Howdy folks,

OK, next up for show and tell is a Tamiya 1/24 Honda NSX. It's my first "starting from scratch" kit since I stopped building about 6-7 years ago, and while it's taking a little bit to get the ball rolling again, I'm starting to get back into the swing of things. (I also have a Tamiya 1/20 Jordan 191 F1 to complete that was left 80% done all those years ago...)

The body is giving me a few troubles, although with some odds and ends on order from Micro Mark, the body should be sorted out in a few weeks or so. But until then I thought I'd show you all how the rest is coming along.

1. I'd built an NSX about 8-9 years ago, and dug it out for a look-see when I opened my new NSX kit. One of the first things I noticed was the very dull, all black interior. So I decided to spruce it up a little. First up, a two tone interior... matt/satin black and Nato Black (a Tamiya acrylic, which actually comes out a nice grey). The seats proved a horrible job to mask up, so I tried using some Blue-Tac (and Australian product, a little like plasticene) to mould around the edges of the area that was to be sprayed Nato Black, and it actually worked very well! You can see the start of the "alternative masking" below...

http://home.iprimus.com.au/captainmark/NSXInterior01.jpg


2. The two tone interior starting to take shape. The two colours compliment each other quite well. No other detail added in yet.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/captainmark/NSXInterior02.jpg


3. Now we're starting to get somewhere! I've done the main colours I want to, now the details... as you can see on the center console, I've put in some clear red and clear orange on the radio faces, and then some Future/Pledge over the top. Looks quite good I think. I've also dry brushed (actually just a little wetter than dry brushed) on some German Grey (Tamiya enamel) to the dials and switches around the radios, which you can just make out if you look closely.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/captainmark/NSXInterior03.jpg


Even at this early stage it's the best interior I've ever done. Probably because I've broken away from the norm a little... I'm even happier with because it's been sooo long since I've made a kit! Anyway, more pics to come soon. Constructive comments welcome.

Cheers,
Mark

Plastic floors just don't cut it... I needed some floor mats/carpet. I grabbed some small cuts of fabric from a local fabric store, and after a little experimentation I settled on this particular type. It turned out the be the best to work with, and also added a new colour to the interior which matches well with the other colours.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/captainmark/NSXInterior04.jpg


Mark

Nearly done…

1. Lookin’ good now with the seats, dash and carpet in. Not to mention the “NSX Owners Magazine” on the seat as well.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/captainmark/NSXInterior05.jpg


2. The pedals were given a fairly thin/dry coat of gun metal, just to help them stand out. I’m fairly particular with having the details stand out these days, as it always seems to make the finished product that much more visually appealing.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/captainmark/NSXInterior06.jpg


3. I think the colour combinations for the interior have come up quite well. Hopefully the effort will still show once the body is on!

http://home.iprimus.com.au/captainmark/NSXInterior07.jpg


4. Bagged up and ready to go – just waiting on the rest of the kit to be completed.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/captainmark/NSXInterior08.jpg


I’m going to make the buckle ‘thingos’ the seat belt connects into at the bottom corner of the seats, just scratch build them from scrap plastic, which will add a little more colour (a touch of vivid orange/red). But for now that can wait…

It’s time to start work on the suspension and my first attempts at plumbing an engine and scratch building some more engine bay parts.

Mark

looking good. can't wait to see more

wow, very nicely detailed

omg
it is probably the best interior work for NSX ever!!!
the bagging up thte the stuff is a great idea~!!!

good job. the material for the carpet looks good.

Good looking detail work going on!

Very nice details!!!! Get more pics please.

Great interior.

Nice interior. When we gonna see the body?

NIce build. I like your idea on bagging. Keep it up.

Looks like a promising build!! Keep us posted on the progress!!

love the interior, you dont seem to out of it :lol:

The interior's subtle, just enough to add some interest, much better than all black. Can't wait to see the rest!

Loving the interior, i can just imagine how good the exterior is going to be :grinyes:

Looks like the break didn't dilute your skills. Very good, clean work on thta interior. Very impressive.

The seats proved a horrible job to mask up, so I tried using some Blue-Tac (and Australian product, a little like plasticene) to mould around the edges of the area that was to be sprayed Nato Black, and it actually worked very well! You can see the start of the "alternative masking" below...

Brilliant!

Some pretty choice work here!! :D Can't wait to see what's next...

Thanks for the positive comments folks!
Will post some more pics of the body in progress soon.

Nice work on the interior!

Time to get the body sorted out.
One of the main problems I’ve found with the body of this kit is the separate rear wing. It does fit to the body accurately and quite well, although there’s a join line at the two front-most points of the spoiler (leaving two transverse lines at the sides of the boot/trunk in relation to the car) that’s just un-missable, that obviously isn’t there on the real car. (edit: I was wrong, they are there on the real car... they're just a bit missable... LOL)

So I glued the wing on first, filled the small joins, and re-scribed the lines that show the sides of the boot/trunk. You can see the continuous join lines below (going back from where the masking has been started), with no 'extra bits'.

