WIP: Tamiya 1/20th Ferrari F189 (Early)

[billypee]

I decided to join the Ferrari build with the the F189 (640) Early version.

This build will be mostly OOB with the exception of CF and perhaps a little wiring. The objective with this build is to achieve a really nice finish on the body-work (as I have had some constructive criticism on recent builds which suggests that this is an area I need to work on). The actual car I am modelling is Nigel Mansell's winner in Rio at the first GP of the 89 season... this means it will be tobacco sponsored. Some progress photos:







All parts have been through 3 coats of white primer (with milliput sessions in-between to really sort out all the imperfections in the mould). Pieces B9 and B12 were bonded together at the start (the piece behind the drivers head). I decided not to complicate matters by separating the cowling. The DZUs were removed from the moulding and will be replaced by PE parts from Scale Motorsport.

After three coats of primer, I applied a single coat of Appliance Gloss White which provides a great hard glossy surface in preparation for the colour. The red is Tamiya's Italian Red (TS-8) as per the instructions, and was applied in 3 coats. It has now been polished with abrasives and compounds and is really, really shiny. Just waiting for some Museum Collection decals to come from Rainbow Ten with my next copy of F1 Modeling as the decals I have are damaged. The areas of the parts that will be glued together have now been scraped and sanded to remove any paint so that they fit properly.

Enjoy,
Bill

[davesans]

Nice start Bill I think you achieved a very nice finish. Looking forward to watching your progress.

[OrangeR]

Very nice start! And you beat me to it! LOL
I'll follow this thread closely.

[billypee]

Originally Posted by davesans

Nice start Bill I think you achieved a very nice finish. Looking forward to watching your progress.

Cheers Dave. Nice to know you are watching

Originally Posted by OrangeR

Very nice start! And you beat me to it! LOL
I'll follow this thread closely.

I noticed you had your name down for the F189... sorry for butting in Are you doing the Early or Late version? As a separate issue, and a word of caution, be very careful with parts B18 and B19 as I have bent and nearly broken the pointy ends whilst polishing.

Okay, on to what I wanted to ask anyone reading this post... what colour should I paint the engine and tranny? The instructions call for an unholy mixture of a number of colours which I just avoid doing like the plague and in any case the newer Tamiya paints (e.g. Metallic Brown, Titanium Gold, Titanium Silver) are a replacement for some of these I am sure.

Specifically, the block calls for 1 part Gun Metal and 1 part Flat Brown... sounds like Metallic Brown to me? The tranny calls from 3 parts Semi-gloss Black, 1 part Gun Metal and 1 part Gold.

Either the Tamiya paint or Alclad equivalents would be helpful.

Thanks in advance,
Bill

[OrangeR]

Bill:
I'll try to make the Hungaroring one (late, late version) LOL Thanks for the warning on those parts! I intend (that's part of the reason for my delay) to blend those parts to B13 and B14 like on the original one.



For the color on engine and tranny I'll try and mix those colors Tamiya recommends and compare to referance, As you can see here on part of my referances photos I uploaded just for you http://public.fotki.com/OrangeR/referencia/f189/ maybe they'll work. Be careful because Tamy instructions calls for all the engine block to be painted one single color, referance shows more but as always this is for the modeler to decide, at the end most of it will never be visible. I don't think any new color on the Tamiya range could match this ones exactly, maybe just X18 with an under texture?

Also thanks for the reminder that time is coming and I haven't started my WIP yet

By the way I have a wonderful pdf file that explains race after race how the 640 changed, diagrams and all. Only thing is that it comes in portuguese. Do you want it? PM me if so.

[Captain Mark]

Nice start Bill, keep up the good work!

[billypee]

Originally Posted by OrangeR

I intend...to blend those parts to B13 and B14 like on the original one.

Good luck with that... I thought about it myself but then decided that I wanted an easy life

Originally Posted by OrangeR

For the color on engine and tranny I'll try and mix those colors Tamiya recommends and compare to referance, As you can see here on part of my referances photos I uploaded just for you http://public.fotki.com/OrangeR/referencia/f189/ maybe they'll work.

