FujimiLover

It is two hinges so they work independently, which also unfortunetly made it tough to install as you had to somehow hold one in place while working with the other. Anyway, these are the best teaser-shot's I can give you. The chassis, interior, and engine compartments are all finished. I even had success with the decals for the rims! Now you'll just have to imagine this with the body on it! Tried to get a close-up of the decal's. On the rim it reads O.Z. Racing, and center cap has the KS logo. KS Logo on center of steering wheel. I decided to paint the valve-covers red. Why not? Beleive it or not, this is my first Lamborghini build! And steering is pose-able although not much.

Some more updates! I added some decal's to the body. I decided to GLUE the rear bumper in place rather than trying to deal with those pesky odd angled screws. I started assembly of the chassis. I predict this model to be finished on the weekend! I didn't realize this Diablo was AWD! Gold Koenig badge saved from another model. Tail light stickers. Yes, they want you to use stickers AND then paint the red/orange on the clear lense. I guess this gives it a brighter truer effect?

It's usually the inside mirror, or exaust pipes that accidently get tossed out. Especially when the exuast tips are those that are part of the wheel/tire kit as is frequently the case with Fujimi models. Is it best to paint parts on or off the sprue? If all parts are same color, I usually leave'em on the sprue and spray as one part, then take'em off and touch-up the paint where the part was cut off. The sprue makes a great holder for parts when painting tiny items!

First time is a mistake Second time is dumb Third time is stupid Fourth time your an idiot Fifth time, you deserved it After that, there's no hope!

I'm mentally designing my Smartuki project. I'm wondering how best to make the cage that the motorcycle engine will be mounted into place. I had thought about soldering material, thin flexable metal rods as it is easy to bend. Yet, I'm not sure if it's strong enough for this use. I'm also curious as to how to make custom roll-cages and other similar structures. Any tips on materials, tool's, and how-to's? If you have photos that would be great too. When I build this project, I'd like it to be as acurate as possible. Same question can be asked for making custom exaust work.

Clear ones can be used for neon tubes maybe? Some companies like Tamiya, require you to cut a peice out of the sprue, heat and strech it, and make antenna's out of it. I learned that trick from when I was building their WRC Focus. Or was it their Pug 206?

Hardest parts for me are those tiny little gear-shifters and windshield wippers. Either the wippers brake in half, or three, and/or the gear shifter fly's away into never never land especially when you use the clippers. As I said, clear parts are the worse to drop on the floor. Especially those tiny little turn-signal peices! Is it best to use a hobby knife to cut it off the sprue, or the clippers? Instructions always says clippers. I often wonder if instructions, like most anything we have to assemble, is made by people who build themeselves, or those darn pesky engineers who dont' even know how to build a model. It seems alot of engineers, dont' design the stuff they make for the users to use'em cause the engineers dont' use'em themeselves! LOL! Kind of like a sales man not knowing the product he is selling!

Look's too good to be a model!

eh, close enough! Yea, sprue, true to sprue. Sprue true. I knew it was something like that!

Is'nt it fun to see your model progress? You start seeing less and less parts on the spruce, or tree whatever it's called. Eventually, you look at a spruce and think it's completely free of parts and you toss it away. Only to find out later when your 99.99% finished with your model, that you threw away one crucial part! Clear parts are worse!

You know, I've been wondering the same thing. Some are easy, some are not. Some can be simply lowered by repositioning where the body mounts to the chassis. When I used to build Fujimi's 89 Honda CRX SI, I wouldn't care about the steering, I just drilled new holes for the axles and mounted the wheels in the "higher" position, thus lowering the car. Alot of other models can't do that because of where the axles line up, that, and you may want the suspension detail's. I wish somebody would make an aftermarket suspension kit specifically for models where you could cut off the stock plastic spring/shock, and install the new kit that could be adjustable. That would be a sweet upgrade for ANY model with a detailed suspension kit! If your lucky enough to have a model with actuall springs in it, you could use washers to shorten the spring's thus lowering the car as well. How the professional's do it, is a good question that I'd love to see answered here.

