Tamiya Ferrari Testarossa

Purchased February 17, 2015

Here is my reference photo for my build. Planning on painting it white and possibly with black aftermarket rims to give it a newer and respectful look I think it deserves.

 I started by cutting out some parts and organizing them in a new box.

 Then started to put together the engine!

Haven't updated much but here is what I have done up to now. Just going to wait for the weather to warm up so I can start priming parts.

Engine block/transmission all put together.

 Noticed an indent on the dashboard.

 Even though this part of the rear arches may not be seen, when I test fitted the body to the chassis, I could see the sink holes from a certain angle, so I filled them.

Sanded down the mold lines on each pipe of the two manifolds.  

The engine lid has some fitment problems. Tried heating it and running it under hot water to try and bend it but not much luck. Will have to figure something out.

Muffler pieces were put together, filled, and sanded.

Started priming some parts for the Testarossa today. After priming, I missed some imperfections on the seats which i will have to sand, fill, and re-prime.

The weather has been a little crazy. Its gotten around the 40's so I couldn't prime much, but managed to spray a couple pieces when it was nice on of the days. Will have to start learning to use the airbrush and go from there!

Now that school is done, hopefully I'll have some free time, other than work. Today I primed some more parts.

The muffler had 2 sink marks that were filled with Testor's Putty, which still showed up messy after sanding and a coat of primer. I had to sand the spots down even more and then added another coat.

 Valves covers were lightly primed so no detail will be lost.

Shifter broke during process of cutting excess plastic.

 Made a new one from a needle and bent it to the appropriate angle. Spent a couple hours carefully sanding down the knob since it was a little too big.

Finally made a panel scribe tool from an old mechanical pencil and a sewing needle.

Finally got the nerve to use the airbrush and start painting parts. It was a lot easier than I thought, I wish I would have done it earlier. This is the first time ever using an airbrush and I have learned a lot already from this first paint round. I painted most of the engine parts that needed XF-16.

Painted the cam covers last Sunday I believe. I tried to use a toothpick to paint/drybrush the raised lines with silver but didnt look as good so I painted it over with another coat.

Here's what I got done tonight

 Body was prepped by sanding down all the mold lines, scribing the panel lines, then sanding the whole body, and then a wash afterwards

 2 coats of primer laid down and happy with the results! Everything laid down smooth

 Detailing black on the cam covers. Still need a technique to paint the raised lines silver

 Started painting the door panel

 Started masking the interior. Lots of masking still to do...

 Started painting the seats but the putty marks were too visible, so I'll have to redo them

 Dash got painted

There were so many stages of masking for the interior and here is the final masking! This one took a little more time especially masking off the gear box area and tight areas

Looks like I'll need to buy some new decals.... The ones from the kit were very brittle, especially since the they are so old

Been a while. Now that I'm done with school, I managed to finish the interior. Shifter was made from a sewing needle and sanded the knob down to scale, which took some time. Overall, lots of masking and some detail painting.

Next will be to finish up the engine

Been a while since I last worked on the Testarossa. Finally had the courage to get back to work on it. Here is the completed engine. I also finished the front suspension (not pictured).

Next, I'll have to put together the firewall, paint the body, and detail.