Chiefs got his learner plates on!

[chief5437]

Hey fellas

With talk of a racing car GB being bandied around the forum, I got the urge to build one. So I thought I'd have a bit of practice (I'm a learner on cars, lol!) and got myself this bad boy...



Always start a new genre with TAMIYA is what I say!

So, what's under the hood?

One main sprue, in a kind of silver/grey plastic.



A one piece upper 'hull' clear parts moulded in. I'd best mask those off before I scratch them!



One piece lower 'hull'. Is that getting old yet?



Four rubber tyres and poly caps for the running gear.



Set of rather thick feeling decals (usual Tamiya!). Some 'backwards' decals for the tyres. Never used these before! And a precut mask for the windows. Nice touch tamiya, why not include these in your aircraft kits?!



That's what you get for a very reasonable £16 up t'north. Not bad in my book. Kit says its 2009, so shouldn't be any major problems.

This is my first real car build, so go easy on me! It's more for practice/experience than anything. I'll be using whatever paints I have to hand as well. I'm not ready to fork out on civvie, glossy paints just yet, lol!

I'm really looking forward to this though, so wish me luck, and I'll see you on the other side

Ps I promise to keep the armour puns to an absolute minimum from now!

[Joesdad]

Good luck Chiefy old boy

[JonMW]

Will be fun to follow!
Just one thing, the kit is not from 2009, that release and the decals are, but the original kit is from 1989. But could make kits back then as well, I've built a few of the Tamiya Group C cars that they released back then and they are really nice kits so you shouldn't have any problems with that. Those kind of decals for the tires works really well, a lot better then what normal decals would. I used similar ones for my Corvette Grand Sport build last year and showed how I used them in the progress thread, it's somewhere at the bottom of the page http://intscalemodeller.com/viewtopic.p ... 7&start=20

[chief5437]

Will be fun to follow!
Just one thing, the kit is not from 2009, that release and the decals are, but the original kit is from 1989. But could make kits back then as well, I've built a few of the Tamiya Group C cars that they released back then and they are really nice kits so you shouldn't have any problems with that. Those kind of decals for the tires works really well, a lot better then what normal decals would. I used similar ones for my Corvette Grand Sport build last year and showed how I used them in the progress thread, it's somewhere at the bottom of the page http://intscalemodeller.com/viewtopic.p ... 7&start=20

Cheers mate! I'll check that thread out (again! I've been looking at a few car builds on here, lol!) I'm a bit curious as to how to place them accurately?

[Twokidsnosleep]

Proceed

[EasyEight96]

Cool this kit is so hard to get now I'll be watching this closely

[Twokidsnosleep]

The clear plastic is moulded to the main body???
I have never seen that before

[chief5437]

The clear plastic is moulded to the main body???
I have never seen that before

First for me too, lol! And there was me thinking all car kit were like this!

[chief5437]

Quick update on the Porsche.

Got most of the bits assembled, as expected, no fit issues.
I added a few cables to the cab just to tie things together. I used copper wire for this.













Then I put the mask on the windows. This was a bit of a let down, I managed to stretch the windscreen mask enough to fit, but the others will require a bit more work.






That's all for now fellas, thanks for looking in, cheers!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Looking great !!!
You extra details will make this shine, as well as the washes
Good work

[MarkVerploeg]

That is looking mighty fine so far
I really like the interior details and painting
Those late 80's / early 90's Le Mans cars look awesome allthough i would have to say i don't know much about them only that they are fast and look good
But i don't know this type either but i am bad with names and only remember the Porche 917 wich was a older model i think
Anyway i am going off course
Keep up the good work and i will be looking forward to the next update

[chief5437]

Hi fellas

I little bit of progress here. Sprayed the body main colour.



Now I have a question for you car builders

I've sprayed the body in gloss paint, but it doesnt seem as glossy as I expected. I'm used to using Matt paints so I don't have any reference. Is this as glossy as gloss acrylic gets?

Secondly, after my first couple of coats, I started to polish, which smoothed it out, but in trying to get to the hard to reach areas, I kept polishing the edges down to plastic! So now I've got about six coats on.
What I'm thinking of doing is, putting the decals on now, then adding clear enamel varnish, then trying to polish that up to a high shine. Any ideas or advice is most welcome!

Thanks guys!

[Twokidsnosleep]

You will get lots of opinions here
IMHO
Yes, polish the clear....you can use your real car care products, polishes,waxes etc BUT test them out first on an inconspicuous spot
I would decal after you polish b/c if you go through your clear you will be stripping decal...or just don't polish where the decal is


Also, love your paintwork there!!!

[JonMW]

Nice progress!

