Renault RE20 Turbo - Tamiya - 1/12

[Peterpools]

Right with you and it seems odd how paint colors vary on coverage from the same paint line. Nothing like testing to be sure. When it comes to Gloss White, the King of the Hill for me is Mr Color. Thinner 2:1, it's magnificent. 

 

[DocRob]

55 minutes ago, Peterpools said:

Right with you and it seems odd how paint colors vary on coverage from the same paint line. Nothing like testing to be sure. When it comes to Gloss White, the King of the Hill for me is Mr Color. Thinner 2:1, it's magnificent. 

That is in the mail Peter, but I couldn't wait to paint some body parts.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Got ya👍

 

[DocRob]

After the primer, in my case Alclad white microfiller, which sprayed fantastic and gave a fine satin surface, I applied the firs body color, in this case yellow. The Tamiya LP-8 was thinned with almost two thirds of leveling thinner and sprayed on in fine layers. For yellow is not the easiest color to spray, it went well and with a relatively fine glossy surface. For the first time, I sprayed some pure leveling thinner over the drying yellow color,  which indeed levlled a bit more. I have not a lot of experience, painting car bodies, but I think with a liitle polish and some elbow grease, all will look good as a base for the decals.

Cheers Rob

[BlrwestSiR]

On 7/13/2023 at 5:08 AM, DocRob said:

I would welcome a decent 1/12 kit from a Lancia Stratos,

Me too!

Currently there is the Doyusha Stratos in 1/12. I've got one and it's very much a product of the '70s but is reasonably decent. 

Italeri have announced a new 1/12 kit for sometime this year. How much an improvement it will be over the Doyusha one we will have to wait and see. 

[BlrwestSiR]

Rob, the engine looks great. Nice job on masking the cylinder heads. 

[GazzaS]

Nice work on those panels.  I lways wonder about civil stuff...    are we supposed to weather it, or make it shiny and walk away.

[DocRob]

14 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Rob, the engine looks great. Nice job on masking the cylinder heads. 

Thank you Carl, the idea was born in a mid siesta hight of creativity  and luckily it worked. Tape was no option and I considered brush painting, but it would have been difficult to keep the metallic shine through the blue, equally.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

11 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Nice work on those panels.  I lways wonder about civil stuff...    are we supposed to weather it, or make it shiny and walk away.

I wonder too, Gary. In my mind, I always ponder about weathering, but will keep it at a minimum, like the oil wash for the machine. After a race these cars would look dusty and dirty, I guess, but as I'm relatively new to car modeling, this one will be in before race shape.

Cheers Rob 

[Peterpools]

Rob

Beautiful work on the yellow body parts - looks super smooth and glossy. Looking so good.

When I built my Meng GT-40, I used Gravity Model Lacquers, straight from the bottle as they are designed to be used that way (same as MRP paints) and in numerous light thin layers. I thinned out the final few coats more and then let the paint de-gas gas and thorough dry for a good number of days. Then I rubbed out the finish, starting with Meguiar's Rubbing Compound and then Gravity's three-part model polishing system. After I finished with the decal work, I used (if memory serves me correctly) Mr Color Clear Gloss and repeated the whole process but finished up with Gravity's Protective Synthetic Wax. The gloss shine was a mile deep and super smooth. Yup, I wore cotton gloves to avoid fingerprints. The initial colors coats after polishing were so smooth, getting the decals to sit and bite took a lot of work. 

 

[GazzaS]

11 hours ago, DocRob said:

I wonder too, Gary. In my mind, I always ponder about weathering, but will keep it at a minimum, like the oil wash for the machine. After a race these cars would look dusty and dirty, I guess, but as I'm relatively new to car modeling, this one will be in before race shape.

Cheers Rob 

In recent builds where the color was a base color like yellow, I've tried to give is shape and shadow with oil paints.  It worked ok for military stuff, but I could get away with it looking a little dirty.  But on a car...   I wouldn't like to risk it.  Mainly because shadow is often affected by the perspective of the viewer.  What might look like a good shadow from a straight-on view might look like a second, non-matching application of color from a shallow angle.

[DocRob]

18 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Beautiful work on the yellow body parts - looks super smooth and glossy. Looking so good.

When I built my Meng GT-40, I used Gravity Model Lacquers, straight from the bottle as they are designed to be used that way (same as MRP paints) and in numerous light thin layers. I thinned out the final few coats more and then let the paint de-gas gas and thorough dry for a good number of days. Then I rubbed out the finish, starting with Meguiar's Rubbing Compound and then Gravity's three-part model polishing system. After I finished with the decal work, I used (if memory serves me correctly) Mr Color Clear Gloss and repeated the whole process but finished up with Gravity's Protective Synthetic Wax. The gloss shine was a mile deep and super smooth. Yup, I wore cotton gloves to avoid fingerprints. The initial colors coats after polishing were so smooth, getting the decals to sit and bite took a lot of work. 

Thank you Peter, your process description is very helpful. There are still a lot of question marks, when it comes to high gloss finishes to me. Starting with the color application, you stated thin layers with gravity paint, where  found a bit off 'flooding' helped to level out the Tamiya LP colors. 
My experiences with Mr. Color clear gloss are limited and the results ranged from good to very bad, with a frosty appearance and I haven't discovered, how I failed with the latter, with the same result, after a repeated thorough cleaning of the airbrush and respraying. Lots of experience to gain here on that delicate affair.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

10 hours ago, GazzaS said:

In recent builds where the color was a base color like yellow, I've tried to give is shape and shadow with oil paints.  It worked ok for military stuff, but I could get away with it looking a little dirty.  But on a car...   I wouldn't like to risk it.  Mainly because shadow is often affected by the perspective of the viewer.  What might look like a good shadow from a straight-on view might look like a second, non-matching application of color from a shallow angle.

