Scale-Master

Finished! It is a very good fitting kit. Time spent on detail painting brings what looks like bland molded in detail at first glance to quite believable as a more than just curbside model. If you like the subject matter, you will probably enjoy building this kit too. Here is the WIP thread: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=37866

I've used it over a bright red base and made a vibrant red metallic. Not all Tamiya mica's dry as semi gloss. But if you plan to polish any of the mica or metallic's, a clear coat is very good advice...

Thanks! I used Testors Black Chrome Trim straight from the bottle and toned with Gunship Gray for the semi flat black and gray, the dead flat black is Tamiya Flat Back acrylic. The windows and headlights are mounted to the body, all fitting very well… The side rearview mirrors are two tone, I painted the black by hand and found it easiest to leave them on the sprue until they are ready to mount to the body…[ IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/Scale-Master/NissanGTR/DSC09297.jpg They too come with Mylar inserts for the mirror faces…

The center post of the rear wing is attached… And since it was pre-fitted is a breeze to install to the body…

Thanks! The patina on the exhaust was done with a wash of smoke and transparent yellow acrylics. The taillights are each made up of a clear, clear red and chrome piece. They fit very well together and into the body too. The kit comes with those nifty masks to allow crisp painting of the black areas. The rear view mirror comes with a Mylar piece that looks very convincing as a mirror.

The engine is “installed†and finished, simply by cementing the three parts that make up the induction system to the body. The kit provides a Mylar Nissan badge for the front of the plenum. The front fascia and headlight bezels fit very nicely to the body.

Window trim was painted by brush with Testors Black Chrome Trim. The surround that goes around the rear quarter windows was freehanded, but I took the easy path and masked the straighter door sections.

Ditto. Build for yourself, not someone else. That way you only have to please yourself, and after all, it is your model.

Thanks again. I recall an earlier discussion about the progression of some “On the Bench†builds and some dissatisfaction with ones that just faded away or moved along sporadically or just too slow. This thread should appeal to those who wished a quicker pace for other people’s builds. This puppy is flyin’ together! The hood is finished. The scoops are the same Gunmetal as will be used on the rest of the trim. The under side of the hood was left with unprepped primer and dry-applied unpolished red paint. The picture shows the orange peel as a bit more aggressive than it looks in person, maybe better lighting will help later… The hood blanket is molded in and just painted flat black. The front fascia grille area was masked and shot gunmetal… If you are planning to not use the front license plate, I would advise to put a couple small drops of CA in the back side of this part to shore up the holes that are used to locate the plate to the car and sand the outside part flush. Otherwise you will likely have two dimples visible in the center of that grill bar… The lower rocker/spoiler part was shot the next evening to make masking easier. The body also received the same trim treatment…

The interior is done…. The wheels are molded in two parts per rim. They are chrome plated and called out to be painted Smoke. Two coats, one light, let dry then one moderate. Decals for the center caps to be applied later…

Punched circles is a really good idea... Maybe for another project... Here is the dash coming together…

Installed the seats to the interior… The doors come with the chromed inserts and decals for the little safety lights, but the instructions indicated to paint the silver around the speakers. A very tedious task indeed. Paint a black base, then silver trim. Then spend a few days chasing the line round the speaker grilles with black and silver… It can be done… (Not saying I did it the best either.) Let the paint dry between touch ups to keep from making a metallic gray mess. Now I wonder how much it will be seen when the model is buttoned up…

Seats are called out for the black version to have red trim. It is not molded in. I thought it looked cool, and this is a red car, and my model… Using the molded seam line as guide, just paint outside the perimeter on both sides of the seam. I had to touch up both black and red as I progressed to get a good defined line. Then, when I was satisfied with the lines, I sanded the seams off the center and repainted the red. (Make sure the paint is dry before sanding of course…) Then a sprayed coat of clear blends all the hand painting together…

Interior bucket/pan, somewhat the same single piece set up needing a few shades of black and gray plus silver to bring up the molded in detail... (The shifter and hand brake are separate parts.)

