Scale-Master

The radiators and ducts are done. I made the decals for the Calsonic lettering, (had a problem with the ones in the kit cracking), a little wash brought out the depth, and the bright silver plumbing was brush painted using a Tamiya Mini 4WD paint pen's paint mixed with mineral spirts. Not as bright as sprayed Alclad or Alsa chrome paint maybe, but certainly bright and very easy to work with. And yes, it does dry fully in a few hours. The trans/rear suspension/engine assembly is growing too. C/F decals were used for the shock arms; fronts were done at the same time as the rears for continuity.

The front wing end plates are finished. The C/F is ScaleMotorSports Hi-Def decal. I planned to use only Tamiya paints for the body exterior. (TS-26 for the White.) Unfortunately even though I “snuck up” with very light coats of clear (TS-13) over the decals, when the third coat was drying, the Goodyear decals cracked up. They fractured several hours after the application of the clear. I created a new set of Goodyear decals and had better luck with the clear. The wing adjustment holes were drilled out, but otherwise these parts are just the way they come in the kit.

Thanks! I painted the chassis as if it was factory stock then added some grime and dirt.

C'mon... Keep up Andy. By 2009 I had already earned a TamiyaCon trip to Japan, IPMS Judges Grand Best of Show and two GSL Best of Shows with my Super Sevens.

Thanks! It's the Tamiya kit.

I started this kit in September 2009, but I had some interruptions and shelved it for a while. The original thread is still here but the photo host is gone and so are the photos. I cannot edit the thread here to replace the photos and it doesn’t make much sense to continue without the photos leading up to what will come next. The kit is being built straight out of the box; the only addition will be decals, mostly in the form of composite patterns. The headers were cleaned up and painted, including shading, as individual pieces, then assembled and the seams addressed and blended. Tamiya lacquers (base color) and acrylics (shading/staining) were used. The airbox is mostly covered with C/F decals. Some additional shading was done with Tamiya Smoke. The transmission color was mixed per the instructions with acrylics. However, the engine block was shot with a very dark gray instead of black. It will be "adjusted" as the build progresses.

This is the Tamiya kit Justin. The engine built up nicely…

This is going to be an early '70s Fairlady Z with a G-nose. It will not be one of the factory colors for a true 240ZG, but rather a "wish it had been offered" dark blue. It will not be getting the bolt on flares of the ZG cars either since they make the car with stock wheels (and hub caps) look anemic. It will keep the fender mounted mirrors since they go with the right hand drive. This could be a semi-clone built back in the day, or something that was done recently. I started with the exhaust.

Thanks everyone! I just used the back of an X-Acto knife for scribing on this one. I have multiple scribers but I use the knife the most.

Starter kit from '90. It had very out of register decals with some of them smeared, so I made new ones to replace them. WIP Thread: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/182471-1990-gurney-eagle-imsa/

The clear coat is on and the windows have been installed.

I thought the kit was missing two of the four headlights based on the way the body is molded. Of course it was easy to find a matching pair in my spare parts because it turns out the real car only had two head lights despite the depressions for four lights.

When it came to the smaller decals I noticed they were severely out of register. As much as 50% of their size out of registration, or 1/8th of an inch. Not hitting the white with the colors wasn't too big of a deal on a white car, but the colors being off that much made them unrecognizable. The black numbers and sponsors missed the clear by as much as 20% so they'd disintegrate as soon as they got wet. They were sloppily printed with rough edges so it's just as well. I drew and printed new ones along with the other unusable sponsor decals. I made new driver names for the same reasons and that they were way too big to fit where they should. I was able to use the Toyota's, the bold iconic side graphics, the two decals above the headlights and the Goodyear's on the wing from the kit; the rest are mine.

I did a little detail painting before applying the main graphic decals.

The interior is two pieces with two decals; none of which actually fit properly. But then it's barely visible when the car is done…

The wheel outers are brass, but they were tarnished and pitted a little bit so I hit them with some steel wool on the lathe. The fronts might have had some sort of blackening treatment on them and did not clean up as well as the rears. (The one in the foreground is the way they came in the kit.) Not a big issue since they should be aluminum colored. I primed them and then shot them with Tamiya Sparkling Silver. The brass PE spokes were shot with a black/gray.

I believe you are correct Andy. I went with TS-26 Pure White as the base color straight from the can.

Yes, 1/43rd. I just noticed the info I thought I posted with the photos isn't there. This is an IMSA car most people have forgotten about, if they ever knew of it. 1/43rd scale resin and PE kit from 1992. Built 31 years ago, photographed last weekend.

The rear wing is built up from brass PE.

Starter 1/43rd resin kit with brass parts. After the basic clean-up of the body I bent and attached the brass front spoilers. The mold was worn so a lot of work was required to clean out little chunks of resin from the recesses and all the panel lines needed to be scribed in. As it turns out, the body is very thin around the cockpit area so that is probably why the panel lines were so light. I went all the way through in several places and had to patch them up.

1/43rd scale resin kit by Starter. Despite the challenges the decals presented, I enjoyed building it. And even though I could have created a new set of decals I'm glad I worked through the issues and used what the kit provided. WIP Thread:

I think the windows are supposed to be installed as one piece, but the left side windows didn't line up with the openings of the body. So I cut them apart. They still don't fit that well, but they fit a lot better. Finally applied the last decal!

You know Andy, you make a great point. (Pleasure meeting you last month.) Now it's getting back on track… The clear should stabilize things. The hand painted red parts are significantly thicker than decals, and the clear does a good job of hiding that even a couple days after shooting, so I haven't decided if I will deal with that or not. Depends on how the clear cures.

I finally got all the decals applied except the windshield banner. Putting a little Bilstein decal on that becomes three smaller pieces is supposed to be fun…?