Scale-Master

It's about the same as any other paint, but there is no exact ratio. Some colors want more/less reducer than others. You can thin them with hardware store thinner, but for the best flow and gloss the Tamiya brand is the way to go.

They are great Pete. And they brush well too.

The band and clip for the hose are made of tin. Red is LP-21 Italian Red.

Head, hose & horn.

The trigger/handles were freehand machined and then hand carved for more detail.

I just dry brush the powder.

No special cutting tools were used on this, it's more about getting the cutting angles where I want them. I was able to make it with what I had on hand and didn't even use a compound slide.

Fire extinguisher. Turned aluminum. This one has a domed bottom.

I reworked one of the kit knock-offs and used it as a master and cast four new ones. Tamiya lacquers for the color, aluminum powder for the light shading to enhance the anodized effect. The rear axle ends are blackened brass and the front spindle ends are machined aluminum. This is the left rear and right front.

Finished scratch-built wheels with the kit provided tires installed. The rears have the ends of the axles installed; the front spindles will come later.

1/43rd resin kit by Starter. Fun little project, maybe not the most accurate representation of the car, but it looks good in my collection.

The painted wheels needed one last machining action to remove the paint build up where the aluminum rims mate to them.

I made all the switches, more machined aluminum, and got them installed… I haven't decided if I'll add the labels I made for them yet.

These are the finished Auto Meter gauges. The water temp and oil pressure are mechanical, the tach, fuel level and volts are electrical and the speedo is an electrical GPS unit.

This is the tach "movement" before installation.

I made the lenses out of 0.005 sheet styrene and set them in to the bezels from behind. Just a little tedious to fit and secure.

What a difference a little cut and buff can make.

More scratch-building... Left and right side dash panels. The vents are brass and aluminum with PE screens. Rivets are steel. Glove box door handle and gauge bezels are aluminum; gauge housings are brass.

Key switch and water temp, tach and speedo bezels were machined out of aluminum.

Thanks guys. It's like anything else Chris, I decide what I want and figure out how to do it. Then do it.

The seatbelts are complete and ready for installation. 100% scratch-built

I wanted to mount the lights to the forward structure for easier final assembly after painting. A new set of mounting brackets were fabbed up and the original light housings were reused.

I made some Jabroc wear strips for the bottom of the chassis.

Yep. The same stuff I made the brake rotors out of.

The driving lights did not align well with the openings in the body. I also thought the openings looked bland being just holes in the nose. I machined two tubes from aluminum impregnated resin and faired them into the nose. This should also help to reinforce the nose where it has been cracking. The inward facing openings of them were shaped to accept the lights.