Revell Chevrolet 1969 Chevelle SS396 in Ash Gold Metallic

 I saw this color of a full scale car, and loved it... so decided to track down a kit and get to work.

Started a Chevelle SS396 hard top... put in a little extra work replicate the vinyl top. (Felt this gave the car a little more "upscale" look).

This was a really great kit with lots of sharp details, so everything went together really well.

The sharply printed decals, as well as the pre-printed tires are real standounts.

I added a few details under the hood, but didn't go crazy with the detailing... just enough to add some realism. Spark plug wires, and some careful painting of some of the small little bits.

My "new experiment" with this one was the use of Splash Paints premixed automotive colors paints. I have airbrushed a few things before and this paint worked beautifully.  I also used their 2K gloss clear which came out amazing! I actually didn't even polish this... it's just the way the clear layed down straight from the airbrush!

If you want to check them out... here's the link.

https://www.splash-paints.com/

Now to decide what to build next...so many choices.

Fujimi Porsche Carrera2 EVO - with 3d Printed Rims

 A little while back (maybe last Christmas) I got myself a small 3d printer, and have been experimenting with printing of different parts for model kits.

I had this older Fumiji kit laying around, and decided to try printing up some simple wheels for it. Nothing crazy, or overssized.  I actually ended up using the kit tires, so it worked pretty great. 

Found some RUF style 5 spoke wheels and had a quick print of them.

They are a little hard to see in black... but I really liked the way it changed the overall look of the kit.

Painted in a color-correct hue know as Rubystone Red.. I am really pleased at the overall finished look of this one.

Kept the overall build pretty clean and smooth.  Avoided the temptation to put the giant wing on the back, or huge over-fender flares. (Don't get me wrong I love the Rauh-Welt style, just not what I was going for here).  Even used the "spoiler down" rear end for the very classic 911 style and shape.

The paint finish is growing on me. Used a urethane 2k clear for that super deep, high end clear look. This is actually how it came out... no polishing...no buffing... In the past, I would have stayed away from this finish as I always felt it was "too much" for a scale model (especially a road car), but it does look really nice.

Maybe I'll have to do a quick post in the coming weeks on the paints I used for this one.

-More to come.

Datsun 240z BRE - Barn Find

 This Revell Datsun 240Z did not start as a planned "barn find" build.  I was going to build a nice, shiny racecar... but had some issues with the decals tearing.  My next thought was we'll strip it back down, and just make a "race inspired" street car.

After a first dip in the Isopropyl Alcohol that I use as a stripper... it only took half the decals off. After letting it sit on the work bench a couple of days... I started to think that's a pretty cool look.

Since I had already put the chassis together I decided to just finish it "as is".

I little extra grime, some rust, and a fine mist of flat tan made it look nice and dusty. Just like it had been pushed in to a barn and forgotten for years.

   

I had considered going for flat tires, and even more rust... but liked the way this one worked out.

Not totally rotted to where it was completely forgotten... just put away for storage, and took on some patina over time.

Still a "driver" with a little TLC ,and a definite candidate for restoration is where the look wound up. Sometimes a "happy accident" can lead to something fun and different.

Tamiya Ford Mustang GT4

 Another one that was finished over the past several months was another amazing kit from Tamiya.

They kitted up a Ford Mustang GT4 racecar, and decided I needed to do one for myself.

The box art shows a dark metallic grey, but I decided a nice, bright yellow would show off the shape well.

Like most every other Tamiya kit I have built, this one went together without any issues. Well I did have one, but it was certainly more "user error" than the kit.

I even got a little extra creative, and printed my own Michelin tire decals.  Once the whole kit came together, the wheels and tires just looked plain... 

So I scanned the tire decals from another kit and printed them off, and a little thinned white glue, and you can't even tell the difference.

Just makes it feel more "race-y" in my opinion.

Might have to keep an eye out for another one of these for a deal, and build another one.

Would also love to see a Camaro GT4 kit (if Tamiya is watching!).

Fujimi Ferrari F40LM - I'm back

 Back for my seemingly once a year post.

We'll throw a couple of models that I have completed in the past several months all up for kind of a "Year End" post.

First up is Fujimi's Ferrari F40 with the LeMans parts (hence the F40LM designation).

Love the way this one came out, and had been watching for a decent price on this kit for a number of years.

Comes with some really great looking wheels. Updated rear spoiler elements and a giant front splitter.

