Tamiya Mercedes AMG GT3 Riley Motorsports - American Flag livery

[lghtngyello03]

I started a new project today. Tamiya’s 1/24 Mercedes AMG GT3.  I’m going to build it in the Riley Motorsports American Flag Livery, which are made by SlotFabrik and can be found on Hiroboy.

Paint will be the same ScaleFinishes Ford Blue Flame Metallic that I used on my Raptor, as I can’t exactly find a color for this car. 

It Doesn’t look like much has been done, but all of the mold lines have been sanded and I have taken care of the panel lines with my panel scribe tool. I have also glued in the body panels that can be glued in before paint, and went ahead and filled these with putty to sand them down smooth.  After the putty cured, I sanded them down and applied some super glue over top of the putty to keep the ghosting down.

I have also went ahead and cleaned the mold lines and sink marks off of the cage. Then, assembled It inside of the interior tub to let it dry for the evening. 

Looking forward to build it as detailed as possible, hopefully as detailed as my Pennzoil R34.  So this means lots of carbon fiber decal work, especially on the interior.  

Edited May 24, 2020 by lghtngyello03

[Dave Van]

Cool project!! Who did the decals??? Did I miss that?? thx

[lghtngyello03]

9 minutes ago, Dave Van said:

Cool project!! Who did the decals??? Did I miss that?? thx

Sorry the decal company is SlotFabrik. I got them off of Hiroboy.  

[Italianhorses]

Very cool car! Will follow.

[lghtngyello03]

Just now, Italianhorses said:

Very cool car! Will follow.

Thanks man! Can’t wait to see this project take shape 

[lghtngyello03]

So I realized after looking through some pictures, that the front bumper doesn’t have the fog lights on the Riley Motorsports car.  So I took the fog light lenses and glued them in as they normally would be, and took some putty and superglue and went to work. 

After all that, I opened up the holes in the exhaust so they would have more depth to them.  I also sanded the sink marks out of the spoiler to get it ready for primer as well. 

After  what seems forever I finally got everything cut from their spru’s and primed, as well as the body. 

The body needs a little more putty work on the rear fender vents and fog lights that I patched up. The rear bumper, hood inlet, and side inlets turned out great though. 
 

Hope to get a little more work done on the body tomorrow to correct these issues. 

[Funkychiken]

I see what you mean by the ghosting of filler, i've always thought that i'm just doing it wrong, i'll have to try the CA glue method

[lghtngyello03]

57 minutes ago, Funkychiken said:

I see what you mean by the ghosting of filler, i've always thought that i'm just doing it wrong, i'll have to try the CA glue method

Yes, the first time I did it on my 55 Cameo, I was going nuts.  Then someone here on the forum chimed in and told me to try CA glue over top of the filler, and it would reduce chances on it happening.  As you can see, some areas it works perfect, and some require some more effort like the back fender vents and front bumper fillers.

[Dann Tier]

What a mean looking car....you are off to a FANTASTIC start, Bud!!!!

[lghtngyello03]

On 5/30/2020 at 1:37 PM, Dann Tier said:

What a mean looking car....you are off to a FANTASTIC start, Bud!!!!

Thanks Dann!  I have come to a stand still for time being on this build, lol.  My wife has decided it is time to update the kitchen, which involved a color change on the entire house, lol.  So now my weekends off of work are dedicated to getting as much done in a day or two on the house as possible.  But, I will keep trying to do a little bit during the week on the model if possible. 

[Dann Tier]

7 hours ago, lghtngyello03 said:

Thanks Dann!  I have come to a stand still for time being on this build, lol.  My wife has decided it is time to update the kitchen, which involved a color change on the entire house, lol.  So now my weekends off of work are dedicated to getting as much done in a day or two on the house as possible.  But, I will keep trying to do a little bit during the week on the model if possible. 

That sounds familiar....i havent been modelling much either, i've been hand weeding our 400'x10' garden. This weird start of the year caused mega growth....i still have a few days left of it, sadly.

 

[Justin Porter]

Awesome work. I definitely like seeing how you're doing the little tweaks to better portray the Riley machine.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Oh Sweet!!

This is one of Tamiya's best car kits, literally falls together.

Really looking forward to seeing this livery, excellent choice

[lghtngyello03]

Oh man, that's a lot of work. I did my time on outdoor landscaping while the state was shut down for almost a month. Glad to have gotten it completed while it was still decently cool here in SC

 

[lghtngyello03]

15 hours ago, Justin Porter said:

Awesome work. I definitely like seeing how you're doing the little tweaks to better portray the Riley machine.

 

15 hours ago, Twokidsnosleep said:

Oh Sweet!!

This is one of Tamiya's best car kits, literally falls together.

Really looking forward to seeing this livery, excellent choice

Thanks guys!  I can tell this is a super nice kit while taking everything off to prep for primer.  Sucks it will be a slower build since I will not have all my time devoted to it, lol.

[lghtngyello03]

Back at the bench after a long break from this one. Here’s the progress as of now. I got all the body work completed, all the semi gloss black parts painted, some carbon work done and the body ready to spray. Hopefully tonight I can get some color laid down. 

[lghtngyello03]

Got some color laid down last night, excited to see this finally getting somewhere. Hope to start decals this weekend maybe. 

[lghtngyello03]

I was able to get some carbon work done last night. Forgot how pain staking this stuff is but well worth the end result every time. 

I also got the brake rotors detailed out  

 

Edited February 5, 2021 by lghtngyello03

[Mattilacken]

Looks beautiful! That livery is intense probably allot of work as well! Great carbon work! Is it pre cut carbon? 
beautifull work keep at it! 

[lghtngyello03]

On 2/5/2021 at 2:51 PM, Mattilacken said:

Looks beautiful! That livery is intense probably allot of work as well! Great carbon work! Is it pre cut carbon? 
beautifull work keep at it! 

Thank you!  The livery has a lot of work to be done for sure. The carbon was. It precut decals, it was all self made by myself. Lots of templates and cutting. 

[lghtngyello03]

I did some more carbon work, and got the window trim and front splitter painted semi gloss black to get ready for more carbon fiber decal work. 

The rear diffuser probably took the longest out of anything I’ve ever done. I’m using Tamiya Fine Weave Carbon decals. 

[larman]

Great job! That looks like a very nice kit!

[lghtngyello03]

11 hours ago, larman said:

Great job! That looks like a very nice kit!

Thank you. So far it is very nice except for the mold lines on the body that had to be addressed. Typical great Tamiya fitment though

[lghtngyello03]

Alright. I got a little more carbon work done tonight on the AMG, but not much. Also got the suspension detailed and mounted and detailed the tires And wheels. 

I’m trying to find some valve stems in stock to buy, and I’ll add those, but I’m having no luck so far. 
 

 

[lghtngyello03]

I managed to find my valve stems in my stash of wheels. So I drilled out the wheels, got them installed and painted some reference marks on the spokes for quick location. 

I also got my stickers in for my modeling page over on instagram.