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Lamborghini Huracan Performante, Aoshima, 1/24


Matt Bacon

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This has gone straight to the top of the build pile, since I have a local one to copy, and boy, it looks cool...

So, first problem:

before-n-after.jpg

I've seen various people mention the weird "pinch" at the front of the doors that Aoshima got wrong, but I haven't seen the vertical wall at the top of the rear wheel arches discussed as much. It's not there on the real thing:

real-thing-from-rear.jpg

This is the actual car I'll be making. There are more pix where this came from...

after-milliput-2.jpg

after-milliput-3.jpg

A fair bit of Milliput and several rounds of sanding later, this is where we are. Time to build up the rest of the body and take off the "normal" moulding seams...

best,

M.

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The more I look at pictures of the real thing, the more I think it’s a VERY difficult shape to get right, especially working from photos. It’s made up of subtly double curved elements with changing radiuses, and sharp faceted transitions between them. I suspect the Aoshima designers were trying to build it in CAD from simpler elements and got a couple of the intersections between them wrong... The only way to really do it justice would be to laser scan a real one.

For example, compare the panel above the “wall” running up to the roof outboard of the engine cover with the 1:1 image... On the kit it’s basically flat with a slight twist. You can see from the reflections that it actually also has a bit of a “hump” and flares out and down towards the top.

best,

M.

Edited by Matt Bacon
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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks, Atin!

Got the body painted now using real 1:1 Sikkens aqua auto paint (with thanks to Paul, who made it up for me), with Zero 2K Diamond clear over the top. Verde Hydra (LB-0062 paint code) is not a standard Huracan or Performante colour, but it's what's on the one I'm copying...

green-shiny-from-left.jpg

green-shiny-rear-right.jpg

green-shiny-front-right.jpg

This is as it comes, with no polishing of any sort. There are a couple of small specks to tidy up, but that's all...

The Performante has various parts made of "forged carbon", which has a distinctive look... no weave here. As luck would have it, when I was in town yesterday, someone had parked up in a very nice Huracan Performante Spider, so I took some reference photos:

real-wing.jpg

Now, I could get some decals, at some cost in time and money. But I thought I'd try painting it. A few small bits of packing sponge, and a couple of shades of Citadel grey overcoated with Tamiya Smoke, and here we are...

wing-forged-carbon.jpg

5 minutes, no money, and I think it looks OK. It's a darn sight easier to apply to the various places inside and outside where the forged carbon is used than a decals would be, as well...

Got started on the engine now...

best,

M.

PS: while I remember, I've heard people say the side windows don't fit into the apertures. On this body, the three sprue gates on the "spider" inside the windows along the bottom edge looked like they were on the top of the mounting ledge, but looking closer I could see that they also filled the L section a bit. If you just cut them horizontally at the top and sand them smooth, you'll leave three little nubbins 0.5mm or so square inside  the rebate. I had to cut them with a very sharp #11 blade vertically and horizontally to slice them out...

 

Edited by Matt Bacon
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Thanks, Thomas...

Deviating a bit from the instructions, I've built the engine now. It's hard to find a decent picture of the engine out of a car, but with the help of some eBay listings for Huracan engines, I've done some gizmology with wires to make it look a bit busier... The exhausts are are wrapped in flexible metal heat insulation, and given these are buried deep inside, scoring the surface is easier than trying to attach embossed foil...

engine-from-front-right.jpg

engine-from-high-front.jpg

engine-from-left.jpg

engine-from-rear-left.jpg

engine-from-rear-above.jpg

engine-from-right.jpg

engine-from-underneath.jpg

That little complicated bit on the left is all you can see of the bottom through the undertray...

Now, back to the way it's _supposed_ to be built.

best,

M.

 

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Thanks, Dann... I've been stealing some other ideas from you, as you'll see...

Cockpit is coming together now:

dash-from-right.jpg

dash-from-top.jpg

dash-from-left.jpg

dash-from-left-closeup.jpg

Unforgiving close-up, that last one, but you can see how the "forged carbon" sponge effect works. The dash top is "alcantara" effect, as demonstrated by @Dann Tier using chalk pastels. I used the same method to weather camouflage on well-used Spitfires a while back... it's very subtle and highly controllable, and easy to redo if you mess up...

chassis-from-rear-with-engine.jpg

chassis-top-down.jpg

chassis-profile.jpg

More sponging effect using various shades of flat metallic silver for the "ceramic" brake discs.

best,

M.

