Alphard Silk Blaze [VIP]

Hi everyone.. I'd like to share my recently built VIP car, Alphard Silk Blaze which is made by Aoshima.

Overal, it's a great car for quick build. It took me about 2 weeks to finish it off. Unfortunately, it has some fitment errors here and there, such as, front bumper, headlamp, & backlamp as well as the detail of the interior. Apart from these flaws, it's a nice kit.

I painted the body with Tamiya TS-40 (Metallic Black) and its clear paint as well (hm.... forgot the serial no :uhoh:). To be frank, it's the first kit of mine that is waxed & polished. I've never done that before. For the first time, I'm quite glad with the result :grinno:. But I know that this result is still far away from most of anyone's work here. One of my friend told me that I need to wet sand the paint before applying the clear coat. Is it true? Because, 'my sense' :screwy: convince me that it would scratch the paint. So.. what you guys think?

Finaly, here is the pics..

http://s207.photobucket.com/albums/bb69/stradlegroove/Alphard%20Silk%20Blaze/?action=view&current=DSC03253.jpg (http://s207.photobucket.com/albums/bb69/stradlegroove/Alphard%20Silk%20Blaze/?action=view&current=DSC03253.jpg)http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb69/stradlegroove/Alphard%20Silk%20Blaze/DSC03253.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb69/stradlegroove/Alphard%20Silk%20Blaze/DSC03251.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb69/stradlegroove/Alphard%20Silk%20Blaze/DSC03252.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb69/stradlegroove/Alphard%20Silk%20Blaze/DSC03259.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb69/stradlegroove/Alphard%20Silk%20Blaze/DSC03260.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb69/stradlegroove/Alphard%20Silk%20Blaze/DSC03262.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb69/stradlegroove/Alphard%20Silk%20Blaze/IMAGE_149.jpg

Comments are welcomed. Thanks for looking!

Nice and different - I like it! I like the idea of the Aoshima vans and people movers, and I have just recently bought the D.A.D. Odyssey. Looks like fun.

As for the wet-sanding... My experience is that wet sanding before final clear coat is okay for normal colours, but sometimes in metallics it reduces the 'sparkle' of the metallic. For example, I found that wet sanding TS-50 (WRX Mica Blue) before the clear coating reduced the shine. However, I do wet sand between every colour coat, between clear coats on normal colours, and even for metallics I sometime wet sand between clear coats - but very lightly and with a very fine grade sand paper. Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Grant.

Nice! Looks very good. Can't wait till my VIP Junction Produce Q45 shows up. Well have to do a VIP meet or something, I know there are quite a few VIPs build in here.

Nice and different - I like it! I like the idea of the Aoshima vans and people movers, and I have just recently bought the D.A.D. Odyssey. Looks like fun.

As for the wet-sanding... My experience is that wet sanding before final clear coat is okay for normal colours, but sometimes in metallics it reduces the 'sparkle' of the metallic. For example, I found that wet sanding TS-50 (WRX Mica Blue) before the clear coating reduced the shine. However, I do wet sand between every colour coat, between clear coats on normal colours, and even for metallics I sometime wet sand between clear coats - but very lightly and with a very fine grade sand paper. Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Grant.
Great advise Grant. I'll give it a try! Thanks heaps.

Nice! Looks very good. Can't wait till my VIP Junction Produce Q45 shows up. Well have to do a VIP meet or something, I know there are quite a few VIPs build in here.

Thanks! Actually this is my first VIP build, very fun to build. But this van almost consumed 1 tamiya spray can alone! Anyway, I love VIP but not in reality because it's quite troublesome for daily drive :grinno: