2014 Builds - A Year's Worth of Plastic

So given that the New Year is only a couple of days away, and there was actually some sun out this afternoon (a rarity here in winter) I decided to set-up a little mini photo shoot of all the kits that I can say for certain were built this year.

I even surprised myself as I started taking photos. They just kept coming.
Seems I had a much more productive year than I thought I did.

Not all of these were featured on the blog as they were done... something I plan to be better about this coming year.

So here they are in no particular order.....

A 1932 Ford Vicky that I attempted my first chopped top on. It came out fairly well, but not great.... Still learning...

A Mercury Hot Rod that I had actually started a while ago, but dug the box back out and finished it up. The kit came with great custom touches, and even better flame decals.

Ahhhh... the Ferrari 288GTO. This was another one I had struggled with, put away, and then came back to. Really glad to have this one done and in my collection.

The Dodge Challenger HEMI. Another one that was featured earlier in the year as it was finished.
Looks great!

The Lamborghini Diablo.... This one was all troubles and would not recommend the kit to anyone. More of an challenge of my patience than modeling skills. Was hoping for a better finished model, but it just wasn't in the box from the start.

 So I deviated a little from the 4 wheels concept, and had picked up a kit of a Spitfire fighter from World War 2. It was a great little break, and allowed me to play with my airbrush a little bit.

I had such a great time with the Spitfire that I picked up a second WWII plane. This time an SBD Duantless. Again came at a time that I needed to do something different and try some other techniques. This one I used a lot of pastel shading to create a weathered and used look.

This is the ECTO-1 from the Ghostbusters movie franchise. It started as a 59 Cadillac Hearse, and was trasnformed to carry all of their ghost fighting gear. Another fun and perhaps "less serious" build. Didn't even bother with the interior on this one. Painted the windows black, and figured with all the visual impact, it could stand on it's own.

Another great kit that got me back into when I got started in modelling. American 60's and 70's Muscle Cars. This one being the track version of a Shelby GT350-R. A great kit, with a couple of problems I created for myself with the long and large decals.

The Peterbuilt Cabover. Again, a smaller scale, snap-tite kit that I added a few details to, just to bring the level of the finished kit up a little.

Jeep Rubicon. After my wife and I took a camping trip up to the sand-dune recreation area, I came home with some inspiration for an off-roader.

Plymouth Superbird. One of the most radically designed of the 60's and 70's muscle cars.
With a nose cone, and rear wing added merely to help cheat the wind at the NASCAR super speedways.

1970-1/2 Camaro Z/28, in one of my all time favorite colors for this era. This one looks great on the shelf with all the other Camaros I have built.

And my most recently completed kit. A Ford Taurus sport Cartoon Network sponsorship livery. I have build a few of these NASCAR kits in the past and always enjoy the finished piece. This is the second of 5 kits with Cartoon Network sponsorship that I have. The other 3 will likely be added in the near future.

So that's it....

As I look back at a total of the 14 kits that I built, I am truly amazed that it has been that many.
All of them, withe exception of a few have been great and enjoyable builds. The others were great learning experiences, and am glad to have finished those too.

I have already started on what will be my first completion of 2015.... and am sure I will sneak a few custom HotWheels in as well.

Thanks for stopping by!

Matt

Spitfire

Now I know since this is 4 Little Wheels, that perhaps a Triumph Spitfire would be more appropriate, but for today it is 3 Little Wheels, and I have a Supermarine Spitfire Mk II, flown by the RAF in World War 2.

This was a kit that I had picked up last year around Christmas time while it was on sale for a great price. It had been a LONG time since I have built an airplane, and thought for the $9 it cost, that it would be a nice change of pace.

It is 1/48 scale, and was manufactured by Revell.

It was a great little kit, and went together without any real difficulties.
The build was also an excuse for me to try out a couple of things that I had not done before.
Most obvious is the camouflage pattern, which I sprayed using an airbrush, and cheap acrylic hobby paints. After a few trial and errors, I got the consistency about right, and got a nice two-tone green and tan pattern.

The underside was also sprayed using the airbrush, and a shade of light blue that I simply mixed by eye until it looked right to me.

A little easier to see in this picture, is my use of pastels for shading and weathering.
Again, a simple set of artists pastels, ground up on a small piece of sandpaper, and applied with a dry brush to the areas where I thought some wear and tear should be aparent.

Adds a little "used" look to the finished product.

While I wouldn't consider myself to be a great air-plane model builder by any stretch, I certainly did enjoy the change of pace and experience.
I already have another I found on sale, and have in my stash, just in case I need something to break up the monotony again.

I'll save that one for later.

Ferrari 288 GTO Finished

So after a couple of "false starts" on this enthusiast series kit from Fujimi, I finally managed to convince myself to put in the time to finish this one, and I am glad that I did.

This one of my favorite Ferraris of all time, and one that nearly didn't happen.

The car was originally designed to be a purely race car, intended for the Group B in World Rally. The requirement was to build 200 cars to meet the homologation requirements.
Just as Ferrari began producing the cars, the Group B was cancelled all together, leaving all 272 examples as purely street cars. (Though several have gone on to successful racing careers).

In Ferrari's naming system, this car features a 2.8 Liter, 8 Cylinder engine. Fitted with twin turbo-chargers, it creates nearly 400 horsepower.

It however is a successor, not predecessor to the 308 series of Ferraris.

If you are familiar with the 308 cars, (made famous here by Magnum PI), you can see the resemblance. But changes in suspension and engine layout makes the 288 a bit wider, and a bit longer in the wheelbase than the 308.

Considered by some to be one of Ferrari's first supercars, and a direct predecessor to the Ferrari F40.

Sculpted and shaped body panels by the famous Pinifarina design house, I just can't get over how gorgeous this car looks. Especially for one intended as a purely race driven car.

This one definitely fills a spot in my Ferrari collection, and am glad to have it done and in the display case.
I am also glad to have a little breathing room at work to where I can get back to my hobbies, and sharing them.

Thanks for looking, and more to come (hopefully) soon.

1970-1/2 Camaro Z/28

So now I am back to building a Camaro.
This time it is a 1970-1/2 Camaro Z/28.
It was a half year option, as the redesign for the second generation Camaro took longer than expected, and was released late in the year.

This kit was released by AMT  and had some really good points, and some not so good points.
One of the not-so-good points in my opinion was that the entire kit (minus glass and taillights) was molded in this bright orange color. My problem with the orange, is that it is a really difficult color to paint over. Sometimes it took several coats to get the coverage needed

 One of the points I did like, though it doesn't show on the completed model is the sub-chassis assembly. There is a separate front sub-frame that connects to the body and back half of the car, just like the full size counterpart.

 The decals were a good and bad at the same time.
They were very thin, which is great because the settle down in to all the little nooks and crannies. Look on the hood, and you can see where it has settled in to the molded vents at the base of the hood.
The problem with thin decals is that they tend to tear VERY easily. You can see a couple of places were I tore them while try to get them in to their final position, and had to be touched up with black paint.

 The tires and wheels were another bright spot for me. The tires were molded in actual rubber, or a very close approximation in silicone. They were soft, pliable, and had great detail. A little white paint and some careful painting on the wheels as all that was needed.
Of course I had to add some small valve stems from a tiny piece of black wire.

As with the tires, careful painting really helps to bring out the details and add life to the completed chassis.

 Another issue I had, and maybe it was me, but the overall assembly of the body onto the chassis. It just did not want to sit down over the frame properly. Luckily I have several of these small, spring-loaded clamps to help while waiting for the glue to harden.

 So here it is, all together and finished up!

 This kit would represent 1 of the roughly 8200 Z/28 optioned cars for that year.

 I chose to represent the Citrus Green color, that I feel contrasts well with the deluxe black interior and black stripes. I also added the taller COPO order-able tall spoiler, just because I like it better.

 All Z/28's for that year came with the hi-performance, 360 horsepower rated, 350 cubic inch small block engine. This one has power steering which was optional, and power assisted brakes which were standard with the Z/28 special performance package.

 All in all, a good looking model in the end. A couple of struggles, but it was still worth it.

On to the next.... I am revisiting one that I started a while ago, and am hoping to have the patience to finish. And this one is even more limited production... Representing 1 of 272 produced.