RoG 1977 Lancia Stratos WRC

[Nacho Z]

20 hours ago, Belugawrx said:

Nice paintwork, picking out the details, John. 

Those seatbelt decals behaved nicely for you ?

Cheers

Thanks, Bruce!  It has been a fun kit so far.  I ran into a little snag which I will share with everyone soon.

[Nacho Z]

As I said in my last post, I am going to do something new for me.  I am going to clear coat over my decals.  The paint has cured and I am going to do what I always do, I'm going to polish out my paint.  I always get a little flutter in the pit of my gut when I start polishing out a nice paint job...lol.  I did not go for a show rod shine but rather a decent paint job for a purpose built rally car.

Here she is with the paint knocked down.

And here she is with the shine brought back.

Again, not a show rod shine but a race car shine.

With the paint work done it is time to start laying the decals.  Where to start???  Might as well start on the top.  The ROME decal is a separate decal and I wanted to make sure that I got it centered.  Thanks to the NNL East crew, I was able to do just that. 

Laying flat decals onto compound curves is a bit nerve-racking but these old decals behaved fairly well.  The red triangle is a separate decal and took a bit of work to get snuggled into place while keeping it centered.

 

Coming up next is probably the most time consuming part of the entire build......

[Dann Tier]

6 minutes ago, Nacho Z said:

As I said in my last post, I am going to do something new for me.  I am going to clear coat over my decals.  The paint has cured and I am going to do what I always do, I'm going to polish out my paint.  I always get a little flutter in the pit of my gut when I start polishing out a nice paint job...lol.  I did not go for a show rod shine but rather a decent paint job for a purpose built rally car.

Here she is with the paint knocked down.

And here she is with the shine brought back.

Again, not a show rod shine but a race car shine.

With the paint work done it is time to start laying the decals.  Where to start???  Might as well start on the top.  The ROME decal is a separate decal and I wanted to make sure that I got it centered.  Thanks to the NNL East crew, I was able to do just that. 

Laying flat decals onto compound curves is a bit nerve-racking but these old decals behaved fairly well.  The red triangle is a separate decal and took a bit of work to get snuggled into place while keeping it centered.

 

Coming up next is probably the most time consuming part of the entire build......

DANG!!!.....now that DOESNT look like fun.....better you than me, Bud!!!!   LOL

[Belugawrx]

..... wow .....

 

 

John, those decals are looking awesome, well done. 

You need to do a tutorial on how you get them to lay down so well.

Cheers

[Gt fan]

Lay that decal with some setting solution let it soften up and use a hairdryer on low heat. Let it dry and use a new blade to make the cuts. Then use some setting solution to get them to snug down around the spaces. 

[Nacho Z]

2 hours ago, Belugawrx said:

..... wow .....

 

 

John, those decals are looking awesome, well done. 

You need to do a tutorial on how you get them to lay down so well.

Cheers

Bruce, thanks Buddy, I appreciate the comments!

[Nacho Z]

1 hour ago, Gt fan said:

Lay that decal with some setting solution let it soften up and use a hairdryer on low heat. Let it dry and use a new blade to make the cuts. Then use some setting solution to get them to snug down around the spaces. 

Tim, I appreciate the input! That is (almost) exactly what I did. Truth is, this thing is built and in a display case. I tend to do these workbench threads so that others can see what is In the kit, what to look out for and what I may have done to overcome a problem.  I have been very fortunate to have mentors and I am more than happy to pass along anything that I can.  I think it is just great that you basically gave me step by step instructions on how to do the hood decal.  That is all I am hoping to do in this thread, pass along some helpful tips.

[Nacho Z]

Time for another update.  To start off with I will describe the whole hood decal ordeal...lol.  Honestly, it was more time consuming than anything.  I started by just getting the big ol' thing laid down and centered.  When I had it positioned and all of the excess water and setting solutions squeegeed out I started cutting slits in the decal.  If anyone has used decals with these thicker, opaque colors you know that they are a little harder to work with.  The decal didn't cut in a nice straight line but rather in a more jagged fashion, (and yes, I used new surgical scalpel for this).  I then took a micro brush loaded up with Tamiya's decal solution and worked each individual vent.

Now don't be too alarmed at how absolutely ugly this looks right now.  This picture is zoomed in a lot and a bit over exposed.  What I was trying to capture was how the decal cannot cover the entire inner surfaces of the vents.  You can see a lot of white area in each vent.  

