Tamiya Porsche 911 GT2 Club Sport

[Nacho Z]

My current project is this Tamiya kit of the Porsche 911 GT2.  I had recently seen a picture of a Porsche in a very unique color and fell in love with it.  That picture was the inspiration for this build.  I have been itching to shoot a model car in fingernail polish and I found a color of polish that was fairly close to the color of the real car.  I figured now is the time to do it.  I have experimented with shooting fingernail polish and am fairly comfortable with it.  Before committing fingernail polish to the model, I experimented with the fingernail polish over a white primer and over a black base.  I really liked the black base so that is how I shot the model.  

Here we go. I will caption each photo as needed.

 

The Tamiya kit.

 

The kit parts and the fingernail polish.

 

The test spoon.

 

I usually use a black Sharpie to highlight the mold seams.  I am fairly certain that this kit started life as the race car kit.  Tamiya have you remove a number of molded on items.  These are also highlighted with a Sharpie.  While I am at it I always rescribe all panel lines.

 

There are a lot of parts that need to be painted body color.  I made a list of these items and prepped them for priming and painting.  I primed everything with Gravity Colors (Spain) primer.  Next, I shot everything in Tamiya LP-1 Black.  I let the black cure and knocked it down for a smooth surface.  I only did the last step for the body parts.

 

Here are 2 bottles of OPI fingernail polish slightly over-thinned with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner.  Personally, I think it is a beautiful color!

 

Approx. 5 or 6 coats applied.  Some people will scoff at the Tamiya anti-static brush and the cost of it, but I use it all of the time and feel it works.  I might have had 1 speck of dust in all of those layers of polish.  The first two pictures are of the body fresh out of the paint booth.

 

I let the fingernail polish cure overnight.  Next up, I shot the body and associated parts in Tamiya TS-13 Clear straight out of the can.

 

Lastly, here are three pictures of just the body shell after the clear has cured.

 

Let me know what you think!

 

Edited June 6, 2023 by Nacho Z
Spelling

[cifenet]

Love the color and progress so far! Never knew nail polishing color can be this good!

I built the same kit some years ago and I enjoyed building it.   Keep up the good work!

[mrm]

I love this kit. Having said this, I never actually completed one. The last one I had started some years ago, is donating its wheels and tires for my Maranello build. 

About the paint. I love it. I love nail polish colors for models. my wife loves OPI colors and have stolen quite few of them from her. I think their metallics are actually perfect for model cars scale wise, so fine. I love the color you have chosen and I think you have achieved an amazing result, which goes to show, that when applied with care and properly prepped, we can get great results on our models with materials not necessarily meant for our hobby. 

Now I can't wait to see what are going to do with the interior of this monster of a Porsche. 

[Dragonhawk1066]

That is a beautiful color!

[beeRS]

Great start. I also love this kit. The paint finish looks amazing. Thanks for the tip about the anti static brush. Dust specs are such an annoying problem for me. 

[atomicholiday]

That color is really cool.  Looks like it’s got some color shift going on.  Nice!

[jaymcminn]

Ah, another modeler who has discovered the joys of the Tamiya Magic Brush! That color is absolutely insane. Can't wait to see where it goes from here.

[SpikeSchumacher]

She's going to be a beauty! ?

[espo]

The paint finish is beautiful looking. 

[Toast]

That is an awesome color and you laid it down prefect!

I've always wanted to try fingernail polish through my airbrush. 

[iamsuperdan]

Great colour! Kind of like Porsche's Dark Teal from around 2003-2004. But yours is slightly lighter. I like it.

 

Simple kit, but a great kit! I just finished one a couple of months ago and have a few more in the stash to build in different colours.

 

[Nacho Z]

On 6/5/2023 at 9:17 PM, cifenet said:

Love the color and progress so far! Never knew nail polishing color can be this good!

I built the same kit some years ago and I enjoyed building it.   Keep up the good work!

