Brendan

I was going to spray the Scalefinishes clear over the top, but I chickened out. I did do a test sample and didn't do anything to the decals. Sprayed two light mist coats and then a heavy coat with about 5 minutes between coats. I ended up using my old standby which is Floquil Crystal Coat. In all honesty, I don't think your paints are very hot compared to other automotive paints. I've been able to use a brush for touch up and it didn't hurt the paint that was already down. Usually when you do touch ups like that with hot paint, it usually eats the coats that are already down. I'll try shooting in on a kit that I use for testing products and see what it does to the other decals. Here's a picture of my test. The cracks on the one edge are from my cutting the plastic, and not from the paint.

Got the rest of the decals on. And shot the clear over the decals. A little disappointed in the fact that there were quite a few problems with the decals, either missing or oversized. (See list above.) Still need to add on all the little extras. Should get those done in the next couple of days. Had to add the emergency shut off symbols and a GPS unit. Luckily I had some around. Added a fire extinguisher and some electrical boxes. I'll still be adding more when I get the body on.

Jim, Here's the list I promised you. These are just things that I noticed, but there's definitely more. I hope this will help you out. I don't mind being the guinea pig. I'm usually the guinea pig for a friend of mine when he produces a kit. I get to see all the mistakes first. Missing Decals Small Michelin over air inlet Porsche consulting for front splitter Emergency Shut off decals/extinguisher release Decals in the kit with Problems Adidas is oversized (I think because P/E inplate is too small.) Mobil 1 on back of chassis is too small Nose decal needs to be trimmed and rounded to fit front P2 and IMSA are too big for the winglets on the top of the car ALMS decal near the front wheel is too big (under front dive plane) Missing Parts (these are just a few; there are a lot more) Camera pod near roll hoop Fire extinguisher Round GPS unit Radio box on inside of passenger compartment (antennas should be visible)

One of my favorite Skylines. Always like the cars with the big air dam in the front. Reminds me of the old Trans-Am days. Even though this car never raced in that series. Very nicely done on the paint. Just a straight black looks really good and the trim really sets it off.

Good choice of a car to build. I've built both versions of this kit. And yes, the decals are a pain. What paint did you use for your engine and transmission? It's a color I'm interested in.

Thanks for everyone's comments. Raul, there's a reason why I do race cars. I can use the decals to cover up all my mistakes. If I could get finishes like you, I'd be a very happy man. Nick, could be worse. I could be doing the Flying Lizard car that Profil 24 is coming out with. I can almost guarantee that those decals aren't going to fit very well. (Probably my next project. ) Cal, when you have decals go that wrong instead of a hammer, I prefer M-80's. At least that way I get an explosion out of it. Jim, I'll get a list together and post it for the missing decals and missing parts that could add some detail to it. Would have been so much nicer if Le Mans Miniatures did this kit. At least the interior and the chassis would be more correct.

Got some decals on. Did not have very much fun doing this. I was up till about 12:30 last night trying to get them to settle. Some of the problems were the decals were either too big or too small. So some splicing had to be done. Had some issues with the white on the back next to the roll hoops. The decals decided to tear on me. Fixed them up as well as I could. Another big issue was the white on the nose didn't come anywhere close to being able to fit on the car. Had to round the front of the decal as well as trim up the side to make it fit properly. Looks to me like the people who were drawing the decals and the people doing the kit weren't talking to each other when they were trying to make them fit. I've been running into several problems like this with Studio 27 kits when the decals and the P/E are either too big or too small for the kit. Really starting to frustrate me. You can see some of the problems here where the decals are too big on the side of the wing. And this is due to the fact that the wing end plate is too small. There should be a big gap between the Adidas and Snap-On decals.

I'm trying to replicate the composite material that they use for skid plates. It tooks like composite decking that you see for homes, but they use mixture of metal and plastics. That's why you sometimes see a lot of sparks flying from underneath the cars when they have low tire pressures. It's the same material that you see on the Formula 1 for their wooden skid plates. It's there to protect the chassis from scraping on the ground. Also if too much of the skid plate is scraped away, they can be disqualified.

I used Scalefinishes clear coat. It's super thin so you have to spray multiple coats. I have six coats of the clear on and will probably do another three after the decals are on. It's strange. The more clear you put on, the brighter the yellow becomes.

Shot the clear yesterday and got quite a bit of work done. Everything seems to be fitting fairly well. There are some issues with the P/E. Some pieces are too small and some are too big. But they are easy to fix. I ended up having to pin the wing together because the peg on the wings are too big for the P/E. Should be getting the decals on in the next couple of days. The skid plates are a mixture of Tamiya's XF-28 (dark copper) and XF-64 (red brown). It seems to work. The black areas on the side pods are from reference photos that I had. Some races they were yellow and in some races they were black on the inside.

Shot the yellow on yesterday. Went down really nice. I'll shoot on the clear today. I really like this paint. It dries very quickly and covers well. Here's some pictures of the body.

