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Despite all the problems, it came out fantastic! Now you can build the other kits from your 2010 group build list

You are going to get, and have gotten, all kinds of opinions. Most people are satisfied with whatever setup they get, as most airbrushes are capable of providing the user very good results. It's not so much the airbrush, as the user. Get the best one you can afford. If you can't afford much, look to Harbor Freight first. With their Sunday coupon this week you can have a great setup of a new compressor & a very good airbrush for about $60. When you are more experienced you can spend your $ on brand names. I learned on a dual-action Badger 150 IL. Because of that, I prefer a dual-action. I like being able to use the airbrush to just shoot air across the body first, to get any remaining dust off. That brush gave great results, but had some inherent defects...a tendency for paint to build up around the tip and at the tip of the needle. If you weren't careful with the on/off of the airbrush, it would often dislodge some paint buildup from the needle right onto the painted surface. Keeping it open/flowing without shutting off the flow was necessary. It was a pain to clean & keep clean. My Aztek (Modelmaster) airbrush was great for awhile. Then I noticed that the separate tips weren't lasting long. Without taking them apart, they were never really clean. As for my workhorse airbrushes, I have 3 Badger 175 Crescendos, and they are great. I use them w/the medium needle/tip. I love my Iwata HP CS Eclipse w/the large gravity feed reservoir. It's precise, and easy to clean/keep clean. It will shoot 100% of the liquid that's in the reservoir. So much less hassle vs. cleaning feed tubes on siphon feed. It just doesn't flow like my Badgers, though. Better for smaller detail. My next airbrush will be a gravity feed with enough flow for car bodies, but with a pistol grip trigger. It's the natural progression of my own personal tastes, and I wish they'd been more common when I first started out. I will not buy another siphon feed airbrush! Complete waste of time cleaning them, not to mention materials (wasted paint, toxic thinners & pipe cleaners/brushes to clean it out).

Good luck with it; beware that all your work may see those mold lines return with your clearcoat. Once the plastic has been damaged, the only reliable way to keep it from happening again is to overcoat with a sealer. More primer and even base coats might not be aggressive enough to see it happen, but a good wet coat of clear will. Considering the work you've done, I'd let this paint cure completely, then apply a coat of Future (it's a very good sealer) before using any other kind of clear. Future can work just fine as a clearcoat, but it's not as robust as other clears.

Looks awfully real to me.

Testors sold a reboxed Italeri GTO. I have one. I also have Gunze Hi Tech, Protar, and Fujimi GTO's. Fujimi is definitely the way to go. Newest tooling, most accurate body & overall detailing.

We had an awesome snowstorm in Atlanta. A bit over 4" of snow, looked like a winter wonderland, made driving a mess for about 20 hours. But this morning as soon as the sun did it's thing, the roads went from completely snow/ice covered to practically dry by sunset. That's the way to do it

Yep. Went out this AM to post office & the Evil Empire (aka Wal Mart). No traffic, no freakouts, no hoarding of the french toast ingredients. Of course that has changed now that there is 2" of snow on the ground and sticking a bit to the streets, and it's going to snow for quite a few more hours. It's so nice & quiet. I don't have to leave for days if necessary. Let the fools deal with the fools on the roads that have no clue how to drive in this stuff. Our local traffic website crashed due to the load, and it showed traffic to be an absolute mess beforehand.

We're getting a nice snowfall in Atlanta right now and looks like it will snow well into the evening. This is a "french toast alert" day here...where the stores are raided by people hoarding milk, bread, and eggs . Because snowpocalypse 2010 may have the roads messy for a day or two

It looks an awful lot like an Entex/Bandai 1/16 scale Packard convertible. It's incredibly rare to see one built.

It looks so realistic I'll bet it even smells old and rusty

Thanks for sharing; I'll have Scale Productions version of the same wheels soon. I don't think there are separate lugs in the SP wheel set.

Small update, I've roughly mocked it up w/the wheels & tires I will use. Pegasus 23" sleeves, Pegasus BBS-style centers (will be stripped & painted graphite). Tires from Revell concept Camaro. I will need to narrow the rims to match the width of the tires. Not shown are the brass grille & vent pieces that were cut & immersed in "Blacken It", which worked quite well. I have side vent (rear quarter panel) inserts cut that will remain separate, painted body color, but if I don't like that they could end up graphite (as will the chin splitter & rocker trim that I haven't applied yet). Looks like my plan to not raise the rear spoiler isn't going to work...visually it needs to be raised to balance w/the deeper chin. Insert Leno chin jokes here... Pardon the photo, just a quick shot just using natural light (no flash).

