Tamiya Toyota TS050

This WIP might get a bit more interest than my last one... :D

I received the TS050 on Monday night and am very impressed with the kit overall. As complicated as this kit is, its clear from how its designed they intend for novices to build it. In other words, perfect for me! The instruction sheet has a switch for the previous kits I've build by indicating TS spray paints for most parts versus the typical acrylic as well. It looks like they intend to allow people to use simply white, black and semi-gloss spray paints to build the car. The red is simply decals, minus a small part that requires TS-49 if you intend to build #8

I intend to build this kit exactly per the instructions and see what we end up with. I know that I'll be building it again in the future, so can hold off on opening the doors and other fun things until a later date. The kit is really only 3 sprues plus the body and glass. The chromed lid for the interior is a reasonably well done part that I'll be using, but I'm sure those who aren't in such a rush will get a better result by doing it themselves.

https://i.imgur.com/EV4rkzF.jpg

The box!

https://i.imgur.com/Zf2aqza.jpg

Lots of masking templates

https://i.imgur.com/gQHzyYY.jpg

And lots of body decals. I'm super excited to finally be building a kit again with new decals! For this I'll be using the kit decals for most parts, but may paint some red parts using TS-49 decanted as I don't trust that the decals will cover everything completely.

https://i.imgur.com/WlCEGC3.jpg

More decals.

https://i.imgur.com/Lo5KB9a.jpg

Initial semi-gloss black with X-18 is laid down after I had primered earlier in the day. I'm using my spray gun for this and while the large parts look amazing, it doesn't cover the smaller bits very well. I'll be covering up again tonight with some extra X-18.

https://i.imgur.com/jhUti8P.jpg

More parts covered in X-18.

https://i.imgur.com/hcwgw2i.jpg

And the body is primered too. Plan is to paint it Zero Pure White and then do the masking for Tamiya acrylic black and semigloss afterwards.

There is one other sprue which includes most of the body panels which need to be white. Once the main parts are painted I'll take the parts off the sprues and do any coverup that needs to happen.

Very cool. Will be following this build closely!

Lots of parts. Should be a cool build.

My slow progress continues. Someone in a facebook group I'm in got the car Wednesday and already has the tires and wheels finished! I've realized I need to spray different colors in one session than what I'm doing right now to make sure I'm progressing faster.

https://i.imgur.com/zdNeO3I.jpg

Initial semi-gloss black coat finished. I was using the spray gun for this and had the similar problem I had earlier where I don't get full coverage because the spray pattern is so wide. I need to start using the spray gun and my airbrush during these sessions.

https://i.imgur.com/iINJwd5.jpg

More in progress, the semi-gloss paint came out VERY glossy. I'm happy I'm able to get this finish but I also think its a little unrealistic. Next time I'll mix some flat black in probably 1:4 flat to semi to tone it down.

https://i.imgur.com/46R32nz.jpg

Last night I did some clean up work and am pretty happy with it. I cleaned up some of the parts where the sprue connects to the parts and also used an airbrush to concentrate the paint more. Next step on these parts is to mask where the metallic paint goes and then start building!

https://i.imgur.com/na9zDN7.jpg

Matte white is one of the most disappointing colors to paint. It looks just like primer, which looks almost just like bare plastic! Next step on this side is to mask for where the gloss black is on the car. With how glossy the semi-gloss black is, part of me just wants to paint the interior parts and semi-gloss black with the Alcad II gloss black and simply not do a wet coat for the semi-gloss sections.

https://i.imgur.com/VX610lp.jpg

More white parts. Before decaling I'm going to hand brush any edges which will likely be seen where the red decal goes. Main portion will be the shark fin, around the numbers and the flip ups. I don't trust decals to cover these parts and it will be tough to fix after the decal is laid down.

https://i.imgur.com/Z97PEIn.jpg

The molding on this kit is crazy good.

As I said above my next steps are masking the body parts for the gloss black sections. For the first time I'm confident with this as my work on the Williams had much more complicated sections and I didn't have any real issues on the actual separation lines. The only part that should be nerve racking is the front nose. This has a section which needs to be masked which is white and a red decal which needs to cover up too, so there isn't a lot of lee way. I'll also be doing the masking for the metallic portions on the suspension and wheels too.

Looking good Stubeck .

Just a heads up...… if it's available in your area, the new Tamiya Lacquer paint in the bottle, LP50 is the same as Tamiya TS49 spray.

saves the messing around decanting.

Regards,
Dan

I don't think its available here in the US yet. My local model shops are so far away as well that its tough to justify checking. The last two times I went there they barely had any supplies, although they've also posted in the last week that they got both the Ford GT Le Mans and this kit as well so I might need to give it a go again.

For what it's worth, I find that the Zero semi-gloss black provides a much more consistent satin finish than any of the Tamiya paints. Of course, it must be airbrushed, and I've had to thin it a bit with the Zero reducer, but it's nice stuff.

For what it's worth, I find that the Zero semi-gloss black provides a much more consistent satin finish than any of the Tamiya paints. Of course, it must be airbrushed, and I've had to thin it a bit with the Zero reducer, but it's nice stuff.

I'll take a look at it, I airbrush pretty much everything anyway so its not a big deal for me, and I always like having pre-thinned paints too!

https://i.imgur.com/v6DotqQ.jpg

This is the template included with the kit for masking. I thought that like the masks included with rally kits it'd be perforated...and it is not. This made me rethink using some of the templates for the easier bits. I'm not great at placing these masking templates anyway, and for some of the pieces it was just easier to go it on my own. The kit has lines on the body like the Williams kit did to show where you should place the masking line. This is a lot less prominent than on the Williams kit so is harder to find, but also much less likely to be seen like on the Williams kit.

https://i.imgur.com/1DS5CHV.jpg

This is an example of a piece that has a template included that I didn't use. There are also a lot of parts where there is a template for one side but not the other. Lots of parts with masking tape below..

https://i.imgur.com/DBIjmsm.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/1DS5CHV.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/pNV76F1.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/zoTk9l5.jpg

There were several other parts I masked but I think everyone gets the point. It took me about two hours to get all of this done.

https://i.imgur.com/KXSaU0P.jpg

First part looks good!

https://i.imgur.com/V6FcF2u.jpg

And the second has some problems. I had this on the Williams kit and was getting a little nervous this would be happening a lot...

https://i.imgur.com/aakVEVo.jpg

But its all good now. A little bit of thinner on a q-tip got the paint taken care of and didn't remove anything below the black.

https://i.imgur.com/S1CRo0s.jpg

This is an example of one where I did use the template, but also had to mask on my own. It came out perfectly

https://i.imgur.com/pIkaHBn.jpg

Another part I masked myself as the included template didn't make any sense.

https://i.imgur.com/3f75vjS.jpg

Had a bit of issues with paint getting under the masking template on the body panel parts. I was planning to put something int he lines anyway after all is said and done, so I'm OK with how it turned out.

https://i.imgur.com/f4GgEYe.jpg

I figured I'd take a pic after the painting and before I removed the mask.

https://i.imgur.com/I52K3S9.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/IrstktI.jpg

After the masking is removed! I am really happy with how it all turned out. I didn't take a picture of it, but I had a problem with removing one of the masking tapes pulling a piece off, so by this point I was a lot more careful. Again have a little overage on the panel line that I'll need to improve on.

Next step is putting together some of the already painted parts together on the chassis. I also plan to mask the interior of the other body panels and get the semi-gloss black on. I'll be putting more paint into the mixture to try to tone down the shinyness.

I have Indycals decals on order for the correct number plates as well as WEC decals that I'll be using after the clear coat. I'm hoping I get them before this weekend as I plan to start the actual build shortly.

I've slowed down updating a bit as more information is coming out about the kit. I think when I build the kit again I'll paint the red as well. Its not super complicated and the red decals which are included typically cover multiple parts so laying down the decals will be tough. I placed as many as I felt comfortable with today but there are still quite a few that will be placed after I do the clear coating.

The other thing that came out is that the finish is actually satin on the real car. I likely won't be replicating that on this kit, but I also plan to do some testing tomorrow on plastic spoons to see if the Alcad semi-matte paint I have looks any good. I used to feel that it wasn't accurate to do a clear coat over car decals, but the last few years everything is a wrap and in line with the real car, the decals aren't on top of the finish. Saying that, there are a few decals I will be placing after the clearcoat because they're either regulatory or something else that would have been placed after the car was built.

https://i.imgur.com/lL3qU1i.jpg

I started decaling today, and got a fair amount of the way through. Of course this wasn't without drama. At some point I got black paint on my finger and was leaving fingerprints around, because of course I was. I used a q tip dipped in thinner to remove some of...and it worked not as great as it had in the past. Anyway, I didn't properly dispose of it and this happened. Just a total idiot move on my part.

