Zoom Zoom

Looks period-perfect

Nice work Jim! You make it look so easy. Of course in the back of my head I'm kind of hoping Hasegawa does that version so I don't have to do anything but crack the seal and go! I wonder how many people remember your beautiful Viper GTS conversion from an RT/10, followed in short order by kits from both AMT and Revell?

Somewhere around here there's a whistle blower joke just waiting to happen.

I wish them well, so far there is nothing on the list that interests me to buy. I either already have it, or don't want it, and my stash is full of "supporting them so they make more". I'm sure they've got something up their sleeves that piques my interest. It's interesting to see everyone's wish lists; most of it is 40-50 year old antiques. I doubt if AMT had been issuing primarily 1920's subject matter (antiques) in the roaring 60's that they would have had anywhere near the success they had. Back then builders were excited about new cars. I hope they have some good ideas for modified reissues of some of their better/more interesting kits.

I certainly don't need the suspension downgrade, but it should be optional for the buyer. I've always been lukewarm about the '99 Cobra kit, it looks nice but it's a model of a car that most enthusiasts would rather forget because Ford greatly overstated it's HP. It's hard to believe Revell let the kit sit and didn't make GT/Bullitt/Mach I or supercharged Cobra variations. But then they also ignored the LX 5.0 phenomenon from '87 to '93 too. I would assume they've had no trouble at all selling the '05-up Mustang. Let the resin pour!

The reason for spraying clear w/in one hour was because people had problems with the clear cracking when it was applied at the "wrong" time. I know a couple of people that had that happen, but honestly haven't heard of any problems more recently. Tamiya addressed the problem at some point, saying the clear was a different formula than the colors, and cured at a different rate. They were the ones that suggested shooting w/in one hour, or waiting a month. Results may vary.

I don't know if it was Ed Cervo that did them, but he had one on Feebay recently and it sold for a Model Factory Hiro price. I do remember enough that it wasn't a Fisher model. I do know about Herb's wheels on Feebay. Part of me wants them, part of me wants to spend a day over at Pico Elgin's house and learn how to make my own wire wheels with fishing line and a computer printout lacing pattern. You simply cannot beat spokes that are the proper cross-section and width vs. the flat PE variants.

He got the wire wheels from Herb Deeks who isn't making them anymore, so if you really want a BAT 5 you might get it sans wheels. And I agree, that Porsche is great. I love vintage (and modern) Porsches

While his first love is cars, he's a businessman and he's told people that resin planes are a lot more lucrative endeavor than cars. Can't blame him for following the money, as long as I get a chance to get some of his cars from time to time. I've got his D-Type Jaguar to build this year during the 24 Hours of LeMans. I sure wish he'd eventually carve out the Alfa BAT 7 and BAT 9 to go w/my BAT 5. Loved building that one.

Nice

I got the best one Hobby Lobby had; HP-CS Eclipse w/large gravity cup. I already had the hose for my Rich AB 200. One thing that's irritating is that there isn't one place to go try all airbrushes to see exactly what works best. You have to rely on word-of-mouth. The Iwata has a longer "throw" than the Crescendo, and it has one tip/needle. The Crescendo blasts out paint in a narrow range, the Iwata has more control. I always used the medium tip/needle w/my Crescendo, the high-flow was more than necessary and messed w/some metallics. The Iwata allows a finer line if you hold it closer to the work and don't pull back the trigger so far. Every drop of paint/thinner will go through the Iwata tip, none of all that residual stuff that's in the siphon feed lines of other brushes. I do have to stop and refill the cup vs. using a large bottle w/the Badger siphon feed, but I've been using the open metal cups exclusively for so long I'm used to that.

I tell you what, I loved my Crescendo enough to buy another pair (Bear Air sells 'em cheap) so I could have one for solid, one for metallic, one for clear. Then I got the Iwata...wish I had three of them instead! The gravity feed and less time cleaning up and more precise control of paint/air from the dual-action Iwata are worth the extra $$. That said, the Crescendo is still a great airbrush, would be a lot greater if it were gravity feed. And I still use them and my fineline Rich AB 200, having multiples speeds up the painting sessions when I've got a lot of parts prepped and ready to paint.

Ditto all observations on the Iwata airbrushes. I got an HP CS Gravity feed Eclipse, the quality of which is impressive, and now I ignore my Badger 175 Cresendos, my Paasche VL, my Badger 150 IL, my Model Master (aka Aztek). The Testors airbrushes are pretty cheap, the easily replaced tips are a great idea but they're fragile and wear quickly. Great when new, bad when you're replacing parts all the time. You get what you pay for. If you can afford an Iwata, get one. You'll never look back. Use common coupons for Michael's or Hobby Lobby to get a deal on it. If you're buying Iwata, get a gravity feed w/the bigger cup. Cleanup is easier on gravity feed vs. siphon feed, you'll waste less paint and thinners and the time it takes to get all the goo out of the siphon tubes.

