Pierre Rivard

Thanks for the advice Gary. The 3D printed wheels do look great.

Starting to figure out what I need to do about wheels & tires for an old Monogram kit. The topic is Mercedes 300 SRL at 1955 Mille Miglia. I think the best suited out there is the FPPModelos (Fernando Pinto) wheels but after conversion to CAD plus shipping from Portugal the set comes in at almost $100. Ouch! So I've been experimenting with a set or 3 piece resin cast from HRM. Lots of cleanup and looks decent but it might fit better on an early sixties Ferrari maybe... Also did some work on the lit wheels, de-chroming, cleaning up and refinishing. The shape is more suitable but the wires are a bit on the fat side still. However the kit tires are magnificent. So looking for input on alternative solutions as these two sets I build are not bad but I'd like to improve things a bit. Please bring your ideas and post pictures. Thanks,

Beautiful build so far. I Kileys how you finished the metaled components, very realistic looking. Seems like a pretty good kit. I look forward to seeing how the wheels have been engineered and cast by Italeri.

Beautiful build of a most intriguing car. My ears a bleeding just at the thought of the noise this monster could make!

Problem solved!

Color looks good Andy. Which of the paint did you end up using. Anyhow it looks mighty good, more grayish blue than the mix I did for Miles' Cobra. I think you got it right!

Yup, you need Mark J on your group build team. I've seen him transform a pedestrian AMT 63 Vette into a Grand Sport. Impressive!

Randy, extraordinary work on what may be my favorite car ever. I have the CMC die cast of this car and regularly take it out of the cabinet to admire the exquisite space frame. To think that you are building one from scratch the way the big ones were made is mind boggling. This is quite the journey!

Lots of work but the bonnet looks really good. The rivets add a lot of realism. Very nice.

Well, if opposing viewpoints are welcomed, Pictures of old color cards never look the same from one another. Personally I prefer to refer to as many period pictures as possible (despite limitations of old pictures ), pick a target ans do a spray test (or brush for a dummy like me) Check out these two from 64 LeMans.

Looks promising Andy. The metallic flakes of Testor's look much more in scale. You might need more silver. Different brands of course but when I did mine I started with silver and gradually added some blue. In the end about 60/40

Thank you guys for the feedback. It was a fun build and I used it to develop ideas on weathering techniques. All of this in preparation for this one done last year. This one was not fictional, it's a replica of James Hilton's Charger as it was in 2014.

Just got a bottle of Micro Satin and one of Micro Gloss. Sanding down and preparing 2 hoods for testing. Curious to see how decals will look with a satin seal coat and risk for some silvering.

Really beautiful build Mario. Félicitations! Brings me back to my childhood in the sixties when we had french cars imported to Quebec. Lots of Renaults around back then. It was special and this build brings back these good vibes, so thank you.

It looks a lot like the blue I formulated but with a coarser metallic. Does look somewhat over scale. You might want to airbrush a test body or at least a hood, see the effect.

Hi Jonathan, HRM resin cast. I purchased them through Model Builders' Warehouse. Currently out of stock but contact Randy there, he might be able to restock.

So maybe Future will be a thing... of the past? ?

Wow Chris! Crazy looking beautiful race car. Possibly the last beautiful prototype (don't like today's cars) Your scale model of this beautiful car is a masterpiece. I love watching masters like you build these incredibly complicated MFH kits. I salute you!

Forgot to show the underside, here it is,

Brilliant stuff. I've tried to find these rivets but they are always out of stock. My fall back has been the glue on stuff from Wave. If you have shaky hands forget it...

I could not see shoulder belts on the few ref pics of my entry pictures so I took an educated guess to leave them out. I thought the blue mix I formulated was perhaps on the light side...but perhaps not light enough after all...

Wow Mark, I'm going to JacHobby today to get that stuff. Perfect for a modern car with a wrap but perhaps also for a 50's - 60's style race car. Thanks for this great find.

These are fresh photos of a build from about 3 years ago but never presented on this forum. A bit of a fantasy build of finding one of the 57 Chevy Black Widow race cars in a barn. Both the car and pick-up are mostly OOB builds with the focus kept to experimenting with paint finishes. This was all done with brushes & small sponges using mostly Vallejo paints, washes and weathering products. The car is presented as found after decades in a barn. I wanted the truck to appear well maintained but with a bit of patina. Thank you for looking

I used metal wire from the hardware store. It measures 0.75 mm diameter and easy to bend. Made jack hooks as in pic and added a small angle to glue the wire with epoxy. Picture below shows version 1 that was too tall but shows the idea.

Again thank you all for all the feedback and support. Looking back at my build pictures I realize that in the effort to replicate a specific car only a handful of the kit's parts (headlamps, tail lamps, steering wheel and windshield) were left untouched. Everything else was either modified or replaced. No complaints, I enjoyed every moment but this time I really mean it, the next build will be strictly OOB...until I change my mind...