Zoom Zoom

Looking good so far. Can't wait to see this one finished 8) About the missing dry sump tank; I looked at pics on the net and my non-Z06 C6 kit and it looks like it would be invisible on the model; trapped behind the fender and not visible in the engine compartment. Is the design of the passenger side engine compartment different between standard and Z06, or was Revell smart to not bother to tool this part if one would never see it?

Yes, they botched the instructions but I had no problem figuring out what to do. You can aid the final assembly by snipping off about 1/8" from the top point of the B pillar trim; it contacts the roof when you are trying to get the interior/chassis into place. The chassis looks seated but it really isn't, and the ride height is way too high. Also the ride height is a bit 4 X 4 if built OOB even after the B pillar fix; lowering the ride height benefits the model greatly. Wider tires are also problematical; the wheel housings are very narrow and require surgery to the chassis and wheel housings if you want to stuff wider wheels/tires into them w/o them sticking out of the fenders. I was rather ruthless w/my Dremel tool; once the tires were in place you can't see what I did to get them to fit but at least my model doesn't look like a rock hopper

Looking great Bill, nice color choice. I remember those old Buicks well from growing up in the 60's, their "scowling" front and rear always caught my attention. I think I have a restorable '59 Craftsman kit somewhere in the stash, and I restored a '60 model in silver w/a white top that looks pretty neat. Something about big GM coupes back then, they all had a classy style about them, especially the HT's. I also need to reiterate what Mike said about clearcoating the Paintscratch.com paint because it reacted much differently than expected. We recently airbrushed some of the paintscratch color (a single-stage Porsche IROC color called "Raspberry Pink" from the '70's that isn't intended to be clearcoated) onto a pair of models (one a test body), and Tamiya TS 13 clear, Gunze B 513 Mr. super clear gloss enamel, and U-Pol polyurethane clear all caused the paintscratch paint to lift/wrinkle in numerous spots on the test body (strange that it didn't happen uniformely). It was by far the worst with the U-Pol, causing severe wrinkling of the color coat (didn't seem to hurt the lacquer primer underneath). Careful wet block sanding and careful spot reapplication of the color over the affected areas repaired the damage w/o any need for stripping, but it's obvious that one has to use the mildest of clears over this paint to be safe. I would only trust Future, Tamiya or Gunze bottle clear acrylic, or Gunze's B-501 Mr. Topkote gloss clear acrylic. I always order extra cans of it when getting kits from Hobbylink Japan. Gunze's B-501 clear from a spray can worked perfectly over the repaired areas, it's wonderful stuff as it goes on very smooth/glossy, dries almost instantly like Future (Tamiya acrylic clear needs weeks to dry in ambient conditions), but the finish is much stronger than Future, it's like Teflon-very smooth/glossy/slick and you can wetsand/polish just like other paints. It's also seemingly safe over decals as long as they and the underlying paint have dried thoroughly. I haven't airbrushed Tamiya X22 clear in ages, but I've seen how good it can look so I expect this Buick will be gleaming in no time

I have one of these kits, and Brian Venable has built one and did a superb job on it. It's by far the best stock Pantera, and I'd like to see it reissued. The guts seem better than the Testors/Gunze version; back then all of them were capable of being motorized, but this one really looks right-the Campagnolo wheels are also very well rendered. The doors are made to easily cut out, or leave in place. Got mine from Ebay a few years back for a fairly good price.

Kevin at Strada Sports carries them. I just got the self-adhesive Ferrari scripts...wow. Nice stuff. http://www.stradasports.com

Looks great! Hope to see a lot more of these built up with the reissue. I bought one too! I intend to build it in some sort of road-race paint scheme just "because I can"

He is the self-proclaimed "Corvette Guy" (with a few choice diversions into Ferraridome) so he probably has every Corvette kit known to mankind in multiples. As for the Z06; who knows? The kit was just was released officially today, but Revell kits often get out ahead of time. Glad to see early pics of it, I'll have to get one eventually; it's not like hobby shops around here will get it for awhile :roll:

If you want ultimate accuracy, you have to reposition the axle and spindle centerlines to center the wheel where it looks best. While the suggestions above work well with the overall height, they don't take into account the possibility the wheel itself might need to move forwards or backwards, which might require more surgery. Basically you have to break down the parts and reassemble them, and have brass or styrene strips and rods and sometimes tubes to use to reassemble the pieces so they all line up. You have to work like a mechanic in miniature, and it's not hard to cut/glue plastic, but it is difficult to get all four corners to sit level. Now, for a much simpler approach if you're not entering the model into a contest, and if curbside building is okay with you. I like to attach the brake rotors to the wheel/tire assembly first. Then I set the car "on blocks" to the desired ride height, and slip the wheel assemblies underneath to see where they set. I usually use business cards to hold the body in place on the workbench. Once I'm happy with the ride height I determine if any material needs to be removed (usually snipping off a spindle or axle end) or added (making a shim from styrene strip or tube) between the wheel and suspension. I'll add the shim to the wheel/brake assembly. Then when these are test fit, I'll make the locations permanent by gluing the wheel/tire/brake assemblies to the suspension. I sometimes use superglue, or use Epoxy if ultimate strenght is needed. This has worked very well for me to get the ride height either correct or lower on my models. Most kits seem to build up out of the box with a ride height that is too high.

John, good potential 2nd choice as IMHO the black w/black/red interior is the second-best color combo on a Z8. They're really sharp cars.

Nice finish John! Looks just right. Exact color scheme I want to build mine, the trademark colors for the Z8. Looks like you took the time to sand/smooth all the roughness from the body; the kit has some severe mold lines and sink marks to deal with. Someone told me that you can do some cutting on the chassis to make it fit a bit easier in final assembly, but looks like that really isn't necessary.

