Brabham BT45 - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12

[DocRob]

Yesterday was the day of mano negra, the black hand . Polishing white metal makes your fingers black with the metal residues, but despite the dirt, it is fun.
I used sanding sponges of 1200 to 6000 grit, to get rid off the cast imperfections, then it was about polishing with a cotton swab and Autosol metal polishing paste with works really well. I like the shiny look a lot and it could pass for polished aluminum to my eye.
Today, i test fitted for some hours, as now is the decisive  step, where the tub has to fit into the body, along all the mating parts.



Cheers Rob

[Landlubber Mike]

Looks great Rob.  I wouldn't have thought you could get that kind of result from polishing white metal.  Very interesting.

[DocRob]

5 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Looks great Rob.  I wouldn't have thought you could get that kind of result from polishing white metal.  Very interesting.

Thank you Mike, the white metal polishes really easy in fact. I did a lot of polishing with my Crocker motorcycle build as well. The only problem are slight superficial imperfections due to the casting process, which need to be removed first. This can be quite tedious, as it is not easy to sand the parts without losing detail and not all areas are reachable for proper sanding.
I don´t know about other metal polishing pastes, but Autosol is a classic and it works perfect for me.

Cheers Rob

[belugawhaleman]

Looks great Rob😀  Do the polished white metal parts eventually tarnish again?

[HubertB]

I could not resist …

😉

Hubert

[DocRob]

9 hours ago, belugawhaleman said:

Looks great Rob😀  Do the polished white metal parts eventually tarnish again?

Thank you Paul, about tarnishing, I don´t know, but I guess, very little so. These kind of metals are not overly reactive. My Crocker motorcycle with many polished surfaces looks completely unchanged after about a year.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

7 hours ago, HubertB said:

I could not resist …

It was a trap, Hubert and you fell in . I knew, somebody would bite and I guessed it might be you or Martin. I was about to link a Mano Negra video myself, but thought it to be funnier that way.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

There is not too much to show at the moment, as I´m preparing all the resin parts and some of the metal parts for the next steps. Test fitting is time consuming, but helps to recognize, where everything fits and how.
During this test fitting period, I made a mock up workbench build up.

Cheers Rob

[Landlubber Mike]

Hope everything is cooperating on the fit - a really cool subject to model.

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Hope everything is cooperating on the fit - a really cool subject to model.

Until now everything seems fine Mike, the kit seems to be easier to build than the Cobra Coupe. Fit and engineering is very good so far. There are only these damned coil springs for the exhausts, which I couldn´t attach and that is nagging me. I may try to insert a wire into the spring coil for easier bending.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The preparation of the resin and metal parts for all body and the front suspension is quite time consuming, but the fit is overall very good. All body parts got cleaned up, surface sanded, washed in soap water, swiped with an alcohol soaked cotton rag and finally primed with Mr Surfacer 1500 whit primer, which laid down beautifully.
In the meanwhile, I glued together the polished cockpit tub and added some accessories. The battery and fire extinguisher will be hidden under the seat later.

 

One beautiful detail is the number plate of the chassis. It has an etched part as a base, with the chassis number etched in. Onto that, you apply a transparent and black decal with the labeling, a bit hard to see on the pic.



Cheers Rob

[Martinnfb]

This kind of fidelity is closely bordering with insanity. Fantastic detail Doc. , just splendid.

Cheers

Martin 

[DocRob]

23 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

This kind of fidelity is closely bordering with insanity. Fantastic detail Doc. , just splendid

You put that right Martin, but you forgot to mention the fun to do so .

Cheers Rob

[Count0]

11 hours ago, DocRob said:

This kind of fidelity is closely bordering with insanity.

That's what makes it good. That distinction between model and miniature replica.

[DocRob]

Finally some serious progress. I finished decaling the body parts, after a long period of prep work.
My usual method is read the manual, understand the manual, drill all needed holes, fill and sand where needed, sand all resin surfaces carefully with 4000 grit, clean all the parts first in soap water (helps to reduce the static, these resin parts possess, which makes them like dust magnets) and wipe it with alcohol. Next was Mr. Color 1500 white primer, which sprayed fantastic like always. After a day of drying time, I checked the surfaces again and then applied the body color, in this case Number Five´s Brabham BT44 white, which is a tiny bit off white.

