Zoom Zoom

I would avoid using white primer. Don't be afraid to use a matte clearcoat (dullcoat) over the black and white paint, which can be applied as gloss or semigloss. It can dull down paint that's too glossy. If the subject gets any decals, the only good way to do it would be paint the base coat under the decals a gloss color, apply the decals, and then dullcoat the entire subject. Military builders do this all the time so the decals stick properly and don't "silver". While it's preferable to airbrush dullcoat (airbrushes are a fantastic tool for weathering), there are spray clears in matte and semigloss. IIRC Testors are a mild lacquer. Tamiya now makes spray clear in matte and semigloss. It's not based on the "yellow varnish" clear that Testors uses. If the white should stay white, use the Tamiya.

Don't you love the internet, where everyone is an expert! And everyone else is "wrong" If the hotlink goes away click here Harry, I refer you to Alclad's own instructions. When they re-introduced chrome (Alclad was off the market for awhile a number of years ago, and got re-introduced, I believe a new owner and smaller bottles, I have a few of the old big bottles of Alclad, but never had the original chrome, if it was even available back then), they specifically instruct the user to spray their chrome over black enamel (only for chrome, other Alclad colors can be shot over a variety of bases, like polished aluminum that should be shot over a gloss white base, no mention of lacquer or enamel). That is straight from the horse's mouth, it works, what more does anyone need? Later they have offered their own black base for the chrome (I don't have any, don't need it, I have black enamel and I generally use Spaz Stix chrome over Tamiya TS black as I prefer it, most people seem satisfied but not everyone). It really doesn't matter if it's a lacquer over enamel, Alclad Chrome is sprayed in such thin layers and dries so quickly that it doesn't damage enamel paint. It gives the correct chemical bond. And by my own testing and experience, Alclad's instructions are 100% correct. Follow the manufacturer's instructions. Imagine that! Will other bases work? Yes. I already know from personal experience it works over hardware store clear urethane. "Definitive" is subjective w/o at least photographic proof. To me there's one person that really makes Alclad work, and that's Steve Boutte. The proof is seen on his models, and I've discussed the Alclad subject with him. He is the master. He uses black enamel. I wish there was a simple, relatively inexpensive "bridge" method between Alclad and sending chrome out for replating. I never have enough stuff planned out/ready to send a big tree, prices are a bit high especially if parts are sent loose, there's the wait...while Alclad is a quick/easy alternative but results are much more fragile and not up there with vacuum plating. Hoping that there's a better solution one of these days. Better as in easy, cost-effective, not toxic, and satisfies KISS methodology.

That's just cruel, since you are on the cover Great article! I'm surprised the publisher doesn't send single copies in first class envelopes to the contributing authors. It's a nice perk, they always arrive well before subscription copies and in perfect condition.

WOW. Looking awesome

There are several ways you could approach this. If you have a drawing program and a laser printer (black toner), you could easily do the checkerboard as a decal, and then bury under clearcoat. You could scan the body so you'd have your artwork in scale. You could get a solid sheet of black decal film, carefully cut the sheet to the right pattern, and apply each block separately. Use black paint for the solid black portion at the rear, only use the decal for the checkerboard. Apply this over the orange. If you want to do it old-school, you'll need to hone your drawing skills to design the pattern on paper, in the right scale, right angles, right spacing (you'll need a good straightedge and mechanical pencil or pigment liner pen). You can make a tape pattern of the area directly from the body, transfer it to a flat surface (piece of glass is best) and draw the pattern, or use a drawn pattern underneath the tape so that you can cut the tape squares you need for the pattern, then carefully transfer the tape masking squares to the body. Or just lay out the tape, draw the pattern, cut the squares, and transfer the ones you need to the body. The idea is not to lay down masking material on the model and then do the cutting; unless you are a true expert at this kind of job, you will damage the paint and have problems with paint running under the mask, paint peeling up after being applied, etc. You want to paint the orange first, and mask it off to paint the black. If it were mine and I prefer paint to decals, I'd do the masks by drawing the pattern on the computer after scanning the body, using the scan as the base layer of the drawing to trace over with my design so I know that the angles/spacing are correct, print it out, cut a test strip to lay next to the body to make sure the design still works in 3D, use my light table to transfer that design to the masking tape by drawing the pattern with a straightedge and pen, carefully cut the pattern (masking tape applied to either clear plastic or glass), and then transfer the cut tape masks block by block to the model, seal the masking tape (Tamiya tape) with a light coat of clear (if any paint bleeds under, it's clear), and shoot the black. Before the black is completely dry, carefully remove the masks. Then more clearcoat to even out the edges. There's always more than one way to do something like this. Practice the pattern long before you apply it to a model, you want to do your learning on test panels before your final piece. Make your mistakes on your test pieces, not your model!

