MarkJ

Thanks, John. That really means so much coming from you, and I really appreciate it. I think you have probably seen the last of my new Nascar builds. I'm heading back to the really old stuff, fifty's, sixty's and seventy's now that Salvino's is resurrecting some seventy's stuff.

Thanks, Martin. I think if they would make the instructions a little clearer, it would be a lot more fun to build and a lot less chance of making a mistake. Sometimes the part numbers did not jive with what you're building so you had to figure out what they were talking about before you could do anything.

Here is the photo from COTA I used to model the melon. During my research I found out that Ross was 5 foot 9 inches. The melon turned out being 15 inches long. Must be a special tossing melon. A standard Florida watermelon is 20 to 24 inches long when ripe. That is according to google.

Thanks, Pierre. Don't think I will try that trick again because the microsol leaves a white residue if you don't get it off before it dries. you can use more microsol as a solvent to remove it, but it just adds another step in the finishing process. I'll be painting with real paint from now on. the microsol does not leave a residue on paint but it bites into the future. Yes, I did come very close to going mad with all those decals. I can see why some guys are making fantasy versions of these cars instead of using the big panel decals. These powerslide decals are very thick and take a lot of microsol to make them conform to curved surfaces like the fenders and nose.

Thanks, Jason. No, I don't want to do that one because I would have to destroy the right side of the car and I know nothing about making a model look damaged and make it look real. That takes some real talent that I have no clue how to do.

Thanks, Pierre.

Here is how the watermelon came together. the final pictures are in the Nascar underglass forum. link is below.

On March 27, 2022, Ross Chastain won his first cup race at COTA in Austin Texas. He battled with A.J. Allmendinger until dinger knocked him out of the way Then Alex Bowman Knocked him out of the way allowing Ross to take back the lead and win. The build took 94 hours to complete and I added the missing left roof rib cut down the rear spoiler to a 4 inch spoiler and added a wiper blade. i also did a dash and a switch plate on this build.

I did not know these we're available yet. Where did you get yours from? Super nice build. Was this your first nextgen model, and if not, did you notice any changes to the instructions? Thanks

Thanks, Jason. You gave me a lot of good info on these models when I was building both of them and I really appreciated it.

Thanks, Bob and Pierre. Bob you are right, the last coat of future did the trick, and the finish looks better than any paint job I ever did. But I won't be doing anymore just future paint jobs. I will post the finished build pictures for sure. It came out just as good as the first build. I might take a picture with both builds side by side just for grins. Another thing Salvino's needs to think about is how they package the parts. I had to use my wife's hair dryer to unwarp the hood, the body, and the chassis floor. The first kit did not have this bad warpage problem. I think that might be where some of the extra 6 hours came from. I also spent some time making a bonus part for the build that the first model did not have. and I added some stuff to the interior, the switch plate, that I did not do on the first one.

Wow, Pierre. you have done it again. The paint is deep and beautiful and the attention to detail is again through the roof. Such enjoyment it is to view this model. The design team at Jaguar were way ahead of their time coming up with this beautiful car and you certainly did it justice with your stunning build of it.

Finally finished and I'm really glad. This was not an enjoyable build at all. I kept making mistakes and it actually took me 6 hours longer to complete this one compared to the first one which is almost identical. I even lost a small decal but I'm not buying a whole new sheet just to get it. Needless to say, this is my last nextgen build. Looking forward to getting back to the old stuff. It's much more enjoyable.

That does look like it would be almost impossible to get that chassis to body on this model, but you did a fabulous job as always and the beauty of brush painting is that you will be able to fix the dash with nobody the wiser. I'm really looking forward to the major unveiling of this awesome build.

Two more things to do before I can do the final future coat. One is to get the rear body to chassis to snap together. I already did my little trick to get the front body to slide in under the radiator shroud. The other is to finish a part that has nothing to do with the model but has some significance to the back story of the project.

Fabulous work on the interior. Dash looks so real. Looks like you're pretty close to wrapping this baby up.

I had no Idea the Crown was that big but seeing is believing . But did Toyota even have a 400 plus cubic inch v-8 back then that could have even qualified for any events on the Nascat schedule in 1972. Great job on this ultimate fantasy build.

Spare tire work looks awesome.

Continued awesome work. The seat is really something to behold.

Interesting. I never thought about coloring the primer. I guess I'll just stick to white. But I am going to try to get it to flow better so I don't have to sand it. I don't think I have been thinning my Vallejo primer enough and this primer doesn't take well to sanding or polishing.

Wow, Pierre. I'm not seeing bumpy from where I'm sitting. Just another astounding paint job and decal work.

I agree, Bruce, and I hope they do try to clarify some things, but I kind of doubt if they will.

Great job, Gary. I did not realize how big the xke was in racing back in the day. You did an excellent job on this one.

Okay , I'm missing my fix of great building to watch. I hope you haven't finished it already and put it in the finished forum.

Finally finished the decals. I just need to add the bracket to the front of the body, so I don't have to glue the body to the chassis. Then I just need to do the final coat of future and I'm done with this one. Thank goodness for that. These models are very labor intensive and easy to make mistakes. Which I have had a lot of.