I just dug mine out to check. I think you've got the wrong inserts in the wrong tires. Take all four tires/inserts apart. You will see that two of the inserts are slightly shorter than the others (part #103). Mine fit perfectly front and rear. I suspect you've put the front inserts (#103) in the rear trres (will fit) and the rear inserts (#102) in the front tires (will stick out). Part # 102 is the thicker/rear insert, part #103 is the thinner front. It's easy to mix them up, the difference in dimension is small. Make sure this is the case before doing any trimming of the flanges.

McLaren F1 Lotus Exige/Elise/2-Eleven racer/340 R Koenigsegg CCX Ariel Atom BMW 2002 BMW 3.0 CS/CSi Audi R8 V12TDi Ferrari Lusso Cobra Daytona Cobra 289 all variants street/FIA Porsche 550 Spyder Porsche 996/997 GT2 & GT3 RS Porsche 993 Turbo Penske Porsche LMP2 RS Spyder 1973 Grand Am/GTO/77 Can Am 1971 Riviera Aston Martin V8 Vantage Jaguar C Type Jaguar XK8, XKR (newest version) Solstice GXP Coupe Sky CV 09 CTS-V 09 ZR1 Mercedes AMG CLS 63/65

Most resin cleans up okay with normal cleaners; Westley's, Comet, alcohol, lacquer thinner. Occasionally you'll find a resin kit that's got super-duper-amazing mold release that just won't come off; if your resin doesn't pass the "masking tape" test (if it won't stick to the resin after it's clean, try again), I suggest going nuclear with it and giving the model a brief soak w/Easy Off Heavy Duty oven cleaner.

Looking great! Makes me want to build mine more and more. Sure glad I got one; this is definitely a kit I'd be kicking myself for not getting while it was available.

Perfection I thought I wanted these decals, then I saw how much they go for. WTF? Are they really worth $45?? That's 2-3 times the price of the kit The PE parts seem fairly priced by comparison.

There's no exact ratio; you thin it out so it flows well through the airbrush. Generally a 1:1 ratio of paint:thinner gets it close, and test from there. If it sprays smoothly w/o running or w/o a dry texture, it should be close. Roughly to the consistency of 2% milk.

Sacrebleu! Bon choix!

Depends on how brittle the plastic is. Newer kits have a more pliable plastic that seems pretty easy to reverse this kind of damage. Older kits w/more brittle plastic are potentially more trouble. I would as carefully as possible attempt to bend them in the reverse direction, and be prepared to see them break, or not fully straighten out. Not sure if you could possibly glue a strip of strong/thin piece of metal behind the pillar to strengthen it. I've been known to replace A pillars from one kit onto another to restore. Pics of the damage would be helpful.

Yeah, I saw the ALMS site after I posted, no mention at all of any Vantage...but then my friends swore that the car was a Vantage...I guess their photos will prove them right or wrong.

Difficult to get exact answer right now; race results show the DBRS9 was the GT2 car (AM never campaigned the Vanquish), there was a DBR9 GT1 car that crashed in practice and didn't race. Supposedly the Vantage is to be the factory GT2 car, and my friends that were at Sebring said the GT2 car was a Vantage, but I think they're mistaken. I'll see pics later tonight.

I hear you! I don't find the TR to be particularly attractive and it's far from my favorite Ferrari, but I am wanting to build it, and have at least one on the way. I'd jump on a new McLaren F1 like there was no tomorrow! There are a lot of exotics not kitted that I'd like to see, and many other vintage Ferraris that I like much better than the TR. I saw the kit today @ Brian V's and it looked good, but the body wasn't as crisp as their newish 240Z, which gives any Tamiya kit a run for the money. The wire wheels in the TR are nice; they're see-through and when stripped/painted and black-washed should look great. Not sure if the P/E will look any better, I'm picky when the spokes look a bit flat.

It is not necessary to spray gray primer to cover yellow plastic when spraying red. Red Acryl covers very well-it has dense pigment, and yellow plastic will not shift the color of the topcoat, and Acryl won't leach color out of the plastic. You're giving good advice for lacquers in general, but it's simply not necessary for Acryl paint. There's an Acryl primer as well if he needs to prime ahead of painting if there's been any kind of bodywork. In addition, red is much better sprayed over white primer than gray.