Thanks! I saw a Grigio Alloy (light silver blue) 360 Modena being delivered to a customer one day at the Ferrari dealer in Alpharetta; and one just like it (w/FL tags) was at the Canton cruise night Saturday. They aren't as common as other colors, but not that uncommon if you know where to look. It's not just any light blue metallic, but Ferrari's shades of light blue metallic really complement the car; they're much nicer than the light blue you'd see on a Buick :wink:

Speaking of "alternative" sources of masking materials like using the kit bag, I remember hearing about using Glad Press 'N Seal. While I don't recommend it for doing the fine masking of Tamiya tape, it's a great overall mask that has kept me from using torn strips of newspaper combined with tons of regular masking tape to do the finish masking on a model. The fact that it sticks to itself and to the surface is great, saves time/tape and makes for a good seal to guard against overspray. Give it a try!

I'm looking forward to these! What's the distribution of them going to be like? Through GMP or will they be widely available?

Haha this one may end up being almost as notorious (in a quiet way) as the recent Enzogate Ferrari! I also saw one like it (or perhaps the same one again considering it was in CA) at the Concorso Italiano in '00, rekindled my affection for the 308 in this shade of blue. I saw a Grigio Alloy (silvery-blue) Modena this weekend at a local cruise night, it reminds me of a modern-day version of this 308, it's a perfect shade for a standard Modena as the light blue is on the 308. Brian, thanks for the comment on my model. It's one of my favorites, even though I screwed up the paint on the passenger side B pillar when I was peeling the window masking tape :cry: Hard color to blend w/o a total repaint. I have another version to build, the racing variant molded in yellow w/separate flares. They're now molded in and the car is in primer, but other desired body modifications to make it look like a tuner put it on the back burner.

Nice work, great subject! I would have probably painted the white all in one step; using thin strips of precut BMF to cover the separation lines between the narrow stripes and the wide central stripe. When I did a GS Tahoe years ago I didn't even do the narrow stripes, and I had to use white decal strips to border the painted center stripe because my masking job didn't turn out too well. I saw a 1:1 version of this car back when the Z06 was brand new, it was nighttime and I was driving through a parking lot, told my friend "hey, there's a Grand Sport over there" and we realized when we got the headlights on it that it wasn't what we expected! It looked like a factory job.

I've already built your model :shock: See below. We may have remembered the same car from SoCal; I lived there in the early 80's. I had the same questions as the 308 is IMHO one of the best Ferrari designs of all time and wanted the best looking model. Brian Venable showed me the various 308's in his vast collection of Ferraris and he was correct proclaiming that the Monogram curbside 308 is the best of the entire bunch, the shape is the most accurate. Even at that it's not perfect, the engine cover/decklid is a bit flat and the taillight location isn't perfect. If you can live w/o an engine, it's really a very nice looking model. I simply relocated the taillight lenses outboard of their locating holes, and I found a cheap Magnum PI parts kit for some fairly accurate Pirellis instead of the TRX's that came w/the 308. I think Gunze's 308 is the next-best kit, it has opening doors and I believe fender flares. Nice overall detail. Nice thing about the Monogram kit is they can be found cheap. I almost bought one for $5 at our show in '04, a friend walked up and saw it, he also knew through Brian that it was "the one" and I asked if he wanted build it, he said "yes", and I let him buy it. I wasn't going to let it sit on the table or go to someone who wouldn't build it right :wink: I built my 308 from recollecting perhaps the same car you remember:

You guys would make lousy detectives I'm 99.999% sure that Mal looked at Chris' online album that's in his signature, saw a picture of his workbench decoration and commented on it. I think Mike is losing it so close to graduation and his 18th birthday which is less than 48 hours away :wink:

She's pretty talented, looking like that while balancing a trio of goats on her head :shock: :wink:

Looks great! Very Juha-esque. Very unique subject, and the color scheme complements it perfectly. You've got Dona, you don't need a red convertible :wink: Missing Link Resin now makes resin copies of the only really accurate '69 Mustang, the rare one from AMT. It's the right size (unlike the MPC reissue which is underscale) and it looks better than Revell's because the front end is accurate. Had you had this option when you started this project, would that have been an option, even though it's 1/25 scale? The Revell is good except for the unfortunately droopy outer headlights. Don't know how they could have screwed that detail up so completely; if you look at a '69 'Stang from the front the inner and outer lamps line up horizontally on the same plane (just as if there were no grille divider or outer headlight bezel between them) but Revell obviously wasn't working from photos, or the pattern maker and kit designer weren't wearing glasses that day. The way the kit's face looks is so frustrating because it's pretty much impossible to fix without very difficult surgery and rebuilding, either the entire front fender because of the integral character line and/or the grille and surround. You did pretty ###### well given the circumstances, and I can understand how it took so many hours.

Probably just late. I heard there was a snafu w/the taillights; tooling missing or something like that. Haven't heard of any cancellation.

Very nice! Do the hood struts really work or are they static? Nice subtle upgrades to the car, much more character than stock.

That's incredible. Models of T/A cars like this are too scarce! I'd have a hard time giving that one up, even if I was holding the payment for it :wink:

Now that's a snazzy Caddy! Nice job, nice model. Would be fun to drive a 1:1 version of it. You can't beat a bubbletop for classy lines, and the Caddy is the classiest

Still think this is my favorite C6 from the Gonzalez Garage

Nice! I was thinking it was a Fujimi and read on another board that it's actually 1/43.