The problem with acrylic paints is that they usually dry too fast in combination with that most of the airbrushes we use are too small to give a really good glossy finish. Using a enamel clear should be a pretty good and safe finish as long as you don't try to polish it until it's fully dried. Lacquer clears and spray cans can be a bit hot and melt the decals if it's not built up in thin enough layers, enamel and acrylic shouldn't have this problem. Enamel is also good since the longer drying time will allow the clear a bit more time to self level so it will need less polishing. The main ting with the clear is that the last coat needs to be a full wet coat, so allying enough paint so it goes gloss (and not so much that it starts running) and do it to the whole body before it dries in the spot where you started spraying.

To add a differing opinion, I would do the final clear after the decals. Even if the decals wouldn't be as glossy as the paint on the real car, I wouldn't want to risk the edges of the decals lifting with time and then starting to come off, has happened to me on some older builds and shelf of doom builds that I haven't cleared.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Good points on airbrushing and allowing the paint to dry fully, Jon
Just don't put decals on a rough surface, at least a layer of clear to smooth the surface.
There are lots of ways to skin the cat as the saying goes


If I may edit and add a bit of what I usually do after paint
Do a clear layer building up two or three layers, let it dry...like for a week, then decal and then seal them with another clear layer. Now would polish with car products but careful around decals
I use Future as clear since it is cheap and safe

[chief5437]

Thanks very much for the info guys, awesome!

Fingers crossed I can implement it, lol!

[Twokidsnosleep]

I posted this video link before, but it is a really good set of airbrushing videos for techniques

[EasyEight96]

Wow nice job there Cheif!! That tip is gonna be usefull for me later when I want to start my recent purchase the tamiya 1/12 wolf wr1

[Twokidsnosleep]

Wow nice job there Cheif!! That tip is gonna be usefull for me later when I want to start my recent purchase the tamiya 1/12 wolf wr1

I got that one last month as well, Easy

[EasyEight96]

Wow nice job there Cheif!! That tip is gonna be usefull for me later when I want to start my recent purchase the tamiya 1/12 wolf wr1

I got that one last month as well, Easy

Lol wanna have a buddy build for the wolfs?? But after the 15 Aug

[Twokidsnosleep]

Wow nice job there Cheif!! That tip is gonna be usefull for me later when I want to start my recent purchase the tamiya 1/12 wolf wr1

I got that one last month as well, Easy

Lol wanna have a buddy build for the wolfs?? But after the 15 Aug

Sending you a PM

[chief5437]

Hi guys

So I polished this up a little, and got the decals on.





Went out and sprayed three coats of enamel varnish earlier, so that left to dry for now. Fingers crossed it looks ok in the morning. Ready for some Maguires 'ultimate compound'!

Wish me luck!

[JonMW]

Looking really good!

[chief5437]

Looking really good!

Cheers buddy! I must admit, even though it's my own work, I think it's very pretty! I hope it turn out as well as I imagine it, lol!

Really enjoying it so far, so much that I've already ordered my kit for the potential race car GB! Not sure if I'll be able to wait that long though!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Looks great
Let it dry longer than you think it needs....I would leave it until next weekend
Lot of guys put them into a dehydrator to cure the varnishes and allow them to polish
I just let mine sit and don't touch, tuck it into a dust free cabinet

[chief5437]

Looks great
Let it dry longer than you think it needs....I would leave it until next weekend
Lot of guys put them into a dehydrator to cure the varnishes and allow them to polish
I just let mine sit and don't touch, tuck it into a dust free cabinet

Damn! I was itching to start polishing, lol! Was going to try tomorrow, but I'll heed your advice and leave it til next weekend. Thanks for the advice buddy, much appreciated!

[EasyEight96]

Holy cow that's niceeeeeeeeee......... Hands down to you I can't even do that

[Twokidsnosleep]

Looks great
Let it dry longer than you think it needs....I would leave it until next weekend
Lot of guys put them into a dehydrator to cure the varnishes and allow them to polish
I just let mine sit and don't touch, tuck it into a dust free cabinet

Damn! I was itching to start polishing, lol! Was going to try tomorrow, but I'll heed your advice and leave it til next weekend. Thanks for the advice buddy, much appreciated!

Smart man, learn from my stupidity
I jumped at my MGTC the next morning after clear acrylics and polished the clear right off the door I was testing
For the Lotus egg car, I cleared on a Sunday, had a busy week so did not touch it until the following Sunday and by then it was fully cured so shined up nicely

[Rallychef]

Looking great Chief, good job.

Ian D

[Nev]

That looks purty Chiefy

[chief5437]

All done. Not too bad, but I've learnt a lot to think about before my next car build, and that was the main point. Hats off to you car guys, this is a totally different ball game!

Here she is.















Thanks for looking guys, looking forward to the next one!

[Coen]

That's sweet work Chief!!
Really well done buddy.

[Lego]

Oh that's very nice.

Must try one myself one day .........

[EasyEight96]

Bravo its beautiful nice job Chief

[MarkVerploeg]

That is one mean racing machine
Great work Chief

[Twokidsnosleep]

It looks great, well done man

[Liamcraven666]

looking fantastic ! ive got a similar kit to this (the Minolta toyota 88-cv) there fantastic kits and the masks are really useful.