It looks nice, the F355 is a favorite of mine and I have one built and two more Berlinettas and one Spyder to build. FYI, and not to pick on your model, but Fujimi goofed on the side glass trim that's molded to the body. It really should not be there (same for the 348). I'm showing it so that anyone else building the kit might remember to fix the flaw. Since I built mine there are a lot more online reference photos available. I think I built mine in 2001/2002. It's engraved over the side glass and ends at the quarter glass. To look like the 1:1, it needs to be filled. I have to make some proper door panels for my remaining 355's, I just used the 348 door panels in my first one. Here's a shot of my in-progress 355 that I built years ago, you can see where I added filler on that area and in the rear corners; I ended up cutting out the engine cover and opening the vents. Not one of Fujimi's finest, but it's an F355...it's worth the effort.

Resin usually responds pretty well to a hot water dunk; sub-boiling...somewhere between hot tap water and boiling...big pan of water, deep enough to immerse the body (or part of the body that is warped), hold it for a few seconds, remove, reshape, and dunk in cold water. It's much, much easier to do this w/resin than styrene. Just take baby steps, it usually works quite well. I've never had it shrink up like styrene can if it gets too hot. It just softens it a bit.

Lucky dog! That would be because it does have a lot more Shame that it's so blindingly ugly At least they made the car go like stink. Don't mind me though...I've rarely had such lustful thoughts as I've had over the 458 Italia

10,000 times cooler than an FJ, IMHO..of course Seems like the perfect ride for your environment. Just don't test drive a 2011 with the new engine

Stunning transformation...looks awesome

I rarely do full-frontal or full-rear shots of my models because my lens only goes to f-8; I don't like shots where I don't have consistent depth of field/focus. Lately I am pulling myself well away from the subject, shooting telephoto shots of "front-centric" 3/4 views to minimize the issue, and it usually works well. Often I find when people take "fancy" artistic/forced perspective model shots to mimick 1:1 car photos, the photos don't look natural, and the shots usually draw the eye right into the flaws that the camera either can't hide, or magnifies them because of this style. I'd rather see a great shot of a model from a "modeler's eye view" than a lousy shot of a model from a 1:1 style view. Just my personal preference.

OMG I was joking but if you can pull that off...you are the man! I'll get Mark working on your trophy now

It gets glossier. What happens when you buff out flat/satin/semigloss paint? It (often) buffs out as glossy as a gloss paint.

Judging by the tachometer, top speed in my '88 Mustang 5.0 LX (~ 140). Quite stable, actually. I won't say where. Felt safer to outrun an idiot than to stay back. ~ 130 in my old Mazda RX4. Pleading the 5th where that happened. Side glass was fluttering madly. ~ 115 in the Miata. They're not as slow as some people think. There was plenty more. Once or twice riding w/others, hit similar speeds for short durations. Never w/much, if any, traffic around. I have zero compulsion to do that at all anymore Awful strange to let off, and feel like you're not even moving at 100 MPH. Nowadays I'm perfectly happy 5-10 over the posted limit. Only one speeding ticket since 1976.

Hard to say since I haven't been since '97 to compare to other shows, and I won't divulge anything that's not public knowledge, since a lot of people who build for the GSL like having an element of mystery and surprise as an integral aspect of their work...that's part of what makes it such a good show all the time, but my gut feeling is 2011 will be a show definitely not to miss, and even if it's no better than the others, it's always big and well worth going

Since you can't make it to B'ham, get yourself re-edmukated and pilot all of your friends in the party jet to Salt Lake next year ;) We all need to go next year...it's gonna be big. Dirk & this Camaro, and goodness knows what he comes up with before then, need to be there.

That is that weird old 1/24 Monogram 69 Camaro that's been reissued gazillions of times. It's an awful kit, very out of proportion, mismatched wheels, odd intake...nothing at all like the Revell kit.

Spectacular and so very cool