Audi R18 LeMans 2014 1:24

[nugundam93]

wow, one surprise after another with this kit

but way to go with always finding a way to fix it up and make it better.

[Niro750]

Great updates mate, enjoying this. Cheers

[Raikkobin]

Another lesson on the finer details of scale modelling. Always exceptional work, thanks for sharing it with us!

[kopek]

It's a pity Studio 27 don't do a kit of this to make life easier for you!!!
Admirable of you not to settle for second best.

[sam01contact]

Inspiring work!!!

[jaykay640]

Well, I told you the next update would take some time. I didn’t expect it to be that long though.
The sad truth is, it didn’t take this long just because I had no time, but because the whole painting and decaling process turned out to be a major league p.i.t.a.

After the last update I carried on, sanding the grey 2K-primer, fixing remaining surface blemishes and details and then after a second layer to check, covered it with a layer of finer white ZERO primer. This was followed by a white basecoat and a protective layer of 2K clear.

So far so good and it was time for the livery. Studio27 supplied the basic graphics in black silver and red and separate decals for numbers, scripts, logos and so on. In some cases that’s overly complicated and adds unnecessary decal layers that have to be evened out with the final clear coat, but in this particular case it helped saving the model.
The decals were very nicely printed...but that’s about where the good news end.
The decal sheets include some of the black areas on the body, but most of them have to be painted. That’s fair enough, because many of the surfaces are too complex to fully cover with decals. To mask the areas that needed painting, I made copies of the decals and cut them out for templates.





While trying to place these templates I started to realize, that the decal fitment would be less than perfect and it would be very hard to get the painted areas to match the following decals. Even more so, when it turned out that the decals needed substantial amounts of softener to conform to the surfaces and changed their shapes somewhat in the process.
It kind of worked on the front fender parts.





But on the main body there was no way really. So I started a risky project and put on all of the silver decals that bordered the black areas. They already had a number of mistakes. Areas were missing compared to the real car or didn’t line up with surface details and so on. The decals were rather brittle. In some places I even had to treat them with the super strong red Tameo softener, to make them conform.
After thoroughly letting them dry, I masked over them with a very “low tack” airbrush masking film and sprayed the black areas. Surprisingly that worked and the decals didn’t peel off with the masking tape in any but one small spot.
I carried on with the red stripes. They had mistakes as well, like being asymmetric where they shouldn’t be or not lining up properly and generally highlighting further mistakes of the body shape. There were extra red surfaces on the decal sheet, so I tried to patch them up in places and get them a bit more right.
The result doesn’t look quite so bad in the next picture.




But on closer inspection you could see the mismatches, missing areas and occasional wrinkles, that stayed despite my efforts with the softeners.

I also covered the respective body and undertray surfaces with CF decals. Studio27 supplies those for various surfaces... but not all of them. They look quite nice in my opinion but unfortunately are unlike any pattern that S27 or other makers sell as full sheets. They really should because I think that pattern looks better than any of their other offerings!
So I left the template bits alone and used SMS decals instead. I put them over a black base coat and after that toned them down with another thin layer of black ( a.k.a. smoke ), because straight off the backing paper they are way too bright imho.





After all the decals were on I covered them with a heavy layer of 2K-clear that I sanded to get a nice even surface for the following paint, because at this point ( after already having spent lots of time on the decals ) I embarked on the endless mission to fix mistakes.
I masked and sprayed over smaller and bigger areas over and over again, so many times that I lost count. I tried to match the decal colours but especially with the silver that was impossible. Of course now I also had various accidents with paint and decals lifting of from the masking, so there was more to fix.
In the end I oversprayed almost every decal to get a uniform look. In hindsight it would have been less work to dump the decals and mask and spray all the graphics. The result would have been more accurate on top of that!

Here are two pieces that for a change worked without any problems.





During the whole paint and decal debacle I also worked on the interior parts. This is the top of the dashboard. I added some putty to the front bit of the driver air supply canals that was missing for reasons only Studio27 knows.





After paint and decals this is finished dashboard ready for installation.





And this is the real one for comparison.





Originally I just wanted to paint the interior parts black and be done with them, because hardly any of this will be seen after the windows are shut, but I got carried away while trying to distract myself from the body decal disaster.
The diagonal pattern CF decals are from Scale Production. They are Cartograf printed and darker than the SMS ones. They are also less sensible to work with than the SMS and have become a new favourite of mine.





The real interior with the prominent drinks bottles:





And the model again...





After finally fixing the body graphics to an acceptable level I added the logos, badges and so on. In true Studio27 style they were full of mistakes as well. A select few were available only for one side of the car, while they should be on both and I have some left over without a place to go as well. In general they tended to be too big. In some cases too big to fit the surfaces on the car they were meant to go on, so I had to make replacements.
This points straight to the fact, that Studio27 never bothered to check their graphics on a prototype body before sending them to the printer. Truly professional...





In the last two pictures the body has received a last heavy layer of 2K-clear that was wet sanded with 1500 grit sand paper, followed by up to 6000grit micromesh and polished with a cotton t-shirt without compounds. The real car was foiled, not painted and not that glossy.





There is one more step missing though. The black areas are slightly matt on the real car. So I will have to mask the bloody thing one more time for a thin layer of semi gloss clear.
Keep your fingers crossed!

[da_ashman]

Increible work as always! Your seriously putting me off ever getting a Studio27 kit!
Terrible that there are so many fit issues!

[nugundam93]

All that work and out came a gorgeous result, and it's not yet totally done. Great stuff!

[dieteufel]

Looks wonderful, Joachim!!!

[sam01contact]

Stunning! Thank you for sharing such wonderful work!

[lovegt40]

really nice.

[Joey21]

Very nice work! It's a shame that there aren't more modern lmp kits around.

Quick question on the 2k clear: How does it react with decals? Are thin, mist coats required?

[jaykay640]

Originally Posted by da_ashman

Increible work as always! Your seriously putting me off ever getting a Studio27 kit! Terrible that there are so many fit issues!

Consider this WIP a public service announcement :-)

Originally Posted by Joey21

Quick question on the 2k clear: How does it react with decals? Are thin, mist coats required?

I build it up over the decals in thin layers but can end up with one very heavy layer in one painting session. So far i have had no issues with the 2K attacking decals and that's what i've heard from other users as well.

Thanks for the comments guys!

[sportracer02]

fantastic job !!!

[koooba]

very impressive work on the livery.
I would have given up for sure