On to the interior ? I declined the option of doing the popular four tone interior (three shades of brown plus black) in favour of two colours, purely because I think it looks better on a black car.
Made a rookie mistake in being casual with the choice of primer. I used black - out of convenience - without considering that it would impact the tone of the TS-46 light sand that I chose, so the result is slightly darker than the colour I had in mind. It's a subtle point that doesn't come across in the pictures; I guess it's one of those things you have to see in person.
Something that doesn't require personal contact to appreciate are the almighty mould lines on the seats! I must’ve assumed it was piping or something when prepping, but they aren't ony any reference photo I've seen and they're now gone! I hit another snag when I tried putting wash into the seams to add some depth. I used Vallejo dark brown but it looked wrong - even diluted - and I ended up recoating in TS-46 and ordered the paler brown one. We’ll have to wait and see.
With all the amazing scratch building going on around these parts, I thought I’d dip my toe into the shallow end and have a stab at doing some luggage straps, which aren’t a part of the kit. I’ve recently acquired my first styrene sheets which will take care of the buckle ends, and for the main part I have a tape measure that came out of a Christmas cracker!
Primered and sprayed, they came out pretty well:
For the carpet I’ve gone with my tried & trusted mix of matt black/anthracite to give some contrast against the satin black leather trim & gloss black detailing. A unique feature of this kit is having to roughly guess where the carpet and pale leather meet under the door card trim!
The gear knob made the mould lines on the seats look positively neat, and had to be re-shaped with putty and sandpaper. The flash photos make my silver brushwork look slightly crude, but it’s not so bad in the flesh - squinting from a distance, in a fog etc. ? I found black wash invaluable in getting the iconic shift gate looking sharp.
Because the Testarossa has a leather trimmed dash, I decided to brush it with satin black rather than spray it (like the steering wheel) to give a richer texture. (It’s also useful practice for my upcoming Cannonball build where my Lotus interior is probably going to have to be mostly hand painted.) After my last build, which had five separate dials, it’s a relief to have just one big dash decal!
Will get the seats washed (or not) & fitted, but that’s as much as I can do to put off sanding and polishing the bodywork! Thanks for looking ?