Tamiya Skyline R34 V spec ii 1/24

[DiscoRover007]

Hey guys so this has been my official build of the quarantine. I’ve actually got a few going at the same time but this is one I’m most comfortable posting.

This is an excellent kit. I’m going with the Bayside blue with white nismo wheels. I’ve got the body painted in Tamiya mica blue and I’m currently in the polishing process with that. However I just finished the under carriage. Still need to add the exhaust tip but it’s coming.

So I painted underside with Tamiya mica blue. Gave it a light clear coat. The wheel wells and gas tank are painted with Vallejo black with a brush. The engine and the other molded in silver bits were painted with Vallejo air silver with a brush also. It’s a god send of a paint because it doesn’t leave brush strokes.

 

Ive taken quite a liking to painting the underside of car kits now. It’s usually the first or second thing I do. It’s an enjoyable process and lets me treat the whole kit like a work of art. It’s also forgiving because of weathering. 
 

Suspension pieces were airbrushed with Vallejo air black and the bolts were picked out with a tooth pick with some silver. The exhaust is Model Master Aluminum plate buffed. I then used a little bit of some weathering powder and used Tamiya panel line accent on just about everything to define the parts better.

I used the optional nismo brakes and am quite pleased with how they came out. They have a nice sheen. This is MM aluminum plate, buffed, no clear. I then used Vallejo gold with a brush for the calipers and used and acrylic wash to define the drilled brakes. I then used a q tip to shine up the rotor again. Probably not quite as good as a PE part but it’s a lot cheaper! Need to retouch the black a bit though.

 

That’s it so far. Interior up next. Thanks 

 

 

Edited May 9, 2020 by DiscoRover007
Extra pictures

[Italianhorses]

Looks real good man. I've built this kit in the past, its a great one.

[DiscoRover007]

11 hours ago, Italianhorses said:

Looks real good man. I've built this kit in the past, its a great one.

Thanks Alex. And Im actually well aware of your R34 build. I used it as a reference quite a few times already!

[espo]

Great looking chassis. I also like to paint detail a chassis on my builds. I think it has to do with all the different components involved with many different colors. Like a little jig saw puzzle. I like the darker shades you use to add depth to the appearance of the different parts.  

[89AKurt]

Looks awesome, the "weathering powder"?  Makes a huge improvement.

[DiscoRover007]

Wheels painted and installed. This is Testors lacquer gloss white. I initially gave them a flat clear coat but realized they would look better glossed so I shot some  ts-13 over them. Then used the kit decals. Center caps were painted Vallejo air silver with a brush. Micro Sol for the decal solution. Love the look of white wheels.
 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2020 by DiscoRover007

[lghtngyello03]

Looking great so far! The R34 Tamiya's have to be my favorite kit so far.  Excellent to build up and look awesome when finished.  I have built one of these and an R32 Z-Tune, and have 2 more in the stash for future plans. Looking forward to seeing your build finished up.

[Funkychiken]

Sharp work on the chassis !

[DiscoRover007]

Got the interior tub sprayed along with the the seats and door cards(not pictured). I sprayed the interior with Vallejo air black. I was originally going to do the typical two tone with a dark grey on the inside of the seats. However I found a really nice M-Spec R34 with a full black leather interior in my research and decided that would be nice on my version too.

For the flocking I used detail master grey. I use spray adhesive to apply my flocking after masking the areas I don’t want covered. It takes a little more work and time than the white glue or enamel paint  methods. But I tend to get better results this way. 
 

You might notice a few paint chips in the back seats from where I took the masking tape off. I’ll have to patch that with the air brush at some point. I also need to patch the area behind the center console with flocking. I’ll probably use white glue there.

 

Edited May 13, 2020 by DiscoRover007

[martinfan5]

Real nice work so far.

[DiscoRover007]

On 5/10/2020 at 12:51 PM, 89AKurt said:

Looks awesome, the "weathering powder"?  Makes a huge improvement.

Thank you. I have a couple of Tamiya’s weathering powder kits and just sort of light dusted the exhaust. Doesn’t look like the r34 pipes get too heat stained from photos.

On 5/11/2020 at 12:56 PM, lghtngyello03 said:

Looking great so far! The R34 Tamiya's have to be my favorite kit so far.  Excellent to build up and look awesome when finished.  I have built one of these and an R32 Z-Tune, and have 2 more in the stash for future plans. Looking forward to seeing your build finished up.

Oh yeah they are great. Curbside but very well engineered. 

On 5/11/2020 at 6:02 PM, Funkychiken said:

Sharp work on the chassis !

Appreciate it.

9 hours ago, martinfan5 said:

Real nice work so far.

Thanks ? 

[Italianhorses]

Excellent flocking job! Where do you buy DM flocking nowadays? I can't find any at my usual suppliers.

[DiscoRover007]

15 minutes ago, Italianhorses said:

Excellent flocking job! Where do you buy DM flocking nowadays? I can't find any at my usual suppliers.

I managed to find a pack off eBay. It was a small package but it covered very well so it must have been a dense material.

Im usually using black or tan flocking so I bought those in big bulk bags a few years ago off ebay too. 

[DiscoRover007]

Little experiment I’m testing with the front fog lights. This is a spare bumper I had. Painted the bucket of the light with Vallejo chrome then drilled and inserted plastic rod that was painted clear orange.  The actual fog lights have an orange bulbs and chrome housing. You can see the painted bumper in the back.

 

[Italianhorses]

Looks good. If you use clear rod, and then put some foil at the back end, it will look even better.

[DiscoRover007]

1 hour ago, Italianhorses said:

Looks good. If you use clear rod, and then put some foil at the back end, it will look even better.

That’s what I was thinking to use but I don’t have clear rod thin enough. I tried to melt some clear plastic under a lighter but it kept catching on fire hah. Any tips on that end?

[Italianhorses]

48 minutes ago, DiscoRover007 said:

That’s what I was thinking to use but I don’t have clear rod thin enough. I tried to melt some clear plastic under a lighter but it kept catching on fire hah. Any tips on that end?

Chuck a piece of clear part tree into a dremel and sand it down. You also shape it like a bulb!

[DiscoRover007]

Here’s the painted body. Pardon the wax residue. . It’s been a nerve racking job with this one because I had a lot of orange peel. I unfortunately realized I burned through the paint when polishing in a few spots.So it’s been a lot of back and forth  of polishing and small resprays. 

So I carefully resprayed these areas last night with the airbrush. It was tempting to just chuck it in the brake fluid because you can usually tell with metallic paints where spots have been fixed but it came out pretty good. I also didn’t want to waste what would otherwise be a good paint job.

I unfortunately chipped the paint pretty bad on the front bumper when I drilled into the fog light so I’ll be respraying that. That’s not as big of a pain because I still need to paint the spoiler.

 

 

[DiscoRover007]

21 minutes ago, Italianhorses said:

Chuck a piece of clear part tree into a dremel and sand it down. You also shape it like a bulb!

Excellent idea!

[Dann Tier]

Dont know how i missed this!!, but i'm glad to have seen it!...looking KILLER!!!!

[Mattilacken]

Loooks very good! Keep it going