u/beeb_61

Trying this post again since my pictures didn’t upload last time. I just completed this Porsche GT1 kit from Tamiya. This is my first experience with an older Tamiya kit, and I did have some fitment issues with the exhaust and the undertray being bent. Otherwise this was a wonderful and enjoyable build. Added a fair amount of detail to the engine and interior to make it look a bit more like a functional car and even built an electronics box for the rear bulkhead out of some scrap styrene.

Just completed Porsche GT1 kit from Tamiya. This is my first experience with an older Tamiya kit, and I did have some fitment issues with the exhaust and the undertray being bent. Otherwise this was a wonderful and enjoyable build.

I’m finally finished with my Porsche GT1 for the August group build. This is my first experience with an older Tamiya kit, and I did have some fitment issues with the exhaust and the undertray being bent. Otherwise this was a wonderful and enjoyable build. I’m also pretty pleased with the detailing I was able to add earlier. It turned out so good that it earned a spot in my limited display cases, lol.

Just got this 1998 Dale Earnhardt kit in the mail today. It was a sweet score for only $8 shipped off of Vinted. The tin is a little banged up and the kit plastic is slightly yellowed, but it’s almost 30 years old and that’s what paint is for. The decals are probably even usable, but I’ll get a new power slide set regardless. Normally I’d not make the kit on the box art, but I figure every self-respecting NASCAR fan needs a Dale Earnhardt Daytona 500 victory car.

Also, shout out to whoever at Revell circa 1997 decided to make these kits in all white with no chrome or colored plastic. I wish all kits came that way, just white styrene tabula rasa.

I said in another WIP thread that I was waiting for the other shoe to drop on this build. Everything was going near perfectly, I even thought this would be a candidate for a show car, and now I have been defeated by the smallest of foes. I put the clear on last night and went to check this morning on how it dried, only to be greeted by this bastard. It’s the height of bug season where I live and it’s my own fault for not covering the car. My only solace is that this insult cost him his life. From now on I’m only spraying in the winter lol.

So I can’t decide what to do now. If I try to sand it away I’m worried it will destroy the decal. I may just have to accept it.

Making steady progress on the August Porsche build. My wife is on a diamond art kick, so we have been co-hobbying at the kitchen table and it’s given me a lot more time to work on my kit. The interior construction went very well, but I’m baffled that the doors were molded on the black tree since 75% of it has to be painted white. I added some more details to the interior and some extra hoses to the engine. I thought the cockpit was a little bare, so I build an electronics box out of some scrap styrene and ran some wiring.

Now it’s on to the decals!

Finally making some progress with my Porsche group build car. This was my first time trying to make cable ties for the wiring. I tried thin strips of tape at first but it didn’t work out. Then I grabbed some black thread from my wife’s sewing kit and that was more successful. My manual dexterity isn’t great, so I had to resort to holding each end of the thread with tweezers and tying knots like a damn surgeon.

This is definitely the most difficulty with fitment I’ve had with a Tamiya kit. The exhaust pieces were a real pain. I more or less had to bridge the gap from the turbos to the air duct by making a bridge of super glue and painting over it lol.

I’m still pretty happy with how it turned out. Now I get to move on to the micro dosing of hell that will be the decal application.

My kit for the August Porsche group build was waiting at the front door when I got home today. I’ve had my eye on this kit for a long time and I’m excited to get started on it.

I haven’t done a Salvino’s NASCAR kit in quite a while. I’m no fan of Denny Hamlin as a driver, but I love the color teal.I always felt bad that there are SO MANY parts on these kits that are never visible, so I made an effort to actually paint everything and take pics during the build process. I also added some wiring to the engine. And I didn’t cement on the body so I can pull it off for display.

This kit is every Salvinos kit. I had to do all the usual stuff to make fitment work out. The body has a slight twist making the hood not sit flush and the right rear is slightly higher than the left, but I was able to get everything else worked out.

I continue to be impressed with Kaleido gloss varnish. I always sand off the molded hood pins and I realized after painting that I left some huge gashes in the plastic. A couple coats of clear later and I can’t even see them.

