JGTC Lexus SC430 full-carbon test version

Recent graduation and moving have nearly thrown me into a modeling hiatus. To get back on feet, I decided to finish this Tamiya Zent Cerumo SC430. I messed up the original decal at the clearcoat stage, and had to shop for an aftermarket decal. Inspired by the full-carbon version attempted by gionic (did he ever finish?), I picked this test car decal by Shunko. The quality of decal is top notch; however, you can save yourself a few bucks by cutting/rearranging the Tamiya kit decal to achieve almost the same scheme. Unless, a perfect replica is what you have in mind (mine still is not).

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Underneath the decal is a full-carbon finish by woman tights, the same method I used for the 575. Here is a brief tutorial, which I promised and was long overdue.

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1. Prepare and prime the surface as usual. Lay down a coat of black (in this case, semi-gloss black).
2. Stretch and wrap tights over the surface to achieve the desired pattern. Do not over stretch. I prefer to work panel by panel (hood, roof, doors, trunk, etc)by masking off other areas.
3. Spray a very light coat of custom silver/gold mix. Absolutely avoid wet coat. Tights will soak up the paint, smearing the pattern. Adjust the ratio of silver to gold to achieve different looks (left vs. right).
4. Finish off with a light coat of smoke (top) or semi-gloss clear (bottom). I prefer a bronze looking carbon finish.

This technique is faster and cheaper than carbon decals. And a lot of funt too. But it is far from perfect, especially over complex and bowl-shaped surface.

Here are the final pictures. Couldn't resist to take some vertical shoots which may be annoying to look on monitor. I still hope you liked them.

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My cheapo photobooth:biggrin:

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Great post!

A nice model and a good tutorial, can't beat that! Thanks for sharing.

Nice model, and a very effective paint technique. Well done indeed.

I think that technique may be better than the decals in some instances. More than many people may think.
The decals seem to be a little too defined and over scale at times which I think makes them distracting.
With the proper adjustments to the pattern, I think this technique is very good!
Nice job here and great innovation!
Andy

Excellent job on the build and i do like the CF look. When you say you work panel by panel will you spray say the left side as a whole or just a door, wait for it to dry then move on? Looks like my wife may loose a stocking.....hahaha

This carbonlook looks great, may try it myself sometimes

Thanks heaps for the Tuturial, Im just about to try that technique out on an Enzo so its good to find out what colours you use

Apologize for the previous blurry pictures. Lost quite a bit of resolution after resized. Fixed the problem now.

Thanks for all the nice comments. To be fair, I did not invent the method. Pretty sure that I've seen this somewhere on this forum.

@Andy: I couldn't agree with you more. My other complain about carbon decal is the extra layer of thickness that sometimes masks the fine details. Also, with mesh/tights, one has easier control over pattern size and and direction.

@Shunter: Sorry I meant door, hood, roof and trunk panels. Most of the carbon fiber panels do not have unidirectional braid, unless in a Pagani Huayra. By re-wrapping and rotating the tights from panel to panel, the resulting pattern is more realistic, in my opinion.

@da_ashman: For this model, I used only Tamiya acrylic paints (except primer). I mixed flat aluminum with gold at about 1:1 ration, plus a bit of black. Sorry, I can't remember the exact ratio. For top coat, I use smoke.

That looks as sexy as stockings!

absolutely excelent model...Very clean and easy method.
Thanks a lot..

one of these days i have got to try that mesh method. nice work, btw! :)

Since my modeling expense cap has been reduced by the boss ,I have to find options for my cf work and this looks awesome. I will definitely try it. Thanks for sharing

You've made one of my least favorite cars look absolutely stunning. No easy feat.

Thank you for sharing this excellent technique!

Thank you for sharing this excellent technique!

:iagree:

@Shunter: Sorry I meant door, hood, roof and trunk panels. Most of the carbon fiber panels do not have unidirectional braid, unless in a Pagani Huayra. By re-wrapping and rotating the tights from panel to panel, the resulting pattern is more realistic, in my opinion.

Thank you for the reply, i am very tempted to have a crack at this during the holidays. Are you able to re-use the stocking?

I've used this technique few years back for first time but your final effect looks great, well done!!

Awesome job. Way cheaper and more realistic than expensive decals in my opinion.

Crazy carbon job but very innovative! Keep up the good work!