David Thibodeau

I think I solved my belt issue.... I used a piece of electrical tape cut to the correct width with a piece of business card taped to it painted black. I took a sharp razor blade and cut grooves in the business card. Its subtle, hard to see in the photos, but the cogs are there! Next up I began detailing the engine assembly... its no where near done but getting there. SMS Carbon twill decal was applied to the scoop and it was cleared with dupont.Once applied I added the upper fuel lines to the scoop. The magnetos are scale repros plus prewired with some tubing added to the bases to beef them up and make them taller. The entire orange fuel pump in the front of the engine was made from scratch using various plastic tubing. Here is the engine mocked in the car.... That CF scoop makes the engine look massive now! Here is the body check of the scoop fitment. I will need to carefully remove a bit of the opening to allow for the throttle linkage hardware to clear, but for the most part a good fit!! I also completed the rest of the support rods on the rear fins. With exception to the glass the body is done.

The last few nites I have been working on the rear wing components.Covering them in SMS CF and dupont clear. Tonight I installed them and am pleased with the results.....Using thin metal instead of the CR Resin pieces adds to the realism I believe..... They were a bit finicky to get just right but finally cooperated. I sealed them in where they join the body with testors window maker and a few heavy coats of future.

Front suspension and brake detail is complete. Front rotors are from the Machined Aluminum Specialties FC PE set. I robbed the calipers from a Tamiya Rally kit. They are a little big but look fine to me. All the brake lines are protech .018 braided line with small bead crimp collars in silver for fittings. Another part I accomplished is the rear wheelie bar. This was made with 5/16 aluminum tubing, PE bits, a plastic piece of solid tubing for the wheel and RB motion Heim joints and hardware. I had bought a Competition Resins front nose prop to hold the nose in the air to display the detailed chassis. I decided to make a new one fron 5/16 aluminum tubing and .062 solder along with thin aluminum for the ends. Progress on the engine. The Kobelco bagged Supercharger is from Competition resins. Front Pulleys are from Scale Repros Plus. The idler pulley brackets are from the MAS PE FC set along with the injector plate on top of the charger. The Injector lines and gold fittings are from the craft isle at Michaels. I really want to do something different for the belt. I like the Cogged belts from MAS but I feel they are a bit thick. I may have no choice but to use one, we will see!! Here are a few shots of the naked chassis with the engine sitting in place. There is a hint of how detailed this chassis will be. Body on the chassis photos. I think the front hood prop is a definite improvement over the CR one! Rear shot. You can see that cool looking wheelie bar! There is something cool about seeing that Metal plate through the window.... ;D

Just to catch you up, the Competition Resins body is completely finished. I used HOK Pavo purple base and Kandy Burple over that lightly applied to the front going heavy to the back. 2 sets of slixx decals were applied followed by 3 coats of clear and polish. Instead of using the Wing ends in the Competition Resin body kit I used thin brass for better realism. They will be covered in CF decal on the inner parts. Chassis was reproduced from the foot plate forward using .060 tubing and lengthened using advice from Clay to allow more room for the engine, timers etc. Paint is alclad steel with clear orange/black weathering and weld beads made with silver Some scratchbuilt pieces here. Front a arm detail using RB motion hardware Wheels and tires are complete and accurate for this car. Fronts are Competition resin mags flipped backwards and covered in BMF with pegasus front drag tires and chrome trim rings. Rear slicks are Competition resin and wheels are pegasus weld racing. Here is tonights progress. I have the car sitting on its own tires and wheels! I carefully set the ride height by gluing a piece of 5/16 aluminum tubing inside the body for the rear chassis hooks. This is the hinge the body will pivot on. The front was set adding plastic in the nose that hits the edge of the front frame. I sat the CR Kobelco blower and scoop on the engine. These need sanding to lower them a bit... More on that later...

Got a little more done over the weekend done on this one.... Wheels and tires are done. This was the kit wheels and tires. Since the newer kits fit better I drilled them out and detailed them. And the seat is done. Jr. ran a black ISP style seat in this car which the kit replicates well adding only some leg supports, foam, and flocking as well as new upper neck restraints from thin metal. Pro tech belts and hardware as well as pe bolts along with Willans decals from Mike's goodie sheet finish it off.... more to come soon........... DaveT

Over the weekend I got the chassis going on the bud car Front a arm detail with walthers jack bolts, RB motion ball joints. Steering linkage and P/S box is done and plumbed. Oil filter is from Pro tech with scratch built reciever on top. Scratch built Heat shield mats on the floor. Oil tank lid and gauge detail Thanks for lookin! DaveT

now its in paint and ready for the fun stuff!!!

Well I promised you guys a chassis so here it is!!! I think its my cleanest one yet... Of course Clay's fotki had a hand in it too... lets run through some details.... I used PE PROTECH Wire looms for the brackets across the package shelf for the window brace rods to connect to which I will add later. The fuel cell area was all made with square stock and .080 round solid tubing. Another "Clay exclusive" is hollowing out the rear chassis in the wheel well and adding the frame rails.... It adds such realism... Nothing I would do if it was a wheel on the car build.. No need!! You can also see the scratch built oil tank. As usual all you see here except for the frame rails is scratch built using .080 and .060 solid plastic tubing. I dont heat mine as you can see.. I have good luck bending the stuff.. Some wider side plates on the chassis were added as well as the engine cradle bracing. This will allow me to cut the lower control arms away from the kit unit and add them later after I clean and paint them. Integrated bars on the drivers side complete the chassis... Next up is to prime and paint the chassis and the platform is laid out for the detail!! Oh by the way.. that is 3 I repeat 3 8 door decals....... No bleeding at all now!!!

