Truck Norris

My guess is that it's a combination of the best parts of the Type-S and R - the long arms from the S with the blue alloy parts from the R. I have both and did the same but called it the RS:

Finished this one. The most time spent so far with the entire livery being custom produced stickers: https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=134445&id=43050

Two of the just re-released 1/12 934 static kits from Fusion, then from Tamico - Audi A4 STW body without holes (yay!), 190E body, rally cockpits, RHD cockpit, 911 GT3 light buckets and the black bits in the bottom right are the parts from the TamTechGear Black 934 that allows the static kit bodies to fit the RC chassis. Tamiya LP and AK Extreme metal paints, Decal (not sticker!) scissors, glue and Micro Set/Sol from eModels.

Yes, item number 12504 "Motor Racing Team Tool Set"

Has it got XD blocks on both the fore and aft mounts on the rear? If so, that'll be your problem. There aft/rearmost block is normally wider than the front to give toe-in. The wheelbase measurements are given with the toe-in. If you remove it by fitting the same blocks to both then the wheelbase will increase as the arms are moved parallel to the chassis. I built an FF-03 with a standard 257mm wheelbase and no rear toe-in but it took a bit of fiddling and probably won't work if you're using body posts, but I'll explain just in case. From here: https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=133142&id=43050

Just stuck to the outside like normal Build thread for that car here:

911 related - made a set of matt window trims for the above 993 GT2 for J@mes:

Some tools, paints, airbrush quick coupler and a second attempt at a kit I built back around 1989. It's very basic but I'm interested to see how good a job I can do compared to back then.

They haven't stopped doing the brown boxes with artwork, but they are Japan (and maybe HK, Taiwan) only now: Not sure why, maybe to do with shipping volumes?

Finished this Celica body. Showroom entry: https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=134343&id=43050

It's done! Unlike the later cars where the light buckets are stuck on with tape, and the wings with rubber o-rings and body clips, final assembly for this involves lots of small nuts and screws. As the body set came without them, I made a list and located the same hardware. Buying bag D for the Sand Scorcher provided the majority of them, with just the nuts and screws for the driver heads needed additionally. As I didn't have a chassis to use for the photos, I replicated the kind of shot seen in the Tamiya Guide Books, with the finished body laid out with a selection of different paint types, markers and brushes: I like the inside to be as neat as the outside: More pics in my showroom: https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=134343&id=43050 Yep, already on my shopping list!

Helmet trims painted. Rather than TS cans I used the manual specified XF-1 as I now have an airbrush: The faces are brush painted and the eyes done with a cocktail stick. As with seemingly every Tamiya face moulding, this method annoyingly gives one perfectly round pupil and one not so round. I fitted the steering wheel and dashboard sticker so the cockpit is now finished: One final bit of painting then it's on to assembly. The mirror needs the reflective surface painted silver, not the whole surface though, there's a border. I cut some circular masks for this. First up is one the same diameter as the mirror to ensure it's central: Then a couple of larger ones to guard against overspray, plus tape over the back: Previously I would have had to use the TS equivalent or close match to the manual specified X-11 Chrome Silver, and waist a ton of paint spraying such a small area. Not any more though - airbrushed X-11:

Stickers done. As expected these are the most frustrating part of these vintage builds - the glue isn't great so a few corners needed a tiny bit of superglue to stay down - specifically the red number 3 and 4 stickers that end just at the top of the doors below the door windows. Like the 959 they don't shrink with heat, and they also come up a little short in places. Cockpit details brush painted and the black tidied up. The pic was taken in my new spray booth with LED lighting so it's a bit clearer and less shadowy than the other pics taken with the bits on carpet. Helmets masked for the black trim. I'm using a combination of Masking Tape for Curves and regular Tamiya tape, the faces are masked with white tack, it doesn't need to be that accurate as the faces will be brush painted flesh, so it's just to cover the eyes really (which will remain gloss white):

Airbrush booth with LED lighting and external ducting, ABC Hobby 0.5mm panel line tape as the Kyosho 0.4mm I use hasn't been available anywhere for ages. Alfa 155 wheels, complete with £5.99 price labels (these were a lot more than that!)

