Scale-Master

I thought I should get some of the six "body" panels painted so they could be drying while I build other parts. (I'm going to need the front fender soon.) TS-45 Pearl White over TS-26 Pure White. I shot a coat of TS-13 Clear too. Can't hurt before the decals…

There's a good amount of time invested in the radiators and fans, but I suspect they won't be seen when the model is done.

It builds up pretty quickly, if you do a lot of paint work ahead of time…

I wear reading glasses when I build, no matter the scale. And Thank You Everyone for the compliments!!

Swing arm.

A little fiddley to put together in the end, but it wasn't as difficult as I expected. It's done.

SMTS 1/43rd white metal kit. I made new decals because the ones in the kit were poorly done and damaged. WIP Thread:

A bit of clear… And some of the black detail painting. Time for final assembly.

Since I did a lot of painting before assembly, it built up pretty quickly and is getting to be a good size already.

The main body decals I made have been applied.

Thanks, I am enjoying this too Wolf. Mono shock.

The frame has been built up and painted. I used the recommended colors and was pleasantly surprised at how the color, sheen and texture came out. The engine is a tight fit, but the instructions are clear on how to easily to twist it into place.

The yellow is the new line of LP bottled lacquers, the red is a TS spray lacquer. I don't think there was a fluorescent red in the X acrylic line.

That would have been cast in the early to mid 1980s. If you haven't figured it out yet, the material is White Metal. An alloy of mostly lead with some tin and antimony. FDS tended to use an alloy heavy on the lead and sometimes not the cleanest at that. The porosity and dirt are the by products of that. I used to cast white metal car kits starting in 1980. FDS was in business then and while one of the early "mainstream" manufacturers, their quality was surpassed by many in that same era. You're doing a great job with it!

The body was painted TS-36 Fluorescent Red with an undercoat of LP-8 yellow.

The shoulder winglets in my kit were both for the left side. Since the kit provides PE wing tips and supports for "extra detailing" I used them to convert one to a right side and then made the left to match.

Thanks Trevor! After a few rounds of fine tuning the body seams it's time to start using white primer.

The exhaust and turbo set-up is cast as one piece. I drilled out the exhaust pipe.

The interior was added after the suspension. I made decals for the gauges too. Like they can be seen once the car is done…

The rear suspension was built up on the chassis as the parts are intertwined with it. The chrome parts weren't as bent as on the front end, and none were broken so it went together pretty well.

Time to go to the beginning of the instructions and build on the engine. I think I spent more time painting bolts than anything else and now I can see that some of the details will get covered by guards.

The decals were worse than I expected; typically the kits from SMTS during this era are a bit thick and yellowed and not all that detailed, but they are useable. Unfortunately these were stuck to the PE sheet and some of the images were damaged by that. When I went to use the tire decals I discovered even the strongest decal solvent I have (and I have several to work with) would not soften them enough to conform to the sidewalls. Just as well, they were a dingy yellow-white and they didn't have the gold pinstripe. I drew and printed an entire new set of decals with more accurate and cleaner artwork. The first ones I applied were for the tires The wheels are nicely rendered and cast. The tires aren't too bad either.

I built up the front suspension but did not attach it to the chassis. The upper arms need to go inside the body and the chrome plated white metal is extremely fragile. One of the arms was already broken off so I'll fix that during final assembly.

The wings have the end plates cast onto them and they are pretty thin, all things considered, but optional PE end plates are included in the kit for better detail. I filed off the end plates on these and used the PE items, definitely worth the effort.

SMTS 1/43rd white metal kit. First round of clean-up of the main body parts. It's a pretty clean casting but the nose was a little crusty. The side pods look like they fit well, but will need a fillet where they meet the main body. Back in the day I would have probably soldered the side pods onto the body, but I went with CA this time. First coat of primer shows what needs attention; not as much as I expected but still more to do…