I got the body painted, cleared, polished and as you can see some decals applied. Two set on alot of them..... The blue is tamiya mica blue with one coat of HOK Kandy Kobalt.... Striking scheme if I do say so myself..... next up, a chassis to go under it!! The candy gives it some dark but yet POP at the same time!

Ever since Dale switched to Hendrick I felt horrible that I never did a full blown #8 Bud car...... Truth is I loved the red car.. But everyone has done it! So when Powerslide came out with his patriotic scheme from the July Daytona race I was in love..... How can you not go all out on a car so beautiful!!! I quickly got the part I most enjoy rollin.... the body! Using the 2006-07 RM kit it is in its "multi media stage" ready for primer.... I have been tinkering with this body all week.... I used the back creek resin nose from skip at S&J models and grafted it into the kit fenders using superglue as a filler. Superglue sands smooth and never shrinks! Hood underside detail was added and it was hinged. Rear trunk was hinged and detailed with a new bigger brass spoiler grafted to the deck.... The rest of the standard details were done: Roof flaps, skirts with integrated exhaust and it was time for primer.... Here are primer pictures with my new favorite primer... Rustoleum auto primer.... A little thinner than duplicolor filler primer... Its good stuff!

Lookin good CAL!! Keep going... Did you have issues getting the drivers side plug wires to clear the firewall? I had to make adjustments to mine! DaveT

Lookin Good Marc.... makes me want to get back to my Dale E inspired 70 1/2!! DaveT

I polished a few dirty areas and blacked out the inside of the body and all panels Just like the real car was done. I also started adding a few body details... Oh and opened the hood vents! ;D I am going for the "uncivilized look" so the interior will be aluminum with the bright blue seats seen here. I also got a start on the engine. It was painted with Tamiya flat aluminum for that cast look. I also got a rough effect on the valve covers a la Ferrari... Seats installed. I will add the belts later... Engine is just in for a fit test, but the engine itself is done. I used aluminum tubing I cut for each velocity stack. Looks much better than the horrible kit ones. I used craft wire for the fuel rail and pro tech line for the flex line. Plug wires are also from pro tech. And a shot of the whole package at this point.

So this box shows up at work from some dude in Indianapolis with a Revell of Germany 250 GTO kit they recently released a year ago. I was estatic needless to say. I have always loved this car. To me and others it was really the first supercar. Ferrari dominated with it in 1962 and 1963 until a certain Shelby Daytona came along 8) 8) I believe this is a rebox of the old Protar kit from Italy. it is fully detailed, body proportions are slightly square in the rear but very passable. This to me is one of those holy grail kits and I am looking so forward to doing it I painted it already!!! You all know me.. I love to paint!! Here is the main body all blocked to get rid of a few sink marks, primed and painted with "Hellrot" my red of choice for Ferrari's. Few pieces of trash need to be removed but for the most part it was a successful painting venture. Doors, trunk, and hood will all open. Scary thing is.... I forgot to cut out the hood vents for the air cleaners! I will CAREFULLY do this and put mesh behind them. Tires in the kit are horrible. I got these from a Shelby Cobra kit (oh how ironic) and mated them to the excellent replica kit borannis..... The ones on the right I am going to put on my John Deere model when I get to it....

Thanks guys!!! More to come real soon!

Built for a client in NJ.... He owns all of the Petty cars I have done! this is the second to last one for him. Tamiya TS-23 Light blue over grey primer and SEM Rocket neon with dupont clear and slixx decals. Box build with a good lowering..... ;D

Thanks for the warm positive responses guys... Glad you all liked it.... Marc Nellis- The paint is Tamiya gold and PPG "Flame Red" a GM color shot over grey primer. Followed by PPG Omni clear. Mr Downie- This is the original kit that Model king redid. Mine was a glue bomb off ebay.... Thanks again! DaveT

Bobby Allison's 1972 Coke Machine... Old MPC body and chassis, Wetworks decals and PPG paint and clear. Modified stance, monogram 5 slots and tires and mildly detailed engine......

Thanks boys! Glad its liked, Look for a full review in the OCT issue of MCM..... Here are the few corrections I made and now you can call it done! The 1964 car only ran one wiper... I removed the Pass side wiper and capped off the hole with a PE bolt. And I remembered the rear number as well!! Here is one of my favorite shots...you can see a glimpse of the spare tire in the back.... Here is what you cant see in the back.... Thanks again!!! DaveT

Its done guys. It replicates the 1964 Lemans GT Class winner using the Scale Motorsport Builders kit, MCW Viking blue and Vintage Racing Miniatures decals. This is an excellent kit in curbside and my next extended review in MC.

Done! using fantastic powerslide decals, and Mike Dowd's Great resin body. Paint is HOK Stratto blue and kandy kobalt blue with dupont clear. I also used Jay's method for the spoiler rods....

Here are a few "Naked" pics..... Here it is all dressed..... More pics here.... http://public.fotki.com/Daveyracer/gp_moto...kawasaki-zx-rr/ Thanks for looking guys!! DaveT

Thanks guys.... this one is close!! Front fork is done using the DP tamiya fork set. I built the wheel stand which I painted with duplicolor chrome enamel to give it a polished aluminum look and threw the rear seat cowl and tank on to see it take shape....

More progress on this one.... Exhaust is done using TS-14 directly over the plastic, then shooting light coats of HOK CHROME. I picked this up at the HS and its a great stand in for alclad chrome! Once dry I masked the weld seams and used CLear orange, blue, and red to do the heat staining with airbrush..... Here is the pipes installed on the frame.

Thanks so much guys.... Glad you like it... My only suprise is Izzy?? No Comment?? DaveT