Zoom Zoom

Normally a new Ferrari has me excited. This one? No way. The face is okay, the rest is a disaster. Looks like Lexus said to their worst designer "we need to make the SC430 a bit sportier" and this is what we got. A fugly looking car, ruined by the ginormous back end to hide the retractable hardtop for Beverly Hills housewives and part time real estate agents. Truly a sad day, could only be worse if it were an SUV. The Porsche Cayenne GTS looks better to me. I cannot believe I just said that I cannot believe that it's absolutely true The original California Spyder is a timeless beauty and classic. This car is the polar opposite, just a touch of retro in the front, and then a mishmash of throwaway gimmicks behind the front wheels. Meanwhile, I'm awaiting the F430 Scuderia kit from Fujimi. It looks delicious.

Thanks for the photo coverage! Did you win anything?

Thanks for all the comments. I had to beef up the wheel retainers; I cut some styrene tubing and fit it over the stub axles on the Mustang and they attach to the backs of the brakes. Pretty primitive, but works. You want more accurate detail, rob a Revell Mustang For comparison with the Revell kit, here it is next to my Revell GT:

You'll get a faster answer through Kalmbach customer service. They emailed me back quickly; plus they had sent a general email out. Everyone has to re-register, but you can reclaim your screen name.

Got my Revell R8 and '68 Charger today, along with another set of Hasegawa P/E rims for my second Testa Rossa, also a stock Maisto VW Squareback, and a Cessna 180 to build for a friend who owns/flies a real one. I wasn't going to get a Charger until I saw the new wheels/hubcaps. Wonder if I can scare up a slant 6 for it? The R8 is very nice, the white plastic and normal box makes it a big improvement over the Revell AG version, not to mention the price is much lower.

Here's the deal: It wouldn't let me in either, it wouldn't recognize my email address. As a subscriber, I had to use my subscriber number (12 digits), enter my zip code, enter my password, and I retrieved my username. You can also start with a new username. Not sure how it works for non-subscribers. There's a whole lot more online goodies now for subscribers. It's definitely going to take time to figure it all out, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. I was able to access all of my reviews easily; I assume there will be a lot more of the magazine content available online. I'm on Firefox and I couldn't get in via IE either. You have to follow the directions to the letter. User-friendly it is not! They sent out an email explaining things; that helped me out as I couldn't figure it out on my own. If you're a subscriber or have an email address listed for forum use, you should get that email.

I just looked up prices; yes, there was an increase across the board. Glad my Charger and R8 were pre-increase prices. Seems prices are up anywhere from 50 cents to almost $2 per kit.

Thanks, I made styrene spacers. I'll shoot the chassis later; I have to repair one of the wheels and I need to beef up the attachment pieces w/some styrene tubing. I use a chisel-point black Sharpie for the black window masking. It's painfully easy, even freehand

I got mine today along with the '68 Charger. The R8 is better than the Euro version; all molded in white. I've got ideas...Cayman wheels like I put on the GT500 look great on the R8 as well.

It works great; just smash it on, use a toothpick/whatever to push it off the surface you want to paint. I learned about it when I wanted to buy vinyl masks for a camo pattern for an airplane, they were out of the masks and the guy told me that the IPMS builders loved using Silly Putty to do the camo masking. And he was right!

A few more pics:

I score the diecasts when they're cheap or on sale. Got the FX "assembly line" kit from Hobby Lobby, the kits have two sets of wheels. Probably paid 8 or 9 bucks for it. I have quite a scrapyard of Maisto models w/o any wheels

Thanks! I did the Revell kit immediately when it came out, and used Aoshima wheels on it. Had to do a lot of Dremel work to get the wheels inside the fenders, this kit's easier to modify. If it weren't for the big bling wheels and tubbed chassis to accept the gigantic wheels, the detail/quality of this kit really is superior to AMT, and rivals Revell, better in some respects. The plastic is much better than both Revell/AMT, and everything is very crisp. Jada can keep coming out with more kits like this, and I'll be perfectly happy. Here's my GT, painted in Ford Tungsten Gray. I bought Tungsten Gray/Legend Lime/Windveil Blue when they were available from Cobra Colors.

Finished the Jada GT500; overall I'm pretty happy with it. I ended up using Porsche Cayman wheels/Fujimi brakes. Paint is Ford Windveil Blue.

Another rethink of the wheels; I had a set of 19" Porsche Cayman wheels that look good, almost GT500 KR style. They will fit my Fujimi brakes very well. The engine/interior/glass went in w/o any problems. The kit seems very well engineered. I did replace the smallish and too-far-inset headlamps w/some craft store faux MV lenses.