I am generally a lazy and impatient modeler so I have to pat myself on the back a little bit.  I took my time and after several attempts I was able to mix some green paint to be dead-on balls accurate match when it dried!  I then took a tiny paint brush and painted the inside of each vent.

I took small breaks from the hood decal madness and worked on the interior and chassis.

My last update will be covering the overall quality of the decals and the nightmare that was putting the chassis and body together.  Stay tuned!

[Belugawrx]

Really nice job on the hood decals John.

..fiddley little stuff, but well worth the effort !?

Cheers

[Nacho Z]

On 1/30/2020 at 10:56 PM, Belugawrx said:

Really nice job on the hood decals John.

..fiddley little stuff, but well worth the effort !?

Cheers

Thanks, Bruce!  It has been a labor of love...lol.

[Nacho Z]

As promised, this will be my last update before posting in the Under Glass section.  I want to discuss the decals and the fit of the body to the chassis in this post.  I will not overdo it with multiple pictures of my in-progress decaling.

As can be seen in this photo and some of the others I have already posted, the decals with the red and green are a little thicker and lay done with a definite texture to them.  This is not uncommon and I've experienced it with Tamiya's decals as well.

After getting her all decaled, I did something I have not done before, I clear coated the decals.  I had to walk a fine line between too much and not enough clear.  I did my best at striking a compromise between the two.

I polished out the clear to a level that I thought was appropriate for a 1977 rally car.  I then masked it off and painted the rubber trim around the windows and windshield.

Another big deal for me, I airbrushed a second thing on this car!!  On the rear there is a small panel that is black.  I airbrushed Tamiya semi-gloss black bottle paint.  It came out nice.

I had just a little bit of clean up to do but considering this is only the second thing I've really airbrushed, I was super happy!

But it was all going too well when a small disaster struck.  All you have to do is Google a review of this kit and they almost all mention how hard it is to spread the body out far enough to get the chassis into it.  I think I made 4 attempts and had something break off of the interior each time.  I finally resorted to cutting the sides of the chassis down.  The following picture is not staged.  This is what happened when I finally got the chassis in the body but had to take it back out because another dang piece came off.  Admittedly, I lost my cool a little and as it was all coming apart as I tried to take it out, I just gave it a good hard pull.

Later that night.  You can see where I cut the sides of the chassis down.

[Dann Tier]

Its a bummer that happened, but it looks like you saved it!!...i anticipated this issue with my Fujimi Pantera, so i cut-out everything that would make me mad.

[Starter77]

Happened today 

destroyed hasegaw decals for lancia stratos hf kit from 2004 and looking for new ones. 
I will strip color and rebuild once I get this Alitalia decals set 

do you know we’re can I get it from ? 
 

[Dann Tier]

Any update on this yet, Bud?!!

[Nacho Z]

1 hour ago, Starter77 said:

Happened today 

destroyed hasegaw decals for lancia stratos hf kit from 2004 and looking for new ones. 
I will strip color and rebuild once I get this Alitalia decals set 

do you know we’re can I get it from ? 
 

So sorry to read that this happened to you, Starter77. I would think Hiroboy in the UK or Spot Models in Spain would have replacement decals. I know this very kit is being reissued very soon or it may already be out. Good luck!

[Nacho Z]

1 hour ago, Dann Tier said:

Any update on this yet, Bud?!!

Well shoot, I forgot about this! She is done and has even won some hardware. I will continue this build thread and then post a new thread in Under Glass.

Edited May 19, 2020 by Nacho Z

[Dann Tier]

Just now, Nacho Z said:

Well BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH on a cracker....lol, I forgot about this! She is done and has even won some hardware. I will continue this build thread and then post a new thread in Under Glass.

LOL....that can happen...looking forward to it!!....CONGRATS!!!

[Nacho Z]

2 hours ago, Dann Tier said:

LOL....that can happen...looking forward to it!!....CONGRATS!!!

Oh geez, Dann, you’re not going to believe this but I did post the finished model in Under Glass. And not only did I forget I had already posted it, you commented on it! ???

[Dann Tier]

1 hour ago, Nacho Z said:

Oh geez, Dann, you’re not going to believe this but I did post the finished model in Under Glass. And not only did I forget I had already posted it, you commented on it! ???

LOL!!!!.....what the heck??!!!....well, its doubly good!!!