Of course this one had to be red... 

Haven't done many Ferraris that have ended up being red.

Really excited about the way this one finished up.

Lots of really nice details. Seemed to take forever, but wanted to take my time with this one.

Polar Lights - 2006 Ford GT Gulf Heritage Edition

 Another one for the collection that I had been attempting to find for a "reasonable" price for a long time.

The 2006 Ford GT!

I loved the look (and performance) of this supercar when Ford announced it was going in to production.

Polar Lights is one of the very few (if only) company that has ever produced the 2006 car in plastic.

The drawback (potentially) here, is that this is a "snap-tite" kit, which typically means that it is intended for a younger builder. Often with over-designed parts to be snapped together without glue. This is great, but does sometimes mean that proportions are off versus the real car to allow for the strength needed to push the parts together, rather than holding them with glue.

 

I did make a few adjustments to some of the parts, and glued most pieces for added strength when complete...  but I don't think you can tell this is a more "toy like" snap together kit when sitting on the shelf.

I chose to use the "Heritage" Edition of the car that Ford released as a special edition an homage to the LeMans winning cars from the 60's.... though I chose to use number 8, rather than the more tradition number 6 in the big roundels.

And while the car came molded in light blue plastic, I felt the color was off just a little, and mixed up my own batch of "gulf blue", and hand masked the orange stripe the length of the car of on the nose.

I did use the supplied thin black outline stripes to separate the orange from the blue, and was amazed at how close my painted stripes lined up with theirs.  Kit decals were used for the number roundels, Ford decal on the very nose, and a couple small details here and there.

In the picture above, you can see a little bit of the snap tite construction. There is a small "tab" on the clear headlight lens, that you can see the blue of the body. If I had paid a little closer attention, I shoukd have painted the tab black to hide that small issue.

Clear to see through the back engine cover are the supercharger and chassis pieces. As a simplified kit, this was about all the detail that there was... but a little silver paint and they stand out nicely and complete the look.

Another fun one that really stands out with it's Gulf livery paint scheme.

Tamiya - Toyota Celica GT-Four 1993 Monte Carlo Rally Winner

 And we're back to another 1/24 scale kit... This time a Toyota Celica GT-Four that won the 1993 Monte Carlo Rally.

This one had been in the "stash" for a long while, and I decided one day that it was time to build it.

I don't know a lot about the car, other than the Gt-Four designation is a limited production, turbo charged, all-wheel-drive chassis. I know the GT-Fours are very limited so my guess would be that they were built in limited numbers to qualify as a "production car" and be able to race in the series.

About the only other thing I know, is that the Monte Carlo Rally must be a road coarse, as it has nearly slick, track style tires.

Might be time for a little google searching to find out a little more....

I loved the bright paint scheme, and the giant set of night driving lights mounted to front of the car.

And I wasn't disappointed.

I don't have any build pictures... but typical of Tamiya, it went together without any issues, and everything fit just about perfectly, and with a minimum of clean-up.

Any issues I had were more likely caused by me, and not Tamiya's engineering.

Here's a finished shot of all the lights on the front end of the car (note it looks like this might be a build progress photo - there appears to be the lens missing from the rectangular "pop-up" light at this stage).

A good looking car from just about any angle.

An attempt at an interior shot... just to show the detail that comes in this kit. From the fire bottle, to the seat belts, and even the hand brake for those sliding turns are all there.

Always looking forward to the next Tamiya kit, and need to do some looking for some more of their rally car kits.... this one came out great!

A couple more custom Hotwheels - Porsche 911 Targa and VW Drag Bus

 Just a short post today of two customs that I finished up.

The first is a Volkswagen Drag bus.

This was a relatively quick custom that turned out to be a little more "Christmas" themed than I had intended.

The drag bus started life and a Premium line, which means it already came with the metal base, and rubber "Real Riders" wheels and tires... so all I had to do was the paint.

After a quick dip in the stripper, I had a nice and clean casting... so I decided to try something a little different. Rather than straight paint, I had a can of clear green... and I thought why not.. let's see what happens.

Give it kind of a Candy green color... you can still see some of the sanding marks from where I cleaned it up after the stripper.

I also have some candy red that I tried to apply a "scallop" flame design to the side.

If you look close, you can see what looks like an outline on the scallops... this is actually where the red and green overlap.

As a relatively quick custom, the graphics were hand painted, along with headlights, taillights, rivets...

