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.