Tyler Reddick 'The Beast Unleashed' Hard Monster Toyota Camry TRD NASCAR stock car

[Albert Moore]

Hi All, this is my in-progress model of Tyler Reddick's 'The Beast Unleashed' Hard Monster 2023 Toyota Camry TRD NASCAR stock car, using the Salvinos JR Martin Truex Jr Toyota Camry for the base kit, and 3 Amigos Decals for the graphics.

 

The 1:1 scale car;

 

 

First order of business was to drill out and remove the mold-on hood and deck lid pins in preparation for Detail Master's photoetched hood pin set.

 

 

Next on the list was straightening the body. The front clip was askew and needed to be straightened by heating some tap water on the stove, submerging the front of body into the heated water, twisting the warpage the opposite way, then immediately dunking the body in a bowl with ice cold water. There is still a bit of a tweak, but it will straighten out once the body is attached to the chassis/rollcage assembly.

 

In the last photos, you can see that the body is painted, just need to wet-sand the dust and debris from the paint, and polish the paint for a glass smooth finish. The paint is Tamiya Gloss Black TS-14, which was decanted and airbrushed onto the body.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Cheers,

Albert

[Albert Moore]

That'll do. I wet-sanded the paint for the Tyler Reddick 'Beast Unleashed' NASCAR Toyota Camry, using my trusty LMG micro-mesh polishing set to remove the dust embedded in the paint and level out the surface, then used The Treatment model buffing cream to make her shine again. I was pleased that the paint job was good enough straight from the airbrush to allow me to start with a 4000 grit pad instead of the lower grit pads in the set.

I am very happy with how this looks, and am looking forward to seeing it really come to life when I start applying the decals (which will be here Thursday).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Albert

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2023 by Albert Moore

[Albert Moore]

Small update for today. These Salvinos JR NASCAR Toyota kits only come with a GM engine (as do the Fords), so through some paint mimicry and TRD logo decals from a Powerslide Engine Goodies decal set for the valve covers, we have a Toyota engine. In spirit anyways. Most of this will be hidden under induction boxes, shrouds, and intakes, so I'm not going to sweat over this bit of inaccuracy. It looks close enough for my purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

Also got the decals for this car in the mail today, and they look fantastic. I am looking forward to using these.

 

 

More to come. As always, thanks for looking

 

Cheers,

Albert

[wrenchr]

Coming along!!

[Albert Moore]

15 hours ago, wrenchr said:

Coming along!!

Thank you, Jason!

 

Cheers,

Albert

[Mattilacken]

Nice Progress on a  nice build!

[Albert Moore]

Fairly happy with how the chassis/drive train for my Salvinos JR Toyota NASCAR Cup car kit is turning out. There is room for improvement on my end however. I wasn't expecting an IPMS-level of build being my first attempt at these Next Gen stock car kits as 1) this is my first NASCAR modeling project that has made it this far since 2001, and 2) these Next Gen kits are a bit of a different animal from what I am familiar with (as are the 1:1 cars). I've missed defects in either manufacturing of the kit, or my own ham-fistedness that didn't rear their ugly heads until after paint and assembly. Now that I aware of my own, or the kit's shortcomings, the next Next Gen kit I build will be a significant improvement over this one.

 

 

 

 

 

Also did some test-fitting of the clear parts and body-to-chassis fit. The upper part of the rollcage is sitting loose on the lower chassis as I still have to add the driver's seat and other cockpit bits before permanently setting it in place.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Cheers,

Albert

[Albert Moore]

Wrapped up the chassis and rollcage assembly on my Tyler Reddick Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry stock car (minus the wheels). Happy with how it turned for the most part being my first go at this kit, though there were areas that gave me trouble, like the air intake/snorkel fitment as it wasn't very clear in the instructions as to exact placement (vague instructions are one the few problems with these kits). The radiator shroud and hoses also were also fiddly and required cursing and persuasion to stay in place. The folks who have built these models weren't kidding when they said the tolerances are a bit tight in certain spots. The upper half of the rollcage was warped as all get out and required a bit of persuasion when attaching it to its mounting points. I learned a lot of things that will be very useful for the next Next Gen stock car I build. Being that is just to familiarize myself with these kits, I didn't add any detail. That will be for the next car as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Albert

[MarkJ]

Albert, that paint job is stunning. Black can be tricky at times, especially on a body like this one. Very hard to polish. Looking forward to final photos.

[Kenmojr]

I wonder why they only supply GM engines for Fords and Toyotas? Do they do the same for Mopars? Seems like a bit of chicanery to me by the kit manufacturer.

Love your Camry, it looks fantastic...

[Albert Moore]

On 10/26/2023 at 8:26 AM, MarkJ said:

Albert, that paint job is stunning. Black can be tricky at times, especially on a body like this one. Very hard to polish. Looking forward to final photos.

Thanks, Mark, much appreciated!

