Hey buddy, your engine is upside down!  My latest effort is a vintage Monogram Porsche 904 Carrera GTS racer which I have augmented with the 3.2l flat six engine from a later 911. The engine and transaxle actually fit with only minimal modification to the chassis pan. The rear suspension also fit around the vastly larger engine without a lot of drama. The brake backing plates and hubs needed substantial work to accept the 15” Fuchs alloy wheels intended for the 911. The 911 also uses a staggered wheel sizing whereas the 904 used four laughably small 13” wheels.

It was while taking this picture of the engine and rear suspension glued into chassis that I realized I was supposed to PAINT the chassis before assembly!  Yikes!  One epic masking job later, the car is now Graphite Grey. This old Monogram kit is best described as “challenging” so I will see what adventures await as I begin final assembly. More photos to come

-Ross

Finished this up a few weeks ago but haven’t had much time to indulge in stuff like this. Enjoy!

-Mark

Hey gents. Reskit sent this fun item along with an order I had with them as a gift.  It’s a witch riding a AIM-9 “broom”.  Pretty funny idea.

I airbrushed the exhaust flame and smoke using AK lacquer paints. The grey on the missile was airbrushed on.  After that dried i masked off the white area and also airbrushed that, followed by the yellow and brown stripes (indicating this missile is “live”).  The metallic areas on the nose compartment were hand painted.  Gloss coat was applied and then the decals followed by a sealer coat.

The witch was entirely hand brushed using Vallejo brand acrylics.   I liked how her flight suit came out if I say so myself.  Watch out MiGs-the AIM-9 witch could be coming for you!!

-Chris

Gents.  Here is a 1/35 Dragon Light SEAL Support Craft under construction.  The kit came with no engines so I added one from Rye Field Models.  I scratch built the engine compartment, primed, and painted it with cream white after the primer dried.  I added weathering in the compartment to make it look used and dirty.   The  engine itself was base-coated black and then highlighted with various shades of metal colored paints.

I added the handle bars inside the boat’s bay and added non skid to the port/starboard skirts.  As this was a tactical boat used in Vietnam it will be green overall instead of Navy grey.    Should take another 3 or so weeks to finish up the boat itself.  The plan is to make a scene of it being dockside and under light maintenance.

-Chris

I participated in a “wrong markings” group build. A subject with markings it wouldn’t normally have. My subject was the Akutan Zero. In 1942 the Japanese attacked the Aleutian Islands, bombing Dutch Harbor twice. During one of those attacks a zero was damaged and attempted to land on Akutan island. The pilot was killed during landing, and the plane was subsequently recovered by the USA, fixed, and used to study the Zero’s characteristics to share with our pilots. This was an Eduard kit in 1/48. A great kit with a load of photo etch. I didn’t use a lot of it because many pieces were tiny and disappeared into the ether when I tried to work with them.

Cheers!

Nick

Hey gents. Just about finished with a 54mm (1/35 equivalent) Indian figure with horse.  I have to finish the figure’s head feather and highlight the horse’s saddle-blanket.  The base came with the kit but I added the grass and snow.  Acrylics were the paint medium for most of the project but the white base of the horse was done with lacquer.

-Chris

The Abarth Monster is coming along nicely. Got the interior figured out and assembled. I finally had some success with the tiny little metal transfer emblems.

A few more shots of the engine and rear suspension. Lifted un-modified from the Indy car kit. Amazingly enough the tiny little Fiat and an Indy car from the early 90s are almost exactly the same width. Go figure.

Decals all done. The shame of it is, you really can’t tell what has been done to the little fella unless you pick it up, which is unlikely in a judging situation. Oh well, I do this stuff for my own enjoyment anyway.

-Ross

My latest project, a Tamiya Abarth 695 which is the hot rod version of the Fiat 500. I originally intended to install a Ducati 916 engine and trans but ran into a scale issue. That being the bike is 1:20 and the car is 1:24 (no bueno). Instead the little fella now sports a Dalara BBC turbo from an Indy car!  I have the chassis modifications done, the stance is all set. My current challenge is figuring out how and where to put the seats, as the interior is a little crowded. Lol. More photos to follow as I get it figured out.

-Ross

Gents.  Here is another 75mm fantasy figure set of a knight riding his battle lion.  The knight’s armor was brushed on using acrylics using Green Stuff’s gold/bronze acrylic paint set with his face being painted with Scale 75 flesh tones paint set.  The lion was airbrushed using AK lacquer paints with 4 different tones.  

-Chris