Ace-Garageguy

Nicely done. The modern fuel-cell works remarkably well with the otherwise very traditional build.

Impressive workmanship, interesting individual build style.

Nice project, important car. Looking great so far.

Me too. And that's what always bothers me about this kind of thread: the subtle but very real implication (by some respondents) that those of us who sweat the details aren't having "fun" and are somehow detrimental to the hobby, that what we do is "work" and therefore not "relaxing", etc. It's a veiled criticism of those modelers who strive for excellence by putting in the extra effort it takes to approach excellence. Modelers who are content to produce strings of "shelf" models, with minimal effort or skill development, aren't criticized in this way. As long as a modeler is enjoying how he approaches the hobby, no matter how intricate and detailed the work, or even if he only assembles snappers and paints them with a dirty pine-cone, there's no need for one side to denigrate the other. We don't need fun-police. EDIT: Of course, I also consider my real "work" to be fun (most of the time). I wouldn't do it if I hated it.

Wow. If there's a heaven, it looks like that...

Yup. It takes real, serious skill and commitment to turn out work that looks this good full-scale. It borders on magic to do it on a model.

Wow indeed.

Super clean work. First impression is that it's a real car. Excellent photography too.

The Italia has no cowl vents for interior air intake, as are common on most other cars. The side vents provide that function.

Nice. You probably know the factory is said to have built 2 convertibles, and several more have been built by custom shops.

The video I posted a link to details specifically how the MicroMark system works in the "real world". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJsBZWqrN-g Though you are certainly capable of using it, it's not a process for the ham-handed, or those who don't or can't read instructions or get in a hurry. As Sfan mentioned, the masks can be hand-drawn. They can be done oversize if necessary, and reduced in a quality scanner-printer, which will tend to sharpen detail. CAD is 100% unnecessary, and the video also suggests common illustration software. People have been making this stuff since the '50s, probably earlier.

I can identify with that statement.

I regret having to let go of the one I had. But I didn't sell it. More of an "involuntary separation". The provenance of the car was sketchy, I acquired it as part of a complicated deal, and while I was trying to get its paperwork sorted out, it essentially disappeared. It wasn't a particularly nice example. Actually, it was a mess. It had apparently had a very hard life, was covered in lumpy bondo, had a paint job just one step up from a roller special, and had rust coming through the rockers and elsewhere. The top and interior were ragged, and it was generally nasty overall. But the little pre-emission Ford smallblock (I never did know whether it was a 289 or 302 or 351) ran fine and sounded sweet, and it handled nicely...though I seem to remember it only had brakes on 2 wheels when it came to me. I thought the car was beautiful, and had intended to keep it after a full restoration. It was the first of several interesting cars I picked up in deals with shady characters and tried to legitimize, that later "got away", including a rust-free 356 B sunroof coupe and a very early 911. Took me a while to learn not to trust anybody when there's money or vintage cars involved. The company that built the Italia later went on to build the best Porsche Speedster replica in the business at the time. They're still in business in sunny SoCal, working on a small urban vehicle called SOLO, a name I'd used for my own design but failed to register.

Yeah. Kinda like the picky way I write in actual English, with stuff like spelling and punctuation.

The Caddy engine in the Merc kit represents a first-generation OHV Cadillac V8, built starting in 1949. The engines came in 331 cu.in. from '49-'55, 365 from '56-'58. and 390 from '59-'62. All these engines are visually very similar, but if the instructions call out "gold" paint, they're probably referring to the 331 engines built first, probably from an Eldo. There were also blue and green engines. Do a Google image search for Cadillac 331 engine (for instance) to see pix of stock engines in non-restored cars (I say "non-nrestored" cars because everybody seems to paint old Caddy engines blue, and they were not ALL blue). This is a factory illustration for the 1952 331 cu.in. engine. It's gold. If you dig hard enough, you can find gold engines, as well as dark green, installed in original cars. NOTE: This is the same engine that's represented by the vintage Revell parts-pack "354" Cadillac engine. Revell got the number wrong, as there was NO factory Caddy 354 (it was a Chrysler hemi displacement in 1956), but never corrected the packaging. The parts-pack version is much more detailed, but also more challenging to build. There is a different 390 Caddy built starting in '63 that is also blue, and is similar visually to the older one...though it's an entirely different design. For the Chevy question, the 265 got full-flow oil filtration in 1956, with the boss cast on the block.

No shortage of info and how-tos on the web. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJsBZWqrN-g

I recommend against this. The sealer usually turns the polished metal finish into silver paint. If the metalizers are allowed to dry very thoroughly, they become much less sensitive to handling. I also recommend handling recently shot metalized parts with thin cotton gloves. The engine cowling is buffed metalizer. The cockpit cowling has been shot with "sealer".

Dankeschön

Hmmmmm...looks like it's no longer in production. However, this looks interesting... https://www.uschivdr.com/products-in-detail/polishing-powders-metallic-pigments/

Kosutte Ginsan

Lots of decent online reviews, occasional negative comments about build quality. The tank's kinda tiny, so I'd probably recommend getting a larger pressure reservoir if you want really well-regulated air pressure for airbrushing (but that's just me; there are probably loads of folks who can get by with that cute little tank). Air reservoirs are easy to cobble up from old propane tanks. A good dryer / filter and regulator mounted as far from the tank as you can conveniently get it (compressors heat air; hot air holds more water vapor; cooler air farther from the tank is easier for your water trap to dry effectively), and you should be good to go.

Past couple of weeks we've been having the hottest weather of the year so far. As a result, we've been having light rolling brownouts during peak evening periods as folks are turning up their AC, cooking, and doing laundry when they come home from work. I wouldn't have noticed, but I have a fan that's very sensitive to line voltage, and it cycles down occasionally, then gradually picks up speed. To make certain I wasn't attributing the fan slowdown to the wrong cause, I plugged an AC multimeter into a wall outlet, and sure enough, the voltage drops when the fan slows. What this means, in short, is that the power generation and distribution system is incapable of dealing with 100% of the load on it 100% of the time. I find this to be particularly entertaining when a large part of the population has been convinced that plug-in electric vehicles are a great idea. If the grid...as is... is incapable of dealing with evening air-conditioning loads, I'm curious how it's thought to be capable of dealing with the additional loads of thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions of electric cars all plugged in to recharge at the same time. The future may be quite interesting for those who've come to rely on things functioning as they have up 'til now.

??‍⚕️?‍♂️??‍♀️???️‍?️?‍♀️?‍♂️?‍♀️?????????️?⛑️????️??????????????????⚽????????️?⛩️?????????⛅?⛄????⌨️??... And at least a couple hundred more.

Wow. Who knew we needed that many emojis. Damm. I believe I may now be able to refrain from actually typing words at all.

Very nice. I'm impressed. If this is your first work in this genre, I'm doubly impressed. Even the crusted mud on the tracks looks right.