curt raitz

This model represents "Lucybelle II" the white Ferrari Ed Hugus entered in the 1958 24 hours of Le Mans. He and Ray Erikson finished in 7th place overall at this race. This is my 2nd go around on building this kit, being familiar with the kit made the assembly much easier. Paint is MM Classic White 2 part lacquer straight from the rattle-can. I found the decals somewhere, but for the life of can't remember who I got them from. thanx for lookin'...

With just a week to go before NNL West, everything ready to go...happened across this kit I had started awhile back. Opened the box and started assembling/painting, next thing ya know it's built. But it was to clean and shiny for a 4 wheel drive vehicle, so mixed up some "mud/dust paint", fired up the airbrush and started playin'. The real trick to weathering/dirtying up a vehicle is to know when to stop! The stopping point is always the one before you think it's right, hard to stop then - but ya gotta! Finished it in time for the NNL West my friend Hossain expressed his desire to get this model from me...so know it sits in house, or at least until he trades it for something else! Base Kit: The license plate says it all...

This is a model I've always wanted to build, but for whatever reason could not... Bought this kit off of eBay about three years ago, before the photo-etched re-pops came out. I think this was one of the original Tamiya kits cuz the tires were deformed past redemption, decals were a crusty yellow and the clear vinyl tubing was hard and brittle. The decals were not a problem, picked up a couple of them from IndyCal Decals and the vinyl tubing could esaily be replaced, but the tires were a bigger problem. My friend, Raul Perez came to my rescue by giving me a model of this car he had built many, many years ago. Now with a set of tires, decals etc...I was ready to start building this model. I have not built a 1/12 th scale kit in sometime and forgot how dang big these things are...swallowed up my workbench! The donor model came in handy...I was constantly using parts from it to replace broken and missing parts. The plastic on the original model was extremly brittle and frequently broke, especially suspension peices. I just couldn't part with the screens/wire assemblies Raul had put on the intakes...so a little of Mr. Perez ended up on this model. Thanx for lookin'...

Been busy at the bench on a couple of other projects, but this one is startin' to come together... arts have been washed (used bleach solution as described in instructions) and seperated Body after white primer and a couple coats of MM "Classic White" lacquer (best white paint out of a rattle can I've found so far) Masked center cowling and stripes along bottom of both sides...mixed 3 different Tamiya paints (3 parts TS-35 Park Green; 2 parts TS-22 Light Green; and 1 part TS Lime green) until I got the green that closely matched the reference photos of the real car. Shot the green on all the areas it needed to go, masked the green areas then used Tamiya TS-10 French Blue to finish off the body. All parts ready for decals and assembly... interior was brush painted with MM acryl Green Zinc Chromate then sprayed with Dullcote thanx for lookin'...

Well I gotta jump into this build-off as well... gives me a good excuse to get this model built... will try my best to post photos of build, I get carried away and forget about takin' pixurz as I'm workin' and away we go...

Sorry Hossain...the 32 Ford Sedan Ratter won't be showin' up on your doorstep! Believe it or not, I plan on keepin' this model Don't have any plans to build another rat rod and i really liked how this one turned out c'ya soon

Gosh I haven't been on the PC for a couple of weeks...been building! one of my many Holy Grails, the 1/12th scale Ferrari 312T...yep, BIG Shiny car with lots of parts! thanx for all the comments, it sure was fun...

Yeah I couldn't find a skull head or grenade, but remembered the "boobie" shifters from the late 60's so what the heck, made a resin casting of a Phoenix Phollies female figures' upper torso and away we go... thus creating the personalized license plate...

