Scale-Master Posted January 20, 2012 Posted January 20, 2012 This is an Esci kit from about 30 years ago, fortunately it is from one of the earlier production runs, so the molds were not too worn at the of it being made. But it still has some issues with flash, sink marks and unevenly molded parts and poor engraving. (Some of the parts are short shots, but luckily they’re not ones I need.) It also appears to have been intended to be issued as a motorized version at some point too, so the interior and engine detail is lacking. So I’ll build it essentially as a curbside. First I went about cleaning it up with 320 and 400 grit sandpaper and a scriber. I was able to sand out some of the sink marks, but about a half dozen were too deep to just sand away. Then it was on to filler to take care of the deeper sink marks. First round of priming shows some decent progress, and where I need more filler. I also had to cut open the rear quarter vents in the engine cover since one side had screen engraving and the other didn’t, and they were not symmetrical.
martinfan5 Posted January 20, 2012 Posted January 20, 2012 Good start so far, I enjoyed reading the thread he did on the charger kit, speaking of, did Mark Taylor leave the forum?
Scale-Master Posted January 20, 2012 Author Posted January 20, 2012 Funny you mention that Charger, for some reason that popped into my head as I was working on this. I'm up for it, anyone have any questions? I didn't mention what I was using as filler. Mostly CA, but also polyester two part filler called Poly Putty I got from a friend to try. It's like super fine Evercoat. And yes, Mr. Taylor left the forum and magazine, he was writing the resin column, (and doing an awesome job IMHO).
sjordan2 Posted January 20, 2012 Posted January 20, 2012 (edited) I don't know what your intentions are, but I would hope that you would build it as a street car and not competition/ rally. All of those decals and rally lights totally obscure the beauty of this car. Edited January 20, 2012 by sjordan2
Scale-Master Posted January 20, 2012 Author Posted January 20, 2012 That is actually quite close to what I intend to do Skip. Here is how I fix door lines. This one has a problem from it being on a mold line. On both sides of the car it has a shift and they were poorly defined. I already scribed the lines where they should be, but needed to clean them up. I built up the low side of each one with filler and before it set up, rescribed them. Sanded and feathered the filler… Primed… Still more to do though.
Monty Posted January 20, 2012 Posted January 20, 2012 That is actually quite close to what I intend to do Skip. Excellent! I was hoping the same thing. Here is how I fix door lines. This one has a problem from it being on a mold line. On both sides of the car it has a shift and they were poorly defined. I already scribed the lines where they should be, but needed to clean them up. I built up the low side of each one with filler and before it set up, rescribed them. Dear diary, today I learned another another great modeling technique... Good stuff! Thanks, Mark!
Scale-Master Posted January 21, 2012 Author Posted January 21, 2012 (edited) I cut the hood louver panel out because the detail was really soft and uneven. I made this one out of sheet styrene. Edited January 21, 2012 by Scale-Master
Erik Smith Posted January 21, 2012 Posted January 21, 2012 What did, or how did, you cut that louver panel? I have always loved these cars - well, since about 6th grade anyway. A car built for one thing - winning rally races. Like the little details being addressed.
Scale-Master Posted January 21, 2012 Author Posted January 21, 2012 I milled the louver panel. Since that photo was taken I relieved the back so they are flow through.
GeeBee Posted January 21, 2012 Posted January 21, 2012 Looking good, I'll be following this build, I love the Stratos and have the Hasegawa one to build (One Day !)
monkeyclaw Posted January 21, 2012 Posted January 21, 2012 One of my Favorites....especially the "stradale" version...............Matt
groo12 Posted January 21, 2012 Posted January 21, 2012 I'll be watching this thread. it's interesting to see the differences between the kits.
jaymcminn Posted January 22, 2012 Posted January 22, 2012 Oooooh, a Stratos. I've been kind of thinking about bashing up one of these using the Hasegawa body and the Revell Ferrari F430 to represent the one-off modern Stratos that was built last year off of a shortened F430 floorpan. (see pic below) Definitely going to be following this one!
jbwelda Posted January 22, 2012 Posted January 22, 2012 you ARE the scale-master! one look at those first two photos and i would have had to put the kit back in the box and hide it under the bed. that thing is looking awesome despite its humble beginnings, fantastic work!
