Tamiya Honda F1 RA272 - Finished

[Boo]

Mini setback fellas : Started on the decals today and the first one I chose to do was the rising sun (red japanese flag) which is split between the front panel and the cabin. I applied Micro set to the model as the decal needed to sit over a few bumps. Soaked the decal which took an unusually long 50 seconds to be able to be removed. As soon as I took it off the backing it split, way too easily, so I thought 'Oh here we go'. But I persevered and tried to get it onto the model in pieces and the whole thing just crumbled into little bits. I couldn't move it at all without it breaking up. So I had to remove the decal with masking tape. I could see that it wasn't going to sit well over those bumps, applying micro sol had no effect at all, it was like applying it to a piece of sellotape, it just beaded up.

Anyway, I thought things would go the same with the rest of the decals but luckily they went on perfectly. I wonder if it was to do with the red ink or something ?

So I will make a mask for the red dot and spray that on after respraying the front end. The paint did get damaged by the mishap so I had to key the clear gloss finish and I'll hopefully get that white paint on this afternoon.

[Mence]

You're having ya fair share of traumas Boo, stick with it buddy!

[`Boots`]

Thats a shame with the dec Mark but i can sympathies entirely..............having had to construct all the ones on my Porsche i know just how much of a PITA it is............once it`s gawn past the route of no return then it`s down to alternative measures, sounds like ya got an alternative fix in ya mind tho buddy and she`ll come out fine.

Sometimes the older decs do craze when dipped in water...........that is what happened on the Porsche!!!!! (to 90% of them )..........stick with it mate coz one dec ain`t gonna be the bustin` of this bad boy , has the `Hinomaru` (Rising Sun) got the rays coming off it or is it just a red circle?..............if it`s just the circle then i reckon ya cracked it matey .............good luck buddy

BTW..............i`ve stopped using tap water and now started using Distilled/Ionised water, only because it`s cheap as chips and it`s pure.

[deafpanzer]

Applying decals is not my favorite part... no matter how careful or good you apply sometimes they just go crazy! So frustrating... knowing you being so good you will be able to come up with a good plan.

White on car looks excellent!

[Boo]

Dicky, lol, sorry mate, decals are always gonna be a bugbear at some point or other so I can't really guarantee that your ones will go well for you

Prof, cheers buddy, will do

Boots, thanks buddy and for the heads up on the distilled water, I'll defo try that. We have very hard water down here so I've always found that when it dries on the decal it can leave a light water mark even after making sure the water is dabbed off, so that may help to fix that problem. Its just the round sun and not the rays thankfully so it's just a case of using a circle cutter to make a mask up. At a guess it looks like I need a 17mm circle. A guess because the decal was totally destroyed so I'm going by the looks in the instructions.

Andy thanks kindly buddy. Yeah I'm with you there, I've had some good decals but there have been an equal amount of bad ones too and sometimes its also my own fault so when it comes to putting them onto a build that requires precision it scares the life out'a me

Well I got the white on the bonnet again, only to realise that I needed to fit a small cap in order to spray it red whilst on the car. So I fitted that and had to use a PVA because of the proximity to the surface of the finished paint. That will dry tonight and I'll blast that with some white tomorrow and then follow that up with the red sun. I'll have to put on some flat clear over the drivers section in the morning so that I can paint on the small top section of the sun

I've gone for car number 12 driven by Ronnie Bucknam simply because its the lesser seen option of the two.

[bullardino]

One of the reasons that made me turn to tanks from wingies are the decals. I hate working with them, they're too easy to spoil. Even wrong temps in the warehouse where they kept it can be fatal...

If it's only a circle shouldn't be too hard to redo it. Knowing your fantastic masking skills it'll turn out better than decaled...

[Boo]

Hi Luigi, exactly buddy and thank you very much. There's too many issues with them and its something that is mostly out of our hands. Armour decal problems can be gotten over due to the nature of the builds, there's so many ways to get around a dodgy decal. But with aircraft and cars etc the options are limited. I did buy some decal sheet to print some Mario stuff for my daughters games console but they turned out so thick that you could never use them on a model build, not in my opinion at least so the only other option is to get new decals or paint them in.

Easily masked up for the red dot, 17mm cut out of some 2 inch yellow tape with a circle cutter, I'm just thankful it was the red dot and not the numbers or names that broke up. I'm actually a little further ahead than this picture. I have got the shocks and springs painted and also the number 12 is now residing on the front of the car but neither are shown here, I've also got the rear suspension arms primed. You can see that I opted to go with the silver chrome rim to the black wheels. All decalling is complete now and the instrument dials have been Kleared to add a shine to each dial. Its getting close to completion by the looks of it but there's a lot of work to do on the body paint now with the clear coats and polishing etc to come.




Thanks for looking in

[DieselRocket]

Looking stellar! Mind sharing how you did the silver rims on the wheels? I've been hesitant to try it, but yours have inspired me

[DieselRocket]

Oh BTW - which Young Miniatures bust is that lurking in the corner of the photo? I am seriously in love with the whole line...

[TRM]

Been missing out on a lot of this one..Bad T...Bad T!! Looking sweet Mark!! Top rate stuff there!! I promise to come back sooner next time!!!

[Deleted]

Great build Mark, decals and details are first class buddy   

Go on... How'd you do the chrome rims ? 

[`Boots`]

Yeah ya nailed that `Hinamaru` big time Mark................lovely jubbly !!!, gotta agree with Kyle regarding those rims.............they look pukka mate !!, this has got ya Boo trademark paint and finish written all over it...............looks like ya back on full throttle again!!!!

