Technics

Ive been figuring out and undoing build mistakes .. the joys of buying partial built second hand… a bargain is a bargain though! Short and sweet, four floor mounted leavers. It was started already as a LHD variant to which I said so be it in the risk of damaging parts that were correctly seated and not moving anywhere.

I sourced the logo or close enough to the original logo, adjusted, scaled and cut it out. I’m content with how well it worked. Isn’t perfect of course… incredibly small, fiddly area to mask, one can almost not see the text your to remove with a scalpel from the mask. Much nicer than the kit decal anyway.

Been eyeing these kits for a while! Great to see one built.

Love it! Great detailed work and progress 🤟🏻

Rear glass including wing, black trim, and a few decals is in. Detailed and fused in headlamps. With paint I tried to mimick the lamps as seen in references as mold isn’t the same really. Painted window trims and air intakes by brush. Tow hook in, painted in a galvanised / goldish paint. Tire decals on. Took some measurements and plan to make a spray mask for the Citroen racing text to go onto the radiator Pebbles - just for fun! Excited how it’s looking.

It’s rested 45 days and felt rock solid the clear so I had the nerve to mask and start the trim painting. In my eyes it went perfect. This DS3 project might be my nicest clear finish thus far. The body and windows call for a combination of masking, decals and brush painting for the trim. This was the first stage. I prefer dividing into separate bench time sessions. If there is too much things to paint per session I lose track / don’t pay enough attention / get discouraged. The body to chassis and test fitting of the windows is basically 100% perfect. This is a sweet kit especially after having experienced the Xsara kit.

I forgot about updating this thread. The body was primed, taped off and shot 3 mist coats of Mr Color for the blue. I wet sanded the bonnet and shot a wet coat of Super Clear. No huge mistakes, not perfect either. I’m content. Decal time! The charging bulls decals are split horizontally by 3, is this just French fun or adding alignment challenge I wonder. The box art shows the bulls as blobs due to licensing issues I imagine. I almost bought a aftermarket decal sheet as I wouldn’t want to see blobs on the final model but after closer inspection saw the bulls are infact complete and true in the kit decals. The jump from the Xsara to this DS3 is enormous. It’s a high quality kit thus far. I colour matched some decal shortcomings with bottled paint and worked on some bodyside decals. Sol/Set doing its magic. Far from perfect but it’s the largest and multi piece decals I’ve ever tackled. This is model nr. 4 of a 20 year coma 😂😃 When decals and touch ups dried up I misted on two very light coats followed by two wet coats of clear. I wet sanded imprefections lightly 3600. I believe I will leave it here and move onto the next stage. Ample dry / gas out time and mask out the black areas. Otherwise I’d love to do a deeper wet sand and a final wet coat there’s one or two tiny hairs. Plenty of small decal glitches but it won’t matter in the larger picture when complete. 8/10 I’m content!

Trim paint went on perfect in my eyes. I worked on aging the body a bit more and will continue to wet sand the dated areas toning it down a bit. It’s different to say the least. I like what’s happened on the trunk!

Motor ignition plug bases in. Worked the headers and repainted three times having changed my mind what colour it should be I just love white! And it works to balance out the black hole of this build. I’ve been sweetening the firewall trying to remove most deviations and begun rescribbing some lost door splitlines. It’s getting somewhere.

Great colour! Nice work

I had a round of mishaps with the hood ( 3 repaints ) over a period of weeks Not wanting to sand it down to repaint a fourth time and knowing I won’t be 100% happy with leaving it I thought it’s a good time to go experimental. I’ll never match the exact shade of hood to body as the exact paint layers, and days have long past. I’m going to try to do some sort of clear coat degradation effects. I may or may not sand through to primer a front fender, rocker or something to make the story fit the rest of the vehicle. Just having fun - Don’t know what I’m doing yet. It’s maybe a sacrifice build to develop some techniques for future builds. Hood is wet sanded with a high grit number, I then stippled on with a sponge thinned white in two passes, haphazardly removed / added material. I then stippled the base tortoise colour. I wet sanded back down reaching the white in areas. Next I’m thinking of darkening it up with some washes and gloss clear coating some areas utilising liquid mask. “Naturally unnatural” In a way I’m more excited as I’m in unchartered territories with no guarantee of survival. Or a complete shift of how I build models, none perfect 😅😃 Here’s the undercarage that never been seen. I’ll continue to separate components and their metal finish for as long as it’s fun. stage with stippled base colour

Yep, top job. Makes me want to play gran turismo. Awesome work!

A few nights fiddling, walking away with CA glue fingers and I got a hinge solution that works both in the closed and opened position. Neither are 100%. I will likely have some limiting rubber straps / chain / wire for the open position. I’m content. I am still working both the firewall and clamshell to get it as close to “flush” as possible. I will probably have to resort to thin black double sided tape for it to sit closed. It’s a build that will be 100% displayed OPEN 😃 Happy where it is, gone a long way from it’s original stock body already.

I began applying some washes to the motor, trimmed short some intake funnels and tried to simulate the tennis balls that are often seen when the car is being worked on / parked. I tried a few ways of making them but what worked best was cutting off the tips of Q tips, rolling it into a ball, painting it with a neon revell enamel dividing them again and repainting. The texture remains, and is a nice colourful touch I feel. Still a wip.

