Tamiya Enzo build

[Johnj]

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Body panels just taped in place for masking the two stripes from front to back. I just hope the panels fit in this exact position when all the hinges are in place or these stripes won't line up.


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something like this.

[Johnj]

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All masked off for the first stripe. I just hope these all line up

[Johnj]

[Johnj]

something has gone wrong. when i de-masked the centre white border i noticed the molded indentation at the very front of the nose was about 1mm from the green border and it should have been almost zero. I know 1mm is a small amount but you would definitely notice it not lining up when the bonnet/hood is down. I have made sure the masking for the red stripe is correct and i'll have to sort out the green even if it means flattening it out altogether. I have been really lucky with the base coat of pearl white as it has come out without anything getting trapped in it which is a miner miracle. no doubt the 'room' is saving it up for the 2k clear.I have my fingers and toes crossed already !!!!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Complicated painting work...good luck

[Johnj]

Complicated painting work...good luck

hi scott, i've made life hard for myself. when i started the masking i used 6mm tamiya tape right down the middle of the car using the nbr plate mounting holes at the rear and the indentation where the little rectangle ferrari badge goes for centering the front. so 6mm between the colours in the middle and the colours are 14mm wide. so far so good ! The trouble started when i wanted to reduce the 6mm in the centre to 4mm and make the coloured stripe's 15mm, that way the proportions would be better but the masking on the very outside of the stripes would not need to be redone. still not sure what went wrong lol.

[Johnj]

[Twokidsnosleep]

See, now that is looking AWESOME!!!

[Johnj]

See, now that is looking AWESOME!!!

Thanks scott. your comments and advice are greatly appreciated.

[Kevthemodeller]

It most certainly is

[Johnj]

It most certainly is

thanks kev

[Johnj]

hopefully the final upgrade set. The dampers in the kit are off the rubber sprue that the luggage is molded from and are really poor moldings. if i could have bought just the four brass dampers i would have but it wasnt to be.

[Johnj]

i was gonna call it a day with the carbon decals but i realised it was only the underside of the bonnet and engine cover to do so i decided just to do it, and i realised i still had a couple of un-opened sheets YAY

[Johnj]

My intention was to only use the brass turned dampers and only in the rear engine compartment as, the front would mean a heavy strip-down to get to them ,but the ali struts have a thread turned into them as per the real car that the stock kit parts just dont have.
i will spend the time to use the whole set. I'm in this deep now anyway it would be madness to cut corners at this late stage.


The large fret on the right and the small one get painted black.

[Twokidsnosleep]

In for a penny, in for a pound...old saying from my childhood

[Johnj]

In for a penny, in for a pound...old saying from my childhood

yeah, lol. or 42 of them in this latest instalment

i have a bit of a dilemma scott. every part of the kit is painted now including the clear parts for the lights. it's only the body panels that need to be cleared with the 2k. I need to set myself up for doing that as i dont have anywhere dedicated for that task. do i just do the outside of the panels and then a couple of weeks later do the inside over the carbon decals on the bonnet and engine cover. ? or just do the clearcoating in the one sitting. Front and back for only those two panels. can you think of any issue i might have by both sides of those two panels being airbrushed at the same time ? (provided i can find some way of holding them while being airbrushed)

[Twokidsnosleep]

In for a penny, in for a pound...old saying from my childhood

yeah, lol. or 42 of them in this latest instalment

i have a bit of a dilemma scott. every part of the kit is painted now including the clear parts for the lights. it's only the body panels that need to be cleared with the 2k. I need to set myself up for doing that as i dont have anywhere dedicated for that task. do i just do the outside of the panels and then a couple of weeks later do the inside over the carbon decals on the bonnet and engine cover. ? or just do the clearcoating in the one sitting. Front and back for only those two panels. can you think of any issue i might have by both sides of those two panels being airbrushed at the same time ? (provided i can find some way of holding them while being airbrushed)

Hmm
My gut reaction is one side at a time just for handling purposes. I am an admitted paint fondler
The 2k is so sticky you don't want to be touching it for a day or so and keep it from dust.
After a couple days it would be dry enough for the flip side to clear.
Unless you can rig the panels to have access to all sides at once and then right into a cupboard to dry

[Johnj]

It was a nice idea to do it all in one go but i agree with you, one side at a time as any issues could be a nightmare to correct. As it would turn out, my hand was forced anyway as i needed to touch up the red on the roof part of the door. I was swearing more when i noticed the door touch-up than i have in the whole 50yrs i have had on this planet !!!!!!

[Johnj]

aw crap ! looks like i have more panels to clear coat. I completely forgot all about these as the chassis has been tucked away in a box for a few weeks while i worked on the exterior.

[JoaquinGM]

WOW
This is awesome.

[Johnj]

WOW
This is awesome.

Thank you kind sir

[onemanclapping]

Wow, such attention to detail and being able to pull it off so well.
Awesome job so far.

[Johnj]

Wow, such attention to detail and being able to pull it off so well.
Awesome job so far.