https://i.imgur.com/bwBfVnv.jpg

I was able to cover it up pretty well with some of the extra decals though. The carbon on the engine cover is 4 decals, with 2 smaller parts to cover up near the center line. This will be very hard to see once the cars built, so I cut one of the pieces to get the coverup.

https://i.imgur.com/ht4wvzT.jpg

The headrest is a pretty neat part. Lots of small details like the metal part and other decals. I've been watching the 2018 24 hours of Le Mans on youtube at work and this is a pretty prominent feature, so its good to see this here.

https://i.imgur.com/DS61QqE.jpg

I'll be doing a bit of white touchup here but the progress is looking pretty good.

https://i.imgur.com/dVjQsQM.jpg

iPhone "fancy pictures" strikes again. The nose is one of the most complicated parts of this build. The kit has you painting it white, then gloss black then semi-gloss black, but then I'd have to mask again to cover the semi-gloss paint when I do the clear coat. A smart person would have painted both the semi-gloss and the gloss black with gloss black paint, then used a semi-matte finish where appropriate, but we're past that point. The other problem is the red decals. These are made to go over multiple body parts, so I have to wait to put the decals down after the car is built. I don't trust myself to put them on now and have them line up later. I'm hoping this doesn't look too bad, with some red being under a clear coat and some not, but I likely should have waited to do all the red decals until after the car was clear coated but we're past the point.

https://i.imgur.com/avAw5MW.jpg

Need to brush paint the flat black but otherwise I'm doing well. They give you a decal for this part but I don't know how it would manage over all the parts. Maybe next time I'll try it out, but I'm happy with this. I use a toothpick to paint the individual colors and it works super well.

https://i.imgur.com/yeSrJvC.jpg

The numberplate doesn't 100% lineup but this is what I have. Next time I'll paint the red and use CF decals for the other black portions.

https://i.imgur.com/6GFL9JE.jpg

Whats interesting about the doors that I never noticed from the real car is that the left and right sides have tremendously different window sizes. If you look at the engine cover as well you see how it is not the same on the left or right either. Once I get the clear coat down there is a bunch to paint semi gloss black.

https://i.imgur.com/slhOrSv.jpg

Rear wing came out so much better than I thought it would! I used a chrome pen to paint the metal parts and the kit decals for the CF. I need to look at some reference pics to see what type of clear coat I should use on this.

https://i.imgur.com/yILSWzh.jpg

The wheels came out really well the second time around. I used Alcad II gunmetal over white primer and it was way too dark. This is Alcad II magnesium and its a lot closer. I'm sure someone will find a closer color.

https://i.imgur.com/gsUhIsQ.jpg

This is still the most happy part I have of the entire build! The Michelin man laid down well and there is a sensor that went OK as well. The random sponsor decals on top was not something I wanted to throw down this early, but I accidentally got the decal in water early on. This forced me to first figure out which part the decal went to, and also to line everything up. I should be pretty close once things are built.

https://i.imgur.com/qk0eahj.jpg

I'm using Splash 2k Clear's old formula for the clear coat. This time I did put 1 part Mr Color Leveling Thinner to 4 parts hardner to make it level out a bit more.

https://i.imgur.com/FzcMsOw.jpg

Really happy with the results of the clear, even though its completely inaccurate for the real car!

https://i.imgur.com/q2WB1pw.jpg

Still have to get better at masking as can be seen here, but overall its good enough for me.

https://i.imgur.com/qMhm7ml.jpg

Final picture for now showing my favorite part of the car.

Plan is to paint the semi-gloss black either tonight or tomorrow morning and start building it Sunday afternoon.

https://i.imgur.com/PI0YYrE.jpg

Welp, a minor whoopsie was bound to happen at some point. I used 3M blue tape on the body to try to prevent any overspray and it took a few decals out with it. Luckily, this is all a removable part of the body, so I'm going to try to get some replacement decals on order today. Worst case I'll just buy another model and steal those decals since I know there is an aftermarket sheet coming out in about a month. The rest of the parts have the interior painted almost entirely, although a few spots will need an additional coat tonight to cover where I used the putty to hold onto the part.

