Matt Bacon

... a "golden oldie", which I believe started life with Aurora, back in 1964. By popular vote, this is to be next on my bench. (And many thanks to Skip J, who has been awaiting this for some time.... since he sent me a TONNE of great reference) Job #1 is to fix a significant shape issue with the kit, which changes the look significantly. The top line of the windscreen is too high. I think there's maybe one car where the roofline is like that on the kit, but most of the photos I've found show a much lower line, continuing the gutters above the doors horizontally, parallel to the ground. The kit has a "wide-eyed" look, because the windscreen top heads upward over the roof at 45 degrees to the level. It's taken me a while to figure out how to do this! What I decided to do is cut the top section off the windscreen and glue it to the body, and then make a new windscreen. Here's the top part of the clear part stuck in place, and filled. ...and here it is sanded. You can see where the original roofline goes. The clear piece is backed up with Milliput just in case the sanding makes it a bit thin! It also needs a "trim" to continue the chrome above the doors. This is just a thin strip of plastic card, applied slowly, a bit at a time, with liquid cement. ...and here it is with a bit of primer to see where the imperfections are... Of course... this means we need a new windscreen. Apologies if this is familiar, but people often ask me what "plunge moulding is", so here we are. The original windscreen is backed with Milliput (it cracked as I was cutting it ;-() I cut a hole in a piece of hardboard from a chocolate box to make the outer "mould". The plastic is packaging from some Sennheiser headphones. Basically, any of those "clamshell" packs that you have to cut your way into, and avoid being cut by the packaging afterwards, make good material for this kind of thing... ... I made quite a few. This is to allow for my incompetence while I try to trim and fit them... This one looks like it might be a long haul, but it'll be a rarity on the shelf! bestest, M

Thank you all, gentlemen. This seems to be a "Marmite" car (those of you with a UK connection will know what I mean... for everyone else it's a "love it or hate it"). It's either the worst excesses of modern Ferrari, or a supercool supercar. Me, I think it's sculpture. Cars don't do "if it looks right, it'll fly right" these days, and for modern supercar markets (the Gulf, Russia, Singapore and China) a bit of excess seem to be the way to go. The F12 is not my favorite Fezza on the shelf, but I do think it's the front-engined Ferrari turned up to 11. As for the kit, personally, I think Fujimi have done a great job. There are some detail compromises, and some strange choices, but overall, I found it fitted well, looks the part, and was a straightforward build. The upsides: The main body elements (front bumper, body, bonnet "blades", doors, chassis, fitted superbly. There is NO trimming, sanding etc in what you see above. The dash etc. details were great for painting Excellent decals Despite criticism, the wheels and tyres are bang on scale sizes Those PE Scud shields are great if you want to do carbon effect versions! The "just OK" The pedals and seats are moulded with the tub. Not "state of the art", but, honestly, can you tell by looking at the photos here or in the WIP? The grilles in the body fit _perfectly_. So well, in fact, that if you prime, paint and clear the body shell, they don't any more. I'd mask the holes next time. The suspension is very simplified. Again, can you tell? The opening doors can be made multiposition, if not hinged and operating. Why not engineer them that way in the first place? Engine looks great in situ The "not so good" Those blinking exhaust manifolds. Why bother making something so complex and hard to assemble that you just can't see? Too much chrome. The grill ain't chrome on the real thing. The exhausts only have chrome tips. Give us some mesh in case we don't want to use the moulded parts The PE is mostly useless (the brake disks don't add much and are hard to use, and a lot of the rest is invisible) Why not offer a few more colour schemes in the instructions (Tamiya does, see the LFA)? And have the alternative decals needed (eg brake callipers, wheel centre cavallinos, dash instruments and markings, seat embellishments) in the box, a la Revell. Overall, though: buy with confidence my friends.... and seek out some "Rosso Maranello" or "Blu Abu Dhabi" from your local paint experts! Thanks, again... bestest, M.

