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mrm

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Everything posted by mrm

  1. mrm

    1951 Henry J

    Cool. You don't see many of these in any scale. Really nice job.
  2. looking good in that blue and wood trim!
  3. Thank you Dennis. The short answers to your questions are NO and NO! LOL The running boards are a an ongoing internal battle for me over the years, mainly with real cars, but also models. I think they should match the body color. Well, most of the times. However, making them smooth and shiny, which many rodders do, brings the look of any car like that right into the very modern category, which is not exactly right most of the time. Painting them black - in other words leaving them original also does not always look right and often distracts from the over all look of the vehicle. I love seeing when builders, both in scale and in 1:1 go the extra mile and have color matched running boards. In the case of THE STEPCHILD, the boards were painted green together with the fenders, masked off for the pearl coat and the clear coats and then all the rest of the fenders were masked off to apply matt clear to the boards. This way they are color matched, without the pearl effect and they are flat, as rubber should be. It would have been actually easier to just paint them matt black from the get go. This not to say that some hot rods don't look great with the black boards. I am building a roadster for example, which will have them white.
  4. Thank you Steve. Let me just say, that this green should not be confused with British (racing) Green, which would be a much darker "oilier" color.
  5. mrm

    The DELIVERY DEUCE

    Thank you Mark. Thanks Bill. Thank you Jim. Thank you Steve. Thanks Rodney. Yeah, the wheel color was a rollercoaster for me, but I like the end result. I love pulling off weird color combos. Thank you Rastislav. It's just standard Tamiya spray can Maroon shot through my airbrush. Thank you. Attitude is everything!
  6. mrm

    The DELIVERY DEUCE

    Thank you Dennis, I appreciate your comments. Thank you Phil. Like I have said earlier, the wheels are what started the whole build.
  7. These are just part of the templates for the decals for just one of the side pieces. The problem is not just applying the decals, but creating a realistic weave, facing in particular direction. So not only all the pieces lined up in the same direction, but also matching the seams between the separate pieces, so it looks continuous. I wanted blue carbon and contemplated different ways of doing it. I was thinking wrapping everything in regular carbon and then spraying clear blue over it. Or putting blue pearl powder in the clear coat over those areas. Or in this case using Scalemotorsport clear carbon decals. These are new to me, because they greatly differ from their previous clear carbon I have used in the past. The main difference is that in the past the lines printed on the decal were the silverish portion of the carbon and now they are the black portion. The cool part about it is, that depending on the grey/silver you use under them, you can control how bright/pronounced regular carbon is, if tahst's what you're making. The down side is that before you could put them over black or gunmetal and have a cool effect, where now they just disappear over those colors. Anyway, clear carbon has always been a major pain to work with, simply because it's clear. So with regular carbon decals, you can overlap them and repair spots, manipulate direction of the weave and with enough heat and solvaset even fold the decals over on corners and make them smooth, with all imperfections disappearing under a good clear coat. With the clear carbon you can not do anything like that. if you overlap two pieces of decal you can see the weave underneath and even if you perfectly align the two weaves, the line is much darker at that spot. With regular carbon decals, when applied over black or gunmetal, if you have a little crack or gap in between two decals, you can get away with it, because the color underneath matches one of the two colors of the decal. With clear carbon ou have no such margin for error, as the color underneath shows through and it looks a lot brighter than when covered. The other thing is that you have to be very careful not to hurt the finish under the decal. With the regular carbon I can use a fresh blade exacto knife to trace and cut my templates right on the part. With the clear you can not do that or you will see the marks on the surface underneath. So not only your templates have to be drawn and then cut out, but they have to be absolutely perfect or the part you're "carbonizing" (I love making up words) would not look very nice. So, here you have the parts sprayed with Tamiya Mica Blue, which is the exact same color as the brake calipers, with the clear carbon applied on the part in the middle. This gives a much darker appearance, which mimics the blue used on the interior pretty well. My original plan was using even darker blue, but once the decals were applied on it, the carbon weave all but disappeared. Making the templates almost feels like putting together a nice suit. Making three totally separate parts with complex curves match the carbon weave as one fluid continuous part is a whole new level of PITA and worked out every nerve I had left in me. Stupidest thing is that I plan to display the model in fully open state all the time, which means that the matching weave direction is not even going to be seen, as the panels will not stay in the position like on the picture. But I know they match and that gives me a completely senseless and mazochistic type of pleasure. LOL More to come....... Thanks for looking.
  8. Thank you, Bob. Thanks Ken.
  9. Thank you David. Altho after two full days of working on the two bumpers and two lower side panels (well, mostly) and still not being done with them, is not what I would call exactly a quick progress. LOL. It's quickening the process of my hairs getting white tho.
  10. There is a lot more to show, but I simply did not have time o upload the pictures. I just did one really quick, because I just had to vent out. This is by far the most difficult, tedious, maddening, complicated, expensive, extensive and over all pain in the behind decal job I have EVER done. And I have done A LOT of carbon fiber in the past. Doing a Tamiya Ferrari Enzo or LaFerrari is a walk in the park in comparison to the amount of work involved here and the complications of it.
  11. Nice! I actually started building the same car I believe your model is inspired by. I chopped the roof, got the tires, started gathering parts….. and it kinda died out. One day I’ll restart it. your model is fantastic. Does it have engine and all, or is it built curbside?
  12. More Long roofs! I know you have them guys....
  13. Let's revive this thread guys. I know there are a lot more cool Vickies out there. Show them off!
  14. Now here are some more pictures.... The AC vents were installed in the dash, followed by the steering wheel and the instrument cluster. Then the front and rear subassemblies were glued to the monocoque and the floor plate was glued to everything. Now we have a roller. Altho the wheels need to be taken off and redone on the inside. They are typical Japanese kit wheels/tires, which altho superior to anything found in American kits, still tick me off with their ridge on the inside. They look great on a closed fender cars, which is the case 99% of the time, but on this model they are fully visible on the inside and those ridges have to go. The roof was fitted on to check for any potential issues, before the white was painted on it. It is drying right now and then it will receive a healthy dose of carbon on its upper side before everything is covered in clear coat. Interior looking good. The side body work was test fitted next. You may notice the circular cut outs I drilled right head of the latches on the bottom. Those were made to accept magnets, which would correspond to magnets in the doors in order to keep them nice and snug when shut. At least that's plan but I am already unning into issues with it. More on that later. Front and rear bumpers were primed and then sprayed with metallic black as a base for carbon fiber. Same steps were taken with the sides after puttying and sanding the magnets areas. After the metallic black had dried under the sun on my deck, the side was masked, separating what would be the visible monocoque under the body work (masked off areas) from the body work on the exterior (area left to be painted). And the rear bumper and sides painted with the masking removed. Now all black area will be covered with carbon fiber before the clear coat. Thanks for looking!
  15. Thank you guys. I'm glad you like it.
  16. I did work on finishing my engine and putting my complete chassis together today. First, I made some ducts to connect the air filter boxes to the turbo inlets. I made them simple, using heated sprue pieces from the kit that were bent to shape and painted metallic black. I scratched my head about making the steps efficient. So I first attached the boxes to the frame, without covering their front sides with carbon. Then I attached the newly made ducts to them and the turbos. On this picture only the left one is in. After attaching both of them with 5min epoxy, I covered the boxes with large weave carbon to match the rest of the engine components. Note the hollow oil and water tanks. I decided to leave them, as you can never see their back. Here everything is completed and you can see the carbon boxes with the air filter visible inside. Mock up teaser.... Starting to fit panels and prep them. I will start with teh bottom half of the car first. I have more to show, but have to upload the pictures first, so stay tuned and as always - thanks for looking!
  17. mrm

