Spirit of America Porsche 956

[Nacho Z]

19 hours ago, iamsuperdan said:

Dang. That's looking fantastic. Totally get what you said earlier. It may not be 100% accurate or "correct," but for most of us it sure looks right.

 

Those tiny bolt heads would drive me nuts. I manage to lose track of bigger parts, like side mirrors, so building with this kind of detail would require a complete revamp of my bench!

 

Thanks, Dan!  I suppose we are our own worst critic.  I can point out all sorts of things that are wrong…lol.  Regarding the work bench / work area, have you ever seen a Formula 1 team’s home base garage?  You could eat off of the floors.  That is more my style.  I try to keep my work bench fairly clean and organized.  I still loose small PE parts but most of the time I can find them 😎.

12 hours ago, Venom said:

Yeah it’s funny, you can show someone pics of your model and when they look at it they’re like, “Oh, that’s cool”, but then when you explain how you painted every single thing and show them how tiny everything is, that’s when they are amazed, or maybe they just think we’re insane.

BTW John, your detail work so far is exceptional and very clean! ... But I have a feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Thanks, Josh!  My model building friends appreciate what we do but my non-model building friends just have no idea.  The penny is one thing they can relate to.  At work, when I show people my pictures I will pull a penny out of my pocket so they can see just how small the “0” in the date is.  I will do a few more updates before posting in the Under Glass section.  Thanks for following along!

[iamsuperdan]

33 minutes ago, Nacho Z said:

Thanks, Dan!  I suppose we are our own worst critic.  I can point out all sorts of things that are wrong…lol.  Regarding the work bench / work area, have you ever seen a Formula 1 team’s home base garage?  You could eat off of the floors.  That is more my style.  I try to keep my work bench fairly clean and organized.  I still loose small PE parts but most of the time I can find them 😎.

 

Yeah, I hate a messy bench. My is neat and tidy, but somehow stuff still disappears on occasion. Starting a kit with kind of detail would be a great excuse to go get some improved lighting and new cutting board!

Hmm...

[Belugawrx]

Really nice build so far John..all of the extra detail will really set this one off.

Keep it up 👍

Edited August 24, 2021 by Belugawrx
speeling

[majel]

That is some really nice detail work!  Well on your way to a fantastic build.

[Venom]

8 hours ago, iamsuperdan said:

Yeah, I hate a messy bench. My is neat and tidy, but somehow stuff still disappears on occasion. Starting a kit with kind of detail would be a great excuse to go get some improved lighting and new cutting board!

Hmm...

Better make it a good one! .....And do a WIP so then you really have an excuse😁

[Nacho Z]

On 8/24/2021 at 5:32 PM, iamsuperdan said:

Yeah, I hate a messy bench. My is neat and tidy, but somehow stuff still disappears on occasion. Starting a kit with kind of detail would be a great excuse to go get some improved lighting and new cutting board!

Hmm...

I say go for it!...  I hear you about the lighting however.  It is very important.  You know, come to think of it, when a beginner asks about what kind of tools they should get to start out I wonder how many times they are told to invest in good lighting???

On 8/24/2021 at 6:11 PM, Belugawrx said:

Really nice build so far John..all of the extra detail will really set this one off.

Keep it up 👍

Thanks, Bruce!

19 hours ago, majel said:

That is some really nice detail work!  Well on your way to a fantastic build.

Thank you, Jim!

[Nacho Z]