https://i.imgur.com/gjtJMJz.jpg

Not a great image but I'm slowly making progress! The next time should have a lot more parts on. Yesterday was dominated by trying to fix my refrigerator all of the night so I didn't get very far with the car. I did use some of the masks for the glass on this part, but frankly the outline is so tiny that it almost seems like a waste of time for much of it. For those wondering, you can connect the left and right side of the cars prior to painting if you want and still get access to everything you need later on in the build process, but it doesn't get you very far. The only real improvement would be in the black lines on the front suspension cover. The left side is good but the right side is a bit off. When I build my second one I'll figure out whether this is something I'm interested in doing or not.

https://i.imgur.com/zgJDs8z.jpg

There were a lot of hours of work in between the last pic and this one. While I understand the reasoning for some of the ways the model was supposed to be put together, next time I'm definitely putting more of the car together before I start painting as it caused a lot of problems. In fact, while trying to get the top front suspension arms on the entire car exploded! Luckily all the parts broke on the correct seams so nothing bad happened. I obviously have some parts to do some touchup painting as well.

The front suspension is way more fidly than this picture shows, and unfortunately the top body work depends on this being exactly right to fit properly. I think what I will do next time is place the top suspension parts in before I paint, as well as place the side pod bodywork on the car as well. These up close pictures make it look way worse than it is, but its still not as flush as I would like. I'm now at the point where the gearbox can be mounted as well as placement of the roof.

I also got much of the extra bodywork on the floor put in as well. This weekend I'll make sure to outline exactly what parts I feel should be placed before painting to help others out!

I'm still working out how best to do these WIP, if anyone has any requests or things they wished I covered let me know!

https://i.imgur.com/5283eOY.jpg

Have made a lot of progress in between as well as recovered from several self created disasters. The front and rear covers are simply placed on which is why they don't look great. I need to figure out the issues with the rear bodywork obviously!

I got bit by placing paint on bodywork where there wasn't a ton of tolerance for it, especially on the chassis. While the instructions tell you to place these parts after painting, I'm assuming they want you to install them first and then paint. When I do this car again with the 2019 scheme, I'll be placing a lot more parts on the chassis to avoid this issue.

I also ran into further issues with the right side window coming out. The biggest problem here is that after putting the chassis together its almost impossible to get to this, so if it fully fell out I'm kind of screwed. Luckily I was able to find a small slit to place a paint mixer in to secure it, and used what I thought was clear paint to secure the window. It was not. It was flat base...so I had to polish that out as best I could whilst not pressing anything too hard! It looks decent but will require some clean up.

https://i.imgur.com/Ro44mEn.jpg

The big issue I ran into here was the flipups on the side not being flush which put the bodywork off. I eventually had to remove the flipups, make them flush then get them back in...so yes, this is actually after I improved it! The good news here is that the gap will be covered by decals, so I plan to fill it in with something and then put a decal over it all. Next time I'll simply put the bodywork on at the start, as the white/black dividing line can't be seen once you put it together.

You can see here the replacement mirror holder I created as well. It's not perfect but it will work for what I need it for.

https://i.imgur.com/rbCrbwg.jpg

I started using some paint pens instead of actually painting and its working pretty well. I also painted the gold on the front wheel hubs this way. While it isn't perfect it does look pretty nice.

https://i.imgur.com/rGXzKll.jpg

Front and rear end as well as the airbox are simply put in place, but the engine cover is fitting a lot better now. I've also placed the mirrors on the car, which are a bit of a mess because of the fragility of the mirror mounts (the one on the right side is just plastic sprue) and how they dried in place. I also had to reglue on the left side number plate as that decided to become dislodged whilst putting the mirror on too.

The decal on the chrome piece actually came out pretty well despite there being a ton of film on the decal too, as its just one decal. Placing the engine fin was pretty easy, although you can see the one area I messed up a bit and need to touch up on the black

https://i.imgur.com/auukqUb.jpg

This was where I spent most of the night, with getting the lights all fixed up, the decals on the front end and the flip ups. The flip ups are way too thick and the decals don't look great on them, so next time it will definitely be thinned and painted after being on the body. I'll be making sure to polish up the transfers before putting the headlights on later this week.

