DocRob

This update took a while, non the least, because Mr. Fittipaldi was a bit renitent. Actually, it was more the helmet and visor, which gave me headaches. Tamiya provides a driver figure and decals for the helmet, which wouldn´t go on wrinkle free. I used quantities of Tamiya extra strong and a hairdryer, before finally clear coating the helmet. Even more annoying was the visor. I wanted it tinted in smoke, like in real live, but equal which color and technique I used, it came always out bad. I tried AK crystal smoke and Tamiya smoke, sprayed or dipped, with misted layers or heavily applied, it never looked right. Finally, I tried my best, spraying AK crystal smoke lightly in numerous layers onto the before hand Future dipped visor and clear coated it. It still looks poor, but having stripped the visor umpteenth times, there may be no better result. The rest of the Fittipaldi figure was airbrushed and painted with Tamiya acrylics. I also tinted the clear windshield (not on the pictures) yellow, which came out better but not perfect. After a final clearcoat, it looks now very good. If somebody out there has a working technique for tinting larger clear parts evenly, pleas share it. Cheers Rob

I would never use that thing, but six Pounds is a cheapo for singing with the boys Cheers Rob

So you exchanged the results of your purge for a squirrel, good deal, Martin. Cheers Rob

Very nice work, your dio will be a looker. It´s believable busy and coming together nicely. One remark though. On the side of the Tempo´s loading bed there is "Deutsche Bundesbahn" written. This is wrong, because the Deutsche Bundesbahn was the follow up of the Deutsche Reichsbahn (see Tempo´s side doors) and was founded in 1949. Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias amigos, I´m absolutely satisfied with the shiny black finish, which looks even better to the eye than photographed under LED lights. The repaired numbers came out ok, but far from perfect. You can still see, where the bubbles were under certain lighting angles, but I didn´t dare to sand and possibly fill any more. The risk of damaging the finish was too great. There seems to be always something with car finishes . Cheers Rob

Yesterday, I tested the Tamiya #8 onto my affected #6 decal for comparing the size and they fit like a glove, phew. Today was the day to rescue the finish of the Lotus. I took all my courage and cautiously sanded away the bubbles on the number decals with a fiber pen and the edge of a sanding spoon. I was eager not to destroy the underlying golden decals. It looked like this then: I then decided to polish all the body parts with Tamiya polishing compounds. This was ignited, because I watched some of the build videos of the 72D on YouTube and was shocked by the very bad surface quality of some of the paintjobs. I would not dar to show these. I used the coarse compound only on the number decals, which were sanded before and polished all the body parts with the fine- and finish compound. Lastly, I applied the Tamiya #6 decals over the old ones and despite it not looking perfect, it has to do. I´m satisfied with the finish now, with the black glistening like a Steinway grand piano and it looks even better than on the photos. Cheers Rob

Very nice, PW, like the setting and the corrosion on the Chamond, BUT the match is definitely out of scale . Cheers Rob

Thanks Carl, exactly what I need. I checked my usual stores, no luck so far. A trusted Spanish vendor has clear red, green, orange and blue, but not smoke . Cheers Rob

For me as well John, when the parts are relatively small. I´m looking for a solution for a larger area, a tinted car door window or in my actual case a helmets visor. With a brush, I don´t get a perfectly even finish, but maybe it´s just me . I found only metal foil or clear transparent foil from Hasegawa, Carl. Cheers Rob

Nice find, Carl, the Beamer is a classic. A friend of mine on my island has one as his all day car, but in street trim of course. Hope you find some new decals. Cheers Rob

Nice looking NMF, Kevin, like Carl said, the heat staining looks pretty convincing. Cheers Rob

I watched some videos on YT about tinting clear parts and have to say, the results are not what I´m looking for. The transparency always lacks. The way to apply, seems to be very light coats, like you suggested. I will look, if there are some tinted transparent foils out there for the job. For my visor it could work, for canopies not so. Cheers Rob

Thank you Carl, Kevin and John, I used transparent colors (mostly Tamiya X red, orange, yellow and smoke) on different occasions, like rear lights for cars or formation lights on planes, where I thinned the color and brushed it on with good results. I also used clear yellow and orange to replicate varnish over oil color woodgrain on WWI planes, What I never managed to achieve was to tint let´s say a canopy with keeping the transparent qualities, only tinted. All of you suggest light coats, but when I spray light (thinned or un thinned) the result isn´t transparent, it looks like frosted. Does that go away with multiple coats? With my, I think three light coats, it didn´t change. Fat coats are more transparent and level, but the tinting is never equally applied and I have some pooling. Brushing is no option for larger pieces, as the distribution of the tint isn´t equally over the whole thing. @JohnB: I don´t understand your technique of thinning until the color is opaque, I´m looking for transparency, but only tinted, I guess, I got something wrong and yes, I appley the tinting color always on the inside of the clear part. Cheers Rob

