Scale-Master

I made the brackets for the fuel pump and regulator out of brass.

I shot the body with some age appropriate Testors enamel, 1111 Blue. A fresh bottle from about 40 years ago; only a little younger than the tooling for the kit. It dried pretty nicely overnight, but this will have to set awhile to cure…

The "battery cover" or rear section of the interior. It's just three pieces so I hand painted the details rather than mask anything.

The taillight panel is clean but the lights are a bit simplistic. Tamiya transparent colors over chrome.

These are the finished 3D printed parts for the pump and regulator. They will be used as patterns to cast resin copies.

The wheels were painted and the tires hand-lettered with Tamiya acrylic colors.

I was going to machine the fuel pump, but decided to 3D design it too except for the main body/motor cylinder. I also have the real counterpart of this pump to work from.

I picked this kit up in Japan at Tamiya (on my second TamiyaCon tour). A good friend had asked me to snag it as it wasn't readily available in the U.S. at the time. It's been patiently sitting for over 18 years and is now on the bench for that friend's collection. It's a reissue of the 1/24th scale '78 motorized kit; sans motor. It will be built out-of-the-box. I'm amazed at how thin the wall thickness of the body is and delicate the molding is. While that is impressive, it is a concern due to the fact that the dark blue plastic is excessively brittle. (This I know firsthand…) A few hours of scribing new and rescribing existing lines plus seam and sink mark removal resulted in this primer ready body.

I designed the fuel regulator in SolidWorks. I have the real part to work from.

The suede rim was done with pearl black pigment added to acrylic flat black.

The spokes of the steering wheel were done with a black base and transparent blue mixed with smoke and clear to get the shade of anodized aluminum I wanted. (They are the only part that's not aluminum.) I made the little fasteners out of a steel pin.

The transmission cooler is made from the kit parts but they were modified. Same for the brackets. The mounting hardware was machined from aluminum. Line fittings will be added later.

I made the upper hold-down bracket from five pieces of hand formed .010 sheet brass.

The finished radiator. The stone guard screen is 0.002 thick PE. The "plastic" fasteners for it are machined aluminum as are the mounting bosses. The petcock is aluminum and steel, machined and made of 3 pieces.

The hard coolant lines from the radiator to the side pods are reworked parts from the kit, the left side being relocated to the top of the modified radiator and bent up much more than the right. The silicone connector hoses are made of brass. The hose clamps are tin and I machined the worm drives from aluminum. Dry fitted together.

I made brackets for the radiator.

The bracket to mount the fire extinguisher to the floor. I guess I could have just glued it in place… well, no I couldn't do that… Sheet brass cut and shaped. The strap is vinyl.

I machined the collar and mounting hardware for the steering shaft guide in the dash.

I machined the flange to mount the steering wheel to the shaft. I also made the crush sleeve and horn button.

Built from the Miami Vice "Corvette" Daytona Spyder kit and a Gremlin rear roof section.

I went ahead and printed and added the labels for the switches.

The last touches were the safety pin wound out of nickel wire and the safety wire wound from .007 fine insulated wire. Total parts count is at least a dozen.

Most of the colors can be shot without reducing, but they cover so well it makes more sense to reduce and put a thinner layer down plus get more paint from the bottle at the same time.

I drew up and printed a set of decals that match the real counterpart. Including the two different era and company certification tags. As well as the printing on both sides of the hose… Made the gauge too; yes there is a needle and an acrylic lens.