Fujimi Fina McLaren F1 GTR Long Tail

[Nacho Z]

Here is what is next up on the bench.  The Fujimi Fina liveried McLaren F1 GTR Long Tail.  I know the Aoshima kit is a better kit but Fujimi has the Fina livery.  

 

Here is the kit and the kit contents.

 

You may have noticed the Hobby Design detail up set and an aftermarket masking set in with the kit contents.  These items were purchased through Hiroboy.  Someone at Hiroboy thought it would be a good idea to send this fragile PE set from England to the USA in a bubble mailer.  I was not impressed.  The PE sheets were badly bent up.  It makes me question buying anything from Hiroboy in the future.

 

The Hobby Design set is very nice.

 

Lastly, two pictures of the real thing.  I think she is beautiful!!

 

Edited April 9 by Nacho Z
Added content

[Belugawrx]

Cool looking car..I'm following

Sure you'll make it a stunner John.

[Nacho Z]

3 minutes ago, Belugawrx said:

Cool looking car..I'm following

Sure you'll make it a stunner John.

 

Thanks, Bruce!  I had one heckuva time getting this to post.  I cleared everything, restarted the laptop and started over and it took.  I added a few pics to the original post.

[Belugawrx]

Holy mackerel, that poor p/e sheet

It's been a bit jerky this afternoon for sure...lol

 

[Technics]

Great project - wow that’s from a retailer? How did they respond if you’ve contacted them?

[MarkJ]

This looks like fun. I shall be watching. Beautiful car.

[Rich Chernosky]

You go John,,,I'm sure you will knock this one out of the park. 

[nickfzr61]

Looks like a nice kit. Shame about the PE. Hopefully nothing’s creased too bad. I like that livery too. Looks clean and fits the body well. Looking forward to seeing it completed. 

Edited April 9 by nickfzr61

[Chris Smith]

Great subject and should be a fun one to watch. Did you contact Hiroboy about your bent PE sheet?

[Rattlecan Dan]

That IS a super-looking car. Looks like a lot of work ahead of you.

[Nacho Z]

On 4/8/2025 at 8:40 PM, Belugawrx said:

Holy mackerel, that poor p/e sheet

It's been a bit jerky this afternoon for sure...lol

 

 

On 4/9/2025 at 4:06 AM, Technics said:

Great project - wow that’s from a retailer? How did they respond if you’ve contacted them?

 

On 4/9/2025 at 6:31 PM, nickfzr61 said:

Looks like a nice kit. Shame about the PE. Hopefully nothing’s creased too bad. I like that livery too. Looks clean and fits the body well. Looking forward to seeing it completed. 

 

On 4/9/2025 at 6:37 PM, Chris Smith said:

Great subject and should be a fun one to watch. Did you contact Hiroboy about your bent PE sheet?

 

Thanks for checking in, guys.  Yeah, so I'm not the brightest bulb on the tree and I'm probably a bit passive-agressive...lol.  I did not reach out to Hiroboy.  I was dumbfounded that they would send the HD detail up set, which is packaged in an envelope, in a bubble mailer.  The best I could have hoped for was maybe an apology and a discount on my next order.  At any rate, I have posted the evidence of their quality shipping methods in several places and they will probably not get any more of my business.  I believe that I can straighten out most of the damage, but there are some items that I can't get the kink completely out of.

 

 

[Belugawrx]

I would Definitely get in touch with them, just to let them know bubble envelopes don't work for p/e...it's in England,..they speak english...lol

[Pierre Rivard]

Looking forward to this one John. I agree with you, the FINA livery looks great. The McLaren F1 shape was beautiful and certainly did not need the overdone liveries we see on today's race cars.

[Nacho Z]

Test

[Nacho Z]

Test #2. I am having issues with posting from my laptop. Going to give posting from my phone a try.

I have to say that I am impressed with Fujimi and the job they did on this body.  They have done a great job on the molding.  The next three pictures are of the untouched body. This is how it came straight out of the box.

[Nacho Z]

Ok, it looks like it worked. I will finish the post that I couldn't get to post last night.

I don't know about you guys, but I hate masking. The Fujimi kit came with window masks and those are the ones that I used.  I did buy an aftermarket set, but did not need them.  I will say that careful masking does pay off.

 

I have been steadily working on this model.  I will update again when I have something meaningful to share.  As always, I appreciate you checking in!

[Pierre Rivard]

Getting the glass trim out of the way first...smart! The masking, careful cutting, painting with fear of bleed through on a clear part. All done and looking great. Relax now, these scary parts are done!

[bbowser]

Nice work.  What do you use for masking tape on the windows and what do you cut it with?

[kensar]

NIce work.  I've always believed masking is an art in itself.

[Nacho Z]

On 4/16/2025 at 5:33 PM, bbowser said:

Nice work.  What do you use for masking tape on the windows and what do you cut it with?

 

Thanks, Bruce!  On this car, I used the kit supplied masks.  For kits that I have to make masks for, I use Tamiya tape.  I burnish it down with a tightly wrapped Q-tip, like Tamiya sells.  I will also use a toothpick to really get it down into the corners.  For cutting, I bought a box of surgical scalpels from Amazon.  They are the disposable, plastic handle kind.  I work in a hospital and I can tell you that it is the same quality as they use in a healthcare setting.  I only use my scalpels for cutting masking and BMF.  Hope this helps.

[Nacho Z]

Time for a Monday night update.  This will be a short one, but in real time this took quite a while.  I primed the body in Gravity Colors Light Gray primer.  I wish they made a wider variety of primer colors, but they don't.  Light and dark gray are all they offer.  Once the primer cured I shot their Titanium White on the body and misc. parts.  This is some bright white!

After the body sat for a day, I checked it out.  It looked good at first glance, but upon closer inspection I saw that the back section was "pebbly", almost like sandpaper.  I must have pulled back too far with the airbrush(?)  At any rate, I knocked it down, masked it, and reshot it.  It came out nice and smooth.

 

That is it for this update.  As I always say, I am farther along than what I post.  I hope to have more updates soon.  Thanks for checking in!

Edited yesterday at 01:06 AM by Nacho Z
Spelling error

[MarkJ]

What are the Gravity colors? Enamel, lacquer or acrylic. Looks beautiful so far.

[Nacho Z]

9 hours ago, MarkJ said:

What are the Gravity colors? Enamel, lacquer or acrylic. Looks beautiful so far.

Mark, they are lacquer. Dry / cure very quickly. They are not shiny and must be clear coated with a gloss clear to be shiny.