Matt Bacon Posted February 18, 2012 Posted February 18, 2012 Next up on the bench, the new Fujimi Aventador. Very crisp mouldings, and excellent fit so far. There have been a fair few complaints about the fact that it's "kerbside," but I'm going to treat it like the Hasegawa Miura, which I thought was absolutely fine. I've fitted together the "body in white" - the bits that will be orange, rather than black/grey/carbon, so that I can spray it in one piece after addressing the fine mould lines. The sills fit great below the doors, but actually don't need the moulded recesses for the tabs ahead of the rear wheel arches, and need to be shimmed out. I have a cunning plan relating to the kerbside nature of the kit, which the chap in the seat is part of. Who is he? Some say he drinks a pint of MEK for breakfast... It's going to be the deep orange, so, I shall be using the black wheels. The front tyres have been criticised, so these have a pair of Pegasus replacements for the fornts, which are lower profile, and stretched slightly to go over these rims. They look OK to me... And this is what's taken most of the time so far - chain drilling and opening up all the vents for fitting the photo-etch mesh parts. There are more in the engine bay and floor pan, which I've also done. Not much fun, and I'm now wondering how much they'll need to be blanked to avoid the "see though" look as well. Time to look more closely at my pictures of the real thing... bestest, M.
Dirkpitt289 Posted February 19, 2012 Posted February 19, 2012 Nice choice Matt. I look forward to seeing how it progresses
Custom Mike Posted February 19, 2012 Posted February 19, 2012 Matt, does the Stig approve of a curbside? So are you planning on adding an engine to it, or just detailing the heck out of whatever thry have that resembles the engine?
Len Woodruff Posted February 19, 2012 Posted February 19, 2012 (edited) I like the design on this car. Looking forward to your build! Edited February 19, 2012 by Len Woodruff
jaydar Posted February 19, 2012 Posted February 19, 2012 Matt, Do you have a part number for the Pegasus tires? Who carries a good selection of Pegasus products?
Matt Bacon Posted March 5, 2012 Author Posted March 5, 2012 Jaydar... I'm pretty sure these are the tires - I bought them direct: http://pegasushobbies.net/catalog/p355/%231603-1/24-Tires-Pilots-245/45-18/product_info.html or they might have been these: http://pegasushobbies.net/catalog/p354/%231602-1/24-Tires-Pilots-225/45-18/product_info.html They used to do mixed sets of a pair of each for front and rear, but they don't any more... Anyway, at last... some progress worth reporting. There has been a lot of priming, polishing, coat after coat of orange etc, and it seems to have been going quite slowly until suddenly lots of bits started to come together. Body and panels primed with Halfords white plastic primer and polished with 4000 and 6000 micromesh. I've actually started the base coast today, but it's not ready to photograph yet. Did I mention the orange? Lots of coats of Vallejo Game Colour Fiery Orange to get this far. The cabin is very simple - only 9 parts - and only two colours, really. I tried to make it a little more interesting with varied shades of black (the majority is Vallejo German Grey) and some washes. The decals work well. The engine bay. I'm confident it'll look fine underneath the segmented rear window. It would be hugely complex to engineer the rear chassis and suspension and a full engine, and make it very hard to build and get all four wheels on the ground as well. Personally, I'm glad Fujimi took this route or I'd still be doing it next year! I need to see exactly how it fits into the body and decide whether I need to build some gizmology underneath the grilles... Stig -- "mostly 'armless". I need the driver to be turning left, so I knew some modification would be needed. I used some softish aluminium tube to pin arms, having first chamfered all the joints so they could move more freely. I firmly fixed the tube with superglue at one end, and let it slide in the hole at the other. When I was ready to set it up, I used "90-second" epoxy to give me time to adjust everything to fit. When he was fully set in the cockpit, I removed him (I'd left the dashboard press-fitted in place so as to be able to remove him easily) Good old Milliput is perfect for filling the gaps and re-sculpting the figure. Ready for painting the rest of him, now. And that darn visor! ...and finally for tonight... the front brake discs. As you can see, I'm going for the full Clarkson... more on this later! bestest, M.
martinfan5 Posted March 5, 2012 Posted March 5, 2012 Haha full Clarkson, looking great so far, cant wait to get on of these kits.