On 10/29/2023 at 2:40 PM, Kenmojr said:

I wonder why they only supply GM engines for Fords and Toyotas? Do they do the same for Mopars? Seems like a bit of chicanery to me by the kit manufacturer.

Love your Camry, it looks fantastic...

Thank you, Ken! I'm sure it's a cost-saving thing. To be fair, most of the engine is hardly visible with the cold air induction system and intake snorkels sitting over the top of the engine in these Next Gen kits, and the real engines share a similar layout on the real car these days anyways, so with that in mind, Salvinos just put the same engine in all three makes of their Next Gen kits.

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Finished applying the decals to the Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry. I had a few issues pop up (of my own doing) but I was extremely impressed with how these 3 Amigos Decals performed. I'll let the decals dry over the next couple of days, wash the body to remove any excessive decal adhesive, then I'll apply a clearcoat over the body to protect the decals and give it a uniform shine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Albert

Edited November 2, 2023 by Albert Moore

[MarkJ]

Wow, Albert. Looks excellent to me. You said you liked working with the three amigos decals. they reaally look awesome. I had some issues with the kit decals I put on my next gen builds.

[Albert Moore]

9 hours ago, MarkJ said:

Wow, Albert. Looks excellent to me. You said you liked working with the three amigos decals. they reaally look awesome. I had some issues with the kit decals I put on my next gen builds.

Thank you, Mark! The 3 Amigos Decals were a pleasure to use, though I had to be careful when removing the decals from the backing sheet. Due to the thin carrier film, the decals had a tendency to roll up on themselves if they were too far from the model's surface. Also, the graphics are printed on one continuous carrier film, so the excess film had to trimmed right up to the graphics. Luckily the carrier film is thin enough it blends in well and is hardly noticeable.

Cheers,

Albert

Edited November 2, 2023 by Albert Moore
Can't brain when typing today.

[MarkJ]

59 minutes ago, Albert Moore said:

Thank you, Mark! The 3 Amigos Decals were a pleasure to use, though I had to be careful when removing the decals from the backing sheet. Due to the thin carrier film, the decals had a tendency to roll up on themselves if they were too far from the model's surface. Also, the graphics are printed on one continuous carrier film, so the excessive had to trimmed right up to the graphics. Luckily the carrier film is thin enough it blends in well and it hardly noticeable.

Cheers,

Albert

Thanks for the info, Albert. That doesn't seem to be a problem about the carrier film being continuous as long as its thin like you said. They still look awesome.

[Albert Moore]

The Beast Unleashed is clearcoated. I used Createx UVLS 4050 Gloss, with their own reducer. While this wasn't the disaster that I thought applying the clearcoat was going to be, it also wasn't exactly what I wanted either. Still, it's done. Now to let it cure over the next few days, then I can buff and polish out the clear and wrap up this model.

On a related note, the clearcoat really brought out the eye graphic on the hood nicely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Albert

[MarkJ]

Oh yeah. That is looking fine already, even before the polishing.

[Albert Moore]

And we're back from the dead. This is actually Beast Unleashed Version 2.0. I had a disaster with the first clearcoat in that when I tried buffing the debris out of the clear, it started to lift the clear in chunks. Totally ruined it, suffice it to say. It was my fault though for shoddy prep work and not *actually* learning how to use that particular clearcoat before using it on a model (you know the old axiom- practice on a mule first. I missed that memo). In the process of removing the clearcoat, the decals came off as well. This completely let the air out of my balloon, and almost caused me to shelve this model. The only silver lining in all of this is that the paint was largely unaffected and I didn't have to strip the body back to bare plastic and start ALL over again.

 

So, new decals were ordered, the body wet-sanded to remove any remnants of the previous clearcoat and decals, and we tried again. Success this time! The new decals went on hassle free (much better actually than the first go around), and the clearcoat application went much, much better this time as well. Instead of taking a chance with the Createx 4050 UVLS Gloss (I really need to learn how to apply it before I use it again), I used good old fashion Testors Lacquer Glosscote, thinned 50/50 with Gunze Mr. Color Leveling Thinner. After six coats of clear, this is the result;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is probably one of the smoothest finishing jobs I have had straight from the airbrush. I'm going to give this a week to fully cure, then I'll buff the bits of debris from the clearcoat. All that will be left to do after buffing the body is add the windows, spoilers, and bumper camera fairings. 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Cheers,

Albert

Edited November 29, 2023 by Albert Moore
Can't brain when typing today.

[Mattilacken]

Great work, and great save! Glad you pushed through it.

[Albert Moore]

1 hour ago, Mattilacken said:

Great work, and great save! Glad you pushed through it.

Thanks, Anton!

 

Cheers,

Albert

[Albert Moore]

Hi All,

Completed my Reddick NASCAR Toyota, which is posted in the NASCAR Under Glass subforum.   

 

Thanks for following along.

Cheers,

Albert