Scale-Master

Talk about a blast from the past... I finished this model almost 5 years (has it been that long?) ago. These are 1/12 scale parts for the Blue Super Seven "Superb 7". (As seen in my avatar.)

Yes, and no... I live in a warm part of the country, so I don't have to heat them unless I'm getting to the bottom of a can, or it is colder than normal. I do decant and airbrush, but also spray from the can. Kind of like shooting with a full size gun and a touch up gun at the same time.

Thanks. Not really, but if you have a specific question I'll try to answer it.

Wow, tough crowd. I guess if that is bad enough to point out it I should fix it… I went around the edge with a toothpick to clean it up. I’m sure it will be OK since I doubt it can be seen too well through the windows once installed.

Yes. The instructions call out for that little raised (padded?) piece to be painted the same color as the seats.

It is sun light, nothing better for this camera... A few high caliber builders/friends have shot photos here using my base. That could have made it seem more common? But I have not noticed any other paper backgrounds that look the same... And thanks guys!

The "background paper" is my kitchen counter... Suspension/driveline, top view. Bottom view… And installed into the chassis. Door panel. I added the speaker decals, kind of surprised they did not provide any in the kit… Seats are installed. Same red as the carpet, minus the texture. Clear coated the body…

Actually, that is not an original issue, it is the "Limited Edition" re-release. I worked on that project, had to replicate the "vintage" graphics. It'll be nice to see one done up other than the only way I have seen one finished, (the box art).

It will be good to have another 1/43 fan here.

That is what the "In Progress" section is for... Big model of a little bike...

Thanks Luis. The exhaust is stacked up with the driveshaft/torque tube like that to allow the seats to be closer to the centerline of the car. And there are a lot of belly/splash pans to hide all this detail...

I thought flocking would look too coarse so I mixed up some textured paint to use for the red carpeted areas. The rear suspension is almost done, just waiting for the calipers to dry… This is the top view which will be basically hidden once installed into the chassis.

The exhaust is called out to be assembled after being fed through the rear cross member leaving a seam to be dealt with on one of the exhaust pipes. But if you only cement the pipe together (see seam on lower pipe about a third of the way in front of the muffler) and do not cement them together just behind the catalytic converters, you can squeeze them though the cross member after fully finish painting them. Bottom of the engine and the transaxle assemblies… Driveline and exhaust assembled.

That is a good observation Erik, I may have to use C/F for the Ferrari SuperAmerica roof... I drilled out the rotors with a pin vise. Still doing a little clean up with a reamer… Man are my fingers tender.

Thanks Harry.

I have been using Mr. Mark Softer by Gunze Sangyo. It is great product and predictable to me, but like a lot of things, when you find something you like, it disappears. I know what the basic ingredients of decal solvents and setting solutions are, so I decided I would try my hand at making something from the raw ingredients (which I had some of under my shop bathroom sink, and I raided my parents medicine cabinet) so I won't have to worry about it being discontinued. I used heat on this one too, and used a similar application routine as you describe to make it pliable, but dried it off as soon as it was in place. (Spent about 30 minutes getting it smoothed out.) Let it bake in the sun for an hour or two, then shot it.

Not really top secret, I am still formulating and experimenting with it. I am making progress and getting good (semi consistent) results, but I would hate to have someone try it and damage their decals. Until I have a formula that is safe, I'll hold off from sharing it.

Two photos from different cameras and lighting. That really doesn’t prove much as far as the shade of green. The model and the car could be painted from the same exact can, or be even more different than the photos show. I'd test spray some of the color, see if it looks good enough and tweak it or use it as is. There will be a certain amount of subjectivity in any event. Just make it how you think it should look.

Thanks guys. Yes, the decals can be brittle, but heating them up before putting them in water helps. They respond very well with heat. I used a (home made) decal solvent too. It has been a while since I bought any C/F decals, I didn't realize they were that much now, still a very good product. I'm not going to do anything to the A-Pillars, except treat them with respect. I used Matrix clear, but thinned it down about twice what it should be. Shot the hood too, here is what it looks like now that it has dried.

I have been wanting to build this since I picked it up last year at the LBGP from Tamiya, but needed to get some things in order (finished), and decide on a color. I decided last night… The body is very thin and crisply molded. I spent about 2-3 hours cleaning up the delicate mold lines on all the body and wing parts. Primed it with Tamiya fine white primer and put a base coat of TS-45 Pearl White down. I found a non-pearl white (at least is does not look pearl in the photos) version with a carbon fiber top and rear wing that looks sharp to me. I used ScaleMotorSports Hi-Def decals (1/20 scale to make the pattern a bit more pronounced). Once the decal had dried, I clear coated it.

My experience with that particular color is that it is pretty stable and dense, undercoat color has little to no effect, white, gray, silver, still looks the same when the color is built up. (But I would not try to apply it over black...) On the other hand much like Skip points out, the Italian Red in that line (TS-8) is highly susceptible to being tinted by the undercoat.

I have a several Tamiya catalogs from over the years, many of them have the swatch page, and I have a few "hobby shop" swatch pages too. Different printers make for variances between them for the same colors. They are really just meant to be used as a general guide, not as color chips. I'm not sure it isn't more of a case of different printers producing the catalog, that Tamiya changing the look of the swatch, unless it was to make the difference more visible between the TS-22 and TS-52. TS-52 is Candy Lime Green, a different color, but unprintable as a swatch that matches the paint. And it works great over the TS-22 for a killer bright pearl green.

I think it is more of a case of the swatches not matching online than the paint in the can changing. The printed and online swatches are never going to match the actual paint, especially with metallics and micas.

OK, um thanks, I think...

I'll second Bart on that. Also I handle them like models, not production die-casts. I have chipped a few, but from banging into something, or moving parts. I don't really care about the moving parts, except the hood.