Ferrari F430 Challenge

[Dann Tier]

21 hours ago, Justin Porter said:

Personally I'm pretty partial to Eduard's photoetch racing belts. Instead of fussy buckles and material or the unrealistic flatness of decals, they're a single piece of photoetch that's pad printed.

Those look pretty nice, but what do you do about the edges, and the back sides of the belts?, for me, the light catches the "uncolored" edges, and quite often in sports car interiors, you can actually see the backsides enough to need them to be colored both sides, not to mention the refracted ight from the shiny backside onto the rest of the interior. If you have a trick to that, i'd be interested in knowing!......unless its a closely guarded secret......lol

[Dann Tier]

21 hours ago, Nacho Z said:

 

 

Thanks for the comments, guys!  Over the years I have used a number of different options.  I have used the Eduard belts.  I did have trouble with the paint flaking off.

I have also made my own.

 

Those look GREAT!!!!, but I fear, not for 1/24 scale...….1/20 scale+ looks FANTASTIC!!!....I will be using it on my 1/12 Countach!

[Dann Tier]

2 hours ago, Nacho Z said:

I said earlier that one of my least favorite things to do is masking.  I know it has to be done but I hate spending all of that time laying down tape just to take a minute or two to paint...lol.

My favorite thing to do is decaling.  I know there are builders out there who avoid decals like the plague.  I must admit that I have never really had a bad time with decals.  Over the years I've had a few issues but I have never had a totally disastrous decaling session.  Here is the decal sheet for the F430.

I try my best to trim my decals as close to the actual image as I possibly can.  Some decals have a ton of carrier film that will show up on the finished model.  I have a good pair of scissors that I use to trim that carrier film off of the decal.

Here is a quick mock-up.  The body is just sitting on the chassis.  Decaling has started on the other side of the body.

 

Hey, John!, where the heck did you get all the giant size tools from??!!!!….you're VERY brave to have them that close to a Ferrari!!!!!.....lmao...….Its looking so real!!

[Justin Porter]

I've been more partial to using them as a replacement for belts in racing cars like Group C cars where there's not much window to look through. For the edges, a light touch of a close match flat color seems to do the trick. 

I wouldn't use them for, say, a WRC car build where the belt mount on the cage and the strung belts are very obvious. 

[Dann Tier]

Just now, Dann Tier said:

Hey, John!, where the heck did you get all the giant size tools from??!!!!….you're VERY brave to have them that close to a Ferrari!!!!!.....lmao...….Its looking so real!!

I too ALWAYS cut the carrier film off....its easier to use, and looks way more realistic in the end.

[Dann Tier]

2 minutes ago, Justin Porter said:

I've been more partial to using them as a replacement for belts in racing cars like Group C cars where there's not much window to look through. For the edges, a light touch of a close match flat color seems to do the trick. 

I wouldn't use them for, say, a WRC car build where the belt mount on the cage and the strung belts are very obvious. 

NICE!.....thanks for sharing!... I think they look great for being PE!!

[Nacho Z]

Time to start laying decals.  As seen in my last post, the decal sheet is very large at 11 inches long.  The car is mostly covered in decals.  I can tell you now that the decals are pretty thick.  Maybe a better way to say it is "stiff".  They do not like to conform, especially the reds and blues.  I have resorted to Solvaset.

I did another quick mock up to check body and interior fit.

And one more mock up.

 

[Dann Tier]

3 hours ago, Nacho Z said:

Time to start laying decals.  As seen in my last post, the decal sheet is very large at 11 inches long.  The car is mostly covered in decals.  I can tell you now that the decals are pretty thick.  Maybe a better way to say it is "stiff".  They do not like to conform, especially the reds and blues.  I have resorted to Solvaset.

I did another quick mock up to check body and interior fit.

And one more mock up.

 

Again...…….simply BEAUTIFUL!!…..I tried that Solvaset once, and it "etched" itself into my paint, and wouldn't buff-out.

[Gt fan]

Glad to see you building this again. Looks wonderful. Great job. The black paint looks great.

[Nacho Z]

3 hours ago, Gt fan said:

Glad to see you building this again. Looks wonderful. Great job. The black paint looks great.

Thanks, Tim!  You don't know how many times I refer back to the picture you posted back on page one.  I actually have not found a picture of this actual car on the internet.  I have Googled the series, the car, the team and the driver....nothing!  There are tons of pictures of a 1:18 diecast...lol!

[Italianhorses]

Looks excellent with decals on!

[Gt fan]

You may have to look search for the race it won. I may have more pictures , I'll look

[Gt fan]

I think it raced Asia pacific series.

[Nacho Z]

14 hours ago, Gt fan said:

I think it raced Asia pacific series.

