WIP
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Saturday, 8 March 2014
WIP Italeri Ferrari 250 GTO
This one is not much of a WIP as I had neglected to take photos of it as I was building. In fact I was so near to completing it that it was looking like it would show up as a complete build only... until something went wrong.
During the build, I had added a lot of details to the chassis. I had decided in all of my wisdom to complete the oil lines and add the additional race oil cooler in the front. Unfortunately, I failed to test fit correctly. Whereas on the rear car, things can be removed to make things fit, on a scale model there is is less room for manoeuvre and when the kit designers didn't make the kit to fit those missing bits, something's got to give.
And give it did.
This is the complete rolling chassis as they say in the trade.
This is a pretty good kit and for a long time, the only affordable way to build a complete "engined" 250 GTO. As good as it is though, it isn't er, completely complete...
The engine got the usual wiring of the distributors to scratch made coils. A fuel rail was added as well as the fuel line to the pump; this was just a bit of fishing line with some 0.15 solder wrapped around it. I removed the melded in belts and replaced with painted masking tape strips and it all looks a lot healthier now that the engine bay is a little more full.
I didn't spend much time on the interior; just enough to get the job done. I have another 250 GTO in the pipeline that I was going to give the full works so this was more a practice run while I collect reference data.
Here's some of the additional plumbing I added.
Fuel pumps and lines all connect as they should, as does the oil line from the sump. Completely forgot about the De-Dion bar on the rear axle though. You can just about see my scatch-made rear spring/shocks and the exhaust tips were shaved down aluminium tubes fitted into the stock pastic parts.
But I said something went wrong and here's what happened.
When I added the extra (missing) oil cooler, I added about 3mm of length to the chassis and the body, once made into a single piece, couldn't stretch over and something had to give.
Yes, that lower half should be fix/fitted to the nose as a single piece so this was now a fixing job.
First of all, I reattached the piece
(obviously)
What followed was a careful series of removing paint so that I could re-apply some primer to fill in the crack, sand down to smooth the base then re-paint the specific section.
Now I figured that if I could get the paint to match, then I could just sand down the fixed paint to be level with the existing paint so I masked off the rest of the body and set about painting that section.
A little sanding and the crack was barely noticeable. As I said, I had another 250 GTO in the works so I wasn't too bothered by this so this was more of a learning experience than anything.
Once this had been taken care of, it was onto the tricky task of fitting it to the chassis again. After about half an hour of praying to the modelling gods, it finally clicked into place.
All that was left was to clean up the details and re-fit the lights.
The result.
I didn't take many photos of this one but I'll stick them in another post anyway for the sake of filing.
Completed Gallery.
During the build, I had added a lot of details to the chassis. I had decided in all of my wisdom to complete the oil lines and add the additional race oil cooler in the front. Unfortunately, I failed to test fit correctly. Whereas on the rear car, things can be removed to make things fit, on a scale model there is is less room for manoeuvre and when the kit designers didn't make the kit to fit those missing bits, something's got to give.
And give it did.
This is the complete rolling chassis as they say in the trade.
This is a pretty good kit and for a long time, the only affordable way to build a complete "engined" 250 GTO. As good as it is though, it isn't er, completely complete...
The engine got the usual wiring of the distributors to scratch made coils. A fuel rail was added as well as the fuel line to the pump; this was just a bit of fishing line with some 0.15 solder wrapped around it. I removed the melded in belts and replaced with painted masking tape strips and it all looks a lot healthier now that the engine bay is a little more full.
I didn't spend much time on the interior; just enough to get the job done. I have another 250 GTO in the pipeline that I was going to give the full works so this was more a practice run while I collect reference data.
Here's some of the additional plumbing I added.
Fuel pumps and lines all connect as they should, as does the oil line from the sump. Completely forgot about the De-Dion bar on the rear axle though. You can just about see my scatch-made rear spring/shocks and the exhaust tips were shaved down aluminium tubes fitted into the stock pastic parts.
But I said something went wrong and here's what happened.
When I added the extra (missing) oil cooler, I added about 3mm of length to the chassis and the body, once made into a single piece, couldn't stretch over and something had to give.
Yes, that lower half should be fix/fitted to the nose as a single piece so this was now a fixing job.
First of all, I reattached the piece
(obviously)
What followed was a careful series of removing paint so that I could re-apply some primer to fill in the crack, sand down to smooth the base then re-paint the specific section.
Now I figured that if I could get the paint to match, then I could just sand down the fixed paint to be level with the existing paint so I masked off the rest of the body and set about painting that section.
A little sanding and the crack was barely noticeable. As I said, I had another 250 GTO in the works so I wasn't too bothered by this so this was more of a learning experience than anything.
Once this had been taken care of, it was onto the tricky task of fitting it to the chassis again. After about half an hour of praying to the modelling gods, it finally clicked into place.
All that was left was to clean up the details and re-fit the lights.
