Scale-Master

I printed some plates to work with the PE parts that come in the kit.

Thank you Pete! And thanks for making the 88 mile trip. Looking forward to seeing you in the not too distant future. See what I did there? (It's an inside joke folks.)

I started painting the window trim satin black, but decided a dead flat sheen better provided the high contrast look I wanted. The panel lines were done with Tamiya Accent.

I planned to use both the front spoiler and the oil cooler, but upon reading the instructions I saw they were either one or the other. Since I'm keeping this one out-of-the-box I bent up the PE oil cooler bracket to move the cooler up and forward. Still OOB and I get to do it the way I had envisioned.

I wound springs from 0.003 armature wire that had the insulation removed and made welded on hooks from brass for the exhaust. I did a little weather and wear discoloring too. I installed the last two carburetor parts; the two outboard synchronizing screws for each bank. The inboard hinges for the engine cover have been installed as well. The loose black line is the wire loom for the taillights.

The grille and taillights are done…

Thanks Guys! I do enjoy my job... Most of these were for "work".

So much for painting the body early and letting it dry for a while… I was happy with both the color and the finish of the Bright (Cheez Whiz) Orange, but after working on the tug I decided I liked the Camel Yellow even more for it. It also fits the inspiration for this project better, the BRE BrockBuster 510.

I'm good with this repair. I had to sand just a little bit after cementing the pin in. Then I brush repainted the center section.

Note to self. Install the delicate tie rod after installing the body for the final time. I drilled the ends of the part and will fix with a steel pin.

GT 350R - 1/24th scale Ferrari 250 Testarossa - 1/43rd scale Ferrari 275 GTB - 1/43rd scale Mustang GT4 "Warbird" - 1/24th scale Mazda 787B - 1/87th scale Horten 229 - 1/72nd scale Meyers Manx - 1/25th scale Chevelle Wagon Custom - 1/25th scale Nissan 400Z - 1/24th scale Aircraft Tug with J37 Engine - 1/32nd scale Lola T70 (Still in school 3rd year in a row…) - 1/12th scale

The shoulder harnesses are shown in the instructions to be attached to the bottom of the front seats, but I decided to attach them more like I did on my real car and anchor them by the back seat. Test fitting the body…

The dash is done too. I used the same painting technique for the wood grain as I did on the console.

Flocking/carpet didn't seem to fit the theme so the floor of the interior was sprayed with textured dark gray to simulate a rubberized coating. The rest of the parts were painted as called out in the instructions, sort of… I swapped Medium Gray for the Black inserts. The silver and gray are brush painted.

The engine bay is pretty much done.

I don't think Santa delivers unfinished toys Tim. Thanks! It is coming along...

Thanks guys! I didn't like the connection of the header to the exhaust. So I "welded" them together.

The bottom of the chassis is done. At least for now…

The chassis is coming along.

It's the Tamiya kit, straight out of the box.

It's a very nice kit with PE and machined parts. I spent more time painting the belt and pulleys than any other part on the engine. I had to use the factory Sky Blue for the one pulley.

Most of the engine has been assembled.

More final fitting, fine tuning and triple checking before the side pods were attached permanently. That meant one more round of test fitting the other removable panels before moving along…

Thank you Alan! It is finished:

This is from an old 1/32nd scale Hasegawa F-86F Sabre kit. I found it in my Dad's collection and always had been intrigued by that tug (going back 50 years…). Unfortunately there were no instructions in the kit, and the only ones I found online did not include the tug or the engine so I just test fitted the parts until it was done. The tubing is old Tamiya material from motorcycle kits. WIP: