Zoom Zoom

Nice custom work with a hint of Cheetah 8) I've seen a Resilient Resin body in person. Ouch. Wasn't pretty :roll:

Now that's some great hardware for your efforts 8) Congratulations...but the best trophies are always the models themselves. They're all knockouts 8)

Turned out nice, and will be interesting to see how you adapt the next one into a replica of your 1:1 w/the sport package. They're cool little cars, I'd certainly be shopping the Fit if I were currently in the market for a new car. Can't beat the utility factor, fun to drive, and fuel economy.

Nice work 8) Great color. Grigio Titanio looks fantastic on it. I like the extra details, they really help the model. The basic kit is fine, but those taillights are pretty hard to deal with when amber parts are molded as red :roll: I like the big contrast between how your Boxster came out and my bare-bones Boxster turned out. I have a matching Cayman cooking in my mind...

I doubt the Aston has been done in 1/24 scale, though likely it has been done in 1/43. Earlier Panteras (early 70's) are pretty well covered; Testors sold a version, and several Japanese companies like Arii, Nichimo, Gunze made them. The most accurate stock Pantera was made by Tilt/Marui. Most recently Fujimi did a Pantera GTS in resin, though it's pricey. There's on on Ebay right now. They're all curbside though. One of the Japanese companies made some sort of Lambo LM002, it may have been more of a military style. Not sure of the company, kind of obscure and I haven't seen one since I lived in CA in the early 80's.

Looks great so far; obviously you now realize that an ambitious project like this isn't exactly 24 hour fare :wink: This one is best not rushed too much; final details take the longest. The simpler the better when it comes to subjects that can be built during the race. My LeMans kit was simple enough that I wouldn't have spent any more hours than I did building it; whether over a day or a week or a month. GTMike400 did a Revell C5R OOB during the race last year, his first model ever and it looked great. As for "rules", with the upgrades you did I would have allowed all the putty/modifications to be done prior to primer; so that you could have done the finished paint, assembly, and decals during the race. The main idea is to have fun while pushing your skills a bit during a finite amount of time.

It's not ultra-durable, but it's slightly better than Alclad II. None of these finishes are very robust, unless someone comes up w/a chrome or polished spray that you can actually seal with some sort of clear. The clear that Alsa sells? It turned their own product into nothing more than silver paint :roll: :x

Several of us went in together on the Mirrachrome in a can now offered by Alsa. "Killer Chrome" is the name. Totally unimpressed. Here's a spoon test in my album. Winner? Spaz Stix Mirror Chrome over black TS Tamiya. http://public.fotki.com/grdeyed/model_cars-1/chrome-test/ Here's Mirrachrome's "Killer Chrome" airbrushed (from their spray can it was not very good) vs. Spaz Stix. You tell me which one looks better! Spaz Stix is available online, or at hobby shops in the R/C dept. It sticks to Tamiya TS black, unlike Alclad II. You can even brush paint small repairs w/Spaz Stix (and Alclad II) with amazing results...

Thanks for the replies 8) One thing I didn't mention was how much I love the design of the car; that's why I got the model and I wouldn't have thought about building it in 24 hours if I didn't think I could do the kit justice in that amount of time. It's a fantastic kit; high-quality and very simple construction. I could quibble about the fact that a few P/E parts like door/hood handles and the inner rear view mirror that should have been 3D pieces of resin or white metal instead, but the basic engineering and casting were superb, and I'm quite happy w/the final finish of the car. I'll go back and make some more proper handles when I have more time. If it weren't for Tamiya/Testors lacquers, I don't think any of us crazies would even think about building models in a day or weekend. I agree w/Bill; Tamiya British Racing Green is as perfect a paint as one could ask for.

