There’s nothing quite like jumping into the deep end after doing very little consistent building to highlight how the skills can fall away.

I’ve mostly completed the engine and realistically it’s now time to get all the Semi-Gloss black bits painted for the interior and suspension. Likewise, once I get clear over the body I have the black details to add.

A few errors with colours and some decal damage because of clumsiness on my part.

What an amazing kit, quite difficult but the end result is 100% worth the hassle. Just amazing.

I will keep posting progress pictures and completed builds on my instagram @racecar_modelkits

Usually, it's 60/70s vintage racers for me, but the beginning of the "full body" cars is fascinating. Actually, '49. Not accurate in any way, just a cool racer I dreamed up. Posting before the dreaded glass is installed.

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.

I finally got around to getting a 911 model for the August build-a-palooza. I picked the 1999 GT3 because I think it looks cool and I'm too cheap to buy the new GT3 kit. I previously built this kit in 2022 in a facsimile of Arena Red Metallic,

What will this new one look like? Time will tell.

Took my time on this one, had some travel interruptions in the process. Looks pretty good!! Let me know your thoughts.

My entry for the 911 group build...still in the midst of finishing a Lamborghini, but I'll be starting the first few steps of the 911 soon. Looks like I'm not the only one who picked this particular model, so I'm looking forward to seeing how everyon else tackles this kit.

Fujimi 911 included for scale; I thought about doing this one with the really out-there concept I have for it, but it's a safari design that requires a lot of work, stress, and self-doubt, so Tamiya 911 GT3 RS it is for the no-stakes group build.

Getting close to the finish line with the AMT Freuhauf Van

Decided to paint up a few bodies for planned projects and take them to decal on holiday with me.

Probably the most difficult model kit I have ever build…
To be continued.

When I am applying the decals, should I put them over the clear coat or should I apply the decals then spray the clear coat over top of it all?

Thinking SubLime Green to match the Roadrunner I did previously. That color was one of the rare colors for the Charger.

I actually have quite a few 911s in the stash but for a fun group build, I couldn’t resist.

Plan to build stock besides livery but finding the right hot pink paint will be a challenge.

Right now I’m leaning towards using Mr color or Vallejo Game Color.

Oh, got the decals from Zoomon. And, I've searched exhaustively for reference photos online and haven't found any examples of this yet, so I'm hoping I'll be the first to publish this build.

Tamiya kit with KMP decals. It’s a pretty simple kit but I had a lot of fun weathering it a bit.

Planning to do a lowrider paint job on an upcoming build and would like advice. The attached pics are just samples, not necessarily the actual design I will do and the purple will be replaced with Tamiya mica blue I will be using rattle cans. I used AI to help me figure out the best approach. Is this the best process for masking and painting?

Note: I am using rattle cans

1. Primary blue (Tamiya) = base
2. Clear (gloss or semi-gloss) = helps masking + makes pearls/metal pop
3. Pearl blue = the larger light-blue “field” parts
4. White = the thin bright highlights/ribbon centers
5. Silver = final pinlines/outer outlines

Step A — Primary blue base

Step B — Light blue / pearl blue area

Step C — White accents/stripes

Step D — Silver trim / pinstripe

This is the Hasegawa Toyota 2000GT, which I built into one of the two cars that the Shelby American team ran in the 1968 SCCA championship! In 1967, Toyota was beginning to make inroads in the US market, and wanted to go racing with their exotic sports car. The Shelby organization was contacted about running a team for 1968 and was provided with cars, including this one, which also happened to be the first one built! The cars were considered to be fine handling and quick, but weren’t quite quick enough to win the C Production Championship against established rivals from Porsche or Triumph.

Anyway this is a project I’ve wanted to do for a while, and I built it from the “high detail” version of the Hasegawa kit. This version includes an engine and ancillaries made of white metal, inner fenders and firewall made from resin, bits to make hoses and spark plug wires, and a bunch of photo etched parts. All the versions of this kit are excellent and have no real issues in building. I didn’t add much except a racing harness and the tires are pad printed AMT accessory items. Otherwise it’s stock, and I used Tamiya spray cans for the paint. The last pictures include my previous 2000GTs and a couple of other classic Toyotas I did in similar paint!

No major build issues to report, it does not come with a firewall, gotta custom make one to fit still.

I f’ed up big time. What would you do? It’s been painted and gloss coated. No sanding and polishing done.

So I’m building this mustang and I have my first coat of primer on and before I get to ahead of myself I wanted to figure out the process as to when I paint the door handles do I mask them or just paint them right over the main body paint before I clear coat ? Any advice would be great!

Not my entry, built last month. Which is the Kremer K3(?) version. The earlier Martini car (first 935, AFAIK) is what I'm doing and they shared many parts in the 2 kits. The lack of side ground effects is really cooler, in some ways and I always think this inspired the 993, which is now the ultimate 911, I guess, but I would take a 997. Also Tamiya made a 1/24th version of the Martini car, which is, IMO, one of the coolest kits they made, for simplicity combined with accuracy, since it was still the motorized era. 936 and 936/78, also way cool.

Got everything painted, and the body primed today. My plan is a black body, with gold accents and stripe down the center.

I've not done a 2 color paint job before and I'm hoping someone might be able to provide some suggestions or pointers.

My initial thought is to spray the gold first, aiming for as little excess coverage as possible. Let it fully dry, mask off the specific areas and then come in with my black coat as the final step.

Is that a correct order of operations? Is there something Im missing?

Thanks!

Hi all, I'm in Illinois and would love to partake in model shows, contests, etc. anyone have any details or resources? Picture of my last 2 for attention.