i have just got a 1/24 Tamiya nismo 350Z,having never built a model car in my life i would like to know is there any good sites with info on building cars and refrences.as i plan on doing the works on this kit,with full interior -seat belts- dials and wires.

cheers karl

Karl,
If you have a Tamiya mag to hand have a butchers through it plenty of model car shops dealing in AM in there the shops website might have links to fourms ect

bloody good idea,i have stacks of tamiya mags.

nice one davy

cheers karl

Tamiya's homepage also have tips'n'tricks.

These might be helpfull.

http://www.briansmodelcars.com/tutorials/index.asp

http://www.cjhilton.com/models/links.htm

http://www.geocities.com/nhpromodeler/nhpromodeler.html

http://www.korkutvarol.com/tipsindex.html

http://www.korkutvarol.com/welcome.htm

http://www.hrmodeler.com/

These have quite a lot of details set's.

http://www.scalemotorsport.com/default.asp

http://detailmaster.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?

http://www.scaleracecars.com/

http://www.grandprixmodels.com/

Eduard makes a very nice range of pre printed seatbelts.

Jesper the links you have posted are spot on cheers mate just what i looking for.

many thanks

karl

The same company that does Fine Scale Modeler also has a magazine out on model cars. You might want to pick up a copy or two of that just to give you an idea of what the super-detailers are doing. I don't do it, but I have checked out what shows up at the model competitions and some of those folks really build some wonderfully lifelike looking miniture cars.

Karl,

When it comes to Car models, Technique on clear coat is paramount!!!

Nothing else really matters, PE, AM, whatever... Dont matter.

This is what I would suggest:

Build it OOB. Take extra care and time on your clear coat. I built a Tamiya bike out of the box and used automotive clear coat. Here's the result:



Remember, the only technique is clear coat...everything else comes second.

WC

The prize winning cars as Ben says are the ones with paint jobs. I know they paint the models just like the guys that build the real-life show cars. light layers of paint light sanding btwn layers get some of the super super fine polishing compounds from an autoparts store. As for wiring and all that, there are plenty of aftermarket companies out there with goodies to detail any car. A good kit will provide accuarate decals for your gauges. A drop of future on them after they are set will give you the perfect addition, wiring mainly consists of spark plug wires so get a few photos of the real engine to achieve accuracy here. I used to build a lot of those Fujimi exotics back in the late 80's and am definitely not into building competition class kits after I look at the effort those guys do. I am just content now to take pictures and build competition level tanks--HAH !!

Oh great bike kit Ben looks like the real thing