Here are the beauty shots taken this afternoon after watching the F1 race. I didn't like the appearance of the windshield seam; there's no molding over the edge (not in '64, though the restored car has it) and there was no way to hide the glue holding it. So I removed the front/rear glass and did the Sharpie-along-the-edge trick, and reglued them. Much cleaner looking, totally inaccurate, but hey...I had fun ! Total time of build: 18 hours. It's a fairly simple curbside kit, low parts count and of very nice quality.

Continuing: First color coats (Tamiya TS British Green, airbrushed): First color w/clear, sub assemblies painted. Car was reshot in green (sans airbrush) and recleared by 1:45 pm (wetsanding found problems in the previous paint). It cooked until about 6 pm when it was buffed out w/3600 Micromesh and coarse/fine/finish Tamiya compounds. After a long day, this is where it was at the point when one member had his Porsche 917 done. It's now closing in on 10:00 pm Final assembly, the small photoetch parts were a bear. I invented new cuss words when attempting to glue them in place and I was tired and cranky. This was done enough for me around 1:00 am. It was the middle of the night in Ringgold, GA but the sun was already up at LeMans.

I'll break this into three posts to keep the photo count manageable. This was my LeMans Palooza build; several ACME members have now spent two years in a row building LeMans models during the running of the race. I built the Profil24 Jaguar E Type Low Drag Coupe that raced in 1964. We are allowed to have the car in primer before the start, and to have parts cleaned/ready for paint. I took about 3 1/2 hours to prep the car prior to Saturday. At the 9:00 am start:

Wow, that's so realistic I can almost smell the rust

Amen. Pegasus 23's aren't "real" 23's when you compare to 1/24 scale. The Pegasus 23" diameter is 21.96" in 1/24 scale, with the visible bead lip (usually adds about 1.5" to the "real" diameter taken at the bead) the actual dimension of the wheel would be about 20.5". That's why they look good on some of these 1/24 scale models with really large wheel openings. They don't look cartoonish on these Ferraris, nor Magnums, nor 350Z's, nor Chargers. Even the AMT 1/25 Chrysler 300C has massive wheel openings and these wheels look like a stock diameter in them. If Pegasus 23's were scaled to 1/24 scale, and were real 23's, they'd be 1.02" in diameter and that would look freakish. I'm not all about bling, just the right balance. Anyone who looked at my latest "anti-bling" Boxster kit built last weekend can vouch for that

All of them would look good under the Fiorano; I've tried the Vantage and Vanquish, and will have to get the Virage. The 2-piece design is cool because you can paint the center any color you like. My Scaglietti almost wore the Vanquish wheels: The Fiorano below has the Pegasus rims from the Vantage/Vanquish/Virage, but I cut the centers from a Sportec and BBS RE to see how they would look: Still wish Fujimi would just make the proper 20" BBS RE's for the Fiorano.

It's an off-brand that I got at Big Lots years ago; it's like a Ronco but a bit smaller. It has no temperature control, just rotating vents on the top/bottom. I checked the temperature inside and it was below 110°, so I'm okay. Any brand will work, but if the temp goes over 110° you will have to ventilate it sufficiently.

I used Tamiya spray lacquers, the silver and first coats of clear were airbrushed in light coats, the final clear was applied straight from the can. I shot the first coats of silver over the bare grayish-silver plastic (I had removed mold lines w/a 4-sided polishing stick); after an hour in the dehydrator it was very dry. I wetsanded it w/3200 and applied black panel lines, then applied more silver and started adding clear to the silver mixture, laying on thin coats, until it was mostly clear. Then a few coats of just clear. Let that dry about 2 hours or so, it was very dry, hit it w/3200 micromesh wetsanding the surface relatively smooth, then went over it w/a couple good wet coats straight from the spray can. The next morning it was plenty dry (after about 8 hours in the dehydrator) to wetsand w/3600 and then I did a quick buff out w/Tamiya coarse polish. That's as far as I went, it was very glossy at that point. A darker color would have required a bit more care in polishing. I've painted/polished hundreds of models, along the way I've learned a lot of tricks to cut down on time. Also, when I airbrush Tamiya sprays they go a LOT further. I could easily paint 5 or 6 silver cars w/one can of paint. This almost makes up for the fact they don't sell their lacquer paints in bottles.

