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Red Firecracker
Original Poster
4,171 posts
96 months
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Ah, an ALMS car, nice. The Le Mans car is now stickered up, what a wonderful job made easy with such fine decals/transfers... A few more to apply after the clear coating.   Now begins the long slow process of clear coating and also a small paint repair on the nearside rear wheelarch.
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perdu
3,249 posts
68 months
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Handsome car RF, bugger about the wing ding  I love those Lizards, yet another good reason to head back to Le Mans every year Along with the traditional 24 hrs beer and barbies
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Red Firecracker
Original Poster
4,171 posts
96 months
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It's only a crack in the decal, luckily, so easy enough to repair but still a bit of a pain. To be expected though, to be honest.
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Mark.
10,003 posts
145 months
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Red Firecracker
Original Poster
4,171 posts
96 months
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Bit more done, the body has now been clear coated and polished out. Before the final clear coat I lightly sanded with Micromesh and after the final clear had a good chance to dry (about a week) I polished it back with Tamiya Compounds, course, fine and finish. After that it got a coat of carnauba wax. A couple of quick pictures;   Quite happy with it, it has the depth of shine that is popular nowadays but it doesn't have the thickness of clear coat that is often seen that dulls and obscures details, like a model that has been dipped in resin.
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Red Firecracker
Original Poster
4,171 posts
96 months
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Time for another update. Bit of a leap as I've lost some pictures due to a laptop issue. The windows are now in, secured with Klear, as well as the rear windscreen bars. Additionally, the characteristic from radiator grills are fitted. The main item for this update is the headlight treatment. Firstly I should add that I hate, absolutely detest, headlamp lenses. The lenses come as a clear plastic moulding, taken straight from the body, so they have the marker lines that you need to cut to. I have painted the plastic moulding with Zero yellow candy paint, effectively a clear paint. I used it for no other reason than I had it to hand.  Here the headlight 'jewels' have been fitted.  Lense one trimmed and dry fitted. No tricks, it's just a case of file and test, file and test.  Finally both fitted and secured with Klear, which is still wet hence the effect on the lense. This will disappear once dry. 
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dr_gn
6,915 posts
53 months
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Impressive work with the headlamps. Must admit I skimmed through the pics first time assuming that the covers were pre-cut. I know how difficult that must have been to get a perfect fit without undersizing them. "Kudos" (as the kids say  ) Amazing how some fairly expensive kits still contain a lot of DIY. Still, it makes the end result more satisfying.
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Eric Mc
67,253 posts
134 months
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I'm always impressed with well built models built from these types of kits. Tamiya they certainly ain't.
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dr_gn
6,915 posts
53 months
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Eric Mc said: I'm always impressed with well built models built from these types of kits. Tamiya they certainly ain't. The Top Studio McLaren MP4/4 detail kit I've got in deep storage is incredibly complicated, but a lot of it is just raw materials for you to make your own stuff. A bit like what I did with the Jaguar XJR9, but with all the bits and research in one very expensive box.
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Red Firecracker
Original Poster
4,171 posts
96 months
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Cheers.
I think you go into these types of kits with your eyes well and truly open as to what you're letting yourself in for. Provence Moulage are one of the better manufacturers, but still leave a bit to be desired when compared to the modern plastic kits. For instance, the instructions sheet is just that, a sheet with a colour picture on it, so lots of external research is required.
There are many annoyances with this one, glazing is something that I really need to work on and I think the trick is to do it early, before the painting, so that they will fit snugly and neatly when the time comes to finally fix them in place. With the headlights, for instance, if doing them again I'd recess the bodyshell before paint so that they fitted flush with the body, but the resin is so brittle in places that it opens up the potential for much more remedial work.
All good fun though.
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Red Firecracker
Original Poster
4,171 posts
96 months
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Body is more or less now complete;   Just need to clear coat the decals on the tyres and then fit those, put it all together and then jobs a good'un.
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perdu
3,249 posts
68 months
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She's lookin' good RF Got the electroluminescent number panels sussed yet?  It is going to be a classy motor when you finish it.  Is it one of these? I never did get a decent picture of a car all race... Second chicane Mulsanne Straight, dusk Saturday No, not that one. How about in here?  No probably not either
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Red Firecracker
Original Poster
4,171 posts
96 months
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Cheers Perdu. The electro-luminescent panels are possible, maybe for the next project which is a little bigger. Oh, it's an earlier version of this;  #79 Flying Lizard Porsche by Red Firecracker, on Flickr I've not managed to get down to Mulsanne yet, have to try that next year.
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Red Firecracker
Original Poster
4,171 posts
96 months
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And it's near enough there. First job was to put the wheel parts together, namely discs/callipers, backing block and outer;  (yes, really worth the time and effort on shading the discs and detailing the callipers) Them throw it all up in the air and watch the pieces fall together. The bodyshell required a bit of trimming behind the wheels to get them to fit inside the arches rather than being a scale foot outside, but there was enough meat not to require filling back in again. I'll get some proper pictures at the weekend, but here it is, basically complete apart from roof aerial, sitting on the in-depth instruction sheet... (apart from the decal I ripped off the front tyre).     
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dr_gn
6,915 posts
53 months
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Looks pretty much perfect - you ought to include something to scale it with in the final pics - it looks a larger scale than it is.
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perdu
3,249 posts
68 months
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It just looks delicious
The WANT is strong in me...
Reckon you nailed that one very nicely RF
Well done
b
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Red Firecracker
Original Poster
4,171 posts
96 months
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Thanks both. It's been a long, but fun little project. Plenty of mistakes in there and plenty of things that can be done better. Here's a pic with a £1 coin for scale; 
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Mark.
10,003 posts
145 months
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Great build - I hadn't realised it was so small! Suppose reading the title to the end would have helped! 
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Red Firecracker
Original Poster
4,171 posts
96 months
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Thanks.
You sort of get used to the size of it when working on it, so it's less of a surprise in the pictures. Even I think it looks small in that last picture.
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Nicholas Blair
4,002 posts
153 months
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Really nice piece of work Nick
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