The stripes also caused me to rethink the wheels. The bigger wheels started to look distracting, fighting for attention with the stripes (without stripes, the car seems to need the bigger wheels). I set the Maisto 1/24 scale Mustang 18's back under it, and to my eyes it just works, regardless of the mix 'n match nature of this model. If I were to have a stock set of 1/24 scale GT500 wheels I doubt they'd look any better. I may try some other wheels, though I think these GT wheels will be the final look:

Thanks for the comments! The white stripes really make a difference, lots of Ford racing heritage is showing through:

Last year F1 wasn't nearly so boring (far better than the year previous) with all the various surprises and the race for the championship that was close all the way to the end. This year it's been a yawner. The fact that so much of the "sport" is the pinnacle of engineering and talent and is lost by races that just aren't thrilling to watch, more like parades...sad to see so little true racing and lead changes (not just because of pit stops) and thrilling action on the track. I'd rather see them racing vintage F1 cars w/ skinny tires and no wings.

I try to enjoy F1, I really do. But all this blah blah blah, all the billions of $$ spent, and in the long run the races are boring as hell. I guess it's not about racing, it's about the money. Always is. And it always spoils the part I enjoy best. Watch the SCCA runoffs sometime, better racing than a whole season of F1

I'm finally rolling towards completing this kit after finishing a trio of review models. I painted it Cobra Colors Windveil Blue; not a Shelby color, I've seen several Saleens in this color and I had gotten the color based on how good the Mustangs looked in this shade (except on a CV that had a tan top... ). To me they look best in the tamer colors. Tonight I hope to have the black trim painted and the white stripes applied.

You really can't go very wrong with metalizer shades of aluminum; either Testors or Alclad work well. I also am very fond of Krylon 1403 dull aluminum (not easy to find, though Ace Hardware is where I usually find it); it's amazing stuff for coming from a spray can. It sprays in ultra-thin coats. You don't have to break out the airbrush if you don't want! I don't normally like Krylon paints for models, but this stuff is great. And as CAL mentions, use a black wash to bring out the depth/dimension of aluminum parts. Metalizers are easy to use. Once you get accustomed to them, you'll want more shades to replicate other metals.

Oh it's real all right. As to what scale it is, well...it was kind of obvious to me. But it's still fun to read what other people see and don't see

I should have included a link to my ultra-simple tutorial on decanting Tamiya sprays. I read the other one and it also made my head hurt They take a simple task and make it sound ridiculously overcomplicated. I stir my paint immediately with some thinner. So what if it boils a bit? Don't fill the container, and don't cap it! It doesn't bite. You shouldn't need that much paint to begin with. Wait at least an hour? ME? You have got to be freakin' kidding Decanting Spray Paint Tutorial Since that tutorial I've found straws that fit tightly over the Tamiya nozzle, no Fun-Tack required, so a simple task is even simpler. I've done this routine hundreds of times now. I'm addicted to spraying Tamiya (and some Testors) lacquers through my airbrush, colors that aren't available in jars. I never have the need to store the decanted paint. I never poke holes in cans. I never have disasters from poking holes in cans. I decant enough paint to use for the project at hand (if I need more, I decant more, and only wait a few minutes for the propellant to dissipate; the little residual amount left over atomizes completely when run through the airbrush). All my spray cans are still 100% useable as spray cans until empty. The last dregs from a can that don't spray well will paint an amazing amount of stuff when run through the airbrush. I cannot fathom using any system other than the straw method, it's dead simple, it's dirt cheap, no storage issues, a minimum of mess, and no disasters. The K.I.S.S method at work. I highly recommend it over any other method of decanting that I've ever encountered. And you do not have to wait anything more than a few minutes to spray. You might wait a bit longer if you use a cap and jar system on your airbrush. I use open metal paint cups without a lid (sometimes I'll use the lid on my gravity feed brush if I've filled the cup, but that's not with decanted paint). I did use an easier method before, not using a straw and just spraying the paint into the cup. It's messy but fast. Once I heard about the straw method I thought "wow, why didn't I think of that before?!" I tried it, and I'm hooked.

I decant Tamiya all the time. Yes, there's propellant in the cup when it's sprayed, but it goes away in a few minutes. My setup likes to have few drops of lacquer thinner (seems that Tamiya lacquer thinner, Mr. Color thinner, and regular old lacquer thinner all work) added for the best flow, but it really depends on your airbrush and the pressure you spray at. You'll know pretty quick if it's flowing well enough or needs a bit of thinner. I spray into a little plastic mixing cup and swish it around w/some thinner, when it hits the metal paint cup on my airbrush it bubbles/boils a bit, then stops in a few minutes. No problem at all, and don't believe people that say you have to wait X number of hours. For me it's a few minutes. And I save a ton of Tamiya paint running it through the airbrush.

Looks fantastic! Great color combo, it looks real.