As you can also see it’s going to be silver… which is a b!tch to get on nicely! Although perhaps that’s a result of me being out of it for so long, and not having the best of setups for spraying. I’ve already applied a couple of clear coats and cut them back a little to see how it comes up (quite nicely in fact), and now I’m masking up the bottom half before the black goes on.

Will keep you posted…
(Due to time constraints this project may draw out a little, but I’ll update as often as I have something reasonable to contribute.)

http://home.iprimus.com.au/captainmark/NSXBody01.jpg

http://home.iprimus.com.au/captainmark/NSXBody02.jpg

Mark

Lovin' the Silver NSX. I like how you fixed the rear wing, really looks good :grinyes:

AAAAAAAARGH!!!

Don't you hate it when masking tape pulls up the paint... NOT HAPPY!!!
I invented a few new swear words after this effort...

You can see the small patch of paint and clear coat that's lifted on the lower right corner of the body, surrounded by yellow masking tape (Tamiya brand). It's not in a very noticable spot but I still don't want to leave it there, so here's hoping a quick spray and patchup will do the trick.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/captainmark/NSXBody03.jpg

The car looks great. You are running it to smilar problems I have. After a while I figured out building car models is not like anything else. it needs special attention and some vital steps to be taken, that can be omitted on other builds.

I had the samething happen to me with my honda NR and the fw24 I am building. I poured thinner on the body of my porsche. So yes, you do invent new swear phrases that would otherwise will not be invented for another 2 centuries.

But at the end, I learned to put a primer coat first and to leave the paint untouched for couple days before handling it.

I have a Fujimi NSX on the bench waiting some TLC as well ;)

Toughbeard - how do you find the accuracy of the body of your Fujimi NSX kit?
I've actually found that there are a few errors, LARGE errors, on the Tamiya kit when it comes to panel lines.

nice~
keep us posted~
^.^

Time to get the body sorted out.
One of the main problems I’ve found with the body of this kit is the separate rear wing. It does fit to the body accurately and quite well, although there’s a join line at the two front-most points of the spoiler (leaving two transverse lines at the sides of the boot/trunk in relation to the car) that’s just un-missable, that obviously isn’t there on the real car.I beg to differ. There are separation lines there on the real car, as the wing is a separate part from the raised edge contour on the trunklid.

pic:
http://www.cabrionews.de/katalog/honda/nsx/nsx-h.jpg

I will say that the the front points on the wing in the Tamiya (several of mine, anyways) are not properly squared-off and could use some touch-up, but those little transverse lines do belong there...

I've actually found that there are a few errors, LARGE errors, on the Tamiya kit when it comes to panel lines. Which others?

Holy cow... I've never noticed those before! Good stuff Jay... ah well, the rear wing have to stay as is for now.

You nailed it, the front wing is the main issue. Also I have some badly moulded panel lines at the back, rear of the car, that separate the bumper from the rear quarter panel - mostly vertical line except for the top that angles sharpley backwards along the car. Hope that makes sense...

Basically these lines just aren't straight, or even nicely curved. They have a few small zigzag parts in them. I've fixed them up as best I can for now, without getting impatient and bored with it.

Funily(sp) enough the above errors in moulding weren't on my kit from 9 odd years ago... so who knows what's going on there.

As the molds age, they deteriorate from use and things may not line up as they should, causing these zig-zags and problems in panel lines. Your paint problems sound like its not sticking well, were you sure to thoroughly wash and lightly sand (with fine grit) the body before before priming? Great work, though. Beautiful representation of this beautiful little car.

I didn't sand the body, but did wash it. Next time I start a kit from scratch I'll follow your tip and sand it lightly.

Getting closer now... just a quick post to show there's still progress.

Lots of parts freshly painted. I've haven't put a lot of effort into the underside of the car as I'm not concerned with it during this build. However I am planning on scratchbuilding a few odds and ends for the areas of the engine bay that can be seen on the NSX (which isn't much unfortunately).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/captain_mark/NSXMiscel01.jpg


I found that the rims actually got a few scratches simply from storage, so I put the decals on and dipped them in Pledge/Future in the hopes this would seal and protect them a little. They came up much more reflective too which is a nice touch. I'm also hoping that this will help stop the yellowing of the decal which sometimes happens with age.

very impressive so far

I can see the finish line now.
Finally have most of the suspension and engine built and installed, as you can see in the first two pics below. I've also tried to add a bit of colour and detail to the oob engine parts, such as different colours for fan belts (or whatever technical term it is for that particular belt), oil caps, etc...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/captain_mark/NSXEngine001.jpg


Below you can see my highly technical rubber-band "stick you b@stard" mechanics... unfortunately the rubber-band marked the paint slightly, but I'm starting to become a master of 'covering up' the blemishes, after all the experimenting I've been doing with this kit.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/captain_mark/NSXEngine002.jpg


I was fixing up the trims on my real car recently with some Meguiars Trim Detailer, and figured it would look great putting it on the sidewalls of the tires. You can see the results below. I think the contrast between the tread and sidewalls looks great! I've also coated the rims in Pledge/Future, which I think I mentioned earlier, to protect the decal and chrome-like finish.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/captain_mark/NSXEngine003.jpg


Next up is to finish polishing the body, and then I'll be attemping my first round of engine detailing and plumbing.