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23 minutes ago, Mike Chernecki said:

I like what you did with the forged carbon. Did you paint the forged carbon on the interior or was that a kit decal?

Thanks, Mike... all the forged carbon you’ll see on this car is painted the same way. The trick is to do the sponging first, and then finalise the paint on the non carbon areas around it, in case your sponge is a bit wayward. You could mask around it of course, but the idea was to come up with a quick and simple solution!

best,

M.

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I will, Mike... in fact I'll post a little step-by-step tutorial shortly. For now, here's an update on progress... probably the last before it ends up in Under Glass...

Bodyshell is on, with no trauma at all. Very easy, precise fit with almost no flexing needed. They'd have you add the back end before doing this, but I thought that might be asking for trouble...

body-on-2.jpg

body-on-3.jpg

body-on-4-open-hatch.jpg

body-on-5.jpg

body-on-6.jpg

body-on-7.jpg

best,

M.

 

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On 2/27/2019 at 3:10 PM, Matt Bacon said:

[...]

dash-from-right.jpg

dash-from-top.jpg

dash-from-left.jpg

dash-from-left-closeup.jpg

Unforgiving close-up, that last one, but you can see how the "forged carbon" sponge effect works. The dash top is "alcantara" effect, as demonstrated by @Dann Tier using chalk pastels. I used the same method to weather camouflage on well-used Spitfires a while back... it's very subtle and highly controllable, and easy to redo if you mess up...

[...]

chassis-top-down.jpg

chassis-profile.jpg

More sponging effect using various shades of flat metallic silver for the "ceramic" brake discs.

best,

M.

Really like what you have done for the Forged Carbon-fiber.  The Setso Elemento has much more of that, will keep this in mind.  Yes, show the sponge, I would think natural sponges have a more open and random matrix, compared to a synthetic one?

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Thanks, guys... apologies, a few real life things got in the way today. Plus I obviously had a a real "counting my chickens before they are hatched problem". So a couple of steps back in order to move forward more effectively...

wing-top.jpg

The location of the wing pylons into the body is, to put it mildly, a real pain. There are two small (tiny) diamondish-shaped tabs at the bottom of the pylon near the front, and two square indentations on the rear body panel front edge. Needless to say, with primer and colour and glosscoat painted, the indentations on the body are less well defined. The parts probably fit together perfectly with liquid cement straight off the sprue, but with paint and two colours to deal with, it's a lot less easy. Fortunately, I realised that I'd only tacked the panel in place with Copydex for painting, so I could get it off easily to try and get a decent, firm, joint.

wing-pinned.jpg

So, out with the microdrills and some 0.5mm brass rod. It took several rounds with the microchisel to open up the sockets enough to get the wing pylons in and on at the right angle, and drilling the holes for the pins was also no fun... Of course, the rear parts of the pylon bases also have to sit flush against the rear decking, so there was a fair bit of trial fitting. Eventually, it's on, and firmly fixed: now i just need to get the whole assembly back onto the car. But first...

back-end-assembled.jpg

This bit is a pain to assemble, with quite flexible parts and not so well defined mounting points, and some very difficult bits to get a grip on. I gave up on the light boxes as a bad job, and the lights themselves are not very well engineered (oh for a Tamiya version). The two body colour panels attach in three places, and need to be put in diagonally and then rotated into place so the upper corner approaches the frame from the outside, moving inwards, and the two lower edges come mate from the inside, moving backwards... They will also need to attach to the rear bodyshell... the only joining surface being about 3mm long, and on a seam...

backend-inside.jpg

Those two towers on the black piece in the middle fit into the vertical plate at the rear of the main bodyshell. They are the only solid mounting point of the whole back end to the car. This is why they want you to put the back on before fitting the body to the chassis, so that you can reach that joint from both sides, make sure it's in place, and clamp as needed. They don't tell you that, though...  As you can see (circled), I've also added a couple of hefty tabs to help locate the green elements to the body a little more solidly. It requires a bit of carving inside, and they need to be high enough up inside the shell to clear the wheel arch lines at the back. And finally, we get to here:

backend-clamped.jpg

I'm going to leave this the full 24 hours to set... update tomorrow PM.

best,

M.

 

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