Chillyb1

Thanks for looking. I forgot to mention the roof rack: the owner made it himself using readily available materials and attaching the thing to the roof with muffler clamps.

This is Ebbro and Tamiya's collaboration, the Citroen 2CV fourgonnette, a light truck that saw much use in France and elsewhere for several decades. I've decided to build it as a commercial vehicle very heavily used by its owner. It has been maintained in name only and "fixed" as needed to keep it in running order. One rear body panel has been replaced by a piece of sheet metal welded in place and then forgotten.

You don't need to rationalize your addiction for our sake, PK.

That is a very cool model and a cool idea. I have to go back through the pictures to absorb all the detail.

That is fantastic work. I'd love to be able to build something like that.

Yes to the first part and no to the second part. Hobby paints adhere (no pun intended) to a pretty universal set of terms for designating paints that differentiates among acrylic, enamel, and lacquer. A lot of non-hobby paints call themselves acrylic but are either enamels or lacquers, as you've discovered. Often you'll find paints called acrylics that make no mention on the label of either enamel or lacquer; however, they often are billed as quick-dry, which usually means they are solvent-based.

I use Tamiya's liquid surface primer in the airbrush. You can thin it, like, 10:1 and it goes on dreamily. For bodies I usually shoot Tamiya primer from the can. For small parts and most interior and chassis parts I shoot Walmart's Colorplace brand primer: it goes on in really light, thin coats and is very inexpensive.

I have only one thought on the subject: You should get the Paasche VL instead.

Hobby Design makes some of the nicest detail sets that I've ever used. I'm glad to see they are making more stuff for modelers who build US auto subjects.

Another vehicle that I'd love to see in plastic kit form. I love these.

Dr. Whalen gives good advice; however, I find that modelers obsess unnecessarily about using Alclad chrome and, to a lesser extent, polished aluminum. Make sure the parts you are going to paint are visibly smooth and that there are no mold lines or other problems to correct. If you are shooting a thin primer through your airbrush you probably don't need to do any sanding at all. And I do recommend priming the parts first. In my experience, the Alclad black base is really, really thin and will run if you give it the chance. Other blacks, not so much. I've been using Tamiya's TS-14 with great results. As long as the black has no visible imperfections, don't do anything to it. And Dr. Whalen's best advice is something that varies from Alclad's recommendations and that of many other modelers; however, I do agree that it is best to spray the Alclad within about an hour of applying the base coat. I have gotten the best results this way, often shooting within fifteen minutes of base coat application. Just try it out and see what happens. And good luck. Alclad's shiny finishes are an indispensable tool, I believe, and they are a boon to us modelers.

Why is lacquer thinner not good in the airbrush? That's what I use to thin Tamiya's acrylics for shooting through my Paasche VL and it is by far the best thing I've tried. Second best results would be thinning with Tamiya's own acrylic thinner (X-20, I think is the number).

That's a great kit and I've built it maybe six times, still have a couple in the stash, too! Good luck with those decals. I swore I'd never, ever build this version again.

Or you might be looking for Archer: http://www.archertransfers.com/SurfaceDetailsMain.html

An ambitious project. I can't wait to see more. I've built this kit several times and never get tired of it.

I'm with Plowby. I prime everything. I usually use inexpensive gray primer and shoot a very light coat on the parts while still on the sprues. I assemble some stuff (e.g., engines, suspensions, et cetera) before priming rather than doing so when they are on the sprues.

I've built this kit maybe a half dozen times and never really found a satisfactory method for doing the welting. And I wracked my brain trying to come up with something fairly simple and foolproof, even thinking of your idea of styrene strips. In the end I decided this time just to bite the bullet and try it with masking tape. I used the 6mm Tamiya tape and burnished it down with (and this is my secret weapon, so don't tell anyone else!) a GUITAR PICK. Then it was just a matter of masking everything else off and shooting paint through the airbrush. Over the curved part of the fenders you can use a single piece of tape; on the flat parts of the car I think I used maybe three pieces, trying carefully to make each piece conform to a bit of the curve before transitioning to the next piece of tape. I usually shoot some clear coat before color to seal the masking tape but I don't think I did that with this job. Until and unless I come up with a better method (that is, an easier method) I'll be using this tape and much patience.

The welting was the result of very tedious, very precise application of Tamiya masking tape and using my airbrush.

This Tamiya kit is right near the top of my all-time favorite kit list. If you like VWs, German cars, historically significant cars, or super-cute cars, then get this kit and build it. For this one I used Tamiya TS-41 Coral Blue for the exterior and Tamiya AS-20 Insignia White for the interior. I used BMF for interior trim and window trim, and aluminum foil tape for the trim on the running boards. Chrome is Alclad II. I added some wires in the engine bay and a few decals. I put a lot of work into the wired distributor, which disqualified itself from being used by agitating me during construction, which, in turn, led to its destruction (stupid thing!). I added valve stems and used photoetch wipers, the blades of which are a weird rubber material used by fisherfolk in making lures. These pictures come pretty close to capturing the actual color, but I'm not really satisfied with them. I'm using a new and better camera though the light refused to cooperate. Enjoy: Several more photographs can be found here: http://smg.photobucket.com/user/ChillyB1/library/Coral%20Blue%20VW%20Beetle?sort=3&page=1

That Citroen van is a dream come true for me. This great news following so closely on the heels of EBBRO's announcement of its Citroen DS is almost too much to bear.

I was going to recommend the same thing. Use a moisturizing lotion several times a day and seal crack with flexible super glue (I use Gorilla brand). This is not true. It was invented to serve as a method of making lenses for weapons quickly and cheaply because we, for some unknown reason, were not able to buy them from the Germans. Later it was used to seal wounds until better treatment was available.

Well, this bit is misinformation. The primers you mention are alike only inasmuch as they are all primers. In general, non-hobby-specific paints and primers are less expensive than hobby-specific primers and paints. But they are in no way the same thing. A lot of modelers like Duplicolor and Plasti-kote primers (and paints, I guess), but I've found them to way too thick/heavy for my modeling needs. Modelers who do lots of body mods or customizing like those primers because they help fill as they prime. Anyway, Tamiya primer is incredibly thin and incredibly smooth. In my opinion it is worth every cent I pay to get the finish it provides straight out of the can. And I'll say the exact same thing about their TS paints. But these decisions are up to the individual modeler. It is simple fact that some paints and primers are qualitatively better than others; however, it is possible to get excellent results with a very wide range of products available to us modelers. And you should perform a search about polishing. There are about a billion threads on the topic. It is another field that is about what each modeler hopes to get from the process. I hate having to do ANY sanding or polishing, so I keep it to a minimum. Good luck with the Lamborghini.

Hurray, another La Ferrari!! I'll also be watching closely.

The GTOs are from Fujimi. Released a few years ago. There are probably builds here somewhere. I've only just started one so I won't have anything to show for a while. They are fantastic kits.

I got these recently: And where did you find this? Looks like it might could be useful.