Not my normal build, but the theme for this years NNL West was "Rats n Cats"...so I picked up the new Revell 32 sedan kit and started making it ugly. I chopped the top, channeled the body, grafted a '37 ford truck chassis, spring perch for front suspension, Replicas & Miniature seats and exhaust headers, etc... Paint is Duplicolor black primer covered in Testor's Dullcote with a heavy coat of Rustall brushed on. Added rust detail with Tamiya's detail powders I did enjoy straying away from the shiny stuff... thanx for lookin'

Holy Smokes...I forgot that Mike Quarterman (UMi modelwerke) had done this kit. Next time I see Mike I'll have to see if he has any lurking in his basement. as a side note, Porsche made him stop producing all of his Porsche kits a long time ago thanx

This is my favorite Porsche and would like to build a scale model of the one Brian Redman and Jo Siffert drove in the 1970 Targo Florio... "Model Racing Replica" magazine had an article which used a "LMP of Japan" kit to build this model Have had no luck on locating such company or a 1/24th, 1/25th, 1/20th or 1/12th kit of this car plenty of 1/32nd slot car bodies available, but not what I'm lookin' for... So does anyone out there have information on a kit for this car and where one can locate it. Prefer plastic, but I am not afraid of resin, thanx

In the July/August issue of the now extinct "Motor Racing Replica" magazine is an article for building a model of the 1957 NASCAR Black Widow. I have a pdf. of this issue, but could not find a way upload it, any ideas on how it can be done?

check out R&D Uniques Website at: http://www.rndunique.com/rnd_displayitem.cfm?pk=247 hopefully this will take you to the 61 falcon panel transkit they offer...

Hi, I just finished the #22 white with blue stripes Ferrari 250 Testarossa, will be posting pictures soon... this was my second Testarossa build, the first being the #21 yellow w/black nose the kit was much more enjoyable the second time around great kit...may have to build a red one someday!

Very, very nice work Bill aren't Etzell's offy engines great!...too bad Chris closed up shop, his stuff was remarkable lookin' forward to seein' ya on the 7th... cheers

Sorry Hossain, but our buddy Raul is a "Hot Rodder" now...ya know he's gettin' older and shy's away from anything that may go fast! For those interested, just got table confirmation for the NNL West Raul, Jerry Cardinal, Steve Alamand and myself will be settin' up shop on tables #2 and #3. Come on by and say Hi... table location can be found on the NNL West 2009 swap meet website: http://www.nnlwest.org/wcme.html Oh by the way...great models Raul I may actually vote for a "Peoples Choice Award" this year

Very nice start with good detail work lookin' forward to your progress on this car... About 4 years ago Ken Epsman, who owns the '69 Sunoco Camaro, '70 Dodge Challenger and the '72 AMC Javelin paid me to build models of his cars along with both Cuda's, Jerry Titmus' Trans Am, Jim Hall's Camaro and the Parnelli Jones Mustang. He gave each model to the present owners as a gift for Christmas...current information on the these Trans Am cars can be found on: http://www.historictransam.com/homepage.htm Model Racing Magazine did articles on the cars raced in the Trans Am series in the late 60's and early 70's...helped a lot in building these cars, was a lot of fun and the guyz enjoyed getting a scale model of their car.

I was watching this kit on eBay...just sold for $89.99 I also have been trying to find information on Truck Pullers...lots of pixurz out there of the trucks, but no detail pixurz of chassis, suspension, engines, etc. Just started a thread on this forum a couple days ago asking for help in this regard I plan on building a 2 wheel drive and 4 wheel drive truck...got a few '50 Ford and '51 Chevy truck models to play with, will be fun following your build

nice job Kevin...lookin' forward to seein' your models on March 7th please tell me you don't listen to 'Slipknot' while you're modeling...somehow the idea of holding an exacto knife with 'Slipknot' blaring away in the background doesn't doesn't bode well for one's fingers...

Magn'ficate!... Muy Bien!... Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious!

Ya know old friend, you're getting to be a purty good modeler...or ya know how to take good photo's! all kiddin' aside... you may have outdid yourself on this one - probably not though! Lookin' forward to seein' this ensemble on a table March 7th c'ya

1956 Nomad...steppin' out of the norm, heh! lookin' forward to seein' ya again

Great build Brendan, keep the resin comin'...love those kits, lookin' forward to seeing everyone's stuff come March 7th Ya know I think Raul is right...I must have too much time on my hands, just counted the models I 'll be bringing to the NNL West...had to stop at 30 I guess being partially-retired has agreed with my model building!

Very nice build, Bernard you and Raul are having way - way too much fun with these ratters'... I'm lookin' forward to meeting you at the NNL West

Thanx ol'friend...and just what are you bringing this year, any surprises?