Thanks, Steve!  There are some absolutely gorgeous colors out there, for sure. 

 

On 6/5/2023 at 10:24 PM, mrm said:

I love this kit. Having said this, I never actually completed one. The last one I had started some years ago, is donating its wheels and tires for my Maranello build. 

About the paint. I love it. I love nail polish colors for models. my wife loves OPI colors and have stolen quite few of them from her. I think their metallics are actually perfect for model cars scale wise, so fine. I love the color you have chosen and I think you have achieved an amazing result, which goes to show, that when applied with care and properly prepped, we can get great results on our models with materials not necessarily meant for our hobby. 

Now I can't wait to see what are going to do with the interior of this monster of a Porsche. 

Thanks so much, Michael!  Painting a model in fingernail polish was kind of a "modeling bucket list" item for me.  I'm sure I will be doing more of it in the future.  My problem is I like building race cars and they have to be a specific color so I don't get a lot of opportunities to be creative in my color selection.

 

On 6/5/2023 at 10:50 PM, Dragonhawk1066 said:

That is a beautiful color!

Thanks, Craig!

 

On 6/6/2023 at 12:58 AM, beeRS said:

Great start. I also love this kit. The paint finish looks amazing. Thanks for the tip about the anti static brush. Dust specs are such an annoying problem for me. 

Thanks, Sonny!  The brush is a bit pricey but I'm glad that I have one.  I do other things to cut down on dust.  I have a spray bottle full of water by my paint booth.  I turn the booth on and give a couple of good mists of water over the inside of the booth.

 

On 6/6/2023 at 12:43 PM, atomicholiday said:

That color is really cool.  Looks like it’s got some color shift going on.  Nice!

Thanks, Jeremy!  I did not realize that there was that much color shift and to be honest I'm a little disappointed with it.  It was not my intention to have a color shift but I guess it is growing on me.  I'll be polishing out the clear in the next week or so.  We'll see what I think of it after that.

[Nacho Z]

On 6/6/2023 at 12:52 PM, jaymcminn said:

Ah, another modeler who has discovered the joys of the Tamiya Magic Brush! That color is absolutely insane. Can't wait to see where it goes from here.

I appreciate it, Jason!  I really do like the brush and use it quite often.

 

On 6/6/2023 at 12:55 PM, SpikeSchumacher said:

She's going to be a beauty! ?

I sure hope so, Mathias!!  Thanks!

 

On 6/6/2023 at 12:55 PM, espo said:

The paint finish is beautiful looking. 

I am pleased with it so far, David.  Now to not screw it up while polishing it out!

 

On 6/6/2023 at 1:21 PM, Toast said:

That is an awesome color and you laid it down prefect!

I've always wanted to try fingernail polish through my airbrush. 

Thanks, Ryan!  I can not speak highly enough about Mr. Color Leveling Thinner, it really is great stuff.

 

On 6/6/2023 at 1:36 PM, iamsuperdan said:

Great colour! Kind of like Porsche's Dark Teal from around 2003-2004. But yours is slightly lighter. I like it.

 

Simple kit, but a great kit! I just finished one a couple of months ago and have a few more in the stash to build in different colours.

 

Thanks, Dan!  It has been a great kit so far.  I doubt that I will have any issues with it.  I wanted a different color from what I am used to seeing this kit painted.  When I saw the fingernail polish I knew that it was meant for this car!

[Nacho Z]

Time for a Monday night update!  I'm letting the clear coat cure for a week or so while I work on the chassis.  I am by no means an expert when it comes to Porsches, therefore I am going to follow the color callouts in the instructions.  They said to paint the chassis pan, top and bottom, body color, so I did.

I then masked the chassis pan and shot the lower part of the engine in Alclad Dull Aluminum.  Next, I further masked the engine and shot the very end of it in Tamiya Metallic Gray.  Honestly, there is not much difference between the colors.

 

I flipped the chassis over and flocked the area in the instructions that said "black".

 

Next up was work on the suspension.