Thanks for the comments! I took a trip to Discount Tire aka my Fujimi 356A Speedster kit to get the other set of Maisto 356 wheels I had (to try under another project), and found two of them had modern radials. Remembering when I tried these wheels on a PT Cruiser, I checked that kit, and found two sets of stock PT Cruiser tires (and no desire to build a stock PT Cruiser...ever). Handling problem solved immediately Stock Maisto tire on left, Revell PT Cruiser tire on right. I do believe this would transform the handling just a bit

Agreed, the model is sweeeeet!!! I don't think it matters if the side grilles were honeycomb or not from the factory, this is a pro-touring inspired model w/a modern influence (wheels/tires at least) and it's not really a matter of factory accuracy, it's a matter of fact that it looks perfect on this model and that's how it could have/should have been from the factory.

Who needs 24 hours to build a model when you can build one in about 8 hours? I combined a desire to build something in a minimal amount of time, but still look like a halfway decent model. I sifted through the stack and kept coming back to the Revell Boxster snap kit. For whatever reason I thought it would be amusing to see what the Maisto 356 wheels just removed from my RS60 would look like. I actually liked it :eek: So off I went; started this Saturday at 7:05 pm, in 3 hours I had applied a layer of silver (Tamiya gloss aluminum airbrushed), dried, wetsanded, applied panel lines, reshot silver, applied clear, let dry, wetsanded, reclearcoated. I shot the interior pieces in a better shade of red than molded. The chassis is just flat black. All sub assemblies were painted by the time I quit at about 12:15 am. In 2 1/2 hours on Sunday morning I did final assembly and detailing. I needed this build to keep me from starting my LeMans car too fast So what do you think? Crazy? Cool? :x I think it would be a lot of fun to drive. I don't think a 356 would be flattered at all w/Boxster rims, but the 356 wheels/tires seem to fit this car in this color scheme pretty well. I got that out of my system (though I do want to find an inside rear view mirror and cut some mylar door mirror faces), now I can be more relaxed for my LeMans build next weekend

Here's a thread from last year: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=660

I haven't tried it, but everyone that I've seen on other forums who have tried it raves about Hiroboy's paint. It's likely very similar if not the same type of paint as Cobra Colors. Considering Cobra Colors isn't selling paint at this time, Hiroboy is the only ready source of many of the colors they offer. Hiroboy/aka Steve has his own forum in the UK as well. http://www.spc.org.uk/forum/index.php

Whatever you choose for wheels, they need to be BIG. Those are huge wheel openings to fill. Pegasus 23's are almost too small (unless they have the larger diameter tire). Someone on another board suggested Revell Honda Civic tuner rims. :shock: :roll: They'd look about the size of brake rotors on a Magnum Even Aoshima 19's look a bit puny on the model. I think the Pegasus 23" T's would look pretty good.

The ride ended several weeks ago at the Year One Experience. None of the movie's stars were there, Burt was sick, he was supposed to be there. There were plenty of impostors :wink: Chip Foose and AJ were there from Overhaulin'. Year One sold a $180K "Bandit Edition" Trans Am recreation that weekend as well. Here's an album of pics taken that weekend (mine were the first 18, the rest were taken by another ACME member), I was having way more fun riding shotgun in a new C6 Corvette doing 16 hot laps of Road Atlanta http://public.fotki.com/ACME-IPMS/full-siz...one-experience/

Looking good so far, and Dale's model is spectacular. Anyone have ideas for making the side glass that's also missing? The Revell kit is kind of like a paint-by-numbers kit, a nice start but they forgot half the paint :roll: :wink: The Revell AG "LeMans winner" variant is out, the only change to the kit is the decals. None of the other issues has been addressed whatsoever, and the wheels are completely incorrect. SMS has the wheels, but no side glass.