Custom Mike Posted March 6, 2012 Posted March 6, 2012 Great work on the Stig's arms, he's gotta be gripping that wheel! And are you gonna give the Stig a mirrored visor? He's gotta have a mirrored visor! I love the brake rotors, those should look incredible in the rims!
Matt Bacon Posted March 10, 2012 Author Posted March 10, 2012 Brakes finished: Once again, simple, but finely moulded, and the decals work very well... This is the Zero Paints two-part Arancio Argos going on. Top is the base coat completed, bottom is three coats of the top coat. Methinks it needs a bit more "blood red" topcoat to be the way I want it... Chassis is done. The parts fit superbly - ie you have to remove the paint layers from mating surfaces for them to fit! The polycaps are a dog to get into position, but do the job brilliantly. And this convinces me that we will be able to see the braking effect when it's done! bestest, M.
Matt Bacon Posted March 11, 2012 Author Posted March 11, 2012 Thanks, gents... Here's where we are tonight: Lots of orange... This is just the Zero base colour. I think they are superb paints, but I found it took a while to get the two-part colour to be even and the right colour depth. Make sure you spray the doors and engine panel and body all together to finish, so the colour is identical! I think this is ready for clear now, though... The close-up's a bit unforgiving, but Stig is nicely under way now. bestest, M.
simonr Posted March 12, 2012 Posted March 12, 2012 Matt, excellent until now...I'll be watching... Simón P. Rivera Torres
Matt Bacon Posted March 12, 2012 Author Posted March 12, 2012 Thanks, Simon.... good to have you on board! And that's the clear coat on. This is Zero Paints two-pack clear, which is currently at the "tack-free" stage. By the weekend it should be thoroughly dry, and I can polish out the odd speck of dust. If anyone wants to offer advice on polishing Zero 2K, then please jump in - I have some Novus plastic polishes, which is what I was going to use, but if anyone has any better ideas, fire away! bestest, M.
Matt Bacon Posted March 15, 2012 Author Posted March 15, 2012 My driver's finally turned up for work... Not much else to see at present - I've been fitting the etched grilles everywhere, and masking and paint the glass. The clearcoat on the body is hard enough to polish out a few dust speckles now, which will be the next task, then there will be a flurry of assembly. I also need to finish painting the head and tail light interiors, which are HIDEOUSLY complex... bestest, M.
Matt Bacon Posted March 16, 2012 Author Posted March 16, 2012 Thanks, Chris... the lights are indeed going to be interesting! I'm thinking chrome silver overpainted with transparent colours at the moment, but we'll see. It might be easier for me, because in my version, they are at least meant to be on! Not sure what you mean about the engine compartment. It is painted, in Vallejo "German Grey" aka Panzer Grey, which is very dark. It looks lighter than it is in the photos on the workbench. It's just a stylistic choice really... when I have something like the cockpit or engine bay which is basically lots of black made from different materials, I try to vary the "colours" between several dark shades to give it a little variety and visual "texture", especially if you are only going to see it through windows... bestest, M.
Matt Bacon Posted March 16, 2012 Author Posted March 16, 2012 A good milestone tonight: The chassis pretty much snaps into place, supported on two pins at the back and tabs at the front. I wouldn't like to do it too often before finishing (the rear pins are slim), but you can see that it does all go together nicely. Moving along: I'd suggest removing the pins that hold the grilles in - they have flanges that locate them perfectly well, and the pins prevent them slipping in fully (the engineering on this kit is superb, but the tolerances are so tight that you can only just get away with painting it before assembly, and a clearcoat that has any thickness causes problems...) If you WANT to have the engine bay opening, you'll have to rework the cut lines (the part that is separate in the kit is the whole upper rear quarter panel... in real life the panel lines you can see around the window bay, with the T-shaped bit on the right in this image, mark the engine cover opening). I've fixed the separate part down, and I will delineate the opening part with the way I highlight the panel lines. If you DON'T open the engine bay, then as you can see, it looks OK, even without the window blades. The main assemblies. After the mock-up earlier, I'm confident that they will all fit together nicely. I've read good things about the fit of the window glass into the body, so I'm hoping that progress will be speedy... And finally... The two moments in the Top Gear supercar challenge segment filmed at Imola that put an "action build" of this kit in my mind were the glowing brake discs, and the "blue flames" spitting from the exhaust, which really emphasised what a barely-tamed fire-snorting beast the Aventador is. This car is all about presence, and even though it has all the tech (like the McLaren and the 458), it's somehow vastly more "dramatic". If I was buying one as a daily drive, it'd be the McLaren; if I was buying one as a weekend drive, it'd be the 458; but if I was buying one for pure, balls-out, in-your-face fun, it'd be the Aventador. So, this model isn't complete without blue flames. I've been thinking about this for a while, and then I spotted an abandoned soap bubble blowing kit that the kids had left lying around, which was contained in a cylinder of pale blue plastic, as you can see. After some experiments, I discovered you can melt it and mess with it with cocktail stick. A bit of Citadel white, and some yellow ink, later, and this is where we are. They are trimmed to fit into the exhausts, but I'll do that late in the build, so I don't knock them off! Next up, the lights. There's some complex detail painting to do there... bestest, M.