Primered and fused the motor into the chassis. The motor utilizes the kit transmission. With the motor in place this allow me to trim and make room for the headers, radiator and plan the firewall more. The stance is now consistent with tabs i put in that catch the body at a sweet spot before it all falls over the rear wheels. A lot of small fixes took place and ended the session with brush painted the base colours for the motor in one go while it had dried up in the chassis. Really happy with it, and maybe it’s my favourite part of the hobby. I will begin to weather it a bit once I detail it with stuff I find in the drawers. Stippled on some colour onto the interior bracing. Neither the bodywork or finish will be remarkable on this build but I hope to keep it interesting to the eye with the motor and some patina / weathering. The references show a black untreated front fibreglass clamshell. Every panel has a feeling and is not uniform anywhere, again soo different from what I’m used to it’s completely reprogramming the brain. I picked up a decal sheet of sponsors to liter the trunklid and windows. Some fun things I want to try is to emulate fuzzy golf balls stuffed in the intake trumpets seen in some reference photos when the car is in the pits, wear out the slicks and have tire debris. I will cut stencils for the tire markings, radiator, and body side. I am also going to make a transparent intake scoop, I’ve now cut the hood so it is rectangular over the intake / blower. Debating cutting out the fuel door as seen it without one. I find it difficult / unnatural to fiddle and come up with outside of the kit solutions so it’s a significant challenge and steep learning / effort curve even if the result will suffer. Following through is my number one goal and commitment this time around.

Project has been concluded. Thank you everyone.

With a passionate re entering of the hobby in 2024 I undertook an intimidating project for me originally Started in July - Can’t believe I’m writing this. I finished my Lancia Stratos, I genuinely saw no end to this project for a number of months being intimidated by the motor and interior where I didn’t touch it for prolonged periods so I’m ecstatic! Model - Lancia Stratos Hasegawa + GP modelling transkit Details - Few Photo etch parts Flocked seats Aftermarket, Hood pins / latches, miscellaneous Modifications - Mainly the separation the rear clamshell and fusing in the transkit subframe Removed molded in latches and hood pins Wiring and pluming done via reference using scale materials not included in the kit Pigments diluted and airbrushed Brush “chip” stippling in the motor bay Pros By far my most complex project to date, a monster of a task for me, I’m super happy Stubble in-transit wreathing Cleanest wiring and and plumbing I’ve done A first for dividing a styrene body Cons Some imperfections in the clear which I was too intimidated to correct at the time Rear louvers should be sanded thinner, and or have the livery wrap around the corner, air vents on bonnet. Both tricky things I didn’t have he courage to touch. Build Thread - Thank you everyone for comments and encouragement, Now the photo bomb! Interior shots before final body assembly

Roof rack on, headlamp lenses painted, panel washed and in place, smal touch ups all around. Loved photographing two wildly different builds together. Noticed now the rear cross brace rail is outside its rail.

Continued to chip off paint statgically to have more metal show and get nice compositions. Stippled on a white like roof and began simulating some different metal degradations on the bulkhead / rear bumper. Began to add more colour and some dirt. Debating building up layers of diluted white for the roof to get a more smoother look. Will see how it goes. Just having fun, Overkill probably but educational certainly!

@eran_k looking good! And looking forward to seeing it! The mirror / metal finish went on beautifully thinned by 30/50 with MLT. Personally I absolutely love the finish and gives me all sorts of ideas for future builds. I have never used a allclad or metal paint but will try it all over time. I did a wash with thinned black enamel to randomize the tone of the metal surfaces. Followed by brushing on Vallejo chipping medium. Directly in the airbrush pot mixed 3 Vallejo colours to get this shade of green and applied a randomised continuous thin paint layer that still had some opaque areas. With brush I removed paint to areas I thought would look most realistic. I am very happy at the outcome of the interior. I did the same process on the exterior. But this time I used 5 colours for the colour, bringing in yellow and blue to try to modulated the hue. It ended up being thicker than I would have liked but I began removing paint in the same method by brush. This is where I have stopped for today but will continue at the next session to remove paint from specific panels to get a more divided look, I will change the roof colour to white and might brush a completely different colour to one panel. Super liberating and fun process, completely out of the box here. Very inspiring!!

I removed one seam, which goes to tell you how excellent this model is and sprayed on some fine primer. I am thinking of having it painted in a base of polished metal which I will lightly scuff up with a fine grit paper to get some variation and lines and later apply the top coat and chip back to the metal. Additionally stain / pre shade / discolour the metal. A lot of words of things I’ve never done. The kit was $10 so I feel it’s exactly what should happen.

This was a gem find, a steal at ten dollars. It’s complete but missing the box and been tastefully started with some initial assembly. This project will absolutely not have a gloss clear exterior. I am almost certain go with the interesting, lightest of pastel greens I have. Maybe blend a colour from the two to tone it down a but I like the chalky vibrancy of it. I tested some potential colours on a junkyard bed part. I later experimented a bit with aluminium on top with dry brushing worn edges, and chips. I feel I can go this route with this build. I look forward to attempting to faithfully re create the galvanised steel look of the trim and bumpers. I have slowly plucked away at this project fusing the necessary parts to finally having the majority of the vehicle stand up true under its own stength. It got me really excited seeing it. First thoughts were a completely relaxing build but then today I also had a disturbing urge to attempt to convert this into a 88’ SWB instead of the full boy 109’. I decided I will attempt something similar to these images. Worn down blue and teal panels, some completely metal. Modulation and some dusting of dirt. A first for almost all of the above.

A sigh of satisfaction as the vehicle can be seen standing upright. I normally like to do this early on to get motivation but the kit suffers from some overly engineered hub / wheel fitting gimmicks so it needed the crude hot glue option to move forward and some what finished wheels. I also detailed painted the roof rails by brush. Begun building layers of colour on the lenses too.