Fujimi's Koenig Specials Competition

[Exotics_Builder]

Another paint question. I will be painting the body, this color.

It is De Ja Blue, and it's as stated before a nice deep dark metallic blue color. Question regards to which color primer should I use? The body is molded in white, and I have white primer, gray primer, and flat-black primer. I'm thinking, I like how nice and smooth and professionally, the flat-black primer goes on and dries. I'm also thinking it will darken the blue quite nicely and might make it look closer to the car in this photo.

What do you think?

That's a nice model color. If you're replicating that Spyder exactly, take note of the dash board differences. Here's the one I did about 15 years back:

It's a bit dusty as I pulled it out of the moving box.

HTH

Gerry

[FujimiLover]

WOW! Nice one! Except I noticed one detail you over looked, and I bet it's very hard to replicate. The rear valance section. The version in the photo is I beleive their first edition where they had the slightly modified Testarossa rear valance. The model has the more aggressivly styled rear valance mimicking that of the F-40. I do like how you deleted the rear wing! How did you get the rear cover entirely off?

Can you post more views of that? And with the lid on? Would love to see the interior, front, and sides and what not. Thank's!

By the way, I had to sand-down the rear wing a bit. The second coat got even more spots on the wing for some reason, so it's sanded down smooth again. Now just waiting for the right time to paint. We've got major snow showers in the Springs, had a foot of snow last night, and still snowing. The weather report claims more snow till tomarrow noon! So, unless I can paint indoors, there wont' be any painting soon.

Tomarrow I'll start masking the areas on the body where I want to paint the trim work.

Edited April 17, 2009 by FujimiLover

[B_rad88]

what are you going to do with the blue/extra kit?

[FujimiLover]

I started sanding down what's left of the blue/black paint. I'm beginning to get back to the white of the plasitc. There will be lot's of nooks and cranies I won't be able to get, but if I can get it back down to where I can re-primer, that'll be good enough for me. If I can save this body, I will build the kit. I might try and make this one like the first generation Koenig Testarossa where it had a simpler rear wing on the back and not so much like an F-40. I might do some body mods here to achieve the right look. This is the car I'd like to modify the kit into. Would need to find a picture of the rear view of this version.

I figured, the red one will be succesful, copy it's results on to the convertible, and then try and build a third version. Here are some pic's of the blue one so far.

I think with that Milli-Putty stuff, I'll be able to do some fantastic work with this body/kit.

Edited April 17, 2009 by FujimiLover

[B_rad88]

hey fujimi,

i found this koenig special i think its a ferrari 348? the model right befor the 355! but this one they carried over the testarossa styling!

[FujimiLover]

Yea that is a nice one. One would have to find a model kit of the stock car, and do some serious mods and find the right wheels for it. I'm not crazy enough to go that far, yet. BBR does have that in 1/43 though! Yes, I beleive it is the 348. Go to www.Koenig-Specials.com and you'll find out more.

Edited April 17, 2009 by FujimiLover

[FujimiLover]

Did some black trim today. Will wait a little bit longer before masking the bottom line of the side-windows. Also need to work on the airdam.

The masking really helped for getting the top line of the front window perfect. This part has always been my worst area for painting as the line is so thin.

The black rear quarter panel is what will be the inside of the air-intake. This makes it really dark and more detailed. Will also be painting the inside of that peice as well before glueing it here.

Edited April 18, 2009 by FujimiLover

[FujimiLover]

Trim work done!

Intake covers installed!

Airdam

Next step is the decals, clear coating, then the windows, lenses, tail-lights, and rear wing. Rear wing STILL waiting for paint!

Will need to touch up the little spots where some reason the tape seemed to peal off a tad of paint. Not too bad, can easily be touched up later! Nothing to cry about that's for sure! LOL!

Edited April 18, 2009 by FujimiLover

[FujimiLover]

A minor update, but update nevertheless. Done some more details. One nice thing about this kit, is Fujimi supplied a sheet of chrome tape to put in various location's of the model. Example, the front turn signal lense is backed with chrome,

and they supplied you with a chrome peice for the mirrors!

I decided to chrome tape behind the main headlight assembly. They wanted you to paint it silver, but that does not offer the refletctiveness that headlights require to look real. So, there is chrome tape behind the lenses.

I also used the silver Sharpie to make the key-hole in the door.

The body now just need's it's decals, and it'll be ready for clear coat! Then, the lenses and windows can go in place!

Lense painting

Supervisor. I dont' know how she got there without me noticing or disturbing anything!

Edited April 19, 2009 by FujimiLover

[Foxer]

The reflections off your paint is astounding! ..they are sharp as razors.. nice job!

PS .. you cat LOOKS like those choppers .. she knows camoflage

[atenzapower]

You did a very nice job over there,looks forward to see more of the build.

[FujimiLover]

Thank's guy's! Just perfected the paint job on the rear wing finally and done some decal work. I also picked up Tamiya's clear coat and as soon as the wing dries and is mounted, I'll clear coat the entire car! Then the painfull task of installing the windows and lenses without snafu'ing!

[janositamas]

Nice progress mate! The color is cool and the shine is nice!

[FujimiLover]

Thank's guy's. I just fixed the wing onto her rear this morning, and just now clear-coated it before walking the dog useing Tamiya's clear coat. Clear coat is looking good, except unfortunetly, it seems to have faded some of the black a little bit. Well, from previous experiences, I'm not going to try and fix her for a few day's. Might go over the black again with semi-gloss black.

Will post pic's tomarrow.

[jbwelda]

if youre going to go back over the black but with a semi gloss finish, you might think about using a sharpie fine point pen to do it. you will get those edges really straight with a lot less effort (and eyestrain) than with paint. just a thought.

looks killer and that paint is outstanding!

[FujimiLover]

I noticed the clear coat also caused some of the red to look weird, it's still smooth, just different shades in different areas as if the top coat ran a bit? I regret clear coating it, I just wanted to seal-in the decals.

I tried to take a picture of it, but you can't really see the difference. Not sure what to do at this moment but let it dry till Wenseday.

Makes me afraid to start my other models since my paint work is problematic.

Edited April 21, 2009 by FujimiLover

[FujimiLover]

.........................................to be continued?

[janositamas]

Makes me afraid to start my other models since my paint work is problematic.

Don't be afraid to start painting other kits, practice makes perfect! It was very hard to me to learn not to rush things to have more and more built model on my shelves. Sometimes I think building models is about HAVING those 'cars' in my 1:24 life. But still it is better to build slower and better than to think about building it again as it didn't really succeed. So what I suggest is to find some spare or old bodies and try painting more and more without the frustration. Try what's best four you: what distance, speed is right for you during the painting, more thin layers vs. few heavier, clearing or just polishing without clear, whatever you want, take your time. Remember, practice makes perfect!

[FujimiLover]

Thank you for your suggestions, however this one is finished and is "under glass". Will be starting Koenig's 500 SL model next and it's a much simpler model. The hardest part of this Competition, build was, was the engine detail. The 500 does not have such an engine and has much fewer peices. Keep an eye out for new thread!