once decalling was finished i turned my attention to getting the top coat down, the top gloss coat needs to be as flat and clear as possible, for those that have a dedicated set up and no animals in the vacinity to speak of should probably look to a 2K set up such as zero paints diamond finish available for around £28 available from zero paints (they also have a cheaper version in their range for around £21) However i have small pets and a very small basic extractor so this was a definite no go, the two choices i had were Tamiyas X22 clear gloss or Mr Color GX100, the later has a slightly better track record in the results are and after careful thought and listening to all the hangout members i decided on GX100, i followed the below.
Spray a VERY light mist coat
Allow to dry for 15 minutes
Another Light coat
Allow to dry for a further 15 minutes
Spray a normal top coat
Allow to dry for 30 minutes
Spray with a WET coat
allow 2 minutes
give a light spray over of MLT (Mr Levelling Thinner)
LEAVE FOR A MINIMUM OF 72 hours
After the car had been left i checked on it and noticed it had one of the worst cases of orange peel i had seen, ( picture below, orange peel is when the finish resembles that of an orange)
i was lucky i had put so many levels of top coat on this meant i could sand back the poor finish and not damge the decals, which i proceeded to do straight away
20170904_104806 by
Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Unfortunately my first attempt with GX100 was less than successful
Once sanded back i had a nice smooth finish and re applied GX100 with the same rules i applied above.
With that out the way i added the door cards to either side of the car and went around and made sure everything was ok, it was at this point that i started to paint the window wipers, wing mirrors and door handels.
20170904_111400 by
Mark Johnson, on Flickr
I had to smooth everything out so i could respray, i had to be careful not to sand into the decals.
72 HOURS LATER
The crystal parts were now carefuklly removed from there respective sprues and were then masked and primed with Ultimate black primer and followed by XF85 Tamiya Black rubber.
After this the clear panels were added to the bodywork using Micro Krystal Klear to seat them in position and avoid fogging or damaging the glass and once that had set i went around the edges with micro krystal klear to seal the edges and give a stronger join.
20170909_123501 by
Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Wing mirrors were among some of the smaller pieces that would be affixed last.
20170909_122433 by
Mark Johnson, on Flickr
The windows were masked primed with Ultimate primer and then sprayed with XF85 Tamiya Black rubber
20170909_122901 by
Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Internally the windows were sealed with Micro Krystal Klear although any PVA mix will do.
20170909_122409 by
Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Brake lights etc were painted in clear variantsa of Tamiya and Revell paint
All that remained was to paint the rear brake light and indicator lights in there respective colours and add them too the car, the headlights went in next again with krystal klear along with there klear covers and FINALLY we place the car shell onto the floor plan and we are done.
You can go and see the finished images of the car build in the reveal section of the build threads
This has been a great build with a kit bought for me by a great man and in return built and dedicated to a fantastic friend, great bloke and all round crazy fatherless person Sam Mccord!
20170909_195947 by
Mark Johnson, on Flickr
Sam Mccord