Nacho Z

Time for a Monday night update! I'm letting the clear coat cure for a week or so while I work on the chassis. I am by no means an expert when it comes to Porsches, therefore I am going to follow the color callouts in the instructions. They said to paint the chassis pan, top and bottom, body color, so I did. I then masked the chassis pan and shot the lower part of the engine in Alclad Dull Aluminum. Next, I further masked the engine and shot the very end of it in Tamiya Metallic Gray. Honestly, there is not much difference between the colors. I flipped the chassis over and flocked the area in the instructions that said "black". Next up was work on the suspension. Three separate colors where airbrushed onto the exhausts. These were a combination of Tamiya lacquers and Alclad. I threw all of the parts in a box, shook the heck out of it and out popped this nice chassis...lol. OK, that is not exactly what happened but it was almost that easy! Work has begun on the interior. I hope to have it finished for next Monday's update. Thank for all of the kind comments from the first post and thanks for checking in on this update!

I appreciate it, Jason! I really do like the brush and use it quite often. I sure hope so, Mathias!! Thanks! I am pleased with it so far, David. Now to not screw it up while polishing it out! Thanks, Ryan! I can not speak highly enough about Mr. Color Leveling Thinner, it really is great stuff. Thanks, Dan! It has been a great kit so far. I doubt that I will have any issues with it. I wanted a different color from what I am used to seeing this kit painted. When I saw the fingernail polish I knew that it was meant for this car!

Thanks, Steve! There are some absolutely gorgeous colors out there, for sure. Thanks so much, Michael! Painting a model in fingernail polish was kind of a "modeling bucket list" item for me. I'm sure I will be doing more of it in the future. My problem is I like building race cars and they have to be a specific color so I don't get a lot of opportunities to be creative in my color selection. Thanks, Craig! Thanks, Sonny! The brush is a bit pricey but I'm glad that I have one. I do other things to cut down on dust. I have a spray bottle full of water by my paint booth. I turn the booth on and give a couple of good mists of water over the inside of the booth. Thanks, Jeremy! I did not realize that there was that much color shift and to be honest I'm a little disappointed with it. It was not my intention to have a color shift but I guess it is growing on me. I'll be polishing out the clear in the next week or so. We'll see what I think of it after that.

Very nice, James! She looks good to me.

This is just fantastic! You knocked this one out of the park!

My current project is this Tamiya kit of the Porsche 911 GT2. I had recently seen a picture of a Porsche in a very unique color and fell in love with it. That picture was the inspiration for this build. I have been itching to shoot a model car in fingernail polish and I found a color of polish that was fairly close to the color of the real car. I figured now is the time to do it. I have experimented with shooting fingernail polish and am fairly comfortable with it. Before committing fingernail polish to the model, I experimented with the fingernail polish over a white primer and over a black base. I really liked the black base so that is how I shot the model. Here we go. I will caption each photo as needed. The Tamiya kit. The kit parts and the fingernail polish. The test spoon. I usually use a black Sharpie to highlight the mold seams. I am fairly certain that this kit started life as the race car kit. Tamiya have you remove a number of molded on items. These are also highlighted with a Sharpie. While I am at it I always rescribe all panel lines. There are a lot of parts that need to be painted body color. I made a list of these items and prepped them for priming and painting. I primed everything with Gravity Colors (Spain) primer. Next, I shot everything in Tamiya LP-1 Black. I let the black cure and knocked it down for a smooth surface. I only did the last step for the body parts. Here are 2 bottles of OPI fingernail polish slightly over-thinned with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner. Personally, I think it is a beautiful color! Approx. 5 or 6 coats applied. Some people will scoff at the Tamiya anti-static brush and the cost of it, but I use it all of the time and feel it works. I might have had 1 speck of dust in all of those layers of polish. The first two pictures are of the body fresh out of the paint booth. I let the fingernail polish cure overnight. Next up, I shot the body and associated parts in Tamiya TS-13 Clear straight out of the can. Lastly, here are three pictures of just the body shell after the clear has cured. Let me know what you think!

Great looking models, Gregory! A very cool blast from the past!

Another great looking racer from your bench, Rich! I don’t have all of the RoG F1 kits but I have most of them. I’ve built 2 of them so far and both have been nice kits. I’m looking forward to seeing your next one!

Very nice, Nigel! She is a looker for sure!

Nice job, Rich! It is good to see some of these older kits being built.

Thank you, Ray! Thanks, Jim! I appreciate it, Rusty! I actually do enjoy building airplanes. I like them all but I think I would gravitate towards WW2 era planes. Thank you, Jeremy! It is definitely different than my normal glossy paint jobs…lol.

As I have posted in my 1:12 Matra MS11 F1 build thread, I have been in a bit of a slump lately. I thought I would try an airplane build just to change things up a bit and hopefully get some of my modeler's mojo back. It didn't really work. I guess it did get me back to the bench but I still struggled. Anyhow, here she is. Only the 3rd airplane I've ever built and really, only the 2nd plane I've built in this stage of my life.

Good Lord, that is stunningly beautiful!

Larry, I currently have a build thread on the Matra. You can see the parts that I have had to deal with. I also have threads on the Lotus 78. The Lotus 78 is a much better kit than the Matra. I have collected most aftermarket items for the Williams FW14B. Although I have not started it, it looks to be even better than the Lotus. My take is that the Tamiya kits get better with each passing year.

As always, I’m way behind on checking out the build threads that I have been following. I caught up on this one during the F1 race this morning. I truly admire the amount of work and attention to detail that you have put in this car. Fantastic!

Very nice, Jeff. Nice to see these built in such a clean manner.

You do great work on these. I’ve really enjoyed seeing every one that you have posted. Great looking model!

It seems like I’m always behind on commenting on peoples’ threads. I am really enjoying watching this come together, Chris. Once again, you are doing a masterful job on your chosen subject. I’m looking forward to the next update!

Very, very nice! Just an outstanding job you have done on this!

No, he was not there.

Hi, Lee! I was just reading this thread for the first time when I ran across your post. That is my Stutz Black Hawk ?. Not wanting to hijack this thread but if you would like to see more of it, there are WIP and Under Glass threads on it. It is a great kit and I really enjoyed building it. The model has done well in contests and has been the banner picture for UpScale Hobbies Model Builders FB group for the last couple of years.

For me, it is a nice way to record what I’ve done and when I did it. For others, hopefully, they may learn something about the kit I’m building. It could be issues with the kit itself, an easier build sequence, etc. on the flip side, I’ve had guys tell me what to watch out for and give me other advice on the kit I’m building. I almost always do a WIP thread. One other thing, what makes any forum or FB group great is participation from its members.

Wow!! There should have been a warning; “Sunglasses required to view this post!” ? That is gorgeous, Randy, just gorgeous!

Nice!! You don’t often see that kit built. Thanks for sharing it!

Very nice, Peter! I’ve always liked that livery.