I was on vacation all week and just got home yesterday, so I’ve made very little progress on builds. I finally tried out some stuff I got on sale for Prime Day and I’m pretty pleased.

These Gaalheri Metal color markers are nice, and 10 markers for $20 seemed like a good deal. I got them for doing fine details without having to spend a lot of time masking or trying to freehand with brushes. They are a lot nicer than Sharpies and the paint seems to be the same shades as the Kaleido metal colors for airbrushing. I’m not sure if I would buy them at full price, it will depend on how long the markers last and how well the nibs hold up.

I also got my first decent pair of nippers. I’ve been using the same blue handled cheap things that are everywhere, and these are a huge upgrade. They slice through the sprues like butter and the case is nice as well. I’m sure they are nothing compared to expensive stuff like God Hand, but I’m very impressed for $14.

I’ve been working on this Salvinos JR Mavis Tire car for the past week. As I said in another post, I forego the instructions on these kits and like to build the roll cage from back to front. I find that makes it easy to have flat surfaces to help get all the contact points. I also like to work the pins/holes in cris-crossing diagonals to evenly distribute the forces and strong arm the plastic into being straight lol. Kind of like how you would tighten the lugs on a tire.

Even though 99% of the car is going to be hidden under the body shell, I decided to have some fun and try to give it some detail. I’m way too cheap to get resin detail up parts, so I’m doing what I can with paint and ingenuity. So far I’ve done some wiring on the engine and gave the transaxle a nice black wash. If I’m feeling frisky I may do some wiring in the interior.

I couldn’t find any airbrush paint that gave the shade of teal I wanted, so I broke out a can of TS-41. I’m quite proud of the finish I was able to get having not touched a rattle can in nearly a year.

I got this kit at the request of my wife at a model show. It’s been sort of on the back burner while I work on other builds, but seeing someone post a finished one recently gave me the motivation to get this done. It has all the issues one would expect from an old AMT kit: bad fit, flash everywhere, terrible instructions, etc. I decided to forego the gaudy hot rod style pieces and build mostly stock. It’s not my best work, but the wife likes it and is taking it to put in her office, lol.

This was a fun build for the most part, but was by far the most I’ve struggled with a Tamiya kit. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get the left side of the body to seat properly. The best I can tell is that I messed something up when installing the roll cage.

The other big headache was the decals. I’m not a fan of Tamiya’s kit decals in general, but these pissed me off. From the beginning, they started to chip around the edges and just would not conform to curves. The chipping just got worse and worse as I was doing the final assembly, even with a good amount of clear applied to try and seal them down.

Oh well. It’s good enough for the shelf. On to the next kit!

I’ve been going to my local HL every week for a month trying to get my hands on the Hellcat and today I finally got my hands on one. While I was there I had to grab some other kits of course, lol. I’m not really sure what path I’ll go down for the Charger or GTO, but I’m pretty sure the Beretta will be a disgustingly 90’s build with a teal and pink color combo.

I just finished this using an old Brett Bodine kit from 1996 that I picked up at a model show. The scheme was made using decals from Porch Time and a Power Slide tire sheet. Everything turned out really nice, but unfortunately the 30 year old plastic had a pretty good upward warp on the left front.

I also included some companion pics with a fantasy build I recently did for a group build on the model cars sub. For that I put the 1998 scheme on a Tamiya Mustang GT kit. That one must also have been pretty good since I won my category, lol.

After I finished my DTS car, I really wanted to make the “real” car it was based on. The kit is a Monogram Thunderbird from 1996 with the same Porch Time decal sheet and a power slide tire marking sheet. It worked out pretty well because I used the 1998 sponsor arrangement on that kit and now I have the 1997 livery on this one.

The kit was in pretty good shape for being 30 years old. I built a bunch of these kits when I was a kid, but this was the first time I had one with the old shark fin roof camera. Of course I realized after I got the pics that I forgot to clean off the polish residue around it. The only real kit issues were a slight warp on the front end and some scratches on the glass. It was a nice day so I got some pics of both cars outside in the sun.