DocRob

My only Kitty Hawk kit is the T-6 with a heap of AM and I planned to build it soon into a Portuguese version and give it to a friend as a present. Now, that I read your comments, I'm a little worried, I was not expecting a perfect kit, but no complete desaster either. Is it really so bad? Cheers Rob

Sweet, so sweet. Cheers Rob

I've seen that too, and Marks Lotus sport the blackest black of all blacks, I hope I can achieve something similar, when I build mine. It's not a plan in the moment, there will be at least one or two other car builds before, but I'm a Martini guy , so it will be hard to wait for too long. There is a lot about distinguished understatement to that design . Cheers Rob

Thank you Paul, that was exactly why I started it , being a rook and needing a lot of input on the subject of painting cars the right way. I knew, I could count on you Hombres . C'mon Hubert, now there is a civilian scheme and you are ripping me apart . Besides, the body is not gold plated or covered in Swarovsky crystal, are we getting old Señhor? To excuse myself, the blue has a violet ting on the pic which is not there in reality. I tried to picture it as good as possible with my phone, using light temperature and white balance adjustments, but to no avail. The orange applications are understatedly called 'Launch Control' in the Ford GT configurator, Fisher Price orange wouldn't have had the same sound to it . As I've said before, the Ford is only a mule for learning how to paint cars with you all, in reality, I don't like modern sports cars at all. It's all preparing myself for a future Hippie Citroen DS build, some classic Formula One cars and the huge 1/12 Porsche 935. Thank you Peter, these Tamiya car kits are pure fun to build and are a great change in approach from planes and armor. After a lot of Lozenge clad planes lately, I needed a break, and then maybe back to the PZL P.11. Cheers Rob

Thanks Gaz, I figured, I couldn't respray it in the same tone and shine like the rest of the dashboard and decided to do it noticeable different. My semi matte black has not arrived yet, so the interior blacks were mixed. It's a real pain to get lacquer colors to my island. Most of the suppliers don't ship at all and few only bottles up to 30ml and one liter in all, like the IATA regulations say. I can't get a decent bottle of thinner here, I have to buy micro jars and you need lots of these for lacquer paints and the shops, which deliver don't have everything in stock, which is needed. I feel more and more, that the supply problems with toxic liquids like paints, cement, not even to mention spraycans, may put an end to my hobby, short term . Cheers Rob

If you ask here in the forum, you will get an answer which will be way different from what I call the sane rest of the society. For example, If I would reduce my stash, which I see as 'normal', by 90% my not modelling wife will react in a similar way, like your mother. You will notice, it's not about being 'normal', being different is why we are here. Cheers Rob

Besides sanding the body and applying another coat of mica blue, I managed to build the dashboard and seats into the interior tub and added front and rear axles and brakes. The fit was exceptional again The only problem arose, when I added the upper cover onto the dashboard and applied some glue to a wrong, but unfortunately visible place. I decided against completely respraying and masked off only the part with the glue and now have the appearance of a different material used for this panel. It's the part, which is a bit more shiny in front of the dashboard. I will leave it as it is, as I like the look. Cheers Rob

Nothing to say against some nice B&W pics. They show the subtle layers of dust on the surfaces perfectly. A great build all around, congratulations Gaz. Cheers Rob

Thanks again Mark, I will remind your tips. I have to be careful with the colors, as they are hard to get to my island, because of safety regulations , so I can't afford to mess up. Cheers Rob

Thank you mark, I understand you perfectly. English isn't my real strength either . The great thing about starting a WIP here, is that you are not only giving input into the forum, you also receive a lot of your condensed experiences, which is just great. I have to admit, that I started this WIP, mainly to rob your ideas . The finish you achieved on the Lotus is perfectly glossy, almost unreal. I will follow your tutorial and will start with polishing the base color, and continue with polishing after each new coat of gloss. I will use the Tamiya polish compounds for the first time with micro fiber cloth. Luckily we have a high humidity here normally, which reduces the risk of dust settling into the drying color. Cheers Rob

Looking mighty good Peter, well worth the fight and your result will be stunning. Before you cut the bristles, you should check, if the head of the toothbrush is really moving or just mildly oscillating with a lot of leeway tolerance. I tried it with mine and what is sufficient for cleaning the teeth, was not enough for sanding. The paper actually didn't move on the plastic and I didn't apply force or used 80 grid paper. Cheers Rob

Looks like a piece of modern art Gus, right with the others, great job with all the masking and thanks for reducing the world Kabuki resources, the stuff will be expensive soon. Cheers Rob

Thanks for the tutorial Wolf. I use the same method, mostly with a 0,3 mm bit, sometimes even 0,2 mm, but I try to avoid the latter, being very prone to bending. Like you pointed out, the most important thing is to point the place before drilling. I sometimes use a scribing needle, sometimes a fresh blade, like you. Cheers Rob

Thanks for the effort and the pics Peter. Not all Mustangs are P-51's here . Yours is looking great. With cars the thick Tamiya decals are just about right, opaque and like the real thing slightly noticeable on the surface. Today, I have an excuse for not continuing, I have two different construction groups at the house and will use the spare time for further contemplating. Cheers Rob