Thanks for your thoughts Gary. I used oil colors to 'sculpt' surfaces a lot on armor and sometimes on planes and really like the effects possible. Here it's a bit different, it's not only the appearance of a F1 car, which in my case should lock clean, like before a race, but also the very large scale, which has consequences on the way shadows cast and color rendition is accepted by the eye as real. If I would go for weathering, I would stain and dust the base paintjob, possibly toying with the shininess of the clear coat on pronounced contours.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

One step forward, two steps back. I progressed with the addition of the front suspension and cockpit internals to  the monocoque, steps made a bit delicate, because Tamiya decided on a flimsy workable steering and working suspension. The fit was a bit vague in places, but with a bit of wiggling all came together, but without the typical Tamiya snap. The decals for the dials went on perfectly, the RPM-meter got a self adhesive mirror backing, which was supplied in the kit.

The yellow body parts are not mounted as of yet, but only show dimensions, fit and very important with this build, how the parts interact.

 

Well, two steps back it was, because I was a bit lazy and omitted an old self imposed rule in plastic modelling. Never use power tools, if it can be avoided. After some hand polishing of the yellow body parts, I remembered, that I own a Proxxon micro drill with a cotton polish bit. To tell a cursing experience short, The bit caught on plastic edges and left marks in my paintjob on two parts .
Repainting is necessary and I decided to airbrush the upper body part in white (Tamiya LP-2) first and then spray all the remaining yellow parts together. Luckily the white lay down very well and shiny.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Excellent progress as the front suspension and body panels looks so good. Movable parts seem to create a lot of weak and temperamental parts that are very prone to breaking when least expected.

While I did use Gravity lacquers on the GT40, my preference for solid gloss colors is still Mr Color, where for me the trick is how much to thin and of course the application. One area that is always a huge question mark is the working pressure as what works for me may not work for you. There are just so many variables in each of our setups; air brush type and tip, hose length and width, compressor and the list go on and on. I don't put much trust in the pressure gauge either, as their accuracy in my mind is questionable. You are a 100% right in that nothing beats testing until the results you are after are achieved and just as important, repeatable. 

 

[shark64]

Between your car and the helo, I think you re gonna be busy.

[DocRob]

On 7/27/2023 at 6:17 PM, Peterpools said:

Rob

Excellent progress as the front suspension and body panels looks so good. Movable parts seem to create a lot of weak and temperamental parts that are very prone to breaking when least expected.

While I did use Gravity lacquers on the GT40, my preference for solid gloss colors is still Mr Color, where for me the trick is how much to thin and of course the application. One area that is always a huge question mark is the working pressure as what works for me may not work for you. There are just so many variables in each of our setups; air brush type and tip, hose length and width, compressor and the list go on and on. I don't put much trust in the pressure gauge either, as their accuracy in my mind is questionable. You are a 100% right in that nothing beats testing until the results you are after are achieved and just as important, repeatable. 

Thank you for sharing your experiences Peter. I will try to achieve good results with the Mr. Color GX-100, when times come. I may have an idea, where the problem sources, that lead to the GX-100 changing to frosty goo on my last test. It might be, that I mixed it with thinner in a plastic jar, which possibly melted a tiny bit, leaving residues in the mix. 

Unfortunately this build is paused for a while, and experiments have to wait, because my trusty old airbrush compressor, which I bought in 1989 passed away yesterday. I hope the new one arrives soon.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

These days, you just never know what causes paint and clear finish issues. Way to complicated as compared to years ago.

Sorry to read your compressor 'bought the farm' but wow: 34 years of use - now that's something. Nothing made today seems to last that long. Which compressor did you purchase and of course, hopefully arrives quickly.

 

 

[DocRob]

9 minutes ago, Peterpools said:

Sorry to read your compressor 'bought the farm' but wow: 34 years of use - now that's something. Nothing made today seems to last that long. Which compressor did you purchase and of course, hopefully arrives quickly.

I ordered the fastest available one, with good reviews and all the features I'm looking for. In my case it was the Sparmax TC-620X. Living remote like me, there is not a great deal of availability, but I think the Sparmax will be fine. 

 

I really liked the old Aero-Pro compressor, it never failed me and you are right Peter, there are no devices out there anymore, lasting 34 years of permanent use and minimal maintenance, the last year surrounded by usually between 80 and 95% humidity .

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

My Sparmax looks almost identical and it's been a gem. You're going to love it.

[DocRob]

I know, I know, I promised you a pause from my efforts, but today, while cleaning the bench, I thought about my desire to change the engines fuel tubing. I cut off the plastic connectors and glued on sections of clear brown tubing with an outer diameter of 0,4 mm and 0,6 mm. The first one, I pre-drilled and inserted 0,2 mm micro silver rod, but that proved tedious and simply butt gluing the tubes did the job.
Then I painted all the tube connection points titan silver for contrast and all the screw heads around the engine in silver and sparkling silver.
Last but not least, I found my cylinder head detail work showing not enough contrast, with the pencil onto the anodized blue. I carefully scratched the pencil and blue color away with a blade and voila, now it looks much better. 
Finally, I shortened the yellow ignition wires and bundled them with clamps made by tiny strips of wine cap foil. Now I feel good about the engine.

Only for comparison, how it looked before:

Cheers Rob

[GusMac]

All the revisions definitely pay off Rob, looks stunning.

[Peterpools]

Rob

The corrected work looks awesome - perfectly done.

 

[GazzaS]

Oh yeah...   the engine looks much more real.

[HubertB]

Indeed, great improvement 👍 !

Hubert