Surely... that's a real one. Isn't it? Awesome build, and brilliant photos, too. Is that Photoshop, or do you have a supercool graduated tint background for your pictures, too? Literally the only thing that gives away that it ISN'T real is the panel lines and door handles. I don't know what, if anything, I'd have done differently, especially on a white car like this, but if they were sharply delineated it'd look JUST like the photos on Aston's web site... Superb job. bestest, m.

Paint is Zero Paints "Blu Abu Dhabi". Built using the Ferrai configurator to check options -- carbon sills and "driver zone", privacy glass, Daytona seats and some Alcantara in the cabin (OK, just various shades of grey and black). There are things that Fujimi could have done differently (and they are things that I'm sure Revell will do differently if/when they get an F12 into production), but overall, I really enjoyed this build. I don't think the simplifications are really visible now it's finished, and personally, I don't find the stance, ride-height or wheels/tyres at all offensive. And I have one on my shelf now, not sometime next year! bestest, M.

OK, I lied.... finishing touches done this evening. Now I just need to clean the fingerprints and dust off it, and get some proper light for beauty shots... bestest, M.

Last few pictures in the WiP. On the home straight now! Thanks goodness those exhausts are buried...I do wonder why they made them so accurate, and complex, when this is all you can see... You need to put the black shield under the windscreen in place AFTER the engine goes in. There's no problem... it's a click to fit, press in place part... no need for adhesive. ...and I think that's about it for this thread. More in the completed gallery... thank you for watching! bestest, M.

Hi, all... I wouldn't normally take pictures in the bright sunlight like this, but since it's "Blu Abu Dhabi", I assume that eye-watering daylight is what it's designed for, and I wanted to see what that might look like in real life. It probably gives the best impression of what the colour is REALLY like -- it seems to change from green to blue in different pictures, depending on the lighting conditions! ...still very much a WIP, but we are getting there, slowly. This marks the point when the chassis and body finally came together, which is always a good milestone! Fingers-crossed, I should have this done this weekend! bestest, M.

Thanks, guys. A bit more progress today: I realised that I hadn't painted the Blu Abu Dhabi on the bits of the doors that are not trimmed, so it was out with the masking tape! The "Privacy Glass" option, in this case applied with Tamiya Smoke, not the payment of several thousand more quids... I cut away and sanded the door hinge part, so that it clips into place and slots into the body. One didn't work so well, one did better, so it'll be the drivers door that's open in photos! The one above is using the "sloppy" hinge, because I don't want to risk the other one until I use it for real. I'm not sure how long they'll last being clipped and unclipped... Not a great photo, but it does show the very distinctive "face" of this beastie... bestest, M.

Thanks, lads! Lots of work on the interior this weekend: The red is Zero's Rosso Scuderia, and the various shades of "black" are Vallejo German Grey and Black, and Citadel "Charandon Granite". If you look hard there is a "carbon driver zone", and the "bridge" is carbon effect, but it's not really showing up in these pictures. Natural daylight needed, I think. The dash is detail painted with various Citadel colours, and finished with the kit decals -- very nice. The seat backs are carbon effect, but the combination of out-of focus and overexposed in this shot is killing it! I wanted to put this one in, because I'm sure there are/will be lots of complaints about Fujimi moulding the pedals as part of the tub, unlike Revell's typical separate parts. It's dark down there, and this is a pretty close-up shot, and I really don't think it will be too obvious. I painted the whole thing carpet colour, and then outlined the pedal in black, which I blended by drybrushing into the carpet colour. Then, I painted the pedal in bright silver. I bet even with the door open it'll be hard to spot, and with them closed.... The engine is nicely under way, with some detail painting left to do. ...and this is where we are at tonight. The Cavalleria is now on the grille along with a few other details, and the glasshouse is painted, of which more tomorrow... bestest, M.