Matt Bacon Posted March 17, 2012 Author Posted March 17, 2012 (edited) Slow but steady progress today. These rear lights are a pain! OK, I've made life more difficult for myself by needing to show the darn things actually on, while braking, but they are very complex even without that added wrinkle. I think that today's LED lights and Xenons will need a whole different approach from what we're used to. No longer is a transparent part that you can paint the back of silver and colour in lenses where needed enough. A large part of this light unit is black plastic, and as you can see the "indicator" and "stop light" elements have several parts. I've yet to see how it works in real life, but the "sideways-Y" parts appear to be both brake lights and indicators (with a rather cool > >> >>> effect). With the blades in place, my feeling that the engine is detailed enough was confirmed... YMMV, obviously! ...and this is where I'm at tonight. Home straight tomorrow, I reckon... bestest, M. Edited March 17, 2012 by Matt Bacon
martinfan5 Posted March 18, 2012 Posted March 18, 2012 That is looking sweet, great job so far, I cant to get this is kit, let me ask you this, do you think its worth the $60 or so that its selling for ?
jaydar Posted March 18, 2012 Posted March 18, 2012 Matt, My build will be less dramatic for sure but i will face most of the same problems. Your explanations are going to help. One thing i don't like is the appearance of the blades! They are too thick and the the way they join to the frame looks "glued in"!!!
ffreak Posted March 18, 2012 Posted March 18, 2012 Beautiful work !! I gotta get this kit for myself !! Thanks for sharin the buildup.
XJ6 Posted March 18, 2012 Posted March 18, 2012 Very..Very...impressive build...Great Job!! Cheers...Don aka XJ6
Matt Bacon Posted March 18, 2012 Author Posted March 18, 2012 Thanks, guys! Making good progress... The headlights require some complicated painting! I decided not to go for the recommended "silver" for the main light. I had a look at the Xenon's on my car, and several others in the local supermarket car park, and it's much more like a grey "eyeball", which is what I've tried to do here. The white "Y" really IS a white painted shape in the black housing, and the little lenses are silver tips on a black tube. This is an unforgiving close up... and it looks fine from a reasonable distance. And another major milestone: the chassis and body are now together... It snaps into place quite well. I'd attached the doors to the body before fitting the two together, but I think in retrospect that's better done afterwards. The photos exaggerate the "edge glint" on the windows. It's hard to know what to do about that. The windows do just stick out of the top of the doors -- no frame, no tint, just plain sheets of glass. Maybe a black edge would have toned down the reflection, but there isn't one in real life. Just detail work to do now, before I add the flames, and work on the base... bestest, M.
Matt Bacon Posted March 19, 2012 Author Posted March 19, 2012 Well, thanks to Chris for spotting that the engine bay window surround is black, not body coloured! Fortunately, the blades were glued in with Formula 560 PVA, so after softening it with some strategically applied water for an hour or so, I could pop them off again. 20 minutes of masking and three minutes of spraying later, and here we are: ...it certainly looks much better to me. Otherwise, it's more or less time for decals, with just the windscreen wipers to add of the detail parts... Tonight I'll get the flames on! bestest, M.
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