 

Three separate colors where airbrushed onto the exhausts.  These were a combination of Tamiya lacquers and Alclad.

 

I threw all of the parts in a box, shook the heck out of it and out popped this nice chassis...lol.  OK, that is not exactly what happened but it was almost that easy!

 

Work has begun on the interior.  I hope to have it finished for next Monday's update.  Thank for all of the kind comments from the first post and thanks for checking in on this update!

 

 

 

[iamsuperdan]

lolz. You did the exact same thing I did!

The decals for the brake calipers are so small, I didn't notice that I did two of them upside down until I took pics.

Maybe we need better magnifying glasses! ??

 

I'm really liking your colour choices here.

[Nacho Z]

8 hours ago, iamsuperdan said:

lolz. You did the exact same thing I did!

The decals for the brake calipers are so small, I didn't notice that I did two of them upside down until I took pics.

Maybe we need better magnifying glasses! ??

 

I'm really liking your colour choices here.

 

?  And I still didn't notice that until you pointed it out...lol.  I almost left the decals off because I could barely see them, let alone read them.  I was happy when I took the pictures because they actually showed up.  I was going to check my decal stash for some darker ones but then realized that they will be barely, if at all, visible on the completed model. 

[iamsuperdan]

Yeah, I didn't sweat it too much for the same reason. Can hardly see the caliper through the wheel, let alone the logo.

It's too bad you can see them much, because your brakes look great. You actually got some real depth in the brake disc. That, combined with the bolts make for some realism.

 

[Nacho Z]

Monday night update!  Good Lord this is a nice little kit.  So far it has been a joy to build.  I moved on to the interior.  This will be a box stock build.  I am doing that because that is the category that I want to enter it into in future model contests.  One big drawback with this decision is that I cannot use aftermarket racing harnesses.  The kit decals are nice but there is nothing like a 3 dimensional replacement.  

 

 

I always dull coat my seat harness decals.  I usually do this by hand brushing Humbrol Matt Coat over them.

 

I left the door panels off for picture purposes.  The chassis and roll cage are painted body color but they really don't show the color in these pictures.  It should be noted that the wheels are painted copper and not gold.  I felt copper was a better choice for this car color.  I will have to say that it appears gold in the pictures but it isn't.

 

And finally, I couldn't pass up a quick mock up.  I swear the wheels aren't gold...lol.  Please note that this is prior to the body being polished and panel liner applied.

 

Thanks for looking!  Let me know what you think.

[bisc63]

Fantastic finish!

[Can-Con]

Looks fantastic.

I'd pass on the panel liner, it looks perfect the way it is. ?

[Nacho Z]

2 hours ago, Can-Con said:

Looks fantastic.

I'd pass on the panel liner, it looks perfect the way it is. ?

Thanks, Steve!  As with almost all of my WIP threads, this one is further along than what I have posted.  I have polished out the body and wing.  She has been completely masked and the window trim has been airbrushed and the panel lines have been done.

[Pierre_tec]

100% agreed, panels seems deep enough 

[beeRS]

This is looking great. Nearly finished now. 

[Nacho Z]

This will be the last update before I post the finished model in the Under Glass section.  The update will be on my least favorite task of building a model.....masking.  So much time is spent on masking for such a short amount of time painting...lol.

I understand that my masking on this car may be a little over the top.  My buddy James jokingly busted by balls about all of the tape that I used.  I didn't want to take any chances with overspray.  I have had this Tamiya masking tape for a long time.  I just ordered a refill of the 10mm wide tape.  It cost me a whooping $2.49.  Anyhow, I digress.  The window trim came out great and I had no overspray whatsoever.

 

This is the last update in this section.  I will post the finished model in a day or two.  Thank you to all who took a look and those of you who commented.  I appreciate it!

 

Edited June 24, 2023 by Nacho Z
wording

[TransAmMike]

Wow, great looking GT2, love everything about it and man, that color is perfect for that car?