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Vehicles / Sports - 50mm to 120mm
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Displaying Reviews: 1 - 1
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1
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Building this car was quite an experience!
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Reviewer
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Reviewed by Kelly Zak (kellyzak@hotmail.com) February 19, 2003
Building this car was quite an experience, and it tested my modelling skills and patience. (More on that later.)
The first obstacle came when I picked up the body. There was a major crack in it, along the centre of the hood and front bumper. That was taken care of with lots of putty and sanding. The kit itself is a bundle of goodies when opened, very crisp detail (as is usually the case with Tamiya), there are now included coloured tail light lenses so you don't have to paint them, and a small photo-etched fret consisting of side mirrors, inside door latches, headlight lenses, and the rear view mirror. The main goodie of this kit is the inclusion of opening gull-wing doors! But enough of the reviewing, let's get building!
First off, everything was washed in mild soap and left to dry. Then came three coats of primer, I use Painter's Choice white primer, you can get it at Home Depot, for a reasonable price. Then came the painting of the chassis. There isn't much to see underneath, as it is mainly one big skid plate. I sprayed on a mixture of paints to replicate the carbon fiber look. This mixture consisted of a 60-30-10 ratio of semi-gloss black, gold leaf, and flat aluminum. (I used Tamiya paints here). The suspension is straight forward, and went on without a hitch. Being that this is a curbside model, there is no engine. Onto the interior. The interior is carbon fibered, and received a couple of coats of my paint mixture. At this time, I had prepped the body for painting. The kit includes window maskings, and masking templates for the two-toned paint job. First, I sprayed Tamiya's TS-26 Pure White with about 9 coats, starting with mist coats, then working to thicker ones. ! I set this aside to dry for a few weeks. Back to the interior and chassis. The kit comes with excellent brakes and rims. Once the brakes were painted, I took a little bit of 600 grit sandpaper and scored the discs, to give the worn look. A thin wash of flat black around the hub lug nuts made them stand out.
Reference pictures for the dashboards and the rest of the interior are a little hard to find, I managed to find a partial shot of the dashboard, but not too much to work with. The dash is carbon fibered as well, but I did not' want to use my paint mixture; I wanted something that stood out. So, I purchased some carbon fiber decals for the dash, and rear dash. After making templates out of masking tape, I did the entire dashboard, steering column, and the rear dash. I used Scale Motor Sport Carbon Decals, and they worked quite well, as this was my first time using them, I did not know what to expect. Lots of Decal Set and Decal Solvent made them conform to tight curves very well. The driver's seat received Scale Motor Sport's seat belt hardware. I didn't like the seat belt material they provided, so what I use is the wrapping ribbon that you can buy at Michaels, and other craft stores. The width is a little wide for the hardware, so you have to trim ab! out a mm off to fit them. This isn't always the best idea, as the material can fray, and I am in search for smaller ribbon.
Back to the body. The paint has pretty much cured by now, and some light sanding is done to get rid of the dreaded orange peel. Tamiya's spray paints are excellent, and I have very little peel to deal with. Once smooth, I started masking off for the next colour, TS-47, Chrome Yellow. The same process was done as with the white, and the body set aside again to dry. The tires were done at this time as well. I sprayed the rims with gloss aluminum, and turned out very well. I sanded the tires for that worn look and proceeded to paint a small area of the tire wall clear gloss. This would be a base for the dry transfer logos. I have a neat trick that makes the decal look like the decal is actually part of the tire. Once the clear gloss has dried, and the decal is on, I put a coat of Micro Scale Flat over top to seal the decal. After dried, this still looks glossy, but now I add a coat of Testors Flat Lacquer. Make sure that before you add lacquer, the tires are mounted on t! he hubs, this helps because once the lacquer is dried, any fiddling will cause cracks, and you pretty much have to start over again. If done properly, the outcome is very realistic!
The roll cage was assembled, and I used white glue around the joints to simulate weld lines. I sprayed the cage with light gunmetal and installed it. A note: The rear dash is a bit too long and the edges need to be trimmed in order for the body to sit right. So now the entire chassis is complete and now to move full time to the body. By this time, the paint had completely cured. After sanding everything smooth with a polishing kit, I was ready for some decaling. Here is where everything started to go to heck. 99% of the decals went on with no problem. One decal for the door proceeded to disintegrate while trying to make it snug into the door handle. This was a major decal too. Then while getting ready to mask the windows for painting, I broke the rear window. After much cursing, I didn't know what to do. Bil Attridge put me in touch with Borgfeldt Canada, and soon I had a new rear window. (Thanks again Bil!) Since my decal problem was not solved, I was pretty much forced to get a brand new kit, soon to be assembled with some after market decals for different car sponsorship. New decal in place, I attempted to attach the body to the frame. More problems. There is a tow hook at the rear, which has a clip above it for the body to attach to. I recommend cutting this off and leaving the tow hook. The clip also interferes with the way the body sits. Once gone, the body will sit level. Also, when attaching the doors, make sure you do not tighten the screws too much, or the doors will not open.
Okay, time for wax! I found this by chance, on my other Opel car, the orange Opel Team Holzer car. I bought some Mequire's Step 3 wax and used it on the body. The results were good, but I thought it could use more shine. So I put two coats of Tamiya model wax on top of the Mequire's, and what a difference! Nice glossy finish!
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7
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people found this review helpful
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