have to deepen the rim well too, and I would like to have seen that. But I forgot those 1-part cup wheels by Fujimi basically are fine (realistic) the way they are, yet of course better with the modifications you made. For the 3-part wheels (Speedline rim) as used on the RS 3.8, it would take more work to deepen the rim well on the rear wheels (as the kit comes with 4 pcs. all the same...). I tried to do a similar thing on my Italeri Countach kit back then, it actually started well but did not work out in the end... It did look like this:

Hi Brian, many miles away, here in Germany, people are shocked by the awful pictures we keep seeing on the news. My thoughts and best wishes are with you. If there is anything I can do to help you get set up again, get kits or tools from within Europe or else, let me know...

Hi folks, it looks like Tamiya will release a kit of the Ford FT 2016 next year aswell: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/1181905-tamiya-24346-ford-gt So far we have a simple Revell snap kit of that car and there will be a detailed kit of the LM race version by Revell rather soon. So I guess a more detailed (yet probably only curbside) kit by Tamiya will add to the variety...

Hi JC, great to see you taking these on. I didn't know there ever was a Carrera 4 Lightweight. Sounds a bit contradictory to me, because four-wheel drive is the opposite of lightweight... I'll be following your progress! Could you show more detailed photos of this please? I understand that you did not only increase the wheels in diameter, but also in width?

Great work so far...

Nice result, Will! Kinda whetted my appetite... I got this kit too...

Hi folks, around 1990 I built the Maserati Boomerang kit by Heller (1/24 scale) and painted it silver. Which is "historically correct" as there is only one prototype in that color. The kit took all those decades of storage pretty well, but I wanted to restore it and give it another color - metallic brown being the color of choice. What the kit (i.e. it's plastic) did not take so well was several chemical baths for stripping the paint. There are very thin horizontal bars in the doors, separating the upper from the lower door window, and those broke in the process of paint-stripping. They were replaced using thin Evergreen strips but those broke again several times in the process of polishing the paint and fitting in the crooked glass pieces. So although this is a very simple kit with only a few parts, this whole restoration process got kind of "annoying" in the end. Happy to have it completed now. The result is not too much to my liking, but it's a rare kit painted in a (possibly) never seen before color, so I'd like to show a few images anyway...