Alpine A110

[Scale-Master]

I started this Tamiya kit about 5 years ago. I'd take it with me on vacations and trips when I thought I'd have some down time and wanted to do some model work. Figured I could clean it up and ready it for paint. Never worked on it for more than an hour at a time so not much really got done on it, just racked up a ton of miles on it...

Recently we had to have our home fumigated, so I took it with me and worked on it in the old trailer I lived in for a few days. Limited to "clean" work, I prepped every part in the kit. I did bring a can of Tamiya primer and was able to prime the body parts for painting later. The body is visible on the desk lamp base.


Here's almost all the parts removed from the sprue and cleaned up. This kit lends itself to cutting all the parts loose as they are easily identifiable even without the part numbers. The chassis pan, wheels and engine have been painted their base colors here.


Here are body parts painted TS-22 Green. Best rattle can job I've done to date, (I'm more of an airbrusher), even though arguably it is a somewhat homely color....


A couple days later I noticed a little defect in the top of the front fender. It is barely visible it the above pictures, but stood out to me in person. Just a tiny nit or bubble, not sure exactly, but no worries... Went after it with polishing cloths and removed it, but it was too deep and affected the color density/uniformity.

Had to paint some touch up. I thought by heating the can (TS-22) in warm water would allow me to lay on a thinner coat of paint. Well... I don't know if it made it any thinner, it may have, but it really made the propellant active, and a bit angry too. Tons of those little pin hole bubbles and a bunch of instant runs, and that particular paint apparently dries very fast.

I decided to strip it, no other way to salvage it. What a Bummer! But the 100% denatured alcohol only made it worse, just a gooey mess. Normally it works as a great quick and clean stripper for Tamiya lacquers. Even left it to soak for over an hour, way longer than any other stripping exercise I've performed in the past.

Then I grabbed a box of baking soda, and plugged my little Badger media blaster (looks like a single action airbrush) into the outside compressor and went to town. I spent the same amount of time (or maybe even less) using it as I had spent trying to chemically remove the paint (not counting soaking time) and ended up with a fully stripped yet detail salvaged body. And my personal ph level had been adjusted too... I did look a bit like Neil Young in a scene from Rust Never Sleeps though...
Ready to prime, again...

Had another good experience shooting from (the room temperature) can, actually second can, of TS-22.

I have been attempting to paint as much as possible before assembling the parts. Again, this approach may not work well for some kits, but this one appears to fit well too...
The wheels were sprayed TS Gunmetal and details/trim were brush painted silver and acrylic transparent yellow.

[Ferrari TR]

I don't think I've even considered media blasting a plastic car body.
looks good.

[gionc]

Originally Posted by Scale-Master

And my personal ph level had been adjusted too...

I'm happy for you ROFL, too fun reading (for us, a bit less for you I guess)

What a shame: I'm a bit traditionalist with classics but those '70 green suit well the Alpine's muscles.

I wanted to ask you something about the Badger sandblaster: after trying a professional sandblaster machine on my Hiro 166's engine on the workshop of my friend and master Roberto Quaranta to I bought a "bazooka" (LOL) sandblaster gun, one of those that you'll find in the hardstore, after seeing also Mr. Wingrove playing with one of those. No way: simply huge for my stuff, it'll eat my white metal stuff in seconds LOL. How about the little badger? My goal is achieve an interesting, uniform and "used" surface on the white metal after manual cleaning: can it do that? And more, may you use alu oxide powders (approx 50micr.) and polishing pearls on it?

Sorry Mark for the long post, dunno want to do "pollutions" on your stuff, but the circumstance is just greedy . Thanks a lot in advance.

gio

[Scale-Master]

I have used the aluminum oxide powder with it, and even have a few bottles still. But it was a bit pricey as it came from Badger, and reclamation was another facet of extra work that had to be contended with, at least containment of it. It is more aggressive too. I've been using baking soda as a replacement since about 1990. Not a health or environmental hazard and it is relatively cheap, especially if you use the old stuff from the fridge and such. (Almost free at that point.) So not dealing with the hassle of containment makes it easier to set up and clean up. I just do it in my driveway.
You can also use fine silica sand if the baking soda is not aggressive enough and it too is relatively benign and low priced.
Air pressure also plays a large roll in surface texture. A lot of it is experimentation. And I don't recall the cost of the Badger unit, (bought it about 20 years ago), but it's construction is simple and while I wouldn't say it's low quality, it is very light duty so care must be exercised. And it can be a bit finicky...


As for the green on the car, all who know me are aware of my affinity for blues, especially nice rich blues. But I wanted something early '70's fun looking. The majority of these cars are that nice Alpline Blue, and I already have one built in that color. I wanted this one to have a different personality... - Mark

[gionc]

Thanks a lot Mark.

Baking soda (if is the stuff I mean, that is NaHCO3, sodium bicarbonate, the powder used aged ago for belly's pain or to wash fruit and stuff) was also adviced me from a friend doctor: some dentist use a similar airbrush with baking soda to turn white tooth. Alu oxide cost approx 10-15 eur/Kg. here (ITA), but isn't an industrial supplier, ever stuff for dental labs, so I guess a bit overpriced, but industrial supplier sell just 50Kg. once.

Haven't though at the trouble of alu reclamation, my idea is, like you, work in the garage/private path.

It seems a bit hard to find this Badger sandblaster: I seen something on ebay and sometime on Spraykings, my AB supplier, cost approx 70 bucks, that seems a good deal compared with 2-3000 usd f a pro sandblaster

[Dan66460]

On the "sandblast" subject, Gio why couldn't you use a old or cheap air brush? A sandblast gun is a siphon fed unit. Try an old air brush instead of paint use your media. An older style airbrush without a needle would be best. I'll give it a try in the morning if I can find some "media"...

[Scale-Master]

Now I have pretty much everything painted. It should build into the main sub-assemblies pretty quickly...
Might be a good candidate to "just add glue and shake"?

[gionc]

Originally Posted by Dan66460

On the "sandblast" subject, Gio why couldn't you use a old or cheap air brush? A sandblast gun is a siphon fed unit. Try an old air brush instead of paint use your media. An older style airbrush without a needle would be best. I'll give it a try in the morning if I can find some "media"...

That's interesting: please share with us the experiments with a thread in the common area: I guess most would be interested.

Mark, sorry if we colonised your stuff, but the topic is interesting and not so debated on here.

Looks like you "glue and shake" well, uh?

[Scale-Master]

Don't worry about me feeling hijacked. If you guys are learning and playing nice then it's appropriate to be in this thread. After all, it saved this build.

[Dan66460]

Great recovery on the paint, body looks great. Very nice detail paint work on the pieces! I like the green paint, reminds me of the early 70's muscle cars.
Dan

[Scale-Master]

The engine went together in a matter of minutes, but that was with hours of prep and painting done well in advance...
As for the finish on the header, it's to replicate Aluma-Cote. It was popular before we went to the ceramic Jet-Hot type coatings...

[Scale-Master]

The interior and chassis are almost done, wanted to take a few pictures of the bottom before mounting the skid plates that cover up most of the details. Even much of the engine is obscured by the package shelf/engine cover that goes under the rear window.

[gionc]

Quite nice. I like the difference between engine's metallic shades and the rough textured engine bay: the little alpine motor bump up at eyes.

[klutz_100]

Great painting skills!

This thread almost makes me want to scuttle my lans and take my 1A110 out of the pile and start it

[auw12]

Fantastic works! Highly respect!!! What you're showing is absolutely the OOB at its best!