Thanks for the photos... I did not have such good engine refs... now that I do, I can see that the engine block is simply X-18 and XF-16. The tranny, I will complete in Gun Metal and wash with brown. No need for you to go to the trouble of mixing the colours... but thanks for the offer.

Originally Posted by OrangeR

By the way I have a wonderful pdf file that explains race after race how the 640 changed, diagrams and all. Only thing is that it comes in portuguese. Do you want it? PM me if so.

That would be great thanks. I know can translate it and it will be useful if I ever get around to the late version at some point in my lifetime

[billypee]

Update time:

I decided to build a soft light box so that I could take better photographs. Essentially you cut three sides out of a cardboard box (LEAVE 1 INCH AT EACH CORNER), cover the holes with greaseproof paper, and slide some coloured card in. Then just point some angle-poise lights at it and hey presto... you have a soft light box. This means that you dont have harsh shadows... just be careful not to burn your house down with the heat from the lamps



The engine is not yet complete but has progressed far enough for me to post some shot that I have taken in the soft light box.











Got quite a lot of work to do on the exhausts still. Going to try and achieve a matt blue look.



I originally thought of painting the trumpets but it would have been impossible to CF accurately around them. So I have drilled them out and deleted them with a rotary drill... still plenty of work to do to get it smooth



Comments welcome.
Bill

[mrawl]

Very cool. Can I talk you into taking some A/B pics with and without the soft box for comparison? (and don't sabotage the without pics!! ;-)

[billypee]

Originally Posted by mrawl

Very cool. Can I talk you into taking some A/B pics with and without the soft box for comparison? (and don't sabotage the without pics!! ;-)

Thanks... here is a comparison:



This image does not have the same DOF as the original because I hand-held it, but for the purpose of discussing the lighting is fine. You can see the blown-out highlights on the injection rail and the much harsher shadows. All this contributes to less detail in the image.

I think that the soft box would benefit from a third lamp light source so I am going to get one today... that way the subject will be bathed in soft, diffuse light.

P.S. If you look at my first post and the images of the bodywork, you will see that it is quite difficult to make out detail in the bodywork... it is just too red. This soft box will (I hope) bring out much more detail.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Shunter]

Look forward to watching your progress on this one.

[davesans]

Looking good Bill coming along nicely. Also cool idea on the photo box one question how big is it?

[billypee]

Originally Posted by davesans

Looking good Bill coming along nicely. Also cool idea on the photo box one question how big is it?

Its about 14x14x14 inches. I just used a box I had lying around... this size is going to do for me to take full size 1/20th scale F1 cars. Most of the time a smaller box would be fine as if you look in the picture, you can see the Ferrari F189 engine is dwarfed by the box.

Let me know how you get on if you decide to build your own.

Bill

[OrangeR]

Great work billypee!
I really liked the metalic bits you get with the color on the gearbox, and you added detail to the oil reservoir, nice.

Are you weathering with anything special? It looks nice, I know the molding on those exhausts is really a pain, you are doing a great work, really looking forward to the end result.

It's official you are way ahead of me, I'll start my thread in a day or too also. Wish me luck!

[billypee]

Originally Posted by OrangeR

Great work billypee!
I really liked the metalic bits you get with the color on the gearbox, and you added detail to the oil reservoir, nice.

Are you weathering with anything special? It looks nice, I know the molding on those exhausts is really a pain, you are doing a great work, really looking forward to the end result.

It's official you are way ahead of me, I'll start my thread in a day or too also. Wish me luck!

Thanks OrangeR,

I am using Citadel Minatures Inks (Black and Brown) for the washes. They are thinned down with Tamiya X-20A Thinner in about a 10 to 1 ratio... very diluted.

For dry brushing I am using the Tamiya Weathering Master products... version C is the one I have used most here which features Orange Rust, Gun Metal and Silver.

I have removed a lot of material from between the exhaust pipes but as you correctly point out, the moulds for the exhausts are not stellar and so this is taking time to correct. My MediaMix order arrived today so I am fitting some AcuStion trumpets at the moment... they are a little too big so I am grinding about 0.1mm from 2 sides so that they will line up correctly... should look great but will be time consuming. I am going to spray the trumpet tray in Alclad White Aluminium on the outside and use SMS CF decals on the interior... wish me luck

Bill