I sprayed the first layer un thinned, let it cure for some minutes, followed with a mix of about 25 % leveling thinner and paint and let dry for some more minutes. The last layer was applied with about 50 % of thinner and the relatively short drying times helped, that the later layers "soaked" into the base layer.
There was extremely minimal orange peel, which completely vanished after half an hour of drying.
I have to say, these Number Five colors are fantastic to work with an give the best possible surface results. I used them for the Cobra Coupe as well.

I feared decaling a bit with the thin pinstripes and huge decal bands slung around the body. I didn´t need to worry, the decals were fantastic to work with and were applied using warm soapy water only. One word of warning though, MFH decals are covered with a very thin very transparent plastic sheet which slightly adheres. Take care, you remove it before applying the decal, because it sticks to the foil much better than to the backing paper after soaking and you have to carefully peel the decal off the foil with a scalpel blade, which is really no fun. I only missed to remove the foil with two decals, but man, was I sweating.



Cheers Rob
 

[GusMac]

Looks great Rob. Steady hands required for that.

[belugawhaleman]

Looking amazing Rob! 

[DocRob]

21 hours ago, GusMac said:

Looks great Rob. Steady hands required for that.

Thank you Gus, luckily the BT45 has not many curved surfaces and is very angular.

Cheers Rob

[Landlubber Mike]

Wow, that looks fantastic Rob!  Thanks for sharing your painting technique - especially with how you use the Number Five paints (and, I didn't realize that about resin and static).  I'll have to look into those paints.

[DocRob]

22 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Wow, that looks fantastic Rob!  Thanks for sharing your painting technique - especially with how you use the Number Five paints (and, I didn't realize that about resin and static).  I'll have to look into those paints.

Thank you Mike, I had never much static with resin, other than MFH´s white resin. After a bit of sanding, it´s a real dust magnet and it´s not easy to get rid of the dust. Soap water helps a lot.

Cheers Rob

[KevinM]

Looking sharp Rob!I went to an IPMS meet in Covington last W/E and let me tell you they had some outstanding racers in the F1 category you would of admired but I forgot my camera and I have never owned a cellphone.

[DocRob]

On 6/26/2025 at 10:49 PM, KevinM said:

Looking sharp Rob!I went to an IPMS meet in Covington last W/E and let me tell you they had some outstanding racers in the F1 category you would of admired but I forgot my camera and I have never owned a cellphone.

Thank you Kevin, it´s always a pleasure to admire the fine work of other gifted car modelers. I which there were more here on LSM.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Clear coating went very well. I used Zero Paints lacquer clear, which did a fantastic job on my Cobra Coupe. My approach is similar to the application of the base coat and it works for me. 
First, I spray a thin un-thinned layer, which dries very quickly with the help of the airbrush blow, to hinder the aggressive lacquers to attack the decals.
The second layer after about 15 minutes consists of about 25%-30% leveling thinner and is applied "wet"
After again 15 minutes of drying and leveling time, I applied the third layer, this time with 50%-60% of levelling thinner, this time very "wet".
The brief drying time leads to later layers "melting into the layers applied before and give a better surface. I may could push my luck with the application of pure leveling thinner as a fourth coat, but I fear running paint.
The result looks far better to the real eye than on the pictures, but I learnt through other builds, that´s always the case with high shine finishes.
Anyway, today or tomorrow I will slightly sand and polish the surfaces.

 



Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

There are few steps more rewarding in modeling than to finish a car body to a high shine surface. All the work going into took a while, but I love doing the polishing as a last step. I used Tamiya´s polishing compounds starting with coarse, then fine, followed by finish. I didn´t apply wax now, because there are still many parts to add to the body, so this will be kept to the finish.
The coarse polishing is by far the most important and also time consuming one to my eye, as you remove all the tiny imperfections, check against the light and continue until all looks good, always taking care not to polish through the clear coat.
I couldn´t resist a little workbench mock up.











Cheers Rob

[belugawhaleman]

Beautiful work Rob!