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I started from the AMG V12 that the car is built around. The genius of Pagani was that this was an amazing powerplant, which was available in quite few different Mercedes Benz Models. Where it gets tricky when building a model, trying to replicate one of the 16 Zonda S cars made is that some of them started with the regular 7.0 motor, but quite few were constantly been upgraded, some receiving the 7.3L AMG V12 and some pretty much being completely transformed to the next generation Zonda F. Anyway...The kit comes with a 7.0L motor, which visually is identical with the 7.3L. These are the parts of the engine. The main part of the engine has been already assembled. Those silver pieces on each side are actually one piece on the real car and represent the aluminum plenum, that sits on top of the heads, leaving the sprak plug cables visible between the runners. The exhaust manifolds actually do look this way on the real thing. It is not just a generic shape that thrown in the kit. The main engine assembly consist of eight parts and in a typical japanese kit style, has no visible seams once assembled. The transmission was painted with a mix of Tamiya's champagne gold and bare airframe silver. The block got just bare airframe silver and the valve covers received buffing aluminum plate metallizer. I did not pick out the spark plug "dots" on the heads or attempt to make the little square parts that go on top of them. Not going to wire them either, as it would be totally in vain. Pagani went to great lengths to hide as much of the wiring and plumbing of the car. On the real thing you have a light aluminum plenum with 12 runners, sitting rather flat on top of the motor, with a throttle body on each side. In a regular MB car the fit was tight, to say the least. Which is why the plenum sits so low. Perfect for use in a low to the ground supercar. In the kit, there is a cover going over the whole motor, which hides everything underneath. This is accurate, except on the real thing, Pagani actually had carbon fiber covers for each side, which hid the wires and closed the space between the runners and a separate cover in the middle, which actually hid a lot of the plumbing of the motor. Very early production cars had air intakes sucking air from under the car, going to the throttle bodies via some ducts. The kit includes the carbon fiber air box, that all cars were updated with later on. This airbox has become one of the signature features on any Pagani car to this day. And this is where I am at...

Thank you Doc.

It's interesting that so many people, especially in the model kit community, are not familiar with these cars. Pagani has achieved somewhat of a cult status in the automotive industry and is the wet dream of any car spotter. Horacio Pagani is with Argentinian descent and later immigrates in Italy. His story is truly remarkable. He was one of the pioneers in carbon fiber application in the production automotive industry, not only as a high performance material, but also as an aesthetic element. He was the supplier of carbon parts to the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini. He also worked for Lamborghini and is accredited with the design update of the Countach for Lamborghini's 25th anniversary. He always dreamt of making his own car and started working on sketches and ideas since the late '80s. When Lamborghini was ready to replace the Countach with what eventually became the Diablo, Horacio was asked to design it. His proposal was designed around a V12 rear engined chassis, but was turned down. Marcello Gandini from the Bertone Group's design was chosen instead. This put Horacio Pagani on a crossroads of a sort, where he had to chose, to continue working for Lamborghini or put everything he had on the line and persue his dream of making his own car. With advice from his wife, he chose the latter. And in 1999, he shocked the world, when he introduced the Pagani Zonda. It was built almost entirely from carbon fiber, with aluminum tube subframes front and aft of the composite monocoque. Because his original design was created around Lamborghini's V12, Pagani decided to put in it a Mercedes Benz handbuilt AMG V12, as it had identical dimensions, but was also less expensive, more reliable and much easier serviceable in any Mercedes Benz dealership. Only 3 of these cars were built and only one of them remains all original - a car ordered by a mysterious lady from Belgium, in the national yellow color, which is seen driving the Zonda regularly over the years (mostly in Switzerland) and refuses to sell it at any price, including some very lucrative offers from Horacio Pagani himself. The front was pretty flat and on the rear it had some oversized tail lights topped by a big awkward wing. It carries serial number 2. Then in 2000, Pagani Showed the Pagani Zonda S at the Geneva Auto Salon. And everyone in the industry started taking note, as he raised some eyebrows. The new car had AMG's latest 7.0L (427ci) V12 with 550hp, accelerated from 0-60 in 3.7 sec and had a top speed of 220mph. All for $350K. To put things in perspective, that is 3 years before Ferrari's Enzo, for half the price with better performance and far more exclusive, as only 16 were made. Tracking these cars and getting reference material is extremely difficult. Many of them are very rarely seen and quite few had been crashed and rebuilt by Pagani to different specs. Also, most of them have been updated by their owners numerous times with body and aero parts from the newer Zonda F model, including changing colors and interiors. To add to it, Zondas were never legal in USA, just like the original McLaren F1 or Koenigsegg. However, there are few of them in US. There is a collection in Miamy, that is rumored to have no less than 7 different Zondas in it. The car from the Geneva auto salon is definitely in that collection, but it is an ongoing argument if it is serial number 10 or 14. There are two more yellow Zondas in that collection. The mystery car is a red Zonda, which was shown at SEMA in 2001. That car started life as a silver car, was repainted red and was illegally imported by rapper Wycleff Jean from the Black Eyed Peas. It has been on US soil ever since and it is now yellow. It spend a good portion of its time in some really elite company in a garage/museum in Malibu, without an engine in it. It is in the aforementioned collection in Miami now. There is another yellowZonda S in the Czech Republic, which gets driven hard and often and has over 60K miles on it. It is owned by a big name GT racer, who is also a car importer there. It was crashed a couple years back, but I believe it's back to spec. I am writing all this, because it is related to my project. I wanted to build a model of an existing Zonda S. Pictures of these cars are scarce and there is never 100% guarantee which picture is of which serial number Zonda. But one thing is for sure. There is more than one yellow metallic Zonda S and Pagani did make Zondas with both his signature Blue/tan interior and black and yellow, which in at least one occasion was yellow ostrich.

