Tamiya Sauber-Mercedes C9

[harti20]

Hi all

Welcome to my new WIP on the Sauber Mercedes C9, which won seven out of eight world championship races in the 1989 season with Jean-Louis Schlesser at the wheel and became world champion with aplomb. Jochen Mass, also in a C9, took second place in the World Championship that season. There is also a double victory in the legendary 24-hour race at LeMans. I will build the No. 62, which was driven by Jochen Mass.

First I tried to open the openings which had been molded closed. For the first time I'm not too unhappy with the result

After that the engine hood and the body shell had been primered with AK's Black Primer...

...and painted with Number 5's Sauber C9 Silver. A friend of mine told me quite some time ago already, that he loved working with Number 5 paints and I can only confirm that: they cover really well and lay down very nice and smooth. With Zero Paints I often had some kind of ripples once the paint was dry, but with this Number 5 paint there was absolutely no problem at all.

But after the second coat of paint I suddenly noticed some quite heavy scratches on the body shell which haven't been there after the primer stage. I have no idea how that could happen, but it meant that I would stop painting the body and first level them out.

To fnish this first post I also did the undercarriage and covered a large part of it with some kevlar decals I had lying around for almost 10 years now. I can't really remember if they had been such a nightmare to use when I first used them, but this time I only had to very slightly wipe over them to make them tear apart. Luckily I also have kevlar decals from other brands for spots where it will be more viisble.

That's it for today. I hope to have piqued your interest and would be happy to hear your critics, comments and plaudits
Urs

[harti20]

Hi all

 

Fortunately fixing the scratches on the body has been quite easy. Therefore I reprimed the areas affected and layed down some more layers of paint on both the body shell and the engine hood and thought it was fine now. But after looking at it again a few days later I noticed that the front still didn't look as smooth as I would want it. And just now, when looking at the picture, I noticed that stain on the body shell right behind the wheel. I also noticed some sanding marks right behind the openings on the roof. Initially I thought that I'd let them as they are, but now there's a good reason to touch them up as I'll have to repaint the body shell anyway in some spots. This afternoon I also got reminded that I might have a PE part for the circular openings behind the doors. If that is the case, I'll also have to sand that area flat to be able to attach the PE parts. But first I'll have to check if there's really a replacement in the PE set I'm using...

 

The engine has been cut in two halfs to make painting easier. After painting the two halves will be re-attached

I don't know yet how detailed I'll build the engine. This build was actually intended to decrease the size of my stash on one had, as I don't have any space left for new model kits anymore. On the other hand it was supposed to get my mojo back, as I was thinking to sell all my model building related stuff some months ago and concentrate on photography again...

 

So much for today from the pit lane
Urs