Marks BMW M3 DTM 2012 Build

[SprueSurgeon]

This is the SprueSurgeon (aka Mark/PhotoMorph) build thread for the German Sportscar build, i have chosen Revell kit number 07178 BMW M3 DTM 2012 "Bruno Spengler".
I saw this kit in my local model shop for £22.99, it was the last one left, knowing our model shop can sometimes be expensive i checked on Amazon and ebay with my phone, it soon became clear id found something of a rare find, there were plenty of merc etc with the same labelling but the BMW ones were all around £40 and mostly out of stock! i took no further convincing and left a very happy customer.

20170916_120339 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
My KIt, all ready to build, there is a review on my channel for the kit itself.

[DrSprue]

Really cool Mark. So important to support our LHS's Even if the price is the same or even slightly higher really. Your deal was excellent tho. I would sill bye from them. We only have 1 in our city (notice I said city and not town). So sad to see mom and pop shops go out of business against the greed of huge distribution chains....

I will be watching this build, looks really cool. The review was cool as well!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Ooooooo I like this one, Mark
Reminds me of a race version of my car....well a bit of it anyhow

Definitely following along
The kit is very hard to find and expensive when found! So you did indeed get a good deal

[bfrd]

I am a fan of rimsavers too!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Hey, those are nice on a Smokin orange Lexus, nice
Mine are painted rims...had 'em before the darn trend started with the rimsavers....yours look really good, tight and not bulky like others I have seen
If you look closely, my passenger rear rim is freaking destroyed...I curbed it the day before I took them off to change for my winter rims

I watched most of the M3 video Mark....was bedtime so will have to finish it off
Revell has always succeeded in disappointing me with their car kits, so be prepared
If this were a Tamiya or Fujimi kit it would be amazing

[SprueSurgeon]

To kick this build off my first step was going to be prepping the body, for this i used the green sided buffer which is 12000 grit (unless you are Guys) i gently buff all over the car using water to help stop the dust scratching and stop it from blowing everywhere. once done i decided to change tactics a little bit and venture into a taboo area, i'm going to prime the car off the Sprue but prime everything else on the Sprue!!! let us see how it goes.
I have sprayed everything in Ultimate Grey

20170916_130415 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Step 1 sand the bodywork

i then start removing parts of the sprue for the next phase, as in the image below i take the parts off away from the edge of the part and then remove closer to the part and sand flush when off the sprue, that way there will be no unwanted damage from stressing the plastic.

20170919_015752 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Cut sprue gates away from parts.

20170918_200219 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Then trim and sand back when the part is released from the sprue.

Firstly the engine needs assembling, this is a straight forward process for this kit as there are not a great many parts, those that there are, will be glued together, left to cure the have there joins sanded down and then painted with avaiety of tones from Tamiyas Flat Alluminium to Revells Silky Matt black and as a contrast MRP Chrome Silver, once i'd reached the end of stage 6 i had an engine built by step 9 i also had the radiators painted and then installed them along with the engine.

20170918_194852 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Engine built and painted.

20170918_194940 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
The twin radiators partly painted.

The instructions are now telling me to assemble the front steering/suspension next and in another departure im going to brush paint these parts with Tamiya and get comparable results!

1. Shake Tamiya very well
2. Open lid and set bottle to one side
3. add TWO (2) drops of MLT to the inside of the Tamiya lid
4. Mix contents of lid with the MLT drops
5. Your ready to paint.

This method is great for small parts and done properly can give you fantastic results.
In step 9 take care as there is a minimum amount of glue used, and heat is used in the form of a flat bladed screwdriver heated up and used to melt the pins on the back of the joists.

20170918_231457 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Brush painting with these items can give surprising results.

20170920_111903_009 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr

20170920_111942 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Engine, Radiators and suspension in Situ

20170919_202039 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Here we can see the pins heated and melted flat instead of gluing as shown in step 9 of the instruction manual.

And to finish todays entry i'm just going to add the exhaust ducting so i can seat the chrome exhaust tips, i normally dechrome these (exhaust tips) parts, but its qite a good finish and is going to be barely visible, these were easily fitted.

20170920_111932 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Exhaust rims and ducting in situ.

[SprueSurgeon]

Thanks to Dr Sprue for reminding me to put a link in the thread to a video review of this kit. Normal service now resumes!!

[youtube]mLDgJGdm6OM[/youtube]

[DrSprue]

Thanks to Dr Sprue for reminding me to put a link in the thread to a video review of this kit. Normal service now resumes!!

[youtube]mLDgJGdm6OM[/youtube]

No Problem Mark!! Thats why they call me THE....DOCTOR!!

[SprueSurgeon]

To start with i needed to add all the wheel arches which also formed the side skirts at the base, these were glued in place and left to cure overnight before they were cleaned up.

20170924_142255 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Wheel arches ready to be attached to the body.

The next step for me to tackle was going to be the brakes and wheels, the instructions had the brake pads as black and the discs as a black gloss, i deviated from this, Why?
Well first i checked the wheels to see what would be visible through them and from that it was obvious that the brakes would be a bigger feature than first thought, with that in mind i painted a set of discs and placed them behind a wheel to see how they would look, after that i sprayed all the other discs in MRP Alluminum and then hand painted the brake pads on with Mig Jiminezes Bright Red oilbrusher, I was extremely pleased with the results, these were then added to the wheel rims which were just painted with Ultimate Gloss primer, tyres added and then attached to the hubs with a polycap in each to allow rotation.

20170924_225059 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Brake Pads and Discs Ready for spraying.

20170925_114045 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Brake discs all painted and decaled up, ready for assembly.

20170925_203440 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Wheel and Brake Assembly

20170925_191657 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
A quick look through the manual showed that the exhausts were actually black not chrome... doh!

20170925_191724 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Remember these Black Skirts/Trim/whatever you call them

20170925_192221 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
well now its time to get the decals added to them and the tyres

20171002_112817 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Its Official, wheel decals are AWESOME!!

20170927_200611 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
I started to piece together the cockpit area, by adding the seat to the tub and a few little bits and pieces that represent the electronic boxes etc.

20170928_212752 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
These were all painted by hand and also had decals added to give even more authenticity.

20170929_224640 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Finally the neck supports, dashboard and other safety equipment gets added, the tub/cockpit is now ready for adding to the body.

20170930_132132 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
I now switch my focus to the bodywork, by first working on the bonnet/hood

20170930_132222 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
I added the headlights & detailed them by hand, i then added the front glass to the lights and covered with maskol to protect them during painting etc.

20170930_134835 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Air flow ducting qwas finally added on the inside of the Bonnet/hood

20170930_192325 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Light Lenses masked, and then all the body parts came together and were glued and then the body sprayed with just Ultimate black gloss primer, after curing for a few days the bodywork was then decalled

20171002_112703 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
After the body was decalled it was just a case of putting the parts together, pop on over to the final reveal posts for the finished results.

20171003_194833 by Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Finished More pics in the final reveal thread.