Very nice. Another testament to what a great kit this is. You definitely did it justice.

Sweet little Coupe. I love it.

I've had this kit for quite some time and the main reason I never started on it was that I never really had a clear plan what I want to do with it. It is one of my all time favorite exotic cars for a variety of reasons, not the least of which the shock wave it caused when it was first introduced. The kit is notorious for being difficult to make fit proprly and I have never seen one built on here or at a show. Not even in a magazine. All of this poses a challenge that I more than welcome. Also it is made in a strange way, where the doors and the hoods are separate as in an opening model, but there are no parts or suggestions for making these components actually functional. No hinges or anything of the sort is provided in it. So I always wanted to make it work. Also, due to recent comments on and off the forum, about what should and shouldn't be used on a model car, I think I will have a lot of fun with this one. Stay tuned...

Here is some more from the progress. True to today's trends and the inspirational vehicle for this build, all the suspension components were done in Gloss black and matt silver. The exhaust was done in Gunmetal and metallic black mix, covered with flat clear, for that custom "ceramic coating". This would also be true to the original Street Rod of the Year. The engine was also completed and installed between the rails. I deviated a little from the real car's power plant but kept it in character. The cool chrome Chevrolet scripts on the valve covers were achieved by applying BMF to the part before painting it and then just buffing out the lettering, once the paint was dry. The body received it's black roof insert. There was a change of plans on the hub caps. These came from a Revell '40 Ford. They were sanded thinner and their outer parts were painted black. They are a lot more prototypically correct to the original car. The chassis getting there. The interior parts ready to get put together. Plastic rod was used to make the crank bases for the door handles and the window cranks, and a '29 kit donated its steering wheel. And the interior is done.

Thank you David. Thank you Adam.

Thank you David. What's more impressive is when you take this model to a show, where it doesn't even place, because the judges have no clue what they are looking at.

Thank you, David. Pleasure was all mine.

Part 5. Last one.

Part 4...

Part 3...

Part two...

I'll upload the pictures in few posts, as there are 241 of them. These are all the pictures I managed to take. I was going in order table by table, but at some point the awards ceremony started and I did not have the chance to take pics of all the models, as people started packing them away. I apologize if someone does not see their model. I just ran out of time. There was a lot of talent on display and some amazing builds. It was a great show as usual.

I have quite a few, just have to upload them.

I'll see you at 9am

I'm here. Arrived late last night. I would love to stop by your table and say hi. Where are you set up?

I will second that. And if they are designed to fit between the Deuces rails it would be fantastic.

I need to pick me up a couple of these kits. Yours looks great.

I totally get it. To each their own, they say. It's still looking great. Just as a side note, the wheels in the Vett'Agin are definitely different.

This is now complete. I will post picture under glass, but it will probably be next week. Hip, Hip hurray!