Thanks, gentlemen... A little bit more progress: This is just mocked up to see how the ride height looks.I haven't changed anything at all -- all the parts are used just as they come. And, to be honest, I really can't see an issue with either the ride height or the wheel/tyre combo. The wheel dimensions are within a couple of % of what they should be for 20" (22.5mm versus 22.8mm for 20" wheels with +2cm flanges), the tyre width is spot on, and sidewall profile is if anything slightly too "low-profile", not too deep. The clearance above the front wheels is pretty small, and the back looks OK too... there has to be room for some suspension flex, after all! bestest, M.

...I know there are people who will HATE these, but the etch metal seemed too good an opportunity to miss for an experiment: I'm not sure whether I'll use them on the final model, but I have ordinary yellow ones as decals as well... bestest, M.

1) Slightly "Eagled" Series 1.5 Jaguar E-Type coupe in gunmetal with a red interior -- the classic 2) McLaren 12C Spider -- the daily driver supercar 3) New Range Rover with the V6 diesel, not overly specced up inside -- the car when you absolutely have to go somewhere, anywhere 4) BBR "fettled" Mazda MX5 for fun days in the sun 5) Audi RS6 Avant 2013 -- the practical family car Today's daily drive -- Skoda Superb Estate, which shares about 30% of its DNA with the Avant... bestest, M.

Slow but steady progress: The front end is on! Thanks to Bob Downie for the tip about the lights -- I fixed them to the pins inside the bumper with some strong but flexible glue before fitting the bumper. I also fitted the grille and support inside the bumper before attaching it, so the whole lot went on as a unit. A little bit of "wiggling" is needed with the lights, hence the flexible glue, but when they go in, they just pop into position. The air intake boxes are done with Scale Motorsports carbon, just for variety. I actually prefer my "sprayed" look, but that's just me... The "carbon" sills are also attached, which was a pain -- the location and angle is not a very positive fit. Wheels are painted Zero's Graphite Grey. A closer look at the headlights. I used fine wire for the LED tubes along the top, rather than tryin to paint silver. Actually, both are wrong -- but my attempt to use fine transparent fishing line didn't work out. It looks like there's something there, which is the point... at a distance. The problem is that the lights are pretty monotone unless they are lit up -- the silver surround to the main lens is the only brightwork, unless you look closely enough to see the pale yellow squares of the LEDs in the smaller "ladder" up the outside. The grille is mainly black, with a "chrome" front edge applied using "rub n buff". It'll need a bit of a tidy, now I've handled it to fit it in... Some bits and pieces. The brakes have "Grigio Silverstone" callipers, and are just painted in Humbrol Flat Aluminium from a can and washed with Citadel "Devlan Mud" for contrast. The engine parts are Tamiya Italian red with a matt coat. The interior is under way. Black, grey and red for contrast... bestest, M.

Thanks, guys... I finally got back to the bench. Slow progress, but at least it's SOME progress! This is more of my fake carbon fibre effect, done by spraying Zero Paints Graphite Grey through a fine mesh mask onto a black base. Getting the mesh to lay down over the curves of the heat shield was pretty easy (I use 3M "photo mount" spray-on tacky glue when the shapes are complex). I think I'd have found using decal much harder... even if it would look more prototypical. Curtis... yep, I do... ;-P OK. I'll spill the beans: That's red, by the way, not some dark chestnut brown as it might look here. I like the idea of the "stealth" look on the outside, with a splash of bright colour inside. I'll probably do "privacy glass" back rear windows as well, for better badassery... bestest, M.

My guess is a Mercedes SL65 AMG Black, or possibly a Viper... that is if there's a real car under there at all, not just a generic "unveiling" image! bestest, M.

+1 for Novus here. And Pledge with Future or whatever you guys call it these days. I still have a bottle of Klear, which is what it was over here... bestest, M.

This debate comes up over and over again on model airplane forums. You get people who "pre shade" the panel lines, and people who "pin wash" them in all kinds of colours, and people who do both. The point is, the gaps between panels on aircraft are microscopic, even on access panels and gear doors that open, never mind between the sheets of metal that cover the airframe. The reason why they do it is that if you took a REAL aircraft and scaled it down to 1/48th of its size, it would look like a toy, because the surface would be smooth and undetailed. It's about creating the "effect" of busy-ness, rather than an exact scale replica... You can argue about how much to do, and what techniques to use, but the principle is to create the illusion of a complex mechanical thing, not a plastic toy. The same applies to model cars. The build standard for my Skoda Superb is that all "shut lines" should be 5mm gaps, and the "panel lines" (there are only a couple around the bumpers) should be 2.5mm. That means that in 1/24 scale, the shut lines are 0.2mm (say 8 thou), and the panel gaps 0.1mm (4 thou). You don't see many car models with lines that thin, I'd say. When you look at a 1:1 car, you see the shut lines and panels. So, IMHO, for the same reasons as the aircraft modellers, you want to see some detailing on the car so it doesn't look like a toy. It's not "scale correct", but your brain needs it to be convinced. Personally, I find "Black wash" is too harsh, especially over lighter colours. Recently I've discovered that Citadel Paints (made by Games Workshop) do a range of "washes" for enhancing detail on their figures. Because dwarves, elves and Space Marines come in all kinds of colours, they make a range of colours specifically intended to go over different base colours. I've laid in a stock of their dark blue, dark green, dark crimson and orange-y yellow, as well as the more standard sepia, charcoal and black washes, and I think they work great on cars. This is the dark green in action ...and this is the dark red. You can find them in hobby stores all over the place that sell Games Workshop (Warhammer) supplies. HTH... bestest, M.

It'll be a little while before this one really gets going -- gotta get the F12 built first. But the bodies are done, ready to set good and hard for a couple of weeks before final polishing out of a few blemishes. Revell California "open top" in Zero Paints Blu Mirabeau with 2K clear coat. The interior will be two-tone black and brown, and with luck I'll be using some of Andy's badass big wheels in black as well. Academy "Classic European Sports Car" -- much the cheapest way to get hold of Italeri's 250SWB California Spider. Bought new from eckorea on eBay for rather less than £20 including shipping to the UK about six months ago. The colour is home-brewed, based on a Zero Rosso Barchetta, with some black and a dash of Blu Scozia. It's really hard to photograph... it's not as black (or brown) as it looks. Think of it as a dark aubergine/purple, which is essentially a non-metallic version of "Prugna". I've seen one picture of a Cali Spyder in this colour, and it stuck with me -- I wanted a dark colour, but not pure black. The interior will be brown leather. More in a month or so... bestest, M.

I interviewed Ron for a book once... he's the nicest, gentlest, most NORMAL guy in real life. He's just staggeringly good at what he does. He learned his trade (the foundations of it, at any rate) in Jim Henson's Creature Shop in London, building puppets for The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. Hoggle, the giant in Labyrinth, was one of his, IIRC. As time went on, he was working on ever more realistic puppets (I think for a John Boorman movie of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), and as you can see, he became a master of skin and hair made from foam and latex and acrylic thread... When the Boorman film fell though, he went back to Australia to try his luck as a fine artist, and as you can see, it worked out OK for him! _I_ still remember him, though, as the quietly passionate craftsman who gave an entire afternoon to the geeky writer in the coffee room... bestest, M.

Apparently, one of the reasons they had to cancel it is that they figured out that the required radiator area for cooling the engine, battery packs, brakes etc in real operational use was almost exactly equal to the frontal area of the car -- so they just couldn't make all the scoops and ducts needed fit the design. That and the fact that they couldn't find enough buyers for a hypercar powered by a four cylinder 1.6 litre engine, even one that's state of the art Formula One technology -- the guys in the market for those things want a V12, apparently. The jet engines bit the dust because they don't meet CO2 emissions regulations in the start-up phase, which seems a real shame. It is an awesome looking concept, though, and I REALLY wish they'd figured out how to build it so that all the tech really worked. The (literally) revolutionary electric motor design will see the light of day in the real world, and is a long way ahead of the current state of the art. bestest, M.

