It's been a while since I last updated my Blog here but that doesn't mean there hasn't been any progress. In fact, there has been quite a bit of progress. Not as much as I had hoped by now but this year has been kind of difficult.
Anyway, here's what's been happening. Last Update I showed the body work sprayed in the base colour red. Here it is once I had applied the gloss coat. The gloss coat is a lacquer 2K Dimond coat. It looks pretty darn good although I wish the camera picked up the proper red colour and not make it look pink.
The rest of the parts had to be pieced out, cleaned and base coated. The model has 70 pieces so I couldn't spray them all at once but here are the majority of the parts all pieced off the sprew, cleaned and base coated.
I realy enjoy using the airbrush. Now I have learnt how to use and clean it properly with thicker paints. Once the pieces were base coated, they had to be sprayed up in the relevant colours. The first major part of the model I will be putting together is the chassis and engine. Putting the wheels on was the tricky part. When I used to make model cars when I was young, impatient and with wobbly fingers, I could never get the wheels to turn, let alone steer properly. However, with patience and a LOT less glue than I used to use, I managed it and I was very pleased. So once the pieces were sprayed I put the chassis together.
This was tricky but nothing I wasn't used to. The painted engine blocks, didnt quite work out as well as I had hoped but all they needed was an extra smidge of gloss coat. The tricky part was yet to come.
Now for the interior. This had to be perfect, considering it was highly detailed and would be on show as one of the major parts of the car, so I wanted it to look spot on.
First issue was the floor pan. In the actual car, it is constructed from Carbon Fibre. However, you can't 'paint' carbon fibre and I really wanted it to be accurate. So I purchased a scaled Carbon Fibre decal sheet. However, it just comes in a single complete sheet and the model does not come with any templates for the floor pan so I had to make my own. I used masking tape and masked up all the areas and carefully cut the mask accurately for each and every surface that need the decals. I then removed, carefully the mask, stuck it to the decal sheet and cut the decal by hand before applying to the surface using decal fix and decal softener to get the perfect fit. It took hours to fully Carbonise each and every surface of the floor pan, including the wheel wells and once I had gloss coated the decals and touched up the edges, it was worth it. It looked amazing.
In the real car, the centre console and the dash board are carpeted, again, something that doesn't come out with paint alone. Therefore, I had to purchase some fine carpet black flock. I coated the surfaces with gloss coat and sprinkled on the flock to give the surfaces that carpet effect. It was fairly easy to do but the flock is so fine it just gets everywhere and seems to stick to everything with static, so pretty tough to clean off the excess.
I had a small issue with the gear shift. I had painted it and when i came to put it into the model, it sprung from the clip and vanished into thin air. Dang it! I was never going to find something that small ever again. So instead, I took a wooden toothpick and, using my Dremal, carved out a new gear stick. Phew!
The seats were next. Prior to painting them, I had to grind off the moulded seat belts. They looked terrible and I had purchased some etched metal ones, that look much better and are far more detailed, so I really wanted to use those. I painted the whole seats red and then had to apply more carbon fibre decals to the backs of them, as the real seats are made from Carbon fibre. I was concerned the decals wouldn't mould around the shape of the seats but the decal softener worked wonders here.
The seat belts were incredibly fiddly and small. The belt connectors were tiny and I was so afraid that one or more would just spring off into the void. Making the belts took so much concentration and patience and eventually I had them compete. Now to put it all together for a complete interior but not before I add the door 'handles'. Well I say handles.... In the real car they are nothing more than a pull cord. Well it is a sports car. I achieved this easily but using some flower arranging wire.
Well that's the cockpit. Now to fix it to the chassis. Got to do this right or the bodywork will not sit properly, so here we go...!
Here we are. Chassis and interior all fixed together. I am very pleased with the result so far. It looks pretty cool and very detailed, although somewhat like a go cart. So next up, the bodywork needs to be married to the chassis. I just love the carbon fibre effect, I was worried it wouldn't really show but its does, albeit subtle.
Next time, I will be adding the bodywork.
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