Told You I Was Busy - Porsche 911

 Once the Land Rover was done I made a start on the Porsche 911. This one didn't have as many pieces as others but still has a few.

Purchased a few paints before I started. Interior paint, Filler, the red and white for the Land Rover and the Porsche's colour of Carbon Grey. It is an expensive looking dark grey with metallic silver flecks in it. I think this is the perfect colour for the 911. 

Let's start with the chassis as I always do. Semi gloss black with metallic accents and some chrome exhausts. 

The interior came as mostly one piece, save the dashboard and front seats, so that was painted semi gloss black and the the rear seats were painted with the interior grey paint with a splash of gloss black to darken it. Dashboard and wheel all semi gloss black, front seats, again with the interior now dark grey. 

I accented the interior seats and some of the interior side panels with more interior paint. This time blue. I thought this would look classy and also pretty cool. The carpet was blue fleck and, once put together, I think it looks pretty darn cool. I added the blue rear seatbelts for that extra detail. 

I then had an idea for the wheels. They were meant to be chrome with gloss black interior but I thought it would be cool to accent the rims with some transparent blue, complementing the interior. Turned out pretty good, its a chrome blue rim set. 

Next was the body work. I was determined to try to remove as much of the orange peel effect as I could, so I made sure the Prime coat was well sanded and smooth as could be. 

Once I was happy with the primer, I applied the base colour of gloss black and made sure that was smooth as can be before applying the top colour of Carbon Grey. Then I applied the Diamond Gloss coat and here is where the orange peel emerged. This frustrated me as I was very careful to make sure everything was smooth and properly done. It was clear the peel effect was in the Gloss coat. 

I started off by sanding the roof with 2000 grit sand paper, hoping that would get rid of it. However once I sanded it, the gloss had dulled and it seemed miscoloured. I thought I had screwed it up and suspected I had to respray the roof. On the off chance I decided to use some polishing compound on the roof to see if it would come back up. It Did! The roof started to gleam and 90% of the orange peel had gone. With that IU sanded down the rest of the body work, this time working up from 1000 grit  to 2000, then 5000 and finally 7000 to really smooth out the gloss coat. I finished up with all three stages of polishing compound applied  by hand and then machined with my polishing tool to get a final gloss coat, smooth, shinny and free of orange peel. I had finally done it. Only wish I had learnt this sooner but as I have said before, these models are about learning as much as building. 

The next steps will come soon. 

Shh Don't Tell My Dad!

 I know I have been a bit quiet recently, that only means I have been busy. I am, again, building a gift for my Dad's birthday. It'll be his 60th this year so I thought something a little bigger this year. I have been quiet because I have been working on his gift and I didn't want to show it till It was time but I just can't hold off just don't show him this page till it's his Birthday *laughs*

I am going to build a series 3 Land Rover - Hampshire Fire Truck. Lets look in the box.

That's a lot of parts but this is going to be fun. I shall, as always, start with the chassis and interior. 

Lots of detailed work on these small parts. The dashboard looks great and the textured paint seats really pop. Interior detail is always the hardest to see when the model is complete and it requires close inspection to see it all. This is no different but when it is noticed, it will really make the difference. 

Next up the body work.

That's all the parts that require lacquer properly primed and sanded, next step colour coat.

 The colour is Coca Cola Red with a gloss white stripe. It looks pink right now but Zero Paints always require the gloss coat to really finish it off. So with that, how about that Diamond Clear coat.

Now the colour really pops. A nice red, perfect for the fire truck. It's had the chassis and interior installed and the details have been painted. The decals were put on prior to gloss coating so they shine just as much as the paint work. I'm still getting some 'orange peel' effect but I later learnt how to deal with that but while I built this model, the solution still eluded me. 

 Here we are with the roof installed. I am pretty pleased with it so far. I even managed to highlight the panels as best as I could. Next I need to paint and install the extra parts such as the ladders and pipes. 

 

And Voila! The Series 3 Land Rover - Hampshire Fire and Rescue Truck. Now that's usually as far as I go, apart from fitting my models into a display case but seeing as this one is for a special gift I added something special to the case. 

 

That's the model done. Complete with a brass etched plaque that reads "Series III Land Rover - Hampshire Fire & Rescue Truck

Built By Karl Oliver - Happy 60th Birthday Dad"

I'm hoping he will really like this. As always, a few errors along the way and things I could do better and have learnt along the way but it's always a learning experience. This was a fun model with a lot of extra parts and took quite a while to complete. But this is one I am very proud of.