Next step will be finishing up the front lights, getting the light cover on and filling in the plastic around the front end with the gaps.

https://i.imgur.com/tGM15lZ.jpg

Ignore the dog hair in this pic or the next one. The front headlights are pretty complicated obviously, and this shows it with the metal transfers in place.

https://i.imgur.com/SavFnms.jpg

The kit is pretty complicated and this was part of a screw up I made early on. The kit asks you to paint the outside of the headlight part in semigloss black and leave the center clear. What I didn't realize with everything else was that the metal transfer was supposed to be seen through the headlight. I tried to polish out the paint but never got it 100% clear again. I'm sure it will look better if you follow the actual directions.

https://i.imgur.com/44fJyFJ.jpg

I had this problem with the car and was trying to think of a way to fix it. The fix was pretty obvious.

https://i.imgur.com/BiolZKM.jpg

Use putty! Yes, it doesn't look great here (this is before I cleaned it up a bit) but it will be covered by a red decal shortly.

https://i.imgur.com/1tqFOFN.jpg

Another test fit of the front end. I put the headlights on with simple clear paint so am giving it a ton of time to fully dry. As can be seen I still have a bit to fix with the left side headlight. The front nose is all together though which looks pretty nice. It was my first time getting CF decals to lay down perfectly.

https://i.imgur.com/HOtd4Vy.jpg

And a much better view of the rest of the car. I fixed the rear engine cover by removing some extra plastic on the chassis. The airbox is on now as well as the exhaust and body reinforcements near the number board. Super annoyingly, I had to do some touchup painting with semigloss black on the interior of the engine cover where I didn't cover very well...right where the decals got stuck to the tape. So that was just some salt in that wound.

I'll be wrapping up the wheels next and mounting them to the car before gluing the front and rear end on the car as well as the rear wing. Then its the final step of decals and I'll be done. This will likely be the last update as my micro steps don't seem to be too interesting to most.

Wow, this looks like a super-complicated kit. I am still keen to build one, but I will certainly do a lot of planning and test fitting. And read your wip over-and-over again!

https://i.imgur.com/SNxX4S1.jpg

I'll start with a pic of the workbench while putting the tire decals on. Once I finish this kit I'll be going on vacation shortly so plan to concentrate on working on my bench to clean it up and make it more useful.

https://i.imgur.com/Dvt8and.jpg
The wheels are two parts and goes together easily. The mold line on the tires is extremely faint, but just like the Williams kit I made a mess of sanding the tires down. I need to figure out a new process for this. The wheels originally were Alcad Gunmetal but this proved too dark so I used steel which came out a lot better color. Next time I'll get a better gloss coat on the wheel nuts to get a better chrome coat on. The tire decals went on pretty well but I still rush them so they're not as perfect as I'd prefer. After letting them dry for a day I use elmers glue as a matte clear coat.

https://i.imgur.com/MJsIw5g.jpg

Going back a few weeks for the headlights I used my own masking so its not 100% perfect, but it would have been so much worse with the kit included mask which was 3 parts! Two masks are for the sides and one for the center. Its hard to see through pictures but they're incredibly complex designs so its not as simple as just getting a piece of blue tape and laying it down. I'll hopefully learn and do a better job next time. I used clear paint to secure the headlights.

https://i.imgur.com/w8CK5QU.jpg

And now its together! While tinkering with the body I realized that the right side number plate part is too far forward. Unfortunately its too secured to move it. I made sure to place this wheel first, and it touches the tire but is otherwise OK.

The top body work clips into holes in the number placards which I thinned slightly. I initially had issues with the two notches from the chassis which go into the nose bodywork keeping the nose from securing properly, so I separated it out, thinned out where the connection is made and got the bodywork down as well as it would go (there is a big gas that is my own fault. After I felt confident the nose parts were secure I placed the splitter on. This went together a lot better than I was expecting. There was a bit I needed to touch up on the side of the nose.

https://i.imgur.com/ZPr7RUI.jpg

I also got the fuel filler, engine cover and antenna on. You can see where the mirror mount part isn't mounted properly on the right side. The engine cover came together really well though. There is a bit that isn't perfectly painted but with all of these body parts that was never going to happen.

When I build the kit again I'm considering putting almost all the bodywork together prior to painting. There are some pieces that would need to be kept separate but overall more can be put together than the instructions call for. A lot of those which are kept apart to paint the interior pits are impossible to see for example, such as the number placard interior or even 90% of the nose/engine pay.

