Tamiya Subaru Impreza '99 WRC

[Fury556]

Hi all, just made a start on painting some parts tonight - this is my first attempt at properly painting a model and actually taking some care over the end result, unlike my former self  Nothing too exciting yet, but hoping to make some more significant progress soon...

 

[JerseyRed]

Looking good so far!

[Davewilly]

looks good...cant wait to see some more of it

[Fury556]

Made some more progress - and I'm slowly building up my paint library  ordered 6 more today...

Page 1 of the manual is now complete - all painted and stuck together, painted some more smaller parts on the sprue while I had the chance as well - mainly for practise more than anything, I'm still getting used to painting on such a small scale! There is still a little touching up to do here and there, but overall I'm happy!

 

Edited December 4, 2016 by Fury556

[Brizio]

Looking good so far! 

[Fury556]

Thanks guys - I keep looking at the other models and feeling embarrassed for my paintwork, but it's slowly getting better! My new paints should turn up today with any luck and I can carry on. The manual calls for the wheels to be spray painted, but I decided to go by hand because of the spoke details, and with the size of the wheels it didn't really seem worth the effort. Tamiya Gold leaf looks like a pretty good representation of the real thing.

Painting the shock absorbers is a little finicky, but I think they're coming out well - the actual strut needs to be gun mental but that's part of my order coming in soon. And I imagine painting the rest of the brakes is gonna be tricky without "going outside the lines". There's also the AP racing lettering on the calipers which I really want to highlight, but I might need a magnifying glass for that!

 

[espo]

You are off to a good start. Don't feel embarrassed, we all started in much the same way.

Thanks guys - I keep looking at the other models and feeling embarrassed for my paintwork, but it's slowly getting better! My new paints should turn up today with any luck and I can carry on. The manual calls for the wheels to be spray painted, but I decided to go by hand because of the spoke details, and with the size of the wheels it didn't really seem worth the effort. Tamiya Gold leaf looks like a pretty good representation of the real thing.

Painting the shock absorbers is a little finicky, but I think they're coming out well - the actual strut needs to be gun mental but that's part of my order coming in soon. And I imagine painting the rest of the brakes is gonna be tricky without "going outside the lines". There's also the AP racing lettering on the calipers which I really want to highlight, but I might need a magnifying glass for that!

 

 

[JerseyRed]

Wheels look good.

[Fury556]

Hey all, Had a bit of a break over the christmas period and have made a bit more progress - the suspension and drivetrain are all complete, and now starts work on the interior and roll cage. 

 

Had some trouble with the decals for one of the wheels, it just wouldn't take and both ended up coming off, the rest were fine though. I've just finished one of the bucket seats although annoyingly part of the carbon fibre wrap decal tore a section off while i was pushing air bubbles out, but it's not the end of the world. I'll hopefully take some more photos tonight.

 

 

[JerseyRed]

Hi James, you may want to look into getting Micro Set and Micro Sol. Micro Set prepares surfaces for decals for better adhesion and Micro Sol softens the decals to conform to irregular surfaces. They can help on difficult decals. I started using them after having trouble like yours and have had good results. The rest of your work is looking great.

[Fury556]

Ah cheers, I will certainly look into it as they can be tricky. I'm not happy with the rear suspension top mounts either, I tried to paint them as can be seen, but even with a fine brush it's too easy to get it wrong as I've done. Not sure how I'll recover it but I'll find a way

[Fury556]

Hello again - been a while since I've made any progress thanks to moving house and whatnot, but i'm now at the stage where the interior is complete and I need to paint the body shell, glass and then attach all the exterior stuff! 

[Dann Tier]

Hello again - been a while since I've made any progress thanks to moving house and whatnot, but i'm now at the stage where the interior is complete and I need to paint the body shell, glass and then attach all the exterior stuff! 

Looking SICK!!!, welcome back to building!! looks like you didn't miss a beat.........outstanding!!

[Fury556]

Looking SICK!!!, welcome back to building!! looks like you didn't miss a beat.........outstanding!!

Cheers Some of the decals are fighting me but most things are lining up as they should! I've not spray painted before so I'm a little apprehensive, but from what I've read tamiya paint is good stuff and shouldn't give me any grief!

[Fury556]

Well, I managed to paint the body over the weekend, I think I've done ok for a first timer - I made a few mistakes here and there but it's not too bad. Gave it 3 coats of primer, 3 colour coats and 3 clear. I got one small run down a rear wing that I did my best to put right, but it will mostly be covered with decals anyway, so it doesn't need to be perfect. A little dissapointing, but I think it's down to experience + the shape of the body seems to promote running no matter how thin I went.

 

[Dann Tier]

From what I can see, looks like it turned-out pretty BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH nice.....especially for a first time. The thing I like to do is to not just spray, but REALLY watch how the paint is laying-down....you will actually be able to tell before it runs or gets too thick, especially with Tamiya spray paints. I NEVER air brush...I have one, but its still in its package.....just not my thing I guess. With practice, you can get killer painting with spray cans. Another thing I noticed about the Tamiya TC sprays, is that just because it looks like its spraying an "orange peel" texture when it goes down, DOESNT mean that it will stay that way. It has wonderful self-leveling properties to it!  -keep up the great work!!

[Fury556]

Thanks Dann

Some more progress made, some more stuff I'm not happy about but it's OK. Only a couple of small bits left to stick before I can finish it off with all the decals. The body shell is only draped over, I still need to get that glued down once I can get it to fit snugly without breaking everything!

 

[Mixalz]

Looking great so far. Love a subie. 

I will say this though. Dont glue the shell if it isnt absolutely necessary! Also if it is use double sided tape, as was recently pointed out to me. Will save u headaches if the shell needs to come off.

[Fury556]

To be honest, I'm happy to take that advice! It seems like it's gonna be a pain to fit right, and with some persuasion I've managed to get it snapped into place pretty securely a couple of times. 

[Dann Tier]

Looking great so far. Love a subie. 

I will say this though. Dont glue the shell if it isnt absolutely necessary! Also if it is use double sided tape, as was recently pointed out to me. Will save u headaches if the shell needs to come off.

I agree 100%!   -keep up the great work!!!.......you're on the home-stretch!

[StockBoresMe]

I myself am finding it hard to believe your a 1st timer. That paint turned out killer. Your doing a fantastic job and building a super cool car. I'm more of a customizer but see absolutely no way that car would look right in anything but that body/wheel color combo. Two thumbs way up

[Fury556]

Thanks guys I love the colour combo on this car, the contrast works really well I think. 

Well, After a bit of fun and games last night, all the stickers are on (apart from the ones which seem to have magically disappeared during the move) and my first proper foray into scale modelling is pretty much complete. I need to get the shell sitting better on the body but I'll worry about that later, it still looks fine for all intents and purposes how I have it. The 2 Pirelli stickers on the front bumper aren't taking to the curves very well so I might relocate them if I can't get them to stay in place, no big deal.

 

[Mixalz]

You chose a difficult subject with sooo many decals and did an awesome job with it! Did you try decal solutions?

[Fury556]

You chose a difficult subject with sooo many decals and did an awesome job with it! Did you try decal solutions?

Thanks I like to do things the hard way! I didn't in the end and most went on no problem, it's just the curved surfaces that struggle to mate up properly. I have a couple more race cars to do with plenty more decals so I'll give the solutions a go next time!