It takes a lot of coffee to do this too...

The dash is crisply molded, but the instructions direct to paint a few somewhat tricky details. A good brush and a little patience are the best approach. Same thing for the well molded once piece intake piece on the chrome shot. I painted it in two phases with Testors Black Chrome Trim.

The suspension sub-assemblies go together well, a little time spent detail painting pays off, but I doubt much of it will be seen on the completed model, it is tough to see all the paint work even at this stage…let alone capture it in photos. But it is fun to do nonetheless… Front: Rear:

While the paint on the body is drying… The brake rotors can be supplemented with Tamiya PE parts, but my kit does not provide them (there might be a version that comes with the PE parts as I have seen with other Tamiya kits), and there is no engraved detailing on the rotor faces. However, the instructions included drawings of the PE parts so I used that as a guide to create decals for the rotor faces. Standard hand painting, shading and dry-brushing for the calipers/details…

Thanks for the kind words... Even about drybrushing Time to mask the underhood area off and shoot the body… I chose TS-49 Bright Red although the instructions call out TS-8 Italian Red. I like the look of this color better and depending on the lighting an argument can be made for both looking correct. Usually I use the airbrush and sometimes supplement the last full coats with the can, but this time I opted to try just shooting from the can. Light coats, let them flash for 5-10 minutes (maybe 15…), shot about six coats. Also did the hood, top of rear wing and front fascia at the same time… (The mirrors were shot red when I did the engine bay by airbrush.)

It is a huge compliment to hear I helped somebody with a trick, thank you! Now back to the engine… After a final round of washes and drybrushing to accentuate the molded in details, the engine bay was masked off and the underhood surrounding area was shot with a very dark gray. The rubber seal between the two areas was hand painted black. The contrast is not high, but in better light it is enough to differentiate the seal from the panels. I plan to shoot “real†pictures in daylight once it is finished, hopefully it will look better…

Thanks guys! I use lacquer thinner to cut the silver. I knocks some of the brightness down and it makes it flow better. It also makes it dry faster and harded and it stands up to light clear coating pretty well. But then I am using it for non-chrome finishs so the graying and dulling of the silver under clear works in my favor too. Now back to our show already in progress... The rear wing as cleaned up and the bottom painted first. Once it was dry it was assembled. Temporarily mounting it to the car while the cement sets assures proper fit will not be an issue during final assembly.

And now back to the build... I masked off the red and detail painted areas and sprayed the flat black. A little shading, washing and dry brushing were done to provide some depth and hopefully life. Some areas were picked out by freehand brushing with varying degrees of grays to break up the monotony of the black. And the other chassis parts were finished too… The exhaust pipes are plated so the chrome was toned down and tinted a bit. And here it is finished…

Dave, I prefer the Testors enamels for brush painting, but I do use some Tamiya acrylics. I like the Tamiya transparent colors too. You have to do your painting in only a couple brush passes with the acrylics or, as you noticed, they start to pull the earlier partially dry paint up. When it gets to that point, just let what you have done dry and then go back and put another coat on. You can use the Tamiya X-20A thinner as a reducer, but it gets runny really fast and does not like to stick to smooth surfaces sometimes, so add it sparingly, but it does work well as a retarder. The dark metallic gray on this engine is a mix of Tamiya acrylics, applied in two coats. Acarnut, As for masking, those are good suggestions that work, but I prefer to just hand paint and not mask if I don't have to. There's likely to be clean up either way, so for me it saves time.

The chassis is similar to many of Tamiya’s other offerings, much of it molded in one piece in curbside fashion, but with some patient detail painting it can be brought to life relatively easily. I sprayed the body colored parts of the chassis… Then started hand painting the details…

OK Dave, since you asked… Once the red dried (overnight) I went in by hand and painted the black, dark metallic grey, silver, gold and white details.