dougwintz

Fun Tamiya kit. A decal challenge, for sure.

I wanted to build something simple. This Hasegawa kit looked like a candidate. But what appeared to be an engine in the kit was just 1/2 of an engine block. I couldn't leave well enough alone so I looked around for a donor kit. Can you guess what the kit was? Beyond that, I was reminded how relatively easy it is to build a F1 or GT model with a lot of decals, versus a plain white car. Nowhere to hide!!!

Hi Alex. What I didn't show before was that several body panels are white, and those were represented with decals. Which crumbled. But I ended up painting them and it all worked out ok.

This build was a journey. A lot of carbon fiber work cut and fit into the interior. I got the whole body painted the way I wanted it. Applied the decals which represented white body parts, but they crumbled and cracked!! So, I had to mask the body, and paint most of the white accents. Fortunately, it turned out ok.

Well, this Aoshima kit was coming along so well. And then, decal disaster. They cracked, flaked and refused to conform to the surfaces. Looks like I'll have to paint the markings which will take a lot of masking and time. I tried to find a decal supplier, but no luck so far. Anyone know if there's a set out there for this EMI sponsored #40? https://www.flickr.com/photos/45676495@N05/47942989946

No problem. By the way, model roundup, megahobby.com, hiroboy.com and spotmodel.com all have great customer service. Hiroboy is in UK, Spotmodel is in Spain. I have not used UpscaleHobbies yet.

Some of them show up on on modelroundup.com. I see the Nissan R390 there today. upcalehobbies.com and megahobby.com has the Sauber Mercedes. Those are US. Otherwise, you have to look overseas at hiroboy.com or spotmodel.com. But the shipping charges are really really high.

Thanks for the positive comments, guys. I have built a few of them too. ....see pics.

These Tamiya kits are always fun and challenging to put together. I usually try and get spare set of decals since the originals start to show their age. Here are the Mazda 787b and the Toyota 88C-V

Thanks for the positive comments, everyone.

Thanks. I can't say that was my reason - but I'll go with it!

Decided to take a break from GT and Rally cars with this 1949 Mercury. Some aftermarket parts like the dice, upholstery and wheels. The paint is Testors (RIP) Icey Blue which went on easily and didn't require any sanding/buffing. If I had to do it again, I'd spend more time on the engine but I was "done" and ready to move on.

Speaking of BEER, see the TsingTao Mercedes! (This also reminds me I had a few Delirium Tremens and Duvals in Brussels a few years ago)

Hi Helmut. The wheels come the Pit Wall trans kit. I bought it at SpotModel.com, but it's not listed there now. I see it at Hiroboy.com, but also looks like it's out of stock. https://www.hiroboy.com/124_Mercedes_300SL_Carrera_Panamericana_2004_Transkit--product--12861.html Good luck with it. If I had to do it again, I'd buy an extra set of decals. They are thin, and don't cover 100% of the fender flares the way I would like them to.

Thanks for the comments, guys. Nice way to end the year. Have a great 2022

Ok. Here's the last build of 2021. Fun project using the Tamiya model, and Pitwall decals, photoetch and resin. Hope everyone has a great new year.

Yes, that's right. The entire body was painted Park Green, Tamiya. Everything else (even the gold) was decal - SK Decals. They primarily make decals for GT, Le Mans, Rally cars. Best decals I've ever used. Slides off the paper easily. I use them sometimes if I get an older Tamiya kit and the decals are yellowed. SK makes some replicas. I used some decal solution, but not a lot. I also used some scrap carbon fiber decal I had in the parts bin. SK decals has a Facebook page. Only problem is that they are located in Hong Kong. You can see a bunch of their stuff here https://www.spotmodel.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=1288&page=2 Thanks for the comments, everybody.

Beautiful!

Looks great!

I saw this livery online, and thought it would make a nice version of Tamiya's kit. A good exercise in decals. I don't normally do curbside, but this was challenging enough. There's a WIP thread on it as well.

Stance is pretty good. Decals are starting to make their appearance. Getting to the most difficult stage -- getting the rest of the decals to line up with one another.

Started working on the decals. For this livery, the wheels have color highlights on the rim. There are 10 separate decals that go with each wheel. Back is red, front is gold. So good new! If you have OCD, this is the project for you!! Anyway, they look pretty good. I positioned the body just enough to see how the colors contrast. After I took these pictures, I did the final placement of the body and the stance is perfect - I'll post pictures of that later.

I posed the wheels just to see if the color worked. Tried matte black, grey gunmetal, finally settled on a shade of black/gunmetal.

Interior, front and rear lights are in place

I'm working on a couple of Mercedes models, the 2018 GT 3 model sponsored by Tsing Tao beer, and the 2004 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing Panamericana sponsored by Corona Beer. I just liked the subject manager and the livery. I really don't drink that much beer! This post will discuss the 2018 model. I found reference photos online, then was able to find the decal set. The Tamiya kit is engineered really well. The taillights are 5 piece assemblies. The body parts, bumpers and air intakes fit very well. I do wish they had a version with the engine - curbside is really not my thing. But, the livery was so cool I had to take a shot at building it. Next up, getting the headlights, taillights and interior details together. Stay tuned.