mikevillena

Hi and thank you Mike! I had three of those Gunze Sangyo kits unbuilt in my hoard which I had stupidly sold many years back. Those were nice curbside kits. If I remember correctly, you had an option of door handles. I think the Autodelta GTA's went with the simple handles instead of the problematic recessed ones. Your build turned out nice! Thanks for sharing the links to Alfaholics. Actually, I have been using their site since the late 90's for reference photos as well as Alfa BB (member) along with a handful of other 1:1 Alfa Romeo owner's clubs. I just recently joined the MGTC Registry as they are an invaluable source for the Airline Coupe project that I have waiting in the wings. It is always a good idea to invest some time in scouring the internet for reference photos and I've always had good luck in searching for "XXXXXXX restoration" (XXXXXX being whatever car you are interested in). Truth be told, I spend about the same amount of time doing research as I do building. Besides, it's a lot of fun

Finished the rear parcel tray and give the rear a shot of Tamiya Grey primer. Much finier than the usual automotive primer that I have been using. Moved onto the engine bay. Decided to delete the vacuum booster for the brakes so I had to blank out the recessed perched. Also removed some of the molded bosses.

Haha...nice one Mike. I think those are pretty rare. Funny thing is I managed to hang onto my electric DS: It was an absolute pile of understeering junk and easily the worst RC car chassis I've ever owned. Stanton used to have a parking lot series and I used it for a couple of seasons until we switched to the RS4.

In the interest of getting more "lurkers" and/or rank beginners involved in the forum and the hobby in general, we ought to have a "Beginner's Corner" sub-forum. First time modellers and kids can share their builds and quite possibly get advice, help and encouragement from the more experienced members. One can imagine how intimidating the forum is considering the extremely high quality and craftsmanship on display so a less "demanding" platform might be more appealing. Just my two cents. EDIT: An additonal thought....if such a sub-forum is created, we as a collective should exercise restraint in replying and resist the temptation to spam the poor novice's thread with photos of master builds no matter how well meaning the intention may be. Nothing is more demoralizing than having one's work forcibly compared to someone else's "masterpiece" (which seems to happen all to frequently around here).

What can I say but great job on both, Matt!!

I am interested in all of them. Folks are kind enough to share their builds and the least I can do is to read. Who knows, might actually learn something new.

Rear parcel tray roughed out:

@ Michael - Thank you very much. Yes, most folks aren't aware of the little car's amazing race track record. I consider it a real "giant killer" along with the Austin Mini Cooper, Lotus Super 7 and the Datsun 510. Btw, you are correct about your project...it is a GTA and not a GTAm @ Jeremy - I am extremely flattered by your very kind compliment considering your skills as amply demonstrated with you AMX build.

Started work on the rear bulkhead: Lots of trial and error trimming and shaping: The bulkhead's sheet metal was swaged so: A bit more trimming and some blending with dabs of spot filler/primer. Then it's on to the parcel tray.

Thanks Curtis. The Tamiya kit is rather nice even though the current kit's tooling has suffered a bit through the years. With a bit of care it should build up beatifully. I really didn't intend on getting this "involved" and would have rather built it up "box stock" but I needed to improve my meager (actually, non-existent) scratchbuilding skills so I had a go at it.

Began fabricating the internal side structures of the unit body. Used the kit's interior side panels as template: Rough trimmed: Test fit: More sanding and trimming to get it right.

Nice GTAm! Those Mini-Z's are nice because you can take a model kit bodyshell and mount it then go racing. Sure beats a static model anyday. You need the "quadrifoglio" decals on the sides.....

It's nice to know that other folks also got into RC cars. I started racing rc cars at Stanton with my son. Back then we had a pair of RC10-DS's then we graduated to HPI RS4 Pros. Went out to Leisure Hours to attend the HPI Challenge and managed to win the Concourse Challenge. Started building and detailing Tamiya's and went to Trackside (Wisconsin) several times to attend the Tamiya TCS races. Also managed several "Best of Shows". I still a have an unfinished project sitting in the closet Anyway, it's good to talk about RC again. Had so much fun. Wish we had a sub forum for it.

Thank you Tommy! I'll resume work on the engine after I've tackled the additional details and mods on the chassis/unibody. Slow progress:

WOW!

When I was wrenching for Motodelta (not to be confused with AUTODELTA of Alfa fame) we had Hazet tools exclusively and I had a few of their hand tools. But I also enjoyed it whenever the Snap-On rep stopped by and I ultimately bought several of their wrench sets. Shopping around inside that cavernous Snap-On truck (air-conditioned in the summer) was like Christmas! Gosh, those were real susbstantial tools. You could tell just by holding them in your hand. The quality of the finish was superb and they weighed a ton. They also made a totally different noise when accidentally droppped on the ground which I always tried my best to avoid. They were SOLID and HARD. Properly set you could bear down with total confidence because they won't slip. Busted many a frozen and rusted bolts loose with them. I am so sad to hear that even Snap-On's quality has gone down....

Thanks Tom. I know the feeling all too well.....

Out of curiosity, did you decant the colour from a Holt's rattlecan? Also I'm assuming that that is the correct colour for the engine block. Is it some shade of BL Green? I do love the Mini as I vividly remember getting a lift from my sister's neighbor when I lived in England for a few months. I don't think I have ever seen the hedges fly past as quickly as they did that day and I briefly thought we were at Goodwood! I think the late Steve McQueen had one and constantly terrorized Porsches and Ferraris with it.

Superb realism, Mitchell!

Decided to tackle the needed details on the hood's underside. Used the spare kit's stock hood to make templates: I didn't have any .010 Evergreen so I had to use .015: Used .030 to make the second layer: Still needs a lot of trimming and sanding. The additional depth should add to the realism.

Funny but the I've come to like the colour. I've just purchase the same kit and it is quite the little gem. You've done a wonderful job so far

Google: https://www.google.com/search?q=dry+rot+tires&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ePdWU63iIdTyyAGi4IH4Aw&ved=0CCUQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=672 If your kit has rubber like tires you could try putting them in a food dehydrator and leave them there for several days. Then take them out and squish them to promote cracking. Paint the tires a dull dark grey and add washes to bring out the cracks. Just a suggestion.

I live in a one bedroom apartment so space is at a premium. Hence, I build on my dining table that doubles as my computer desk. (Excuse the sanding dust)

Vents cut open: Ground off the molded details on the hood undersides and shaved the hood to the correct scale thickness: I will be scratchbuilding the hood support structure. Quick side by side comparison between the build and the box stock:

Received some things I ordered from Scale Motorsport a few minutes ago. Can't wait to try them out: Started the bodywork by opening the vents: This will take a while....