I collect die-cast in 1/43 scale, and build 1/24. I used to collect 1/18's, but too big and not enough room for'em. With 1/43, you have lot's of room and as I said in another thread, NEARLY EVERY car that I know of has been made in 1/43 scale. There are some 1/24 scale plastic kit cars I wish were in 1/43, 1/18 scale die-cast. I enjoy seeing each one turn out better than the last one. Is it therapy? Probably not since I dont' have a job and dont' have the stresses that require therapy. Especially when there are frusteration's within each build! LOL! Sometimes you FEEL like you want to toss the model across the room! Coarse, where would that get you?

Anybody watching? Anyway, I got the seats in, dashboard mounted, and the door hinges operating. Although, the door hinges dont' operate as smoothly as one would hope and not sure how to fix it. I just hope I've got it lined up properly enough so that when I start assembling this together with the body, that it'll work nicely and fit nicely! Opened position: Closed position:

I'd rather have the kit!

Dash boared clear coated and steering wheel mounted. A quick little mock-up for yea. Clear coating over the flat black really gives a nice leathery look I think. It also helps prevent from too much scratching. Sorry, I don't think I'll have any teaser-shot's for you anytime soon, but you can imagine where this is going! The flash from the camera takes away the natural sheen of the clear-coated flat-black. But unfortunetly, without the flash, all you see is a black blob with no details.

I don't see it under glass buddy! I care!

Awesome van, but can't see the interior! I like it!

I'm judging this one by the panel lines. Look at the lines around the door and gas-cap, they look like a model to me and like most people, I say die-cast.

I need at least one month to get my CC bill taken care of so I can get my Ebay account sorted out. Once that's done, I should be able to buy the Suzuki die-cast motorcycle I need for project Smartuki. I say 4-5 months 6 tops, no later. I'm sure lot's of us have other projects in the way, budget, other lives as well. Maybe have it ready for October?

Waiting for packages suck's doesn't it? Right now, I dont' know if I have enough money to purchase the two kit's I need, or when I do, if I can even find'em in time for this build off. I still plan on doing it, just might not make the dead line.

WOW! Gorgeous Porsche and sweet job with the CF! That could've been used in the "ROM" thread and fooled everybody! Look's so realistic!

I beleive I found the exact motorcycle I needed for the Smartuki. I searched for 1/24 Suzuki motorcycle on ebay and came across this die-cast model. Question is, does this have a detailed engine that I can use? Unfortunetly, my ebay account is suspended so I can't purchase anything on ebay at the moment. Now, I need to find a 1/24 scale Smart Car. I beleive somebody in this forum recently got one and posted it under their "what I got today" thread? I need to know what kit it is and how it's detailed. If I can get my hands on these two items, I'm in good shape!

Some updates, finally had success with the decals, none ripped! Yay! Also clear coated the flat-black which gives it a nice look. Look's a little more like the black plastic that surrounds alot of engine compartments. Without flash Dashboard will either be gloss or dull clear coated when decal's have had time to dry.

Smartuki Suzuki-powered Smart Car Hello there. I plan on building this car. I don't have much details on the car, so the model wont' be acurate by any means and I hope that's okay. I don't think I can find a 1/24 scale Suzuki GSXR engine, so I'll most likely use a Honda Civic engine or something similar in place. I'll probably build 1/25th scale as that is what I'm most likely to find. Here are pic's of the car before it was painted in white. This will be my first attempt at custom fabricating and custom installation's. So, I'm not promissing any success here. I think this will be a very unique build and I look forward to the challange. First step is to find the proper kit, and the proper engine, even if it's not a Suzuki. By the way, I'll probably add my own features/styling to it to make it even more uniqe!

Hello there. I'm wondering what happened to the other guy who was also building a Koenig Specials Ferrari Testarossa Competition the same time I did mine? I have not seen any updates to his project and I'm very curious as to how his has turned out. Can't wait to see your car's body! Next you need to mount the interior on the chassis like I did mine and take a pic. Unless you dont' have the suspension installed yet. Would you please post us updates to your build janostimas? Thank you!