Here They Are! Aoshima is doing four new 20" wheel sets: Aoshima S Parts Series 20" wheels

It went missing for a bit, but now it's back (under Best Car GT). It's also on the Aoshima preorder list from Hobbysearch. Aoshima 1/24

Yeah, I forgot to mention them Maybe because they aren't 20" BBS Challenge wheels for the 599 GTB Fiorano/612 Scaglietti Bastages.

Good video/story about the Dino 206 Competizione: Video Here

It's a cool little car. It's about the size, maybe slightly smaller, than a Toyota Yaris 3 dr. Don't get too excited over an SRT-8. You'll have to make that one yourself I sat in this one, a RHD version from Ireland, last fall. Fiat quality, at least fit and finish inside/out/underhood as good as anything I've seen. Nothing like the disco era! Interior design is cool, and not nearly as juvenile as the new Mini Cooper. I like new cars as well as old, the 370Z is one of my favorites ever since I saw one in person a couple months ago, it erased my initial contempt completely. The EVO X, not so much, I can't get excited over it. The Dino 206 Competizione, excellent, though I'd rather see a 206 SP. HLJ only says Dino 206, but one other source mentions Competizione. Dino 206 Competizione Video

There's a hobby show in Japan in May, so it's about the time the news starts leaking out. Showing up the last couple days on Hobbylink and Hobby Search: Fujimi: New Fiat 500 & Fiat 500 SRT-8 Hennessy (April 1st limited Edition) Ferrari Dino 206 Competizione R35 GT-R Spec V and Club Sport 1/20 McLaren MP4/6 Aoshima: Mitsubishi EVO X & Option version R35 GT-R Spec V (get the Fujimi if you're serious) Tamiya: Nissan Fairlady Z 34 (aka 370Z) Should be photos by the time the show comes around in May. Good stuff

See, it wasn't that hard now was it? Every paint job gets some dust or something in it unless you work in a "clean room" enviroment. Let it dry completely, wetsand this coat (with the finest wetsanding paper you have, minimum 1000 grit, better 1500, or 2400 grit micromesh), and apply another round of red...in mist coats up to a wet coat. If you have any white plastic spoons, you use them to test. I guarantee you shoot a spoon w/black primer, white (primer or gloss), and then red, it will not look as good as what you just achieved in a fraction of the time using a fraction of the paint.

A bright Italian Red paint job, to be applied over flat black primer covered with gloss white paint and then red, because masking off the black primer trim is 1,000 times easier than doing it the right way? Tail, meet dog. Tail, wag dog. Seriously...you'll save a lot of time, energy, paint by learning how to properly mask and paint black trim after a model is painted. Get yourself some Tamiya masking tape, a good quality long/narrow bristle watercolor brush, and some Tamiya and Testors Acryl flat black, practice on scrap bodies, and learn how to brush paint black trim. With a steady hand and a good brush you can freehand it, especially if you learn how to flow the acrylic in one direction while it's wet. Yeah, airbrushing is better, but it's not necessary. If this was my model I'd clean up the white body, shoot the Italian Red on the bare plastic, clearcoat it, polish it, paint the black trim, and be done with it. Testors and Tamiya sprays do not have to be shot over primer, especially if there's no bodywork. To me a model that doesn't require primer is a gift. Red paint over white plastic is a gift; white is the perfect base color for red. It saves time, money, and paint. Pardon me for being blunt, but somebody had to do it

Excellent. They've done a great job of covering all the bases

Italeri made the 250 GT California Spyder, Testors reboxed it. Three releases, Italeri box, Testors box, and Revell AG box. Alex Kustov's review

Hmmmm...tough one, but there's one very small detail that is tipping my hat...

Must be gloss black. The base coat needs to be as perfect as humanly possible, no orange peel, no dust nibs, no scratches. For Alclad Chrome, the base coat should either be enamel or their own base coat. It will not stick to lacquer. When you've put on the Alclad there will be a light coating of metallic overspray. When the chrome layer is dry (wait about 10 mins, it does dry fast), wipe it with a very clean, soft cloth, it will brighten up nicely. Chrome Test

They're in the upstate too, many of them are completely unmarked (I've seen silver w/blue stripes, and unmarked white and unmarked silver). Sneaky bastages. In Georgia unmarked police cars are illegal . The most cleverly disguised police car I ever saw was a fully marked GA state patrol Crown Vic. In bright "fire chief" red