Thanks again, Tim, for the help.  I tried to Google it again with different combinations of "Asia Pacific" series with no luck.  I find it so very odd that Fujimi did a kit of what appears to me to be a very obscure car.  I have spent literally hours over the course of the build looking for pictures of this car and have not found a single one.  I found the source of the picture you shared and it appears it is the only one he took of that car...lol.

[Ich_Will]

Looking great! I’ve used Micro Set and Micro Sol since 1987 (used to do N Scale trains) without issue. The stuff is a miracle as far as I’m concerned. 

[Nacho Z]

19 hours ago, Ich_Will said:

Looking great! I’ve used Micro Set and Micro Sol since 1987 (used to do N Scale trains) without issue. The stuff is a miracle as far as I’m concerned. 

Yeah, Will, most of the decals did OK with Set and Sol except for the big red and blue ones.  I have noticed this behavior in other kits' decals with reds, blues and greens.  I am assuming it has something to do with how much color is laid down to get the color.  The setting solutions just kind of sit on the decals.

[Gt fan]

John I did a search of the side sponser Valleverde and found these. Check the drivers Instagram. 

[Nacho Z]

47 minutes ago, Gt fan said:

John I did a search of the side sponser Valleverde and found these. Check the drivers Instagram. 

You, Sir, are my hero!!!!!  I kid you not, I have spent hours looking for pictures of this car.  I never that to check Instagram.  I did Google Dario and F430 but kept getting 458 pics.  Honestly, I never thought to search for the sponsor, I'm not sure why?!?!

I truly appreciate you doing this.  I hope you didn't spend too much of your time, but wow, thank you!

[Gt fan]

No worries...your welcome glad I could help. The first picture the car is racing at Monza . 

[Nacho Z]

Time for another update on the Ferrari F430 Challenge.  I have spent a great deal of time laying down the decals.  There are a lot of them!  There are a number of decals that go over the top of other decals so I had to be methodical in order that I put them on.  In between decaling sessions I had to do some work to get the body to fit on the chassis / interior / engine compartment.  I'm not sure what went wrong but it hit on the back of the roll cage and the front of the engine compartment.  I believe it has a slight bow in the chassis plate.  Lots of sanding and test fitting.

Here is a shot of the rolling chassis.  The engine compartment is just sitting there, it is not glued down.

Here we go again, the dreaded 404 error.  I cannot post pics.....

Edited September 15, 2018 by Nacho Z

[Belugawrx]

Dang

I was looking forward to an update from you ...

Try again...

Cheers

[Nacho Z]

2 hours ago, Belugawrx said:

Dang

I was looking forward to an update from you ...

Try again...

Cheers

Thanks!  What is so weird is that if I try reposting, after several tries, I kind of get locked out of the website.  It just won't load.  I have to wait for an hour or two before I can even get back on.  Let's see if this loads from my phone.

[Nacho Z]

 

I just don't understand...lol.  This picture belongs to the post about three posts up.

Edited September 15, 2018 by Nacho Z
Added text

[Belugawrx]

Hehehe

Ghosts in the machine

[Nacho Z]

On to the decals.  Disaster has struck!!  Please keep in mind that this kit simply is just about impossible to find.  I don't believe there are any type of aftermarket decals for this livery.  You get one shot and I blew it!  I will do a new post because I have a few pictures to share.  Here is what happened.  I consider myself pretty darn good at laying decals.  I have done a lot of race cars and have had a lot of practice.  One thing is for sure, you can only do so much with compound curves.  I knew this one was going to be tough.  I laid the placard decal down and had four very small folds.  I could have, (should have), left it, but no, I had to try to make it perfect.  I use setting solutions.  I hate to try to cut / slit decals.  I just don't like doing it.  I applied heat and the decal settled in pretty well but not perfect.  The more I messed with it the worse it got.  I finally said to myself, I would rather not have it on there than to have it on there and be wrinkled.  I tried to remove it but the setting solutions and heat basically melted it to the paint.  I could only get small pieces off!  Now what?!?!  I left it for a day or two.

 

I had one placard left that I had not put on let.  The only problem was it was a fender decal and it had a cut out for the wheel well.  Long story short; I took a picture of it, sent it to my son who removed the background and filled in the missing white and border.  He then sent it back.  I found a free Photoshop type program called GIMP.  I downloaded it and learned the very basics of how to use it.  I fixed a few minor issues with the image and figured out the size I needed to print it to cover up the original decal.  I also ordered several brands of white decal paper.  I watched a number of YouTube tutorials on how to make your own decals.  I finally got it figure out.  Printed a few extra decals to practice with before doing the Ferrari.  Anyhow, here are the pictures to help explain what I did. 

The photo of the decal we used to make the replacement.

The end result of Photoshop and GIMP work.

I used a white gel pen to fill in as much white as I could and then laid down a plain white decal over the original decal as a base.

And then I laid down the homemade decal.  There is just the tiniest wrinkle in the decal and I can live with that!