Scale-Master

The interior, engine and chassis. Ready to start accepting body panels. So far everything fits very well.

The brakes were done using the same technique as I used on the Aston Martin DBS.

The engine builds up easily; not sure how much will be visible when the car is done.

The last details to go on were the mirrors (I used the same trick on the NSX to paint them) and a custom license plate. This is a really enjoyable kit to build. If another one comes my way I'll definitely grab it. WIP Thread: https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/203273-2007-aston-martin-dbs/

These are all of the body parts that were painted LP-7 Pure Red. This paint/color is very user friendly.

Everything fits incredibly well on this kit including the clear parts and PE pieces. There are a few trim pieces that need to be foiled, but even those are not difficult to do.

Tamiya 1/24th scale. I built the LaFerrari about 8 years ago and planned to build another one because of how nice the kit is; now I'm getting to it with this version. One thing I recalled was the inner and outer door pieces require a significant amount of work before painting and the interior panels need to be painted along with the exterior parts. The outer doors are three pieces each due to the complex shape of them. This leads to some tedious sanding to eliminate the seams despite the excellent fit of those parts, and the inner door parts should be prepped differently being molded in black. I used Tamiya pink primer as a base. Last time it felt like an interruption of an otherwise smoothly going project, so this time I tackled those issues first. The tailfins and cowling parts also have to be cemented on and faired in. No filler needed on any of these parts or the doors, I just sanded the glue smooth.

Since I detailed the brakes I decided I wanted wheels that would show them off better than the stock ones, but I had nothing that would fit the tires in my stash so I designed a set and 3D printed them.

The interior builds up nicely with PE parts for the pedals and some of the trim panels. Plenty of decals for speakers and other details too. I used LP-30 Light Sand and XF-63 German Gray. The Gloss Black on the dash and console is brush painted LP-1; it flows pretty darn well.

I spent a little extra time drilling out and detail painting the rotors to look more like carbon fiber.

After the chassis is painted up it looks pretty convincing for a simple pan with suspension and exhaust components.

The engine is on the simplistic side, but once all the underhood details are added (or should I say painted) it should play the part just fine.

Tamiya 1/24th scale kit. One of the many factory colors offered was Fire Red Pearl; it looks a lot like Tamiya Mica Red so I'll use the LP paint for the exterior. The kit is molded in a dark charcoal metallic so I used Tamiya AS-12 Bare Metal Silver as a barrier after doing the normal clean-up. I decanted it and reduced it with Tamiya lacquer thinner. It took two lights coats to cover fully, but when it dried I was really happy with the smooth and thin finish. The LP-42 was also thinned with Tamiya lacquer thinner and airbrushed in two coats. While the finish looked smooth and uniform, after it fully dried it wasn't as glossy as the Pearl Blue I used on the NSX. It may have been polished out, but with the more predominate flake this color has, I thought I'd use the Tamiya LP-9 Clear Gloss to bring up the shine. Again it was reduced with the Tamiya lacquer thinner for better flow and smoother gloss. This clear works very well and is quite forgiving. It also dries as quickly as the colors in the LP line. This is how it looked about 12 hours after clear coating. (If you are looking for a good clear gloss and have not tried this yet, it is well worth looking into.)

Yes, I have been using them since 2017 and found them to be very user friendly. The more I experiment with them the more I like them. Highly recommendable.

The last few details to go on were the wipers, wheels and mirrors. I made decals for the little lights on the mirrors. This is a great kit although a little patience is good to have, and I was very pleased with how well the Tamiya LP paints worked, especially the Pearl Blue and Gloss Black on the exterior which did not need any clear coat to get a nice shine.