Tamiya Aston Martin DBS

[beeRS]

Luckily, I bought this kit back in 2011. Have you seen the price of them now! They seem almost too valuable to build. It's a shame that Tamiya never re-released this one. It's a beautiful kit - as you would expect from Tamiya, and probably the nicest detailed of any Aston in 1/24. There are very few Aston Martins that have been kitted over the years and this seems strange as they have made some amazing cars. 

Even in 2011 I remember thinking the kit was expensive, so I waited till it had been out for a while, and found this one listed as 'used' on ebay. What I received was this box with minor scuffing on it, and a few parts that had been cut off the sprue. That was fine by me.

The Tamiya kit does include a few PE parts, but I also got the Acu Stion set to compliment it.

At this point the story goes a little astray. The body (and majority of parts) are moulded in black. This is an unusual choice from Tamiya. I think most manufacturers go with white nowadays, and it makes life a lot easier us. To avoid battling with possible bleed through, I opted for a metallic gun metal grey. I sprayed it using automotive rattle can and it did not look too bad, but the fleck in the paint was just off scale. It looked like a 70s glitter custom paint when you looked up close. I got a bit disheartened and so put it in the box for another day. I did.t even bother taking any pics.

Fast forward to a decade, and Its out of the box. I had forgotten what a lovely kit it was, and despite the paint job, it'll still make a great display model. first job was to strip off the paint. I used brake fluid. It was the first time I tried this and it did make a real mess. 10 years of paint hardening seemed to take for ever to come off. Even then, I had to sand the last bits off.

Second time around and I have sprayed the body with Mr Hobby surfacer primer.

I've mounted all the interior parts on cocktail sticks and this is a custom mix of Humbrol enamels to create a tan leather.

This time I have gone with black. It's Zero gloss black and Zero Diamond 2K clear. Why is black so hart to photograph!

Next job is to flat & polish the clear coat and prey I don't go too far. Thanks for looking.

 

[Mattilacken]

Sweet! Looking good! will be following and nice to see an other being built.

I got this kit not to long ago, got it new from my LHS where they had forgotten to put it in their web shop, luckily me since I got it for original retail which today felt high but okay! I had planed to get going on mine this year but it will wait a bit due to the bmw and Others. These cars are special to me since I in 2006 where at the factory for three weeks and got to ride in al the models they made. I also followed a DB9 in fabrication and where at road test for the most part of the first week. After that I was in press garage for the two other weeks, where I got to disassemble a DB9 and instal a new model of seats ? was a great experience especially in retrospect. Made this display the other day, waiting for my DBS to be built.

Sorry for hijacking! Will be following! 

[beeRS]

1 hour ago, Mattilacken said:

Sweet! Looking good! will be following and nice to see an other being built.

I got this kit not to long ago, got it new from my LHS where they had forgotten to put it in their web shop, luckily me since I got it for original retail which today felt high but okay! I had planed to get going on mine this year but it will wait a bit due to the bmw and Others. These cars are special to me since I in 2006 where at the factory for three weeks and got to ride in al the models they made. I also followed a DB9 in fabrication and where at road test for the most part of the first week. After that I was in press garage for the two other weeks, where I got to disassemble a DB9 and instal a new model of seats ? was a great experience especially in retrospect. Made this display the other day, waiting for my DBS to be built.

Sorry for hijacking! Will be following! 

Wow - I never got to do anything as cool as that when I was a student. 

[Mattilacken]

5 hours ago, beeRS said:

Wow - I never got to do anything as cool as that when I was a student. 

I went to a special school that was specialized in automotive testing. They had collaboration with most manufacturers regarding their winter testing, so we had internships on many company’s, BMW, Aston Martin, I believe Audi and some testing company’s in the UK. Mine was Aston as mentioned. A friend of mine was on the design studio of Aston. Btw the same seats that are in the Tamiya model is what we installed in DB9 and V8 Vantages for the press cars, a update to an already built car to represent the coming years interior. Btw back then Aston had the ugly ford key, not the beautiful ones that came later.

[beeRS]

A very small progress report on this one.

 

Various parts air-brushed in bright silver. 

 

I fitted the PE discs to the plastic Tamiya parts then mounted the assembly on a micro drill and sanded the surface. This gives the PE surface the appearance of a real brake disc with radial marks. It didnt photograph very well, but looks good in my eyes.

