Bastardo

I've used many different masking tapes in my past and the one that turned out to be the absolute winner is Tamiya Currently I'm using the 6mm and 18mm stuff and they pretty much cover all my masking-tape-needs

A wonderful project and I love the way it came out

And the last pack of shots:

Another die-cast modded Faaaar away from being perfect, but it'll do as a dust-catcher The base for this is a Bburago Corvette pace car snap-kit in 1:24 which I got as a gift a few years ago. I've had no problems with the mods, but the paint on the body gave me a few slaps during the build. Flat silver with graphics - didn't work out. Flat black with a wannabe checker flag airbrush over it - didn't work out. I ended up with Model master chrome silver on it and left it flat on purpose The mods are mostly done inside the car (roll-cage, stripped interior, seatbelt, ...) and on the undercarriage (Tamiya Porsche 911 GT wheels, brake discs and calipers from a plastic Corvette donor kit, removed the "Bburago" emblems, ...). The body itself is mostly box-stock. The WIP can be seen here. It's in slovene so feel free to ask anything you want to know about it A few shots of the finished build: It hardly deserves words of praise, so let the curses and dislikes fly...

Superb work so far, m8!

That's one of my biggest fears as far as contests and display shows are concerned... :/ I've seen spoilers get ripped off, antennas flying of the rallye cars,mudguards on trucks being broken off the frames, models rolling of the mirror as the judge picked them up to take them to the judging table... And at one huge die-cast display show I've seen a bunch of kids walking around and poking each and every model that was on the table. Their parrents were standing about 1 m behind them and watching and laughing their a**es off... 'Till I snapped and screamed:"HEY!!!" in the most death-metal voice I could come up with... And being a metal-head for 'bout 20 years now, believe me - I can do hat LOL The kids went white, packed their fingers away and ran to hide behind their mommies and daddies. One of them was about to say something to me 'till I turned in his dirrection and gave him "the look"... Snap it - I'd rather be hated by those few dumbos then see any of those AutoArts, CMCs and other high-end die-casts being damaged. On another show I've seen the rotor of a magnificent 1:32 helicopter being ripped off by a 3-4 year old kid, while his mom didn't seem to give a snap... A great way to raise your kid - destroy what isn't yours and don't even worry 'bout it... The owner of the 'copter wasn't there so I stepped up to her (I was watching from about a meter away and my "Don't...!!!" was a second too late) and asked her what was she about to do now... She looked me in the most careless way and said:"Nothing. It's a toy anyway...". Before she finished I added:"Mam, that "toy" costs over a 100 bucks (euros), the modeller worked on it for over a year for a few hours a day and he spent A LOT of nerves building it. I think you owe him atleast an appology...". She was shocked by the numbers and she turned white... Her respone was:"F*** that, I'm not doing it...". I picked up my DSLR, took a shot of her and said:"Ok, my friend wil be able to find you by this picture..." and smiled. Gues what... Yeees, she was apologizing to the dude in about 37 seconds... As far as photographing models is concerned: I always start sweating when I see someone leaning over the tables with their cameras, key-chains, scarfs, medals and other stuff hanging from their necks... For the love of R2D2: Step back, zoom in with your camera and enyoy the shot... There's no need for you to take a macro shot of the dust on that model-car's windscreen with your camera from 17 milimeters away...

Brad, those drawings are just amazing! Love them all and each one is something special! Keep us updated with more, please!

I used a home-made scriber to open doors and trunks on my models. I took an old screwdriver, made the tip sharp and needle-shaped and bended it a bit. Here's a pic I used on a Slovenian forum: "Smer vleka scriberja" means "dirrection in which the scriber is pulled" Take the scriber, place it in the contour of a panel you want to open and start scribing. Slowly, after some repetittions you should be able to see how the plastic has thinned I DO NOT recomend using any kind of blades - the blade will: - slip and leave a nasty wound on the palstic - make a huge gap, as it doesn't remove palstic, but only "pushes it away" HTH

My first attempt ever: A modded and (badly) weathered Maisto die-cast Chevelle: Modded Revell Fiat 131 with a Viper engine etc...: Jada Mustang:

So you've got your self a fully detailed real-scale model Congrats!

Just can't believe that thing was scratch-built........ I bow to you, dude........

Oh, yeah... She's a beauty and that BMF work is just awesome

Too bad the stripes are a bit off in some places. Apparts from that, she looks nice

Probably one of the best looking Sevens I've seen so far... Great build and I love all the details and modiffications Congrats!

Dude, that flame-job is awesome Looking great!

Clean and mean - love it

A great looking build, mate!

Wait... Is this a polished die-cast? Looks great anyway

I started when I was about 7 or 8, so in 1989 or 1990. My first kit was a Yak 3 airplane kit in 1/72. A few pieces and I taped it with clear tape... LOL... In a few years I spend ALL my money I'd get from my parents and family on model planes, paint, glue, ... It was all very primitive back then and also the war in my country slowed things quite a bit. I've been building till 'bout 1998 or so. Then the teen years came, my BMX addiction got out of hand (and off the ground lol), started playing drums, composing music, drawing, designing cars on paper, ... Waaay too much stuff to do in 24 hours When F&F came out I kinda liked some of the cars. As a rat-rod fanatic none of that bling ever kidnapped my attention, but the idea of having some of them darn thangz in scale came back to life... So I got home, opened an old box with my childhood toys... 1/24 Bburago Porsche 911, a Ferrari and an old beat-up Alfa Romeo 75 were there... First I did some mods to the Porsche, than the Ferrari and the Alfa came into play... Before I knew it was buying models and making plans of all the mods I'd make... Needless to say - I bought waaaaay more than I could manage to modify During some years I developed my techniques, been asking a kazzilion of questions all over forums and contests and once I learned some weathering skills, I was hooked again. Now I can't imagine not to add as much realism to a model as possible. And to answer the question: Why do I build these babies? Because it is my meditation, my getaway, my own slice of heaven while I work on my models. It blows the trouble away, makes me forget about every day trials and tribulations and I can be at peace while I have those small bits in my hands... Am I hooked? Hella

I just went through the entire topic and admiring this work of absolute art made wanna curse and swear, but I couldn't, cuz my jaw dropped after a few seconds and now, when I am done with this topic, I think I'll go look for it....... Aftashox, I worship you, bro... GREAT work! I learned A LOT as I was reading this and I know it'll be a great thing to remember. Thanx for sharing all this with us! Best regards, Damir

Simple and clean, yet she lets you know what time it is...

Now, that's an intresting idea How about some interior shots and also shots of other details?

I finished one some time ago. Yes, the kit is a pain the you-know-where to work on... Parts have no numbers, fitment is just poor, ... Details are so-so and the opening door and tilt-cab try to make up for the bad quality of the kit Don't get me wrong - it's worth givin' a shot, but expect problems and take your time. A very short WIP to my build is on this URL: Link to WIP Sorry for the slovene language - if you want to know anything, just ask The finished truck can be seen here: Link to a galery Enjoy your build as much as possible

I hope this lil' beauty qualifies... A Mr. Hobby Ghia I worked on about two years ago: A few more shots of the Ghia: So much about parts fitment......

I ratted (lol) a die-cast 1934 Ford some time ago. Here it is "OOB": And here it is after I touched it: ¸ My weathering technique progressed a lot since this Ford and the very next rat that I'll work on will look much better. I hope...