For this update I am going to address the body paint.  The post will also be a bit of a rant.  As a reminder, I started this kit in 2019.  This was well before I began to use an airbrush so I had to use rattle cans.  In one of my first posts I showed that I had some yellow coming through the Tamiya white primer.  Without going into all of the reasons why I will just say that I ended up painting the body in Krylon.  Now for why I did this and the aforementioned rant.  I asked on 2 Facebook groups a question about compatibility between Krylon and Tamiya spray paint.  The thing about Facebook, and to be totally honest, sometimes on MCM too, is that reading comprehension is sadly lacking.  So again, I simply asked about compatibility.  I immediately get beaten up, stomped on, put down, had my modeling skills questioned and pretty much called stupid for even thinking about Krylon.  One or two guys actually tried to answer my question.  That was just the first group...lol.  The second group, before the question could really even be discussed, the Administrator basically said that due to the very fact that I even asked the question just showed how little I know and should I even be building models!  He then locked the thread so I couldn't even respond!  It was actually at that point that I was so mad that I determined come heck or high water I was going to paint this doggone model in Krylon and it was going to be contest quality.  All I did was ask a question about compatibility!  We have the same thing on here sometimes.  Someone asks a question and gets basically told that if he doesn't do something the way the expert thinks it should be done, well then you're an idiot.  Don't be a tool, answer the question with factual information and not an editorialization.  BTW, the group that the Admin. locked my thread, my models have been his banner pictures multiple times since then...lol.  One last thought.  I know that Krylon is not as nice to use as Tamiya.  I know Tamiya is a far better product for models.  I also know that it isn't just about the product, it is more about the model builder.

On to the Spirit of America Porsche 956 that was painted in Krylon.  The body was painted white and allowed to cure.  I then masked the white and sprayed Krylon True Blue.  This was allowed to cure.  I determined early on that I would not clear coat the body.  This is a 1986 vintage race car, not a show car.  I painted the dash and headlight buckets next.  I did my normal paint polishing.  I used the Micro Mesh system and Tamiya polishing compounds.

Here is the body before any touchups or polishing.

And now to polish it out.  I don't use motor tools for this.  I actually enjoy the process of polishing out a car body.  It is very relaxing to me.  One problem with those big ol rattle cans vs. airbrushing is that it is very hard to control how much paint you lay down.  I noticed that I had some areas, the NACA ducts, where the paint had pulled away.  At this stage in my model building career I was airbrushing.  I masked these and shot some Zero Paints Pure Brilliant White into the NACA ducts.

The rear polished out.  Race car, not show car.

The front polished out.  Race car, not show car.

And one teaser pic of the decals.  The livery is what drove me to build this model.  The decals were challenging.  They were not made perfectly as far as matching the body but they were very close.  They are also old so they chipped a little.

As always, comments, questions and criticisms are welcome.  Shoot, I'll even answer questions about Krylon spray paint...lol! 

[iamsuperdan]

Like you said, it's a race car. And if you've seen a real race car up close, the paint is less than perfect to say the least! Having said that, yours looks pretty dang great. Nice and smooth, shiny. 

I get what you said about asking questions. I experienced the same thing on an overlanding forum when asking a question about some work I was going to do on my Tahoe. In a three page thread, two people were helpful, the rest told me why my idea and my methodology sucked and would never work. 

Somewhat recently, I've been watching and following a few builders on You Tube. Some are very precise and exacting. Others are a lot more "seat of the pants" builders and just sort of wing it. And the end results are excellent for all, even though one guy is messy and looks like he's "doing it wrong."

 

Anyway, I'm digging the build.

 

[Nacho Z]

I was getting ready to post another update but I think I will just go ahead and post the model in the Under Glass section.  Obviously any update is going to be more decals.  It was a challenge getting the red stripes to line up and also position the decals around the various openings, etc.  As you will see in the finished model, it all worked out pretty well.

Thanks for following along!

[Kingslug]

Really nice..I'm a motor guy so all the lines and fittings really make it for me. Nice work!

[Nacho Z]

11 hours ago, Kingslug said:

Really nice..I'm a motor guy so all the lines and fittings really make it for me. Nice work!

Thanks, Ira!

[Belugawrx]

Oh man John, ya can't tease us like that and finish the WIP without a pic of the goods...lol

Really nice build my friend..Cheers

[Nacho Z]

3 minutes ago, Belugawrx said:

Oh man John, ya can't tease us like that and finish the WIP without a pic of the goods...lol

Really nice build my friend..Cheers

Timing is everything...lol.  I just hopped on here to post the finished model in Under Glass.  I'll have the post made very shortly.  Thanks for the kind words!

[Belugawrx]

Throw us a bone down here in wip with your one favorite pic....