1:18 novitech rosso F430 step by step

This my progress of transforming an ordinary F430 into the Novitech beauty.This is just a try out and I am sure that at the end there will be plenty of room for improvement.We all learn from past mistakes(or at least we try) so any suggestions or criticism are welcome.The idea is after I smooth everything as much as I can, to make a few custom orders for sale.
So,here is where I am so far:

cut out the openings in the front bumper,blend the black plastic part with the bumper and reshape the openings......

....open up the rear grilles.Weirdly enough the exhaust are molded with the bumper and then chromed!?

.....the front bumper is starting to take shape.....

.....sand,apply coat--sand apply another coat...but it will get there...

...diffuser "fins get extended and rear splitter is made......

...together with the corner lips,things are starting to take shape....

....of course there is always room for improvement.....

....almost there......

 

I am really sorry guys here are the pictures this time for real.








I hope now they are fine.

 

here is the seats....



...the complete front bumper...



...and the rear(still needing some touch up) and the rear wing



still needs the exhaust which I am making from aluminum tubing, and a grill on the center of the diffuser.
The wheels came from a cheap FXX an the tires are Bburago.

 

Well thanks for the kind words.When you start feel free to ask any questions.I would be more than happy to teach you anything I know about models.

 

Here is the four steps for converting the FXX wheels into the Novitech's.
From left to right are as follows:
The original unpainted wheel from FXX
the same wheel with the center removed
the wheel with the new center,rounded edges on the spokes and sprayed with base silver
the finished wheel with the new center painted black and the wheel painted the wright shade of silver
What you see underneath are the centers which consist of a photoetched senter (even though you can use numerous different things for it),a brass nut which you should be able to find in any well stocked hobby shop in the train department and what is inside of it is a plastic molded bolt and nut with a washer from the same department.


Total time for the wheels(taken that I had everything I needed in my partsbox) was approximately 2.5 hours.

 

it is starting to come along pretty well, regarding the amount of work that still needs to be done.



The interior is almost complete except the black floor mats with grey piping and I managed to loose the pedals somewhere so I'll have to scratch build them.
What I've been slacking on are the little rockpannel "lips" in front the rear wheels



From behind I still need to do the exhausts ( which really is a peace of cake ) and the grille in the center of the diffuser.Also some minor paint touch up.
Then the whole model needs to be whet sanded,rubbed out and polished.

 

Sorry guys first two pics I messed up


Hopefully by the end of the month I will have finished.

 

All right everyone, here are some more pictures and some discoveries.
The interior is finished.Like I said when I first started the thread this is an experimental build up.So, to make the floormats seen on the novitech site I made stencils from masking tape and transfered them on a sheet of coarse sand paper which looked black enough.Then just painted the gray "piping" on.I never tryed this before but I think it looks pretty cool.




Here is the model assembled and almost ready.It still needs the side skirts,some paint touchup and to be buffed and polished



As I tryed to experiment with this model I wanted everithing to be handmade the old fashioned way. The side skirts I made from aluminum stock.Here they are before paint

 

OK pretty much all done. It is polished and complete.All it needs now is the black trim around the windows,some minor touch up and license plates.Oh, sorry guys I still have not figured out how to upload my pictures so you will have to click the links for now, till I learn how to navigate around here.