Jim Gibbons

This is looking really good, especially for a first build. I use a black wash from Citadel paints; they're acrylics designed for gaming figures. Their black wash is basically India ink which you could use as well. It might take a few applications to fill the voids in the grille and hubcaps. The advantage is that since it's totally water based, it won't remove the clear lacquer on the plated parts, and if you mess up, it can be completely rinsed off in water before it dries. If you use aluminum foil for the trim, use the cheapest, thinnest stuff you can find. I cover aircraft models that way, and use Micro Metal Foil Adhesive from Microscale. I don't know if it's available near you, but is superior to white glue. It's a latex type adhesive, and dries tacky, not unlike spray adhesive (which I have used before I discovered the Microscale product.) When using household foil (or Bare Metal Foil for that matter,) keep a large supply of fresh knife blades, or sharpen them as you go along. The blades dull VERY quickly when trimming the foil, and will tear it when dull. Putting a strip of masking tape right up to the edges of the trim (roof, body side, etc.) before you apply the foil will give you a "trimming edge" and guide for the knife blade. Hope this helps, and looking forward to your finished model.

I wish my memory of the kit was better, but Mark pretty much covered it. The 512 is my favorite design of that era Ferrari. I built the kit in the mid '80s, and when done, it made a nice shelf piece. The one thing I do remember is that the instructions were in Japanese, without a "paint brack" call-out to be found. The door fit required a little work if I recall, and because of the motorized option, engine detail was very simple. I could be wrong, but I seem to recall that it was designed to optionally light up the head and tail lights with grain of wheat bulbs. I guess I don't remember a lot of the build, as it went together fairly well, and when completed, was a very nice model. It became one of my favorite pieces. I had painted it in Testor's dark grey metallic, with red interior/ black dash. I had never seen one other than in Road & Track magazine, and was tiring of building red Ferraris. In a bit of strange coincidence, less than a week after I finished the model, I saw one on the road going in the opposite direction in the EXACT color scheme I built mine! If there hadn't been a median in that portion of road, I would have made a U-turn, and chased him down to offer to sell the model. I later gave it to a friend who greatly admired it.

I have to follow this, as I have this kit, too. Thank you for showing the false fingernail tip for the head light scoops, as I was pondering how to do it myself. I plan on building mine in the scheme Skip posted in the initial thread; the opalescent grey with red interior. This is mainly to match the 1/43 Tekno diecast I got as a birthday gift in the mid '60s. I still have that Tekno, but it's a bit rough.

I kind of agree with Billy here; not unlike the Phantom Corsair using period wheel sizes and tires. That said, it will look great with a modern take, too. Your interpretation of Peter's design changes the aspect so well; it's remeniscent of the custom bodied Talbot Lagos, Delage, Bugatti Atlantic, etc. I was really tempted to order one of these bodies, but I don't have the parts stash or resources to do it justice.

Wow. It was one of those mouth agape moments. Stunning work. My second car was a Daytona yellow '69 (base 327), but with a black vinyl top and black interior. Welcome to the board, and looking forward to seeing more of your fine work.

I'm enjoying your builds, and now, the diorama. Great stuff!

The first model I built on my own was the mid 60s 1/24 Monogram Ferrari 275P that was designed to be a simple model or used as a slot car body. I had watched or helped a little when my mom or dad would build a model for me (mom was A LOT better at it than dad!) but that Ferrari was solo. I wish I had gotten another when it was released again in the SSP program in the late '90s. That model and the car design became one of my favorites, and I built a 1/43 resin version that's in my gallery photos. I like the idea of a board project rebuilding our first kits. If I can find one of the the SSP 275P kits, I'd be in!

Very nice build of what I consider to be one of the most elegantly beautiful postwar American cars designed. I bow my head in a moment of silence for the late, lamented Pontiac.

Beautiful job all around; superb!

That's a great looking model! I like the vintage fire trucks. Your model has weathered the past 33 years in better shape than me.

J have to say real, but I sure wish there was a 1/25 model of it!

Way cool...I'll be following this.

Really nice! As you can see from my avatar, I once had a 1:1 red '60 Sunliner. I'm proceeding at the speed of a berserk snail on my kit; both your version and David's have given me the boost to keep plugging away at it.

Really nice, and I like the subtle custom touches (well, the girl under the hood isn't all that subtle! ) What hubcaps did you use, as they're not the stock ones? I like the look of them. In the mid '80s, I had a mint 1:1 black '58 Cadillac Series 62 4dr hardtop, and it was kind of like piloting either a Greyhound bus or docking the Queen Mary, especially when parallel parking or maneuvering it to get it in the garage! At the time, I lived in an apartment complex that was built around the late '40s, and the garages in back faced each other. Clearly they were designed before cars got as long as they did. It would take about five forward/ reverse/ turns to line it up, and then the only way I could close the single piece metal garage door was if I touched the rubber bumper "Dagmars" against the back wall. The back seat could have accommodated a harem!

Beautiful work; very impressive!

Looking really good...now if only someone would do a 1/12 plastic model of a D-Type Jag! I'll be following this build, too. Syd's thread had such great research material. Hopefully I will be able to get this GT-40 kit in the relatively near future. Both of your builds are great tutorials/ kit pratfall lessons.

LOL...yeah, Suzanne was my high school version of Daisy. Wow...where did the years go? What disturbs me these days is that I wonder more of what became of the MG than Suzanne. I have definitely been hanging around old cars and models for too, too long a time!

Actually, I happen to like a muted yellow with green interior. I guess part of it was that I was smitten by a girl in high school who was a year ahead of me. She was a tall, beautiful, willowy blond, and had the coolest car of anyone; an MGTF in pale yellow with green leather. Sigh. I'm working on a '58 Edsel that will be Jonquil yellow/ black two tone with a green interior. Here's a pic of that very MGTF (unfortunately lacking a picture of Suzanne with it) that would flip my heart every time I saw her drive it. (Also notice it's RHD...made it even cooler!)

Really nice job! As Skip mentioned, it does look like the racing "art cars." I especially like the BMWs that were done by different famous artists.

Even though the year and model RR are different, here's an interesting (albeit flashy) color combination. The Great Gatsby movie Rolls Royce

David, absolutely beautiful!

This is too funny; here's some other linguistic classics: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~an4m/fun/goodly-spoken

Wow, I'm enjoying all your early 60's Chrysler Corp. models! Beautiful job on all of them.

That is museum quality work. Amazing, simply amazing. Every model you post looks 1:1 and your photography is impeccable. Thanks for sharing this.

Both are great restoration projects; the TR-3 looks fairly rust free from the photos, so it should be fun. Look up some of Peter Egan's books or columns on British sports cars; you'll enjoy them.