Quite a bit done yesterday. The wiper was installed (ignore all the fingerprints on the windshield I still haven't cleaned) and its carbon cover. The corresponding piece for the wiper cover on the front hood was also covered in carbon and installed. My detail set included a photoetched emblem, which I wanted to use. As the Murphy's Law goes, right when I was trying to set it over the tiny patch of glue I had prepped for it on the carbon piece, it flipped from my tweezers upside down. Instead of making a mess which would set me back quite a bit, I managed to put it in place and just use it as a base for the kit's decal. I think it worked out great, as now it has the metal plate look, but also the color that comes with the decal. I messed up big time with the third brake light. I knew where it was going, but never paid attention to the kit's instructions for the order of installation. The entire time I thought that little "bucket" with the light in it goes over the cut out in the rear window. Well, it doesn't. It actually goes under the windowon top of the interior piece that serves as a headliner. So I had to very, very carefully remove the rear window, glue the third light assembly in place and then reglue the rear window. Let me tell you, this made me sweat bullets, but it got done without any accidents. The rear bumper got installed and the Pagani lettering on it where the license plate would normally go. This was a crazy experience. Everyone who has built this kit will attest to the fitting issues. Actually there are none. However this kit is engineered in a weird way. It is perfect. And by that I mean way too perfect for a kit. Basically they have scanned the real thing and scaled down all the parts to 1:24 scale. Including the tolerances between parts. Which means that if you glue anything a hair in the wrong direction, stuff don't fit properly. I did cheat with the rear bumper installation in order to make it work. I it is the closest I can do, which is a lot better than what I have seen from a lot of builds out there. The most important part is that I learned a lot from it and I would definitely like to built one more Huayra, to challenge myself and do it even better. This is not going to be any time soon however, as I already have two more Paganis {Zondas) which I will have to finish before that. Still, that ass is sexy! Front bumper also got installed, but only after it's fog lights were painted chrome and lenses installed. Fit is nowhere near as horrible as some people like to make it and that is me building this for the first time. I am sure that this could be made to fit absolutely perfect. I am happy with mine. The mirrors, which Horacio Pagani himself says are inspired by the shape of a woman's eye, were also covered in carbon. Note that the direction of the carbon weave matches the direction of all the carbon on the car, which is specific to the left and right sides. This thing has eight headlights! The kit provides eight tiny little projectors and eight even tinier little lenses for each one. I did not want to deal with cutting eight clear circles, less than 1mm in diameter, which I would have to somehow cleanly glue in the eight light pods. Last time I did something similar, I had to spend an hour on all fours with a flashlight in my hand, looking over the floor inch by inch to find what I dropped. I was not having any of this. So instead, I mixed some 5min epoxy and put a tiny drop in each light pod. It created same effect as the lenses, except much easier and less nerve wrecking. The rear light pods were a lot of work too. First I had to wrap them in carbon. This was very complicated for few different reasons. First these are extremely complicated shapes, with the holes for the lights and all the curves. Second, the tops, which would be like a continuation of the top side of the hood, had to have the weave matching the direction of the rest of the carbon on the hood, while it connected seamlessly to the weave on the face of the light clusters, which in tern had to have matching angles on both sides. It drove me crazy, but it got done at the end. Then the light clusters were glued in and then the lenses. The kit called for clear lenses with red rings around them. The way the clear parts are molded that would be achievable, but I never liked the look. I hate clear lenses. So I decided to make them all red to start with, then they will get blacked out. Paganis are bespoke pieces, built to their owners specs, so this would be totally fine. The entire underside of the rear hood was covered in directional carbon, matching the upper side. The little transmission cooler intake was done in different weave carbon to create some contrast. After the entire carbon assemblies with the light clusters were installed in the rear hood, Both hoods were clear coated one more time with everything attached to them. So, basically the only thing left is to attach the front light pods, get the underside of the front hood covered in carbon, attach the front inner fenders to the hood and the aero flaps on the hoods. And of course, buff everything out. Almost there. Stay tuned...

I love the colors on your interior. Very rich. At this point I wonder if it would look better without flames, but that is totally up to you to decide.

I love this kit. Having said this, I never actually completed one. The last one I had started some years ago, is donating its wheels and tires for my Maranello build. About the paint. I love it. I love nail polish colors for models. my wife loves OPI colors and have stolen quite few of them from her. I think their metallics are actually perfect for model cars scale wise, so fine. I love the color you have chosen and I think you have achieved an amazing result, which goes to show, that when applied with care and properly prepped, we can get great results on our models with materials not necessarily meant for our hobby. Now I can't wait to see what are going to do with the interior of this monster of a Porsche.