Nacho Z

I finished this Tamiya kit of the Honda Takata Dome NSX on Christmas Eve. You can check out the build thread here: Tamiya Honda Takata Dome NSX - WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers - Model Cars Magazine Forum All information about the build is in the link above. The build took me 80 hours. A lot of that time was in masking and painting. For the body I used Gravity Colors - Spain's Honda Takata Green Effect, Zero Paints' Pure Brilliant White and Tamiya LP-5 Semi-Gloss Black. Other items were shot with AK Interactive Xtreme Metals and Alclads. I used Tamiya's PE set for this car. I could not decide which background I liked the best, the black or the white, so I'll post them both. Let me know what you think!

That is such a good looking dragster. I’m really looking forward to seeing what you do with this one. Looks like lots of goodies will be going into it.

Wowzers!! That is incredibly nice. Yes, Tamiya kits have amazing engineering but you really added some great workmanship to the kit. I agree with you about LP paint. I will use it over the acrylics as much as I can. I have limited colors but I believe they are adding more all the time.

Sorry, Monty, I haven’t shot any bodies, just interiors. I like the flat sheen I get. By the way, I know several guys who thin craft paint with Future to shoot bodies with. It gives an nice semi-gloss sheen.

I have used it via airbrush. A quick search on YouTube for homemade craft paint thinner will get you lots of results. Sorry I do not have the formula I used in front of me but it is distilled water and windshield washer in equal amounts, some isopropyl alcohol and a drop or two of glycerin. Formulas vary. Some like Windex. Some will argue of Windex with or without ammonia. Mine worked well for me for interior parts. I have not tried to shoot a body with it. I’m a lacquer guy.

Thank you, Anton and Rich, I appreciate you guys following the build. I finished the model yesterday, Christmas Eve, and took what I call “glamour shots”. I will post them in the Under Glass section today or tomorrow.

This will be the last progress update. The next post will be in the Under Glass section. The only nit I have to pick with this model is how Tamiya does the fade from green to white. I will be honest and say that I don't know of a better way either. The problem is that they have you paint green farther down the body than needs to be. I think they also run the white decal farther down than needs to be. What this does is creates different shades/hues/brightnesses of white. My guess is they have you paint the green to some landmarks on the body which make it easier to mask? Anyhow, I have looked at a number of these models and they all have the same issue with the white areas. On to the pictures.

Gorgeous old Goat! Paint, interior and engine bay, all very nice!

Thanks, Anton! I have almost all of the Tamiya kits of these racecars. The ones that I don't have are ones that I didn't really care for. As with all things Tamiya, these really do build up nice. On to the next update. As the clear coat was curing I worked on other bits and pieces. One thing that always amazes me is the precision fit of Tamiya's parts. For example, the next picture is a piece of PE for the front grill opening. Tamiya has you bend a couple of tabs to 90 degrees. Look at how perfectly level the part fits in the opening. Awesome! How they handle the taillight panel is pretty neat too. It is a clear piece and they give you masks to keep the two lenses clear while you paint the rest. At this stage the clear had cured and I was able to polish out the body. Once the body was polished I masked it and painted all of the black trim around the windows and windshield as well as the leading edge of the front fenders. This was done with Tamiya LP-5. Next, I painted a few areas silver. This was mostly for the taillights and headlights. I did the panel lines and began to decal. In the last picture the paint / metallics on the rear wing look quite stark. They are not to the naked eye. One thing I will mention is the finish. I did not give this a mirror finish nor do I plan on clearing over the decals. This is a racecar not a show car. Let me know what you think. Thanks for looking!

I really wish they would do more cars like this. So much to choose from. You did a nice job on this, Bruce! She really looks the part.

That is one nice Mustang! Great job!

Oh I like this one, Misha! Very cool!

She is gorgeous!

She is a beauty, Tim!! What a gorgeous model! Who's decals did you use? Tabu or Shunko, someone else?

Update time! The back "window" was painted Tamiya LP-5 - Semi-Gloss Black. As before, it laid down very well. I used Tamiya's tape for curves and it did a wonderful job. Does Tamiya make anything that isn't rock solid? After everything had a day or two to cure I cleared the body. I had planned on airbrushing Mr. Color GX-100 Super Clear III but when I opened my brand new bottle of it, it was very, very thick. I have read others say the same thing. I thinned it with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner and tested it on a painted spoon. I wasn't happy with the results. I need to do some more testing of it before committing to a model body. I ended up clearing the body with Tamiya TS-13 right out of the can. I also did the windshield trim. Window trim is one of my most dreaded things to do. This was also shot with LP-5. That is it for this time. I notice that these foreign racecars don't always get a lot of love but I sure do think they are pretty cool. Next up will be polishing out the body, painting the rubber trim on the window openings, painting some small areas on the body in silver and then adding decals. See you next time!

I will be following along with this one. I have a love affair with these cigar cars. Like Rich said, I have (almost) all of the Ebbro kits but have yet to build one. I hope you do a lot of updates on your progress. Good luck!

Thanks, Anton! Green wouldn’t be my first choice on a car but this shade sure is gorgeous.

It has been a few days since the last update. The body was prepped by drilling holes, sanding seams, re-scribing all panel lines, sanding down the entire body with some well used piece of sanding sponge and then washing the whole thing. I primed everything with Gravity Colors Spain - Dark Surface Primer. It laid down very smooth. Next I shot the bottom half of the body with Zero Paints Pure Brilliant White. After that had cured for a few days I masked the lower half and shot 5 coats of Gravity Colors Spain Honda Takata Effect Green. Once again, everything laid down nicely. This is how she sits at the moment. The back "window" will be painted black and then I will clear the entire thing and apply decals. Thanks for looking! Comments, critiques, and advice are always welcome.

I have been making good progress on this. Wheels and tires are done. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the tire decals / transfers did not want to stick very well. I believe that due to their age they have lost some of their adhesiveness. I had what I had and did the best with what I had. Actually, to the naked eye they look fine. A first for me was to use a Sharpie to highlight seam lines on the body. The seams are barely existent on the Tamiya body and I thought it would be easy to miss some of them. It worked out nicely. My shipment from Gravity Colors Spain came in. I bought a bottle of their Dark Primer which is a very slight dark shade of gray. It laid down so smooth. I then shot the Honda Takata Green. It also laid down as smooth as butter. The first pic is just paint and the second picture it has been cleared with Tamiya TS-13. One last thing for this update. Again, something new for me. I shot the body pieces that needed to be semi-gloss black with Tamiya's LP line. I used Mr. Color Leveling Thinner and holy BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH, I couldn't have asked for better results! If you haven't tried these lacquers I can't recommend them enough.

Great looking model, Rich! I love all things JPS and that last photo put a huge smile on my face!

You are off to a great start! I’ll be following along for sure.

That is a real nice Camaro, Tom! Great color. Nice job on the engine bay too!

This thing is absolutely gorgeous!! You’ve done a great job on this, Simon. The color is sweet on this. I’ve seen SMS advertised but I haven’t seen it used very often. They need to use your model in their advertisements!

That is very, very nice, Marco. Great job and thanks for sharing it!

Thanks, Rich! There are some great tips in your post and I appreciate them. Yeah, that was the first time seeing that harness material. It stretched ever so slightly on me while I was cutting it and that caused the strips to not be a uniform width. Tamiya spec’d 2.4mm wide. The longer shoulder belts were the ones that gave me trouble. I received my Gravity Colors Spain shipment yesterday and shot a test spoon tonight. I am using their Dark Primer for the first time. It laid down so smooooooth! I’ll post some pics tomorrow.