Tamiya Lamborghini (1978)

By rcgrabbag | Dec 29, 2023

The Tamiya Lamborghini RC model must be seen to be fully appreciated. The body is extremely detailed, as the other models from this era, but with the added touch of accurate, scale wheels and tires.

I got this chassis off ebay a while back. It was in mint shape, had the correct lambo wheels. All I needed was the body.

Tamiya and ebay to the rescue again. Tamiya re-issued the body sometime ago, and I snagged one off the ‘bay. I have an original body kit, but I tend to like to keep the vintage boxed items in their boxes.

Off to the paint shop. Here it is with a coat of primer on, waiting for that first shot of Tamiya Italian Red.

Red paint going on.

Fully painted awaiting clear coat.

With clear coat, the body looks wet. Again, pictures don’t do justice to just how good this model looks. Tamiya nailed the scale appearance. Next up, it gets a good polishing to even out the finish and really make it pop.

Masking for the black trim took about two nerve-wracking hours. It’s why a lot of the Tamiya models I have sit around for months in various stages of finish. When it gets to the painting part, I procrastinate with a vengeance. I hate it, but it has to be done. I have a vintage Countach body kit in a box and followed the color scheme for the red version.

This is what makes it all worth it. Pulling off the masking tape is my favorite part of my least favorite task (painting). It makes all the pain up to this point magically fade away.

These are the rear light lenses painted up. They are clear to begin with, so the tri-color scheme has to be painted. I paint lenses on the back side so you don’t see brush strokes. Also, it takes about 3-4 layers of clear paint to build up a decent amount of color. Until then it seems like you’re just pushing the paint around with a brush. But be patient. Let the clear paint dry completely between coats and eventually the color will build up and will look right. I used Tamiya Clear Red and Orange. The small unpainted rectangle within the lens represents the area where the reverse lights shine through.