Scale-Master Posted January 23, 2012 Author Posted January 23, 2012 I decided to do the headlights differently than I originally planned since the silver and black plastic are different densities and proving difficult to scribe evenly. You can see the louvers are now opened all the way through…
montelsc Posted January 23, 2012 Posted January 23, 2012 Im not much of a foriegn car person but this looks like its coming along nice was that an e bay find or a full kit ? ( nice smooth bodywork)
Scale-Master Posted January 23, 2012 Author Posted January 23, 2012 It is a complete kit, (except for the parts that are short shots...) Just pulled it from my collection, I probably aquired it shortly after it was released. You could say I'm "well stocked" when it comes to kits.
Scale-Master Posted January 24, 2012 Author Posted January 24, 2012 It needs brightly colored wheels… I used Camel Yellow as the main color. With a wash of Transparent Yellow and gunmetal for the lugs. After I sanded the tire treads, I gave them a wash of Grimy Black. I still need to do something to the sidewalls… I primed and wet sanded the body a few times until it was smooth and relatively even and symmetrical. I used a base coat of Tamiya AS-19 Intermediate Blue, since the black plastic showed through the gray primer. This color covers well and dries to a satin finish. Here you can see the front part is the Intermediate Blue and the deck has the second light coat of TS-44 Brilliant Blue. Like Mark Taylor, I build up the color in light coats. He tends to go with even lighter coats than I do, it works exceptionally well for him as I have seen the final outcome in person. You can see the orange peel in the wet TS-44, it will dry smoother. Here are both body parts with about six light coats, the last was a bit wetter just recently applied. This may be all it needs, or it may need more. While it is just dry enough to carefully handle in this photo, it needs to dry more to see how much the paint will shrink and maybe smooth out. I’ll decide in a few hours once I see how it dries.
Scale-Master Posted January 25, 2012 Author Posted January 25, 2012 I thought another coat was needed since it did not dry as glossy as I hoped. So late yesterday I color sanded it with 1200 wet, and then airbrushed another 2 coats of the same TS-44. After drying overnight, it looks like this. While it is dry enough to safely handle, now it will sit for a while to cure.
Scale-Master Posted January 26, 2012 Author Posted January 26, 2012 Thanks guys. The Tamiya paint is very workable stuff... It needed seatbelts, but I didn’t want to put something in that would make the rest of the weak details look even worse. So I made these decals, and I made them purposely thick so they would not conform as well to the seat ribbing, so they would look more like they had some substance, even though they are still two dimensional. First round of experimenting, I think I’m on to something for those cases where it isn’t worth the extra work to weave up a full set of harnesses… But they are a tad bit time consuming to cut out. You can see I also have “built” the “engine”. It is pretty much two dimensional too…
Scale-Master Posted February 1, 2012 Author Posted February 1, 2012 OK, so I let the body dry (cure) for a while (little over a week, it has been warm here) and then gave it a once over polish/waxing. I decided to skip any clear coat and just use the paint as the final surface. I added lines for the headlights I filled in before painting. Brush painted the window frames with flat black. The louvers, back of the spoiler and recess of the deck were masked off and sprayed flat black. I masked off the Stratos lettering for the blue to show through. The front lower grille was pretty weak as it was molded, so I formed a new one from brass screen.
LAone Posted February 1, 2012 Posted February 1, 2012 man, that looks great. i really like the lettering on the rear deck. you have some patience.
Scale-Master Posted February 2, 2012 Author Posted February 2, 2012 Thanks. I don't think I have patience... But I do have passion. It is done now: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=53529
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