Tommy124

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...

It's what I call the "Fujimi effect"... They release a kit and after that several variations of that kit... incomplete and/ or flawed kits. See my Porsche 911 RS 3.8... Tamiya are more accurate in this regard. Their F40 "Monte Shell" racecar kit is one of those F40 GT cars which were very similar to the road going version. Your model is coming along very nicely nonetheless! Bad news here... Tried it yesterday but it doesn't work for me. Worst thing, the magnifying effect is only working if I go very near to the object (model). Not very comfortable. Even with the strongest glass, it does not really get better. Even tried to put on the glasses to the lamp the other way round, looks just the same (strange?)... Second thing, this is too wobbly for me. It's nice not to have the headband but if that means I don't have the feeling of stability, it's not right for me... So I will stick with my old one (this here: https://www.rai-ro.de/kopfbandlupe-prismen-beleuchtung-p-1567.html?osCsid=e24e52321aa53e964643104767521de2)

Excellent job!

LOL! Put on one of the 4 weaker glasses to filter out the things you don't wanna see... Those canards look an awfully good opportunity to spoil things. I guess when I build my kit one day, I'll opt to fix them with superglue right away (prior to painting), then mask and paint them black at the end... Btw, I was interested in learning more about the several F40 race versions (LM, Competizione, GT, GTE), most of which are often mixed up in the kits available. I found a very good link to explain their story and the differences, so I'd like to share it: https://www.rossoautomobili.com/articles/whats-the-difference-between-all-the-ferrari-f40-race-cars

Some really great restoration work going on, here... Keep up the good work, Bill.

Simply beautiful, that Hot Rod! Excellent work!

Nice results, Pat! I like the BA livery too!

Looks nice... Are you going to drill the front grille open...?

Hi Will, your progress is looking fine! I just saw you are using the same headlamp that I ordered yesterday... 18 EUR on Amazon... I have another one but the headband is kind of annoying and it's either too tight or too loose. Plus I'm sweating buckets beneath that plastic headband. Hopefully this new one will work better for me, as it has sort of a fixing to the nose, I understand? Did you already glue in the clear parts before painting the window seals black??

Clean masking, clean paint job. The contrast looks good.

Brush painting all the way... Do we need to be worried??