Thanks for everyone's comments. Just shot the yellow this afternoon (literally...just walked in the door). Paint went down extremely well. Will have to do some very very light sanding and then I'll shoot on the clear. I don't think I'll be using the red. It just isn't close enough to the red in the decal. I'll probably use Tamiya's TS-49 (bright red). The decals in this kit are not exact in color to all the reference photos that I have. They have a tendency to try to match it to a hobby paint. Will get pictures out soon.

Got a little more work done. There really is not a whole lot to this kit. Most of the detail is in the photoetch. All the other little pieces are painted the body color. Here's a picture of all the pieces that attach to the body or belly pan. Pretty much all the same color, either red or yellow. They are in Scalefinishes primer, waiting to be painted. Picture of rims, tires and brake assembly together. Along with the seat belts and seat. All the P/E bits and pieces.

Jim, Very nice. I was looking at doing the same thing on the front lip. This kit seems like it's a combination of the 2006 and the 2007 car. There are a lot of little things that are not correct on the car, mainly aerodynamics. Thank you for the interior shots. I'll be putting those to use. Let me know when you start putting the front dive planes on. They are a bit tricky if you are using the bigger ones. A lot of sanding to make them fit.

I've had problems in the past with Future yellowing on me. I think the new Future doesn't yellow, but I don't use it that much. The stuff I use is called Floquil Crystal-Coat part #F110004. It's a railroad paint. I mainly use it for clearing over decals. Here's a photo of a car that is 5 years old, been in direct sunlight and hasn't yellowed. I have other cars that are much older and they have not yellowed as well.

I use Tamiya's basic putty. If you can still get it, it works really well. You can thin it out with alcohol and spread it on with a brush. The putty dries within 12 hours if you put is on thin. I usually sand the next day after putting it on. I also use thin CA to fill in small holes.

Got a little more work done. Roll hoops are glued in and puttied up. Little bit of a pain. The way they have the front pontoons already cast as one piece in the body. Had a hard time cleaning the inside of a very large seam line. There in the pictures where it shows sanding marks are the areas that needed a lot of work. Hopefully will have some of the body in primer. And should be ready to paint in a couple of days, that is if I don't run into any other little flaws. There were more pinholes than usual in this Studio 27 kit than the ones I've done previously. Easy to fix but just time consuming.

Jim, feel free to post whatever you'd like. It's always nice to see someone else's build. Might give me ideas.

Unfortunately it does not match the decals that well. It's a dead-on match for all the photos I have, but the decals are more of a bright red like Tamiya's TS-49. I'm going to try shooting the red over some white to see if that lightens it up a little bit.

I'm in agreement with Andy on this one. There's no definition on there to say what's a fuel efficient vehicle. On top of that they don't even know how to spell.

Started working on the Studio 27 kit. Looks like it's going to be a pretty easy build. I'm using Scalefinishes factory correct paint. First time using this product so I shot a test sample. The paint covers extremely well and lays down well. Very little orange peel if any. Easily sanded out. Was able to get some of the parts painted. Most of the stuff is in primer. Rims and other small parts painted with different shades of Alclad. Next step is the body itself. Fairly clean flashing wise, though there are some mold lines that stick out quite a bit so they'll have to be sanded. I'll update you when I get more done. Here's the Scalefinishes paint. The test piece lying up against the bottles has a clear coat on it. Scalefinishes paint was sprayed over their gray primer.

Kits are MS Hobbies Eagle MkIII. These were built for customers. Paint was Tamiya's TS-26 (white) airbrushed, TS-49 (bright red) airbrushed, Alclad for rims. I have both the Daytona and high downforce version. Stilll need to add the antennas but did not want to put them on because I still need to transfer the cars. Feel free to comment. Daytona high downforce

Like harrypri said, all epoxys are the same. Doesn't matter which brand you use. Some brands will be clear when they dry and some will yellow when they dry. Just depends on what chemical they were using to dye the A and B parts. Will mention this though...when you're prepping the part, make sure you rough up the surface. That way it gives the epoxy something to bite into. If it's a smooth surface, it will hold but you can peel it up. Another way to make it dry more quickly is to mix it into a small disposable cup and microwave it for 5 to 10 seconds. This gets the chemical reaction going quicker which will make it dry quicker. Another thing, make sure you use the right type of epoxy. There are several types out there. Some are meant for wood, some for metal, and some for plastic/general purpose. I don't have a favorite brand. I use whatever is the cheapest. As for the hardener drying out, it does occur but not very often. Try to store it in a cool, shaded area out of direct sunlight. And make sure you clean the bottles after use. That way you can make sure you have an airtight seal. Hope this helps.

I was listening to the radio this morning. A head engineer for Toyota died from being overworked. He was working on a new hybrid designed car. I forgot how many hours he worked but it was some god-awful number. It sounded like he was actually living at his work.

Thanks for the comments. Yes, it does look like a Pike's Peak car but back then that was the way of producing a lot of down force on a lot of the cars. There is another dive plane on the bottom part of the car that I haven't put on yet. I still have to build another 10 (I think) of the Daytona cars. So if anybody is doing a build and have a question, let me know cause I'm getting pretty experienced at building this kit.