...got this one started now, as usual doing the body first so that it's got time to set hard before I polish it, though it doesn't look like this one will need much polishing. Zero Paints Blu Abu Dhabi with 2K Clear. As you can see, the Blu Abu Dhabi is a pretty dark and rather greeny blue, so I'm glad I invested in some -- it's not like any colour i have, and DOES in fact (Vaguely) resemble the colour that the online Ferrari configurator shows you. I suspect quite a few of the pictures on the web of "Blu Abu Dhabi" cars aren't -- or Ferrari have reformulated the colour. I got the original paint code from the Lechler site for Hiroboy to mix, so I'm confident that it's the correct colour. Though I say it myself it looks even better in the flesh -- a real Peacock blue. Beautiful -- even my wife loves it! Oddly, I do also have a red car on the bench at the moment as well, but it ain't a Ferrari -- or even Italian. This is the Moebius Chrysler 300, in Guards Red, which will get it's own build thread soon. ...bit of a traffic jam on the bench at the moment! It's that desire to get the bodies done so they can cure fully. The two Californias will be another "two-fer" build in a month or so. Guide to Ferrari Blues, Part One: L to R Blu Abu Dhabi, Blu Mirabeau (not yet clear-coated, so the colour will be richer when it is), and Blu Dino. bestest, M.

That really is beautiful Jason, and the trio a rocks a wicked 70s vibe, too... You just need a 1/24 Jason King figure to lounge beside it! bestest, M.

And what did I learn from this one? The Italeri kit is really nicely moulded, being accurate, precise and delicate, and a great compromise between scale accuracy and engineering. You should work on the assumption that any primer and paint will stop it fitting together properly, so scrape off and clean any bonding surfaces. The interior is simple, with few parts, but if you have the right references, detail painting will result in a great impression, because the parts you get are crisp and finely rendered. There are only a couple of real gotchas in assembly. The lovely chassis will not fit under the lovely body unless: 1) You make sure that the engine is sitting properly and as low as possible in the chassis frame. This will mean cleaning out the channel that the rear thin support cross member is supposed to fit into, and making sure that the two small diagonal brackets that fit onto the engine sides are firmly fitted into their sockets on the chassis. 2) Open out and sand the U-channel in the hinge for the bonnet and fix the thing finally into position with the bonnet taped down into place. 3) Even the above is not enough. You'll need to thin down the pivot/axle end of the windscreen wipers DRAMATICALLY if the bonnet is to close over them properly. 4) The reservoir on the brake master cylinder will get struck between the upper (bodywork) and lower (chassis) part of the left wheel well. On reflection, I'd either fit the whole assembly at the end, or cut off the master cylinder from the bulkhead and superglue a wire mount point at the bracket centreline, drilling out the master cylinder to receive it. Then, glue the bulkhead to the cockpit tub, and AFTER the whole thing is assembled into the bodyshell, socket the brake cylinder into place on the wire stub. Once you've done the above, the vertical fit of the body should be good. The fore-and-aft fit is still a bit dubious, so trial fit and make sure you get the front chassis rails under the forward body lip, which may mean shimming out the back edge of the chassis to get a good bond. This may sound like a lot of fiddling, but overall I think this is a really nice kit, especially for its age!. And there are few Ferraris as dyed-in-the-wool COOOLLL as the Daytona. I'm sure the Fujimi is a lovely kit, but this one cost me less than a tenner, so I'm well-disposed to like it! bestest, M.

"Another pair of Ferraris" -- here's the promised "twofer" from the build thread. bestest, M.

This is the Italeri 1/24 kit. It may have been a Protar original. bestest, M.