    The DELIVERY DEUCE

    Thanks guys. I appreciate it.
  18. Thank you Hector. Thank you Emre. I wouldn't go that far to claim magical powers, but I know my Ferraris. You are too kind. Thank you Philippe
  19. Really nice. I am amazed at the results you got out of the kit's wheels.
  20. That is pretty cool. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it has that "Gotcha factor".
  21. Very nice clean job. do the doors open on this kit?
  22. Thank you David. Your plaid in the Chevy's interior looks great. I have never gotten around to designing my own decals. Then I will probably go completely mental. LOL. Altho I would love some of the typical punk rock red plaid on a decal. I would so totally use it in a hot rod or even an exotic interior.
  23. You are talking about the left one. I meant that the right one has the lens completely missing.
  24. Thank you, Steve. You are correct about Jay Kay. For some reason he would always be Jamiroquai to me, altho I am aware of his real name. I am not familiar with all his cars, but I know he had a Lambo Diablo Jota, which his fellow band member crashed. It was actually featured in one of his videos, together with his F40. He has a really cool black Ferrari Enzo, with very unusual looking dark green interior. That color combo comes with quite a history actually and royal provenance. What is really cool about him, is that he actually drives and enjoys his cars and shows them to the public a lot. My understanding is that he is a regular at Goodwood Festival. Either way, he is a genuine car guy and not just a rich dude showing off.
  25. Thank you. The trick part with diecast models is that you have many parts made from various materials. The main body is from Zamac, which is basically an alloy made from mixed metal waste, held together by Zinc. That is why you can not weld it or glue it. Most of the model however is made from plastic. And it is not just one plastic, but a variety of different plastics. They all react different to paint and solvents. Having a uniform finish where these different materials blend seamlessly, like for example on the front wing, which is plastic attached to the metal, or the vents on the rear hood can be quite testing. A huge part of the solution is using 2K primer.
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