Sounds excellent! Thanks! We have a lot of Charger police cars around here and a few locals have Magnums as well. I'm planning on a GA state patrol Charger in blue/silver, SC state patrol in silver, and either Dekalb County GA Magnum in black/silver or Doraville PD Magnum K9 unit in all black (they still have a black Magnum R/T in service too). Recently saw a Dekalb County Charger (silver over black) had a custom painted maroon over black Charger (with obligatory bling rims) pulled over. The officer looked amused as he was getting out of his cruiser, I swear he had an ironic grin on his face as I zoomed past (speed limit, of course)

I used to be a fan, loved watching it every week...but since they abandoned the US television market (or Speed Channel abandoned it, doesn't matter) I haven't bothered to follow it. It seems the infinite "wisdom" of the FIA have made WRC currently a hollow shell of it's former glory, and a bunch of silly new rules and whatnot. I can't imagine WRC w/o Subaru I assume Loeb is still one of the better drivers? He was amazing when last we saw WRC televised in the US. He seemed like the Michael Schumacher of WRC, brilliant driving and it was rare for him to ever make a mistake. I'm sure now I'll hear from all the Loeb haters I got tired of Schumacher...he was too good, F1 became boring/mundane during his reign. Now F1 is just so silly with all the drama/action coming from everywhere but the track on race day Sad that I used to love both WRC and F1 and the powers-that-be have driven me away from being a fan. What a waste. Oh well, next weekend Road Atlanta hosts the Ferrari Challenge, there will be historic F1 and FXX exhibition races, along w/the official F430 Challenge races. The first weekend in May are the Walter Mitty historic races. To heck w/F1, WRC, the FIA and Speed Channel

Looks great! This is one that I've been anxiously awaiting for...well, seemingly forever, since it was announced years ago. Glad it's coming! Looks like a fantastic update to an already excellent basic kit. Is everything in the plastic kit pretty much different than the diecast police car version? I have one of those, it's not bad, but it's not great. I'm thinking of combining those parts w/a Revell Uptown Magnum for a Magnum cruiser. I'm not too concerned if it ends up a curbside. I really hope they mold the taillights clear; I don't like the all-red ones since the real cars have clear backup lights, and if they're molded clear we can paint them much more convincingly. I don't suppose we'll see both the steel wheels and the 5 spoke hubcap version that so many agencies run? If not, Maisto Solstice wheels look pretty close

Tamiya became my favorite instantly with that fantastic brush! Even better is the short, square bottle. It's not nearly as apt to tip over like a bottle of Tenax, Plastruct, or Ambroid. Those tall cylindrical bottles are terrible containers for such toxic and expensive and potentially damaging chemicals. I had a bottle of Ambroid spill (didn't damage anything, I used a piece of illustration board as the cutting surface and it soaked into it before quickly evaporating) and I almost lost consciousness due to the fumes when it happened I don't want to even know how many brain cells got lost to that debacle. When my bottle of Tamiya cement is empty, I'll transfer my Ambroid to it to see if that works. Until then, the Ambroid will sit and wait And it still may not get used as I already have a new bottle of Tamiya bought "just in case".

I had one a long time ago; it's been awhile since it was issued/reissued, eventually they may reissue it. If you can't find it on the 'bay, it's not going to be any easier anywhere else. Even if it's rare today, it's not worth much as it's really a pretty crude model to begin with, not anywhere near Fujimi's quality of today. It has a generic chassis shared with their also weak E30 M3, which is especially spoiled by it's "chopped top" appearance. Resist paying too much for any of Fujimi's kits tooled in the '80's. Eventually you'll find one. Fujimi's race cars were basically decorated street cars. If you find a racing version of the Evolution II, it's the same basic kit. It might not be molded in black, but it will have all the basic parts. Like This One

Anything more than 17's looks goofy on a Cooper. Fujimi puts 16's in their Coopers. Fujimi's wheels/tires look kind of wimpy, and they're too wide compared to their overall height. That one you show is not a Cooper S. No hood scoop. Stella Bridger version is a LHD Cooper S w/JCW bodykit. I used some Revell BBS wheels from their Subaru WRX (they're 17's in 1/25 scale and narrower than many Fujimi wheels) on my standard LHD Cooper S:

Off white, cream, beige or tan, or dark blue, or some combo of dark blue and tan would work. Pure white would look a bit too stark a contrast, but that's purely subjective. Ferrari will build a car with a lot of customization; customer can choose all kinds of colors/combinations on the interior. I built my 512 TR in "Grigio Alloy" a light silvery blue metallic (factory color on 360 Modena) with a light tan interior w/dark blue seat inserts, dash and carpet.