Scale-Master

Happy Birthday my friend. It is a good ting (intentional spelling) you weren't born one day later. Otherwise you might be..... Wait for it.... An April Fool! Mahalo buddy!

Not to steal Ron's thunder for a very well done job... But you can get 'em here, from me... http://scale-master.blogspot.com/

There's a lot of variables. You need to factor in kit and materials cost so you know what it will take to break even. Plus to what level are you building? What does the client expect? The time you spent has to be tempered with the results as the client sees the end product. Even if you spend say 500 hours building a relatively straight forward kit, if a die-cast looks better, it's a hard sell.

Found another of me, I apparently don’t take too many pictures of myself. That’s a Long EZ if you are wondering…

Not turned, glued 'em straight ahead to address the bad toe issue. Don't turn to roll either. Glued 'em on too. Would have destroyed the front suspension using the kit mounting hardware for the wheels, the rears needed to be, I'll just say repositioned from suggested kit locations so they could reach the ground. Not a stellar kit...

It wasn't just the parts not being rendered or fitting as well as the Tamiya "parent", but the plastic was overly brittle and there was some silicone in the plastic too.

Old Academy copy of the Tamiya 1/20th JPS kit. As far as the quality of the kit composition, something was lost in the translation , but it worked well enough for this project. Decals are from the 1994 IPMS National Convention, (printed from my artwork). Tamiya TS-8 and TS-11 for the body colors. Mostly out-of-the-box except for the addition of the injector lines and replacement of the rear wing plates and re-shaping of the side pods and skirts. Link to “On the bench†http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=42246

It's supposed to look like a baked potato... with a seam...

Actually I have seen Mr. Taylor at model contests. In this case I think he really could care less...

Got my room reserved too.

I have been collecting the parts for my first car for years. 1973 Vega Kammback. Get to cut up two relatively rare drag kits for the body... Done the same compiling of kits and parts to do my '73 Camaro too, I was waiting for me to stop changing it before starting on the model, I think it has been the same long enough for that. Procrastination paid off for that one since the AMT '70 Camaro came out during the compilation period. I started and got more than half way through a model of my '72 Chevy truck, but the real one out rusted the model while I was pondering adding the shell to the model or just removing it from the real one. Guess I'll just have to weather and rust up the model now because I am not going to fix the real one. I would really like a model of my '68 Vista Cruiser, but I doubt that will happen... I did finish a model of my daily drivers '94 Camaro and '98 Corvette at least...

Making steady progress…

Or a cream/off- white...

I'm glad I am building mine just out of the box so I can blame any spring rate errors on the people who did the research for the kit. Doesn't one of the cottage aftermarket companies offer the correct springs? Or maybe if you just paint them the correct green color it will look close enough? Either way the build looks really good regardless of the level of accuracy.

The decals have been applied; BMF was used for the fillers. The detail engraving is very weak so I decided to foil them prior to clear coating. The wheels and tires are done… The tire lettering was “soft†so I opted to make decals instead of hand painting them. The bottom of the chassis/body…

You'll know when it has gone bad... If it hasn't gone hard, it might be in a gel state. Once there, it is very rare to rejuvenate it even with lacquer thinner. Often they will separate and get thick and usually that is the last step before the point of no return. If you find one in that state, add lacquer thinner and mix thoroughly.

You can make anything you want for yourself without fear of reprisal from the powers that be. You can even give it to someone without worry. It is only when you offer to sell those items a case of infringement can be made. I too speak from experience as a professional decal artist...

Anyone know the suggested retail price?

As potentially cool as a pet troll could be, I would choose the LFA. Did they do a bit more detailing for the engine than they did with the GTR? Or do we have to wait to find out?

That is how I get most of my exercise. Crawling around looking for and bending down to pick up dropped parts.

Only picture I could find already hosted... What are the odds there'd be a Super 7 in it?

I second Dave on that. Make the ground effects fit now, or leave 'em off. It's like they are just plastic suggestions.

Any one remember what the name was before it was "Merk"? Why the edits after all these years? And just after exhibiting troll characteristics in another thread to boot... Who has a beef?

I don't know how close to the real car the color is, I don’t know anyone who has seen the real car in person, or can provide substantive proof of what the color truly was. I have seen photos of the car in sun and overcast lighting. Two completely different looks to both colors. The guide I am using was made before we had the Tamiya paints, it specifies to use Testors 1104 red over Testors MM Guards Red. I have been looking at everything I could find and decided the actual color is now subjective since there is so little info about the real car. I did shoot the Maroon over the red to warm it up a bit. Written descriptions describe the darker color as Maroon too, but again, how subjective is that? I am comfortable with the way it is, but build yours to your comfort level. They copied some of the motorized “features†on the Academy version like the single AA battery box and part of the power switch in the chassis. It says it can be motorized on the box, but there is no motor, gears or provisions to make it motorized. Another note, the plastic is very brittle. Many parts break trimming them from the sprue, more break during clean up, and a couple were broken on the sprue. The slightest bend and the plastic snaps.

The trans and engine are almost done. It has a few fit/alignment issues that I suspect are not present in the Tamiya counterpart this kit was copied from. The body has its base color coats, TS-8 Italian Red and TS-11 Maroon.