[Boo]

Dicky, thanks buddy, its a very enjoyable process and nice to actually get some extra painting in with the red dot

Kyle thank you kindly and sure buddy I'll share but you may not like it Quite simply I sprayed them black with chaos black primer as it gives a nice base for chrome type paints and there's no need to add any other paints over it because it has a semi gloss/ flat look to it so is perfect for the wheels. Its also the smoothest black primer I've ever used. And then using a chrome silver paint (Mr Hobby) thinned lightly with lacquer thinners (just a touch of thinner on the brush and mixed into three drops of paint) I painted them on freehand using a Windsor & Newton Series 7 number 1 brush. The trick with this sort of stuff Kyle is to not move your hand too much and keep the heel of the hand planted to the bench. Bring the wheel to your hand at a slight angle and just stroke the brush across the edge keeping your hand planted, turn the wheel slightly and repeat. If you stick to the same formula all the way around then the brush can't reach any further than you allow it to and you'll get a very tight line. Its not easy but it does pay to relax and not worry about mistakes as it can always be resprayed quickly if something does go wrong. That's about all I can offer Kyle, any questions then fire away If I've not explained it well enough then let me know and I'll try to get some pictures of how I approached it and other similar lines in the past, its all about the angle of the brush compared to the piece you're painting and getting the paint to flow consistently without having to repeat steps, hence the thinners.

P.S. Kyle see post below regarding YM bust

[Boo]

T, Steve, Boots, crossed posts there guys sorry about that. Thanks you all very much and Steve the rather bumbling answer to the rims is in the post to Kyle

[Boo]

Kyle, its the Templar Knight in Jarusalem, I've got a blog running here

[Boo]

Clear two pack gloss coat has been applied this morning to the main body panels. This is now drying in a hopefully dust free warm cupboard and polishing will start tomorrow.

[DieselRocket]

Feb 11, 2013 16:43:56 GMT -5 Boo said:

Kyle, its the Templar Knight in Jarusalem, I've got a blog running here

Ah yes, been following that one here and there as well.

[DieselRocket]

BTW - thanks for the info on painting the rims. Would have never guessed that is a freehand job with a Series 7. Really good. I'm not so intimidated by using a brush as much as I am intimidated by the idea of brushing silver. Just so hard in my experience to keep it from gumming up - guess the key is the right amount of thinner. If I do brush silver, I usually brush only enamels. Might practice it on an old set of NA$CAR rims and see how it turns out

[bbd468]

Boo...this little F1 looks awesome buddy...outstanding work! I agree with Kyle...those rims look sweet. Seeing your description on how to do that i would be NERVOUS and require alot of practice first. Looking forward to see her all in one piece.

Gary

[Mence]

Very nice Boo, gonna look stupendous when all the parts come together.

[Boo]

Kyle, you're welcome, the thinners is definitely the key as you rightly say buddy, whatever paint you use you need to thin it to the extent that it covers first time still but flows as much as possible and doesn't curdle up on itself. The secret to most chrome type paint as you probably know is to not go over it more than once or twice as that's when it starts to dull and starts to show the brush strokes. I much prefer to airbrush silvers but sometimes you just have to brush paint them.

Gary, thank you kindly, as you can imagine, nerves are your worse enemy for painting stuff like this. I have a natural shaky disposition which is not ideal but once I bring the paint brush up to the work it just stops, I think its therapeutic to me

Prof, thanks buddy, I can't wait till that day, it makes it all worthwhile and also means I can start a new project, that's always an exciting time

Well the two pack lacquer is touch dry so I grabbed some pics a little while ago. Its nice and clean so surprisingly I got away with the heavy dust threat which was probably because I brought the parts down from the loft as soon as I finished spraying them. I desperately need to get my workshop built, roll on March/April



Thanks for looking in guys.

[Mence]

Brilliant.

[Boo]

Thank you kindly Prof. Looking at the pics I reckon I could'a put the number 12 on the front end a little more to the right but its too late for that now, its on and getting polished so I ain't doing it again

[Leon]

Mark that looks top notch.

[bullardino]

Awesome, Mark

[Deleted]

Superb paintwork yet again Mark 

[`Boots`]

Oh yeah that hits the spot matey , you`ve got a lovely canvas to work with regarding the polishing Mark, already you can see a shine on that corner so i reckon she`ll come up first class, what polish do you use ??, whenever i`ve looked at the Hiroboy site they`re always sold out............just for a change!!!!!

[Boo]

Leon, Luigi, Steve, Boot's thanks very much fella's I appreciate your kind words.

Boot's I can't remember for certain which polishes I got, I 'think' it was the Hiroboy stuff but don't quote me on that, I'll have a look tomorrow. I remember trying to get some of their polishing stuff but I can't remember if that's what I ended up getting or if I ended up with Tamiya stuff due to Hiroboy's stock issues. I do remember that it was darn good stuff whichever it was because the Karmann Ghia came out really nice.

Update, or NOT : I was about to get the polishing started today and my eldest daughter turned up with her dog and we ended up doing other stuff. A day off and I end up missing out on bench time. I won't complain though, it was great to spend the day with her and I can get back to the bench tomorrow for an hour. Thanks for your patience guys

Ayup, its valentines tomorrow, I get the Mustang kit

[Boo]

Sorry I forgot to pick up on one point you made Boot's. The shine on the front corner. The clear has gone on absolutely brilliantly, its almost fully done with the wet coat looking smooth already. That was the Zero two pack stuff and I was chuffed to bits with the finish.

[`Boots`]

Cheers Mark.............i`ll keep an eye out, that two pack sounds good as well............is it a straightforward 50/50 mix ??