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Yes, green race cars are bad luck, unless they are Brutish Racing Green. Corvette Funny Cars are bad luck to. I remember a green Corvette Funny Car, at Orange County International Raceway, back in the late 70's. It came apart, in the lights. Green fiberglass, everywhere. Between that & all teh Beach City Chevrolet, Corvettes, burning to the ground, makes me believe those 2 superstitions.

If you were really OCD, you'd spell it CDO (alphabetized).

It looks too clean & organized. LOL Very nice set up. The paint stand is nice piece. You need to build a stand, for the spray booth. It takes up too much real estate, on the work bench.

You're on the right track, Joshua. Don't look for perfection, on your first model. Practice & experience. Learn from your mistakes. I know I have. As scratches go, I use primer & Micro Mesh padded sanding pads. I got them from an online model shop. They start at 2400 & down to 12000 grit. The finer ones (8000 & 12000 grit), are for color sanding the paint, before polishing. For body work, I usually use sanding sticks, I get from a beauty shop supply store. They are like large emery boards, for finger nails. They come in a coarse, medium, & fine, sometimes ultra fine. For brushes, I use 00000 brushes (craft stores & art supply stores), for the real small detail. There are even finer ones. I have never used a micro applicator.

It looks great, for a first build. It looks like you've been building. The paint is awesome. Shiny with no orange peel. I don't think a clear coat will be necessary. My only criticism, would be the engine & trans halves & the mold parting line, where the roof side panels meet the 1/4 panels. A little filling & sanding, on the engine & trans & some sanding on the parting lines, is all it needs. Keep an eye, on it, for your future builds. You did a good job, on the molded in exhaust system. I hate chassis' with molded in details. Of course, you won't see it or the engine / trans parts, sitting on a shelf.

Purple dominates my display cabinet. A Yahoo group, I belong to does a memorial build, & the color is purple, because that was the person's favorite color. Other than that, I've got a good mix of colors.

When I used to take models to show, I would show them, for 1 year, & retire them. Even if a new show, popped up, they're retired. One reason is, my skills should be improving, with time. My current models, should be better than the ones I built, a year ago. I did have one model, that was at it's last show, get a second place, peoples choice, & my latest, that I thought would win something in paint or drag class (I would have been happy with a 3rd, even) got nothing. I almost didn't bring the street rod, that got the award. I retired it, after that show & have no regrets. Now I build for my display case. Building for the judges, took a lot of fun out of it.

I love classic Minis & own a 2011 Mini Clubman S (street legal Go Kart). I am, also all for having fun, building models. We all know how an alternator won't work, hanging out in space, supported by the fan belt, alone. But a lot of us still build them that way. I love those wheels & I'm sure they will look way cool, on that Mini. Build it the way you want to, have fun, & paint that puppy indigo!

If you hadn't said it, I would have never guessed it was only your 6th model. One of my favorite Ferraris. Great work.

Here's one of my shots, from last year's California 500, at Fontana Motor Speedway.

Lighting is VERY important. Your camera "sees" a lot less light than we do. Another problem with not enough light is the aperture (much like your pupils), opens up, as much as it can. This cuts down on you depth of field or depth of focus. That means, the distance of what is in focus is very short. Like the front bumper is tack sharp, in focus, but further back it starts to get softer & blurry. As you close up the aperture, the the depth of field gets deeper. If you can change the ISO (ASA in the old film days), you can set it higher, & you can shoot in lower light levels. If you set it too high (it varies with different cameras), the pictures will get nosey (grainy). You can even see noise, at a lower ISO, if the exposure isn't right. You also have to pay attention to where your focus point is. I've seen shots, where the contest table is in focus, & the model blurry. As for framing the shot, if I can frame race cars, at 200+ MPH, at night, panning, one after another, I don't know how anyone can't frame a stationary object, in the bright sun.

I kike it a lot. What did you make the fuel filter from?

Here's a picture of a Boss 429 to be auctioned by Mecum. I would think, that if it was any lower, the front tires would rub the fenders, when turning.

Zippo lighter displays work better for Hot Wheels.

Every lens has a minimum distance. Most people don't know this. when they try to take a close up, they move the camera (lens), too close to the subject. Back off & zoom in or crop the photo after.

I vote for, all of the above. Artwork /real car on the built ups on the sides. I like what Model King does, built ups, incorporated into artwork. As for built ups letting me know what's in the box, I'm a modeler, I can fix stuff that's not right, & I don't mind, close enough, as long as it's close. The there's Palmer kits, Monogram 69 Camaro & 66 Chevelle. They were far from close enough.

I remember the Macho T/A but I thought Mecom built them. That was 30+ years ago & my memory isn't what it used to be.

Actually, he did do it from a roll. But, still, that thing is wicked quick (FAST too). He was "granny shifting" & got to 270 in 43 seconds.

I think he has been around racing, long enough, to know you don't go racing, on the professional level, with your own money.

Wow, Bill, that is one impressive shop.

I had heard one rodder say, a rat rod is unfinished. I'm OK with that. What I'm not OK with is parts that look like they came from a swap meet & just bolted on, without even cleaning the dirt & dust off them. I had a 69 Nova, in primer, as long as I owned it, but I washed it, on a regular basis. Open the hood & the engine was painted, the chrome was polished, the plug wires were clean, etc. The interior wasn't finished, but it was clean. I took pride in it. A lot of rat rods look like the owners, just don't care. They look nasty, just for the sake of looking nasty. I like some rat rods, the rest look like they just dragged them out of a swamp. Just my opinion.

It won't take too long, for this one, to look like the last one. LOL

My old work bench was built from a hollow core door, but it had it's limitations. So a trip to Home Depot & $80 later, I had the makings of a new work space. Here's a shot of the old one. It was only 81" long & It was a bit too deep, at 29". If a part dropped, it was a major search to find. Was it behind /under the drawer unit, behind the computer, who knows. Here's the new one It's 115" long, 24" deep, & 3/4" thick, wall to wall. I can easily reach to the back & now, if I drop something, it will be contained between the "walls". The 24" monitor, with HDMI input< can toggle between the cable box & the PC & the 17" is just is to surf while watching TV. I still need to clean up & I'm ready to build again.

It turned out awesome. It's a very clean build. The paint was well worth the effort.

The model looks great but I have a question about your spray booth. How loud is that Dayton blower? I'm about to build a booth & I'm glad you said something about that HVAC fan. I was considering one, for mine. That would have been a waste of money, trying to save money.