 

It's a shame that I get such little modelling time these days. This is such a nice kit (as you would expect from Tamiya), and it deserves a bit more of my time to finish off. Hopefully,  I'll post some more progress on this one soon.

[mrm]

Well, I am sorry to say it, but you just invested a great amount of effort and skill, to create some detailed brakes that could never be found on the car you are modeling. Or on any modern sports car. Simply because the Aston Martin DBS, just like most exotics our days, uses carbon ceramic brake rotors. And they are never silver, they are not shiny, they don't score and have no radial marks. Carbon brakes look very dark heat stained grey with almost matt finish. Like a stone pulled out of fire, because...well.. that's pretty much what they are. 

Here's a picture of some used Aston Martin DBS brakes in perfect condition. 

 

The effect you have achieved is really cool and would be a dead ringer for the steel brakes on F 40, Countach or Diablo or some older Aston Martins, but not on anything modern with high tech brakes. Even Corvettes use carbon brakes our days. The area where the photo etched pieces are great help is the sharpness of the holes in the rotor's surface and the ease of painting, since you can paint them off the rotor nd therefore eliminate the need of masking the calipers. 

[dbostream]

I will follow this build for sure, I like what you have done so far.

Wish I would have bought this kit back when it was easy to get but I kept waiting for a better deal that never came...Hopefully one day Tamiya release it again.

[beeRS]

On 7/23/2022 at 8:31 AM, mrm said:

Well, I am sorry to say it, but you just invested a great amount of effort and skill, to create some detailed brakes that could never be found on the car you are modeling. Or on any modern sports car. Simply because the Aston Martin DBS, just like most exotics our days, uses carbon ceramic brake rotors. And they are never silver, they are not shiny, they don't score and have no radial marks. Carbon brakes look very dark heat stained grey with almost matt finish. Like a stone pulled out of fire, because...well.. that's pretty much what they are. 

Here's a picture of some used Aston Martin DBS brakes in perfect condition. 

 

The effect you have achieved is really cool and would be a dead ringer for the steel brakes on F 40, Countach or Diablo or some older Aston Martins, but not on anything modern with high tech brakes. Even Corvettes use carbon brakes our days. The area where the photo etched pieces are great help is the sharpness of the holes in the rotor's surface and the ease of painting, since you can paint them off the rotor nd therefore eliminate the need of masking the calipers. 

Doh! Thanks for sharing this information. I wish I could unlearn this fact now. 
it’s not too bad, I can paint a carbon effect on the discs. At least the upgrade to carbon won’t cost me the £5000+ it would on a 1:1 car. 

[Mattilacken]

Any progress on this beauty?

[beeRS]

On 3/14/2023 at 12:04 PM, Mattilacken said:

Any progress on this beauty?

Nothing worth showing at this stage. I’ve been meaning to get round to polishing the body. I’ll get back on it soon ??. 

[mrmike]

I built this kit back then and mine was molded in a metallic grey with some swirls in the finish.  Mine was painted silver and I had trouble with the metal lettering for the air cleaner.  The small letters didn't want to stick to the flat paint and after-the-fact, I should have used gloss paint and clearcoat with flat clear afterwards.  Not told in the instructions!  Good luck with your build as this is a excellent kit!

[beeRS]

On 3/17/2023 at 4:09 PM, mrmike said:

I built this kit back then and mine was molded in a metallic grey with some swirls in the finish.  Mine was painted silver and I had trouble with the metal lettering for the air cleaner.  The small letters didn't want to stick to the flat paint and after-the-fact, I should have used gloss paint and clearcoat with flat clear afterwards.  Not told in the instructions!  Good luck with your build as this is an excellent kit!

Looks beautiful in silver. Thanks for sharing and for the tip about the silver lettering. Indeed, this is a lovely kit. 

[89AKurt]

It's a good thing I'm not so much into Aston Martins to *have to* get this kit.  I've seen the prices, ridiculous.  It is a nice looking sports tourer, and Tamiya quality is worth it.

[catpack68]

Really nice work on it so far?Hopefully one of these days Tamiya will reissue this kit.I missed out on buying one. The prices are getting really stupid for this kit?

Edited March 23, 2023 by catpack68