You're doing a bang-up job with this Mark, the interior is very realistic. Can't wait to see the colour on the body. Great idea to try tyre black on the scale tyres!
Does the Tamiya NATO black have any green tinge or is it neutral grey?

RR regarding the Nato Black, think Tamiya German Grey without the blue tinge... does that make it any easier? It's basically a flat dark grey, no blues or greens. I'm surprised they call it black actually. Oh, and the bottle cap isn't a very good representation of the final colour either. However, it did come up very nicely in the interior as you say!
Cheers!

i like it nice and clean
keep it up!

Great work so far. :bigthumb:

May I ask you if you've washed the body with soap and water before spraying it?

EDIT: Never mind :banghead:

AHHHHHHHH!!!

The rear tail lights are basically all clear red, except for two squares that must be masked as they remain clear (no colour). Well, the masking didn't work...
The squares are so small I found them impossible to do with masking tape, so I used my trusty blu-tack... which isn't to trusted any longer!

I don't know exactly what went wrong, I think it was just too fiddly perhaps, or maybe the heat got to the blu-tack and made it move before spraying.

Anyway, I'm at a bit of a loss now. Should I just drill out the squares and put in a piece of clear plastic (which I don't have), should I try to strip the paint and start over (brake fluid isn't working, I'm trying now)...

Does anyone have any pointers for masking really tiny areas??? Anything you can give me right now will be much appreciated!

I've overcome so many annoying and near "build-ending" problems, I don't want to have to stop so short of finishing.

[edit: I'll post some pics when my digicams batteries recharge.]

Thats why i've learned to do the tailights freehand. When i go in i scratch the paint off with a toothpick. But thats like immediately when the paint is still fresh. I've never had the paint actually dry on it. Try scratching it off with an Xacto knife :uhoh:

If it were me, I'd strip and re-do it. What type of paint did you use?

Measure, then cut out the squares from masking tape with a straight edge on your cutting mat. Place them on the clear part with tweezers. Once perfectly aligned, spray a coat of clear to seal the edges before shooting the color coats.

Are you not doing the orange irregular quadrilaterals at the ends for the turn signals? Those are much harder to mask... Well, harder to get the shape right, anyway.

You could try BMF as a mask. It works many times better than masking tape. The only other thing that might work would be Micrascale Liquid mask. It hasn't failed me yet.

ImolaEK - I may have to resort to that yet, although that's down the list of things to try. Cheers.

Jay - Sounds like a good plan, didn't think of that! What do you reccomend for stripping the paint? I'm trying to brush on brake fluid now - should I be soaking the piece in it?
Time for a seach I think...

Looks great so far. Can't wait to see it done. Like ImolaEK said, it's easier to do it free hand and scratch off the paint with a toothpick when it's still wet then it is to mask the tails. Strip them and try it.

Also, Castrol Super Clean works best for stripping paint IMO.

1. The offending piece is below...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/captain_mark/NSXBody05.jpg

So far I've scraped the paint gently away from the area that's to remain clear (not shown in pics), then used polishing compound (Tamiya) to smooth the paint down, and now I'm beginning to remask with tape using Jay's advice.

Jay, as far as the orange sections are concerned I'll be leaving them for now. I didn't paint them orange on the outside as on the real car it seemed like the orange tint came from behind. I tried to replicate this, although the orange really didn't show through very well. Plus it's already red on the outside... so no going back now...


2. The body so far. The dodgy paint work on the rear lights really doesn't show in this shot. The body polishing is coming along nicely though. It's my first time using a metallic base colour, using a clear coat, and using special polishing material sandpaper... a LOT of firsts on this kit!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/captain_mark/NSXBody04.jpg


Although I don't have any reference pics, I found the front headlights didn't fit very well. I thought I test fitted them, but when it came time to actually install them it was a no go. They were actually joined in such a way that they could be popped up for display, but I had to chop the joining piece and carefully sand and file them so they'd simply install in the down position. Oh well.

Also the front fog lights (or whatever they are) seemed to click in nicely without any glue at all! Which is great as I don't have any glue that dries clear handy.

I also dipped the clear lenses in Pledge/Future, and they came out GREAT!!! I recommend that everyone does this, as they come out often looking like actual glass, not clear plastic! I plan on testing this with all the clear parts. Pics will come of course.


3. While I struggle to not throw the body down the yard in frustration, I'm also working away on the engine. Below you can see the beginnings of my scratch-built dipstick. It's one length of copper wire superglued to a bl**dy small piece of plastic (I think I filed my finger more than the plastic!) superglued to another piece of round copper wire, all put into a special glue setting contraption of blu-tack. I've since painted it the appropriate black and yellow, and it's come up nicely.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/captain_mark/NSXEngine004.jpg