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!).

Zakspeed Mustang

 Admittedly I don't know a whole lot about this car or series, but I was very excited by the overall shape and look of the car.

It is definitely an 80's car, and ran in the IMSA using a 1.7Liter 4-Cylinder turbo engine, and later a 2.1Liter 4-Cylinder turbo engine.

The cars were super-lightweight machines with wild aerodynamics and ground effect bodies.

Underneath all that we started with a tube chassis, and safety cage.

Here it is a little farther along.

You can see the 4 cylinder engine, and stripped interior... it hardly looks like a Mustang.

But when you add on the body, wheels, tires, and aero parts... it really does resemble a really WIDE Mustang Fox body from the 80's.

There is no mistaking that this one is built to go racing. Even with the 4 Cylinder engine in the car...

The later 2.1L Cosworth engine is said to have produced around 600 horsepower. That's about twice the power of your average commuter even now!

Revell 69' Shelby GT500 - oldie but goody

 Here's another one that has been completed a while ago.

A Revell branded 1969 Shelby GT500.

It's been a long while, and I believe this was a Motor-City Muscle 2-n-1 kit that I did a while ago.

I always loved the shape of the 69s with the swept rear window, and the hood with all the ducts to feed that massive V-8 under the hood.

This one was finished in a metallic pewter color that has a little bit of brown to it, so it isn't just a straight silver.

The black Shelby stripes down the side contrast nicely.

I also used the larger diameter Cragar style wheels that make it look a little more modern and aggressive, but still have a nod to that classic look.

The interior on these old Shelby's is pretty basic.

Just black bucket seats, doors and carpet. Attempted a wood grain steering wheel and dash to add just a little contrast the all black interior. Also painted some of the smaller chrome details in the center console.

Still think this a great looking body style for the Mustangs, and  this one built up to make a good looking representation without any major issues from the manufacturer or hiccups from my building skills.

Stay tuned... lots more to come.

Mustang-GT Super Boss Funny Car

So I had planned to do a full write up on this kit, and took pictures along the way, but just never got it down in the computer....

Had some great looking box art, and figured it could be a relatively quick build, that would look good on the display shelf.

Decided I liked the orange paint, and would just build it basically like it appeared in the art.

Here's the chassis coming together and some of the various pieces as they all get ready to come together. Love the long tube intake on the engine. Took a good bit of work to get them to all line up right, and be firmly attached to the intake.

And as I typically do, I managed to finish it all up before I remembered to get the camera out again.
This one has actually been finished for a couple of months now, but just decided to do a small update on what I am working on.

Looks good to me, and has that "too tall" stance typical of a gasser/funny car suspension set up.
I didn't use all the decals, and didn't quite follow the box art, but definitely looks angry, and ready to go racing.

And the one thing I have never seen in a model kit before, was a model of the packaging that it all came in. Only took about 10 minutes to cut it all out and folded up.

I guess by definition, it is a scale model...