Thanks Peter, and don't be shy about showing us your techniques on the real thing. I promise, I will not tell your brother . Also thanks for explaining your steps to a great result. I've a check behind step one, the others are still in the mist, but I try to learn from your experiences. I have to check the body today and will decide, if I clear coat before polishing or the other way around. Cheers Rob

To be honest Martin, there is some other great European stuff, not new, but good, like Zebda from Toulouse, France (The vid is titled Paris 2019, but the concert is from 2003) And finally my actual summer hymn, Gorillaz - Désolé ft. Fatoumata Diawara. The fabolous Faoumata or short Fatou from Mali makes great vinyls of her own, worth to explore too. Cheers Rob

This guy is great, I know his music since the late 80's when he was part of the Band Mano Negra. I've seen some concerts in Berlin and Barcelona, he/they surely know to entertain. Here is one example of their raw power, a bit like the early Clash, latin flavored. Cheers Rob

Yeah, I know about these masked repops, Tamiya seems to be eager, testing the patience of their customers . Cheers Rob

Thank you Kai, the 48 scale stuff is well hidden here . I still have to rework some areas, like the exhaust stains and maybe I add the pilot climbing into the cockpit as planned, along with the to paint carrier deck base. Cheers Rob

Way better Kai, it looks perfectly now. At least it's not a Greek plane, which often look like a flying trashcan . Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias hombres, painting the Ford is actually a lot of fun and quite a difference from plane and armor painting and weathering. I actually try to make it look NEW , which is new to me . The manual calls for flat white as a contrasting color on the interior panels, but while inspecting the pictures on the box, I saw one Ford with orange-red accents, that sealed it. Cheers Rob

He He, I'm a wanderer and sometimes, I surprise myself . I really enjoy, to let my thoughts drift, grab a thought, transform it into an idea, plan it in my brain and start it as a project, with an already made up picture of the final thing in my head. I have only a reduced interest into cars. I love my Jeep and classic cars in general, but am no car nut. Even if I had the money, I would never like to have a car like this in real live and modern cars mostly remind me of a piece of soap, with their uniform and boring shapes. The Ford is more like learning the mysteries of car painting techniques. I've seen 2K clear cote being used too and that is an option, if my Tamiya lacquer clear fails. First I have to get the process right and decide, if I polish the blue color and then gloss coat or if I first gloss coat and polish then, like Carl mentioned. I tend to the latter too. Damn right, you should force the Italeri engineers to a year of labor in Tamiya's halls. After that, they are positively brain washed. Cheers Rob

Thank you Carl, indeed it's good news, that Tamiya is pre-cutting the Kabuki and I hope it was not only a test with the Ford. I was also tending to glosscoat before polishing, as the surface of the mica blue is very smooth and I don't know, if I ruin more, than doing good, working directly on the blue color. I have a complete set of Tamiya's polishing compounds, which I plan to use for this build. Cheers Rob

Great tutorial, like Kai said. The cobbles look, well, -cobbly-, meaning perfectly uneven, like these ancient Berlin roads, I used to hate, when I was a bicycle messenger as a student. The woodwork on the frame looks the part too. Cheers Rob

Hola fellow car lovers and modelistas, A while ago I got some relatively cheap car kits and among them was this kit of Tamiya's Ford GT MK.II. My first thought was to build it and give the body a paintjob made by rubbed metallic waxes from AK in bronze and copper tones, but then I bought an 1/12 Tamiya Porsche and a Lotus Ford type 79 and decided, to approach the Ford GT a little bit more serious, as a test mule for all these mysterious car paint techniques, I have no idea about. The kit itself is a gem, with great fit and clever engineering and goes together in a breeze, so this WIP-light will be about painting and finishing. The kit includes nicely flat chromed wheels, metal stickers and decals beside the plastic and pre cut (yes you read right) Kabuki masks for the windows. The kit is not overly komplex, so I cut all the parts from the sprues and cleaned them up, before painting. I decided to give Tamiya lacquer colors a shot with this build and until now, they behaved phenomenal. They spray absolutely flawless, fine grained and have the right finish. I used no primer and had no issues with these colors being too hot. First I managed some detail painting, which involved a lot of masking for the brakes and engine parts, with fluid or Kabuki masks. The LED-lights are great, the projectors sprayed with titanium silver and enhanced with black panel liner. The clear parts were masked with the supplied masks on the inside for windshield and rear window and from the outside in case of the side windows, to have different black shades for different materials. Hard to see on the pictures, the windshield got a lower frame sprayed matte black from the outside, which again involved more masking. Note the big tabs, which ensure, that there will be no glue stains on the window. Next was the interior and as a change from RLM66, I used different black tones, including matte and semi matte, some titanium accents on the seats and the orange red applications. Thrére are still some decals to apply. Then, I put all my courage together and sprayed the body with light heavy thinned passes of mica blue. The finish is very fine and even and I really like it as a base. Im not sure, being a car rook, how to proceed next. First polishing or first clear coating in preparation for the decal stripes, If you have suggestions, I'm really interested in. So far for now. Cheers Rob