And some engine detailing on the base... just to make it look a little less toy-like.

Engine block, valve covers, fuel tanks were all painted, and I even added a little "heat staining" to the exhaust pipe.

The other custom I completed was a little more involved.

This one started as a Porsche 911 Carrera, and I decided to make a Targa out of it.

So out come the saw, and removed the center section of the roof.

With the interior a little more exposed, I though a nice hoop rollbar would be a nice addition.

So a small hoop made of bent brass rod was shaped and fit to be just behind the seats, and still be low enough to fit under the roofline.

A little selective painting brings out the details like headlights, taillights, exhaust tips, door handles... Again all in an attempt to make everything look a little less toy-like.

A set of resin 3D printed "FUCHS" style wheels completed this Porsche Outlaw looking creations.

I even modified where the axle fits on the base to "lower" the ride height of the car. With the lower profile tires, and raised axle location... this finished piece just barely still rolls without the tires getting hung-up.

Hasegawa Lamborghini Miura P400 SV

 Time for a 1/24 scale kit that I finished up a little while ago.

The Lamborghini Miura is considered the world's first supercar to feature a mid-mounted engine and rear wheel drive. The prototype, revealed at the 1966 Geneva Motor show and was loved by show-goers for it's impressive engineering and beautiful styling alike.

The mid-engine layout placed the engine between the driver and the rear axle, for optimum weight distribution. A layout that had been seen in the highest performance racing levels like Formula 1.

Coupled with a 3.9Liter V-12 engine and a 5 speed gear-box, it claimed the highest top speed for any production road car.

What we have here is the last, and probably most famous evolution of the Miura... The P400SV.

Introduced in 1971, the SV featured a number of small upgrades over the previous models (P400, and P400S) with 4x3 Webber carbs, and different cam timing... you got an extra 15 horsepower.

Up to a total of 380 Horsepower, which may not seem like a lot...but that was as much as a big-block Chevy corvette, with nearly twice the engine size.

The box features nice art, and I really liked the color scheme, so I decided on a deep red with gold accents.

It is hard to photograph, but the red I chose is actually a candy with a very small amount of pearl in the finish. My feeling was that just "red" was a little to plain for something as special as this Lamborghini.

Unfortunately, this is what is known as a "curb-side" kit, and has only the basic engine and drivetrain detail... but you wouldn't be able to see much of it anyways through the louvers over the engine cover on the back of the car.

The kit did come with some beautiful metal transfers for the badges on the back of the car. And my own custom license plate as a reminder that this one was built during the COVID scare.

Hope you enjoy! This was one I had been wanting to build for a long time as part of my Supercars collection.

Custom Hotwheels - Datsun 240Z - OFFROADER

 Here is yet another custom car from the local challenge.

This time it was Datun's iconic Z-car... the 240Z.

I don't have any before pictures... but decided to go with an off-road safari look.

This one was rather extensive in the changes I made.

Raised the suspension and added some big off-road wheels and tires from a Matchbox I had torn apart.

And even added a spare on the roof.

 There was an attempt made at a roof rack from bent brass rod.  I ran out of time, and it wound up more like a small ring... but it gave me a spot to mount all the "Daylighter" style offroad lights with their little yellow smiling faces.

Next up was the "snorkle" to make sure the engine can get fresh air while crossing rivers and streams.

A light misting of tan acrylic paint made it look nice and dusty... A careful brushing of two different colors of brown and tan behind the wheels and along the bottom looks like even more dirt, and some mud splattered there.

The last touch.. .which shows up a little better in this picture as to cut a mask for the windshield in the shape of where the wipers would have cleared the dust and mud off the windscreen.

This one was a lot of fun, and really liked the finished look.

Lots more to come!

Hot Wheels Custom - Bentley Continental GT

 Kind of already blew this one in the last post about the tools I use... 

So here are a couple more pictures of the finished product.

This one was almost painted in "reverse" order.

The car was stripped down and painted black... Then all the little sqaures were added to the black car.

With all of the black squares in place, the car was then painted white, followed by the yellow, orange and red to create the fade from front to back.

Small details like the head lights, tail lights and the number 17 were all handpainted.

And for a little something extra, I replaced the wheels and tires with some resin 3d printed parts that I had ordered from another builder I follow. They have super low profile tires... but really make it look ready to go tear up the track.

 

Lots more coming, just have to decide which one to cover next!