The result.
I didn't take many photos of this one but I'll stick them in another post anyway for the sake of filing.
Completed Gallery.
WIP: Airfix Porsche 928 S4: Part 2
After a few days to let the primer gas out, I gave the body a good thorough sanding to level out the surface properly. I don't mind too much if I get down to the bare plastic at this stage as my aim here is to have as smooth a surface as possible and that the initial layer of primer has had a chance to bed into all of the minute scratches that was on the prepped body.
You can see that this is when I tidied up the fixed window trim.
Once I was satisfied with the initial body prep work, it was on to the first real coat of primer for the paint. This layer of primer would be a thicker coat as it has to be uniform all over or else it may have an effect on the final paint finish. As it happens, my choice of colour for this was going to be black but still, best practice and all that.
Body in white.
Now this is where my method differs from some other people.
A lot of the guys on AF will sand this down until the texture (orange peel) is minimal then they apply paint and treat the orange peel on there as well. So far so similar. What differs is that they then re-spray and work the paint more until all surface texture is eliminated. The difference in my approach is that I eliminate all surface texture in the primer before any paint goes on. What that usually (or hopefully) results in, is that I use less paint and have to work the paint less too. If something goes wrong in the painting, it also means that I don't need a complete strip because I can usually just apply another coat on top because there isn't already too much paint on there.
This is what my primer looks like before paint is applied.
As you can hopefully see, I get my primer to what is essentially a mirror shine. A couple of those shots were taken in "tricky" light conditions to show the type of reflections I get on there
i.e sharp
Because the primer is dead flat, the paint applied on top of it will now have less texture on it after the initial spray. As much as you can hide texture in your primer with sufficient paint, if there is no texture, there is nothing to hide and you can keep your paint layers thinner which in my books is a plus.
Part 3
You can see that this is when I tidied up the fixed window trim.
Once I was satisfied with the initial body prep work, it was on to the first real coat of primer for the paint. This layer of primer would be a thicker coat as it has to be uniform all over or else it may have an effect on the final paint finish. As it happens, my choice of colour for this was going to be black but still, best practice and all that.
Body in white.
Now this is where my method differs from some other people.
A lot of the guys on AF will sand this down until the texture (orange peel) is minimal then they apply paint and treat the orange peel on there as well. So far so similar. What differs is that they then re-spray and work the paint more until all surface texture is eliminated. The difference in my approach is that I eliminate all surface texture in the primer before any paint goes on. What that usually (or hopefully) results in, is that I use less paint and have to work the paint less too. If something goes wrong in the painting, it also means that I don't need a complete strip because I can usually just apply another coat on top because there isn't already too much paint on there.
This is what my primer looks like before paint is applied.
As you can hopefully see, I get my primer to what is essentially a mirror shine. A couple of those shots were taken in "tricky" light conditions to show the type of reflections I get on there
i.e sharp
Because the primer is dead flat, the paint applied on top of it will now have less texture on it after the initial spray. As much as you can hide texture in your primer with sufficient paint, if there is no texture, there is nothing to hide and you can keep your paint layers thinner which in my books is a plus.
Part 3
WIP: Airfix Porsche 928 S4: Part 1
Airfix Porsche 928 S4 1:24.
There aren't many kits of the non 911 Porsche cars and even fewer that come with an engine but this is one that does. It is itself a rebox of the Italeri kit of the same name and I believe also to be found in a US Testors box as well. As luck would have it, this kit was also recently re-released by Italeri so I can get the chance in the future to correct the little mistakes that were made in this one.
As always, I start with the bodywork.
This kit came to me slightly broken with a couple snapped members. To reinforce the broken bits, I decided to fix on the front and rear sections to made the body a single piece. This also allowed me to tidy up and re-define those very sharp, very clear and very Porsche panel lines.
There aren't many kits of the non 911 Porsche cars and even fewer that come with an engine but this is one that does. It is itself a rebox of the Italeri kit of the same name and I believe also to be found in a US Testors box as well. As luck would have it, this kit was also recently re-released by Italeri so I can get the chance in the future to correct the little mistakes that were made in this one.
As always, I start with the bodywork.
This kit came to me slightly broken with a couple snapped members. To reinforce the broken bits, I decided to fix on the front and rear sections to made the body a single piece. This also allowed me to tidy up and re-define those very sharp, very clear and very Porsche panel lines.
You can see from a couple of those photos a few of the bits of damage.
Before priming the bodyshell, I took care of those small bits with a little surface putty. The front windscreen trim was reinforced from the read while I built up a strong enough layer of putty to sand smooth to match the existing trim.
The panel-lines on the rear bumper were tidied up and straightened up; the moulding was a little soft here and the edge wasn't a clean "cut" so to speak.
Once that was taken care of, it was onto the first layer of primer to check the state of the body.
While I was at it, I also took care of a few of the engine and exhaust parts.
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