Next steps are to put the red decals on, as well as the Indycals WEC and Le Mans decals, the rear wing and then a few antenna parts.

https://i.imgur.com/9SQhTQe.jpg

I'll start with an in progress shot as I took away one of the decals while polishing! There weren't really any dramas with the decals, although the red decal that goes on the fenders was not very easy to put on. I think there is a slight gap on the right side fender but its very hard to see. I did use the Indycals decals for the number plate 24 Le Mans/Total and the WEC decal. They are a bit oversized but overall look good. Their decal sheet does include number plates with the Le Mans/Total integrated, but I felt the quality of the Tamiya decal was better so used the fill in.

https://i.imgur.com/5Ilkhq7.jpg

And its complete! The rear wing was a lot harder than I was expecting to complete. Its become apparent during this build that I used too much paint basically everywhere, which is why stuff doesn't fit like it should. This extended to the rear wing endplates, which never really fit properly. I took this apart about 4 times and ended up somewhere where I wanted to. What is nice is that even with the screwups, the rear wing endplates hold it in really well, so I didn't even technically need glue for this. I used white glue for the fin part and super glue to keep the endplates in.

You can see some of the other areas I struggled in on this side too. The number plate is askew a little, and somehow I glued the mirror support/P1 part about a quarter inch off of where it should be. This made some of the issues there look worse than they probably should have. I'm happy with my replacement mirror support though. I still need to get better about making the small changes necessary to straighten out decals as I can see some of them are just slightly askew, and with the magnification these photos give they look a lot worse than they do in real life.

https://i.imgur.com/cTz6DZ6.jpg

As I said the decals laid down pretty well. I still had a few areas where I got wrinkles, and the area around the huge gap looks a little terrible, but I figure its better than having the gap all the way across. While the Toyota decal on the chrome came out just fine, the finger print underneath it is now there for the ages. While polishing the black decal came off on the air inlet, and I'm just going to let it be.

https://i.imgur.com/GVc9K5T.jpg

You can see here where I struggled with sanding the tires. I think I actually made it worse as the original line is very slight on the tire, and nothing I was doing was making it any better, so I just moved on. I'll play with some NASCAR tires before my next build to get better at this process. Lots of gaps as can be seen, but even with missing a few decals it looks good.

https://i.imgur.com/o4mel3N.jpg

Rear end view shows some more struggles but overall the shape is good. I'm particularly happy with the chrome on the rear wing that can be seen. Its a miracle that I got the red decal to go over the ridge and cover the white on the fin.

https://i.imgur.com/DG8XHId.jpg

And the rear view. I know the lighting is terrible!


I'm going to take better pictures with a DSLR before I post in the completed car forum.

I obviously learned a lot on this build! Here's a quick list:

1. Don't follow the instructions to a T! Putting together several of the body parts before painting would have helped tremendously on the gaps you see in the final build, helped with completing the build quicker, resolved several problems I had with paint lines not matching, and also helped with some of the fragility of the final build.

2. Paint interior colors first...and also make sure they need to be painted. There is no reason I needed to paint the interior of the number plates, the airbox or much of the rest of the interior because its never going to be seen. All that really needs to be painted is the interior of the car (and even that is only the front half), the wheel wells and part of the engine cover.

3. Don't use 3M blue tape on completed parts. Or stick it to your body first to take away some of the tackiness. It took apart 3 decals and then I still wasn't 100% happy with the coverage on the interior.

4. Use less paint. I'm terrible with painting white and this led to my problems outlined above. I have some vacations coming up in the next month so since I won't have much time to actually progress on another build, I'm going to play around with painting on a plastic spoon and learning from that.

And here's what I'd recommend for anyone building the car in the future.

1. Put it together first! Almost the entire body can be glued together before you need to paint anything. The instructions have you wait a long time for many of the parts, but even if you don't have the gap issues I had, you'll have lines in places that are completely unnecessary, it also makes painting that much harder. I'd also include putting the front suspension on as part of this process, and using a chrome pen for the exposed suspension parts. You won't be able to see them on the final build anyway.

2. Don't spend much time on the interior. You won't see much of anything anyway unless you open the doors. I probably spent half an hour detailing the wheel and you won't ever see any of it!

3. Paint the red parts of the car. You already have to do so much masking with the black, that doing the red isn't a huge addition. It won't save a ton of time as the included decals are quite good, but it'll look better. Aftermarket decals are coming out which include the HY and P1 decals separate too.

Thats about it. Hoping you liked the process and I'm sure we'll see some amazing builds of this kit soon! I'm planning to get another version and replicate the 2019 design.