hey everyone...
i finally had some time to work on the kit; it's been a crazy two weeks at work.
i've had to work here and there, usually no more than 20 minutes or so while having coffee before work. i find spending even a few minutes modeling each morning gets the day off to a great start.
most of what i've been doing lately is improving the kit parts -- particularly the suspension bits. my apologies for some of the pix being blurry -- my camera is about the same quality as the fit of this kit.
here are the A-arms; i've since touched up the paint so it all matches. the arms are Tamiya titanium gold, as per my references.
i mounted the rear lower arms and -- guess what? -- there were huge gaps. (italeri kits don't have the best fit.
) so i had to do some more putty and paint; once everything dries, i'll touch it up and finish the chassis.
i tried scratch-building some shocks; they didn't turn out nearly as well as ski's 1:1 valve stem idea. there's a kid who likes thumping his bass-heavy rap at ungodly decibels just outside my apartment, so he might just donate some valve stems to the next project.
you can also see the italeri molded the front shocks to the upright
. i cut the shock off and scratched a new one with brass rod, copper tube and wire. yes, i know the springs aren't quite even.
the italeri wheels and brakes are sh!te - italeri used the same molds for both the 365 and the 288 GTO (and god knows what else).
stryfe101 gets mad props for donating a full set of brakes, wheels and tires from a Fujimi Enthusiast 365 kit.
they look 1,000 times better, especially after detailing, a wash and Studio 27 PE. they look great in person; my camera couldn't catch the detail. i'm really pleased with them. too bad they'll be covered by the wheels.
the wheels from the Fujimi kit are, in a word, gorgeous. a vast improvement over the italeri kit pieces. the Pozzi cars ran gold wheels, so i'll be painting them soon. i'm using the tires from the italeri kit, as they're lower profile and wider than the Fujimis and look racier.
oh yeah... i've also started airbrushing.
big thanks to
MPWR for all his various posts on the topic over the years. a search of all his posts yielded a nice "how to" and my first attempt couldn't have gone any better.
next up -- assemble the chassis (and figure out how to attach those front shock) and begin the engine.