[Bigasshammm]

Got this started yesterday. Will work on it more today probably. Probably won't take me too long but I am not sure yet whether I'll be painting the green or not. They give you decals for it but that doesn't always work out. I may use the decals as a masking template.

That's a ways off though since the rear engine cover is removable there's work to do in the business end.

pics later.

[Bigasshammm]

If anyone else has this kit and plans to build it (and why shouldn't you it's really cheap) I just stumbled across the holy grail of reference photos.

My link

If only everything I searched for had a site like that one. Wow

[Bigasshammm]

Sprayed some alclad today to get things started

[Bigasshammm]

Lots of progress but no pictures taken. Engine's mostly built and being detailed. Using the pics from that site I found and ignoring the instructions. Assembled nose cone and various other body pieces. Sanded seams where there shouldn't be any and tried to minimize some of the joins where there is a seam there but not that big. Shot it all with white primer to prepare for body paint.

Snafu'd painting the body today. First time using the Tamiya rattle cans and boy that paint comes out fast and thin. Built up too much chrome yellow and it ran all over the place. Will have to let it dry and sand the body back down and then dust it with paint instead. I don't think I can pull off decanting a can so I'll have to use the spray method.

More later.
Maybe I'll take pics soon too. Been a rough week or two with the family and work so my desire is low.

[HOLMES]

BAH

I am going to enjoy seeing the pics as this soundslike a great build that you have commenced..

Looking good so far

[Bigasshammm]

Yea I like how the engine's coming together. I'll take some pics of it when it's done here soon.
Also done the radiators and a few other minor things.
The bodywork will stall this build significantly now that I have to let it dry n cure and then sand and repaint.
Plus I then have to mask and paint the green because I don't trust using the giant decals.
I'll work on the GT40 during that time.

[Bigasshammm]

Engine's mostly done.

Here's the real thing


And the kit engine





It's missing a lot of the plumbing as can be seen but generally it's fairly accurate to the real thing. I may get another one of these at some time and try to super detail the engine since they're so cheap. I didn't paint the inside of the air box since I'll be glueing the intake on.

Well just test fit the engine and the engine cover on the body pan. The small bodypanels that connect to the engine need some tweaking. Not my favorite part of the construction process. Wish they could have thought of something different

This post has been edited by Bigasshammm: 06 March 2012 - 02:48 PM

[2qwik4u]

Nice. The engine is always one of my favorite parts of the build, especially on a Tamiya kit.

Going back to your body work, yellow is always a real pain to paint. Make sure you lay down a nice white primer coat, and then build up the color coats on that. The key with yellow is going very slowly, especially with the chrome yellow. Use many, many thin coats instead of a couple thick ones. Otherwise, the color will pull away from any panel lines and corners and look terrible.

-Dave

[Bigasshammm]

 2qwik4u, on 06 March 2012 - 02:34 PM, said:

Nice. The engine is always one of my favorite parts of the build, especially on a Tamiya kit.

Going back to your body work, yellow is always a real pain to paint. Make sure you lay down a nice white primer coat, and then build up the color coats on that. The key with yellow is going very slowly, especially with the chrome yellow. Use many, many thin coats instead of a couple thick ones. Otherwise, the color will pull away from any panel lines and corners and look terrible.

-Dave

Yea I found that out. It's not as bad as I originally thought but still needs some attention and respray. I will definitely mist cotes on from a much greater distance the next time. The green is also a Tamiya rattle can and it sprayed beautifully.

[Bigasshammm]

Not much to report.
Been polishing, sanding, and repainting where needed the chrome yellow. Had to get another can last week.
It's almost there but the fun hasn't even begun. Now I have to make masks for all the green and get that painted on. I don't even want to attempt the decals. So i'm going to attempt two methods
1: trace the decals with tracing paper. Lay over Model and tape rest then remove the tracing paper and paint the green.
2: scan decals and print out and cut those out. This will be easier but maybe not as normal paper is harder to conform to the curves as tracing paper will do.
I don't have a working printer so therefore I cant print to tracing paper.

Anyway there's all that to do plus mask everything and paint all the undersides black and metallic as they should be.

So while all that's going on I think I'll start another huge project in the F-16 I've been wanting to build.

[2qwik4u]

Make sure that you lay down another primer coat over the yellow before you put the green on. Otherwise the yellow underneath will tint the green and it won't match the parts you've already sprayed.

-Dave

[IrishGreek]

That engine looks pretty good! Looking forward to seeing more pictures.

[Bigasshammm]

 2qwik4u, on 15 March 2012 - 05:42 PM, said:

Make sure that you lay down another primer coat over the yellow before you put the green on. Otherwise the yellow underneath will tint the green and it won't match the parts you've already sprayed.

-Dave

Yeah I didn't do that. lol but the only thing I had painted green were the sideplates that come out of the engine so it shouldn't be too bad or noticeable. If it is then whatever. I used the tissue like paper that they put as a protective barrier as my tracing paper and traced all the green decals. Since the engine cover was completely painted and polished I cut out it's decals and laid them on. Then I masked around it and masked all the exposed yellow. Got a couple passes of the green on and it's looking good so far. Will probably not remove the masking till tomorrow or Saturday.
I still have to give the monocoque a few days to cure and be polished before I can start masking it for the green. So far so good.

 IrishGreek, on 15 March 2012 - 06:40 PM, said:

That engine looks pretty good! Looking forward to seeing more pictures.

Thanks! Lot's to do still but that small part is pretty much complete.

[Bigasshammm]

Well the engine cover turned out pretty good. This will get polished in about a week or so. I'm happy the lines turned out pretty crisp.



The monocoque is going to take some time.

[Bigasshammm]

Alright green is done. Very happy with result except for one line on the monocoque. Not sure how I'll fix that yet. Everything needs a week or so till it can be polished.




you can see offending line in this shot



Much still to do.

[Iron Man]

 Bigasshammm, on 20 March 2012 - 05:51 PM, said:

Alright green is done. Very happy with result except for one line on the monocoque. Not sure how I'll fix that yet. Everything needs a week or so till it can be polished.




you can see offending line in this shot



Much still to do.

Great job on the Ben. How much undercoat do you have underneath? Do you think a very sharp toothpick would do the trick on that one line?

[dmthamade]

How do you polish the paint? Wondering how you achieve that super smooth glossy look.

Don

[Bigasshammm]

 dmthamade, on 25 March 2012 - 09:00 PM, said:

How do you polish the paint? Wondering how you achieve that super smooth glossy look.

Don

Not sure how the professionals do it but I bought a polishing kit at my LHS. (Made by Stevenshobby)
Consists of 3 sanding pads ranging from 2400 grit to 12000 grit. It also comes with some rags and liquid abrasive but I haven't used that yet. Mostly what I've used is the 8000 - 12000 grit pad and just lightly sand the painted surface. A lot of the shine comes from the paint, these Tamiya rattle cans really are quite nice.

You also gotta wait for the paint to be fully cured. I just use the smell test after they've sat for about 4-5 days.

[Bigasshammm]

Got the cockpit and most of the monocoque finished tonight.






Got the tires sanded up and started decaling the wheels as well.

I'm STILL waiting on my Camel decals. Itching to get this thing decaled so I can start final construction.

[mriccio]

Looking good, nice colors!
Thanks also for the 'Holy Grail' link you posted, it has some great reference material.
Keep up the good work.