Nice of you to say so! For just doing lexan shells then no, there's no need. I do a lot of styrene stuff though - the interior sets, roll cages, and an increasing number of small parts like bonnet pins, electric cutoff switches etc. I don't like the finish from brush painting and using a can wastes a lot of paint. I also want to be able to paint indoors through the winter (spray booth on the way) and it will also help with painting mixed colours like I need for the Hyundai i20 WRC. Lastly, I'd like to try my hand at static models - I have a couple of 1/24 cars and I've just ordered the new 2019 release of the 1/12 Porsche 934 Jagermeister.

I wouldn't say serious shortening, it was just removing the bumper. I believe the reason Tamiya state it won't fit the FF03 is due to the front body mount positions. The FF04 uses the standard TT-0x front position mounts like the XV01. The box for the 50809 Body Parts Set says it's compatible with FF01, FF02, TA02, TA03R and TL-01. An issue with fitting it to anything other than an FF02 (not sure about FF01) is that the rear mounts don't align with the drilled holes in the roof, so the manual advises making additional holes in the rear window. It says "Make holes (6mm) when attaching on 4WD chassis".

The company I work for in my day job is flippin' awesome and gives every employee £300 every year to spend on "personal improvement", which doesn't need to be work related, so learning a new skill or improving health etc. People have bought Drones, flying lessons, musical instruments. This year I decided it was about time I got an airbrush so mine went towards this: Sparmax TC-620X compressor, with Iwata HP-CS with optional 0.5mm needle and nozzle parts. Awesome service from https://www.air-craft.net Also shown are Lacquer Retarder, Lacquer Thinner and XF-3 Flat Yellow that I needed. The whole lot was just over £400, so £100 odd of my own money too. I'm aware there's a learning curve with airbrushing but I have seven weeks holiday from said company this year, and four weeks still to take, which will help with that

Next lot of masking - the vent trims. These were pretty tricky. I tried blu-tack, masking tape for curves but in the end just regular tape and machine cut circles and curves worked best: I didn't take a shot of how these looked before I started on masking the rear light trims the next day. This was the hardest part yet, the trims are recessed slightly and curved making it hard to stick the tape without it lifting: At the same time I masked the rest of the body to spray the backing silver and black inside. You can see there's an extra layer of cling film over the back lights and tape tabs that I'll remove after spraying the backing colours, leaving the rest of the body masked to do the light trims. This included slightly larger headlight masks so as to preserve the sharp edge of the white: I sprayed the inside PS silver then PS black for a totally opaque finish: Then I removed the film over the lights and sprayed the trims. This worked very well. Just needed a little clean up with a cocktail stick and some slight touch up with a brush. Suddenly the rough looking outside-the-lines lights are pretty smart: If they're anything like the 959 ones then they'll be entirely unresponsive to heat! I'll see how I go, but it was a bit annoying doing the 959 and getting the paint so right then the unavoidable sticker wrinkles It's a much less curvy body this one so hopefully will behave

Thank you! Good question - one of the promo models Tamiya built for the catalogue shots and video has the grille painted up wrong. I've seen quite a few people copy this too. It also has red harness pads where they should be yellow. The manual specifies all black for the grille and another Tamiya promo car has the black grille, as does the box art that appears on the rear cover of the 1989 RC Guide Book. The real car is all black too. Clockwise bellow, 1989 Guide Book rear cover, 1989 Guide Book page 37, 1988 catalogue page 18, Real car in period.

Thanks Guys! White painted: I'd normally back with silver and then black or white again but I've just done white for now - this is for a few reasons: There's lots of recesses that the spray can't get fully into so I want to brush in a bit more paint before backing it. I want to apply the red stripes and be sure I've not gone too far with the red around the vents. If I need to clean it up I can do so before there's too much paint to remove. I though it wise to do the window frames then make sure there's no white visible. It'll be much easier to clean it off before there are layers of silver and black to remove too. The headlights need a sharp masked edge so I'll remove and remask slightly larger so the paint edges are stepped. It's harder to get a clean edge with thicker paint layers. I'll leave the window masks on until the backing colours are done. Started the masking for the outside. As this is a little tedious I'm doing it in stages. First up, the grille, front indicators, front bumper vents, fuel cap, door handles and c-pillar vents: I made little bits of notched masking tape for the vertical parts of the grille. The indicator masks were made by drawing the shape of them and then cutting the inner and outer masks with the cutting machine: Fuel cap masked with a machine cut circle, tape and white tack: Before peeling the masking off: Pretty good result! Just needs some slight touch ups. The next day I masked the window frames using Tamiya's excellent "Masking Tape For Curves" in 5mm and 3mm. Very pleased with the result: Tip: If you remove the masking as soon as you've let the last layer of paint dry for 10 mins or so, then it's possible to remove small bleeds by rubbing it away with a cocktail stick or toothpick. This works a lot better than trying to clean it up with a cotton bud/Q-tip with paint remover. You can see in the top right of the rear window here where the masking was slightly off. This bit rubbed off easily:

Body masked for the rear black section. This is the only black part of the body that's painted on the inside: As there's no overspray film I'm using cling film on the outside of the body. Helmets prep'd for paint - I glue them together as well as using the specified screws, then sand down the join: Black back panel painted. I've also brush painted the lights using decanted PS red and orange, and the filler cap in decanted PS silver. The black trims around the lights and fuel cap are painted on the outside so these don't need to be done too precisely. You can see I've gone outside the lines in places: Front indicators done the same way: Windows and headlights masked. Again, these don't need to be spot on as the transition between the white paint and clear window is covered by the externally painted black window rubbers: You can see I've also painted the specified PS red around the side vents. This is just to bridge the gap between the black sticker and the red surrounding sticker. The edge of the vents are painted black. For the headlights I made exact shaped masks with the rounded corner: Cling film and tape to protect the outside before painting the white: The arches are tricky to tape up. I cut the tape at approx 5mm intervals to allow it to curve:

Not what's in the box, the actual box! I ordered some custom sized double wall boxes, just the right size for a TT-0x sized kit box with a bit of bubble wrap, or for sending body sets. Every time I sold something it was a pain finding a box that was usually slightly too small, or having to spend ages doing cardboard surgery to cut a larger one to size. Also custom printed packing tape for the finishing touch.

Interior painted TS-8 Matt Black. I'll neaten this up with a brush when the gloves and co-driver hands are painted: Black section of the wing painted TS-29 Semi Gloss Black: Masking for the light buckets worked perfectly:

After completing the 58059 Porsche 959 I fancied doing its sister car the Celica Gr.B. I'd hoped that someone might ask me to do one for them and luckily I didn't have to wait long before John who I did the Taisan 911 for approached me. As with the 959, this will be an exact box art build - the only deviation being using modern PS and TS sprays rather than the old PC pots and brush/airbrush acrylics. As John only needed a body he'd been eyeing up one on eBay, which was a bit steep. I found this one on eBay UK which was cheaper and already in the UK so no need to be sent over by John from the US. It's missing the nuts and bolts but they can be obtained. The build is very similar to the 959 - a blow moulded body, styrene interior and plastic parts, so the methods I used for the 959 will be used here too. First step was to trim the interior and plastic parts. I cut the parts off their trees with Tamiya side cutters for plastic, then sanded the nubs with 240, 400, 600, 1000 then 1500. For the cockpit tray I rounded off the corners too. I then washed the parts and left to dry: The helmets will be left for now until I have the nuts that fit inside them. I primed the other parts with Tamiya Fine White Primer, then painted the steering wheel TS-8 Matt Black and the door mirror TS-29 Semi Gloss Black. The manual states XF-1 Flat Black and X-18 Semi Gloss Black but I always use sprays whenever possible. The wing was then painted TS-26 Pure White: A week later I masked the wing for the black grilles, and the interior for the black areas. It's not super clear from the photo but the white area between the Tamiya tape and the blue 3M tape is white paper. I try to minimise sticking tape over painted services, even though it's almost always absolutely fine: Much like the 959, part of the light buckets needs to be painted flat black, whilst the area behind the lens remains chrome. To get perfect masks for this I scanned the clear light lens then traced it and cut a mask: As with the 959, the blow moulding of the body gives a very defined line under the bumpers and side skirts which makes cutting it out quite a simple job compared to standard vacuum formed bodies. I never usually score and snap, but it works perfectly for these. As the lexan is very thick at the base relief cuts were needed every 10mm or so: After cutting the body out, I made the additional required holes specified. 2mm in the grille and then 4mm and 6mm for the spotlights. Body ready:

It was, but it's not just me trying to get others to use my own preferred terminology, Tamiya themselves make the distinction: