Resin anxiety - 1954 Panamerica Ferrari Vignale

[Pierre Rivard]

Perhaps not my brightest idea to tackle a resin kit after a long break from the bench. I did not initially plan a w.i.p. as this is a simple kit (by part count...) but here it is. Call it a w.i.p. espress?

This is only my second resin kit, and just like the first one it does trigger a fair bit of anxiety. Styrene is my friend, resin is like someone I can't quite figure out. We'll try to get along but nothing feels natural.

The kit

 

[Pierre Rivard]

Starting nice and easy. Hand laced wheels on a Pinto kit are special. Not sure how long these will be in the catalog as Fernando is starting to incorporate 3D printing. I sprayed them with a flat clear and added a dark wash to take some of the shine off. More weathering of the tires to come.

 

[Pierre Rivard]

Next was not so easy. The engine. Basically a lump of resin with soft features and pits/voids everywhere. Replacement parts shipped by the vendor were pretty much the same, so it is what it is. I was considering a "closed casket ceremony" but in the end decided to try making a go of it. I made a fuel pump, fuel lines, throttle linkage, cooling lines, generator and a good dose of weathering. 6/10 result but started out with 3/10 parts...

 

Edited 12 hours ago by Pierre Rivard

[Pierre Rivard]

Lot's of work on the body to make it look as good as I am capable of. The biggest challenge was the decals. Very brittle and fragile. The big "20" on the rear deck shattered in multiple pieces. Patched up the pieces as best I could and painted in the missing links. Stopped decal work for emergency trip to the hobby store to get some liquid decal film and micro sol.

I applied a layer of film... which moved some of the decal ink a bit. I proceeded very carefully from there. As expected the biggest challenge was the side numbers which have to wrap over a side trim and even worse a molded side scoop. Solution was to cut the decals in multiple elements and tie in the pieces with a paint application.

At that point I decided to coat the body with a low gloss finish (period correct to me) which will provide a foundation for race weathering... in the attempt to mask the so so paint & decal job.

Now on top of resin anxiety I have decal anxiety ... and let's not think about weathering for now...

 

[stavanzer]

I can see you triumphed on the Body. It looks very good.

Much better than I could have done.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Looks good to me. I'd be happy.

Pinto's stuff is pretty cool, the only game in town for a lot of interesting subjects, and well worth a little "anxiety".

[kensar]

Good to see another of your WIPs.  Good progress on this.  Looks like the decal job worked out fine.  I found resin to be different than styrene - not more difficult, just different.  Looking forward to seeing more.

[1959scudetto]

Finally - it seems that I've been waiting endlessly for this one, Pierre.

The body looks very good, and your decal troubles with the "20" could hardly be noticed if you had not pointed them out to us.

I'm looking forward to the next steps.

[Dave B]

Pierre, it's coming along beautifully. I'm sure resin will become your friend, I love it.

The last plastic kit I built, apart from finishing the Cheetah and the building salt laker must have been 5+ years ago.

Dave B 

PS, would never have picked the broken decal!!

Edited 4 hours ago by Dave B

[absmiami]

 Nice save

[89AKurt]

I better follow this one!  We all just *have to* build subjects that only Pinto has, anxiety is not really an option but .... I haven't been on the bench for years now, awesome you are progressing.  I built his Auto Union C Vanderbilt and have some cough others in the stash.