Thank you my intention at the start was to replicate every nut and bolt as far as possible but as the build has went on my enthusiasm has dwindled

[Johnj]

This is the first chance i've had to look at the clearcoat in natural daylight and it has 'orange peeled' quite badly. The bonnet has the worst of it so i had no choice but to flatten and polish.

I have only polished half of it as you can see but it has come out really well. If i can get the whole car as good as this i'll be over the moon !


It's really hard to show it in a picture. I'll try it again in daylight.

[Johnj]

you can see it better here but it has also shown up two fair size scratches ! I used a tamiya 2000 grit foam backed sheet to remove the orange peel and all the low spots (the shiny bits) then the 3 grades of tamiya polishing compounds.
I'm pretty sure i can get this a whole lot better using micro mesh down to 12000 if need be.


Here is a zoomed in screenshot of the deeper scratches

[Johnj]

They have given you four holes in one of the PE sheets to help with masking the brass dampers. nice touch from T2m

[Johnj]

The spring adjusters get painted black. i hope i can get the decals for them off the kit plastic parts.

[Johnj]

There really are slots in these simulated screws for the damper !

[JoaquinGM]

Looks great!!

[Johnj]

Looks great!!

Thanks buddy. I'm quite enjoying the build again after a few months of torment with it lol

[Johnj]

speaking to gary (Rossi m1) a while back in this thread he was pretty sure these access panels were aluminium. Having them silver will help break up the all over carbon on that part of the car.
I drilled a .5mm hole through the centre of the molded bolts/studs, or as close as i could as they were really small. I flattened what i couldnt cut of with the sprue cutters with a coarse Ultimate thinny stick.
I'm hoping i can use aluminium foil for the hatch because if i cant, it's gonna be a load of work to get the surface good enough for paint.

[kpisnuts]

Wow that is some build.

[Johnj]

Wow that is some build.

Cheers KP
Although the bolts are minute in your hands, looking at the finished panel they do look a bit on the big side.
Unfortunately you dont get to see any of it as there is a body panel right over the top of it.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Holy shite those are small
This thing is going to be amazing nose to tail when you get her done

[Johnj]

Holy shite those are small
This thing is going to be amazing nose to tail when you get her done

Thanks scott you have been a great help with ideas, suggestions and motivation right from the start of this kit and just general positive input for which i cant thank you enough

I've spent all day assembling the up-grade shocks and dampers. the brass dampers have five pieces of PE to be applied plus those tiny tiny screws. I could have done with a microscope, the parts were just too small !!!!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Ya bud, no worries for the support.
I know how hard it is when you get so involved deep in a detailed build
This is going to be awesome

[Johnj]

Ya bud, no worries for the support.
I know how hard it is when you get so involved deep in a detailed build
This is going to be awesome

I took this pic after changing one of the up-grade shocks and dampers to see the difference and was it enough to justify the extra work and money. i'll need to touch up the black before final install.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Ok so that is the car, let see your model



Looks that good mate

[Johnj]

Ok so that is the car, let see your model



Looks that good mate

Ah, your far too kind scott !

Tamiya provide these damper units that are fitted to the doors to stop them springing open at warp speed ! They were also included with the carrara GT on the rear spoiler but they are not well matched as one side comes up before the other. I may at somepoint see if i can get a close pair out of the four for the GT.

[Johnj]

The wheels are chrome from the kit but as i'm changing them to black with a red pinstripe on the rim they got the bleach treatment.
I have detail air valves that i bought when i was ordering other detail parts that I'd like to use.






I'll need to drill out the moulded valve then it will be the point of no return !

[Johnj]

Not sure if they actually add anything over the molded plastic valves but i will use them so it's not another complete waste of the hard earned. they might look better when the wheel is semi gloss black

[Johnj]

This red is a lovely deep rich colour that i'll probably use on the la ferrari kit's.



primed and with a bright red rim.


I'll need to dig out the circle cutter to mask the red.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Black with a red pinstripe are my favourite wheels...until you curb the suckers and scratch the $*#^ out of them
Do you have that super duper circle cutter, the aluminum red one from Asia???

[Johnj]

Black with a red pinstripe are my favourite wheels...until you curb the suckers and scratch the $*#^ out of them
Do you have that super duper circle cutter, the aluminum red one from Asia???

Ah, scott ! you didnt ????? is that on your current car ?
Na, it's just one of those cheap plastic cutters. I just dont use it enough to justify the high cost.

[Johnj]

kind of looks like cup cake's

[Johnj]

This was tougher to do than i thought. The red stripe doesnt need to be out much at that size and you notice it a mile away.

[Johnj]

couldnt resist a quick mock-up now the wheels are painted.
I know i was taking a gamble with moving away from the usuall red, black and yellow body colour but i think it was worth the risk. I wont know for sure till it's done 100%

[ElCapitan]

Looking great John. I agree that the paint colour gamble has paid off and it'll look amazing when it's finished.

[Johnj]

Looking great John. I agree that the paint colour gamble has paid off and it'll look amazing when it's finished.

Thanks Rob
I'm looking forward to seeing how the doors work with the springs and dampers. There's still a fair amount still to be done, probably a month's work left.

[Gary30]

Definitely worth the gamble on the paint scheme, looks great!