Yesterday, I wanted to tint a visor of my 1/12 driver figure for the Lotus smoke grey. I tried numerous variants on clear spare parts, but none satisfactory. I used Tamiya Smoke, AK Cristal Smoke, all thinned and un thinned, sprayed, dipped, but to no avail. When sprayed lightly, there is no transparency, when sprayed heavier, there is pooling and no coherent tint. Dipping produced the best result, but not near satisfactory. It´s not the first time, I experimented with transparent colors, but never had any success except for brushed taillights or similar stuff. What do I do wrong? Cheers Rob

Thank you Carl, it only affected the black numbers. All the golden decals from the same sheet had no problems at all. The bubbles started with the third coat of paint, crazy. Cheers Rob

After 24 hours of curing time, I dared to look at the body parts a little closer. The Zero Paints Lacquer Clear was phenomenal to work with once again. I first sprayed a thin layer un thinned, to seal the decals, without harming them, blowing the color dry with the airbrush for faster curing and less reaction time. This layer has a bit of orange peel, but that doesn´t matter now. After about half an hour, I thinned the clear for the second coat with about 30% to 40% of leveling thinner and had a much better surface quality then before. Until now, no probs with the decals. The third and fourth coat followed after shorter periods of drying time, as I wanted them to melt into the former layers. The clear was thinned with about 55% to 60% of leveling thinner. The surface becomes almost perfect, but the black #6 decals got some tiny bubbles, a reaction with the clear coat or the thinner, unfortunately. I´m thinking about sanding the bubbles away very carefully and apply the Tamiya #6 decals onto them, which hopefully have the same size. I will check that before sanding with the #8 decal. I´m not sure, if I polish the body parts, as they look near perfect right now. I will decide that after two or three days of further curing time, before, I won´t touch the parts. Cheers Rob

Thanks for the warning about the decals of Revell´s VW flower power bus. I thought about getting one, but will let go now. The TBDecals finally had some issues. I will show the probs in my next post with some pictures. Cheers Rob

I use different iterations of the CRplus since years and absolutely love them as an ex engineer. Easy to maintain and always reliable, you´ll love it Paul. I personally use the Giraldez edition since one and a half years, it´s my favorite, despite it´s strange trigger, but have the regular edition as well. Cheer Rob

Thank you guys, angst might not be the right term, Gus, but I feel always some tension with car body works, until the last coat of clear has dried. There are so many possibilities to ruin the kit during the process. Cheers Rob

Decaling is mostly done. I have to do some touch ups and the Fittipaldi helmet. The pinstripes proved to be difficult to apply, especially around the cockpit. The front with the Texaco sign was a nightmare, because the pinstripes are separate decals, easy to guess, how fragile and difficult to arrange they were. I could have used the Tamiya decal for that, but there is a lot of carrier film all around. On the back of the cockpit, I used Tamiya´s pinstripes, which luckily have the same color. I will let dry for a day now and then clean off the water residues before clear coating. Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias amigos, I hope the rest of this very old kit holds up to the bodyworks, but I wanted to do this first, as it is the dealbreaker. Cheers Rob

After the three jars of Tamiya LP-1 have cured, I started with the decaling. The TBDecals are very good to work with, the carrier film is very thin and they can be slipped off the backing paper within seconds. Some of the stripes folded over, but none teared. I used only warm water with a drop of detergent for decaling, luckily there are not many curves to contour the decals around. The multi piece pinstripes on the body and nose were applied quite rapidly in one go, to get them aligned perfectly and symmetrical. I hope the decals are not too sensitive concerning a later clear coat to seal everything in. Cheers Rob

Thanks Carl, the Tamiya LP-1 is always good for a deep shiny finish, without orange peel effect, when thinned properly. I think it´s best, to prepare as good as possible for the best finish. Sanding and polishing in the end on the clear is difficult in places. Cheers Rob

Thank you Kevin, my go to base for metallics is Tamiya LP-1 which also dries very hard. The only problems, I sometimes have are tiny color runs, because my last coat is so highly thinned, to get a perfect shiny surface. It´s kind of a struggle to get it right, but a good shiny base reduces the needed polishing work in the end. Which some hard to reach areas for example on the wings, it´s worth the struggle. Cheers Rob

Nice (extra) work, Chris. I´m sure, you will pull through with the big thing. Weird, how you exchanged the super bad Italeri kit for a bad modelcollect one. It seems there is some need for a really good kit. Cheers Rob