After seeing all the ModelFactory Hiro threads I thought I join the group build
I actually started the kit 2 months ago and wanted to wait to post my pics until I painted the body since you all know how damn slow I'm building...
But I guess we all learn from eachother building this kit so I thought I post my experiance too.
I start right away with progress shots but if somebody wants some pics of the unbuilt kit just let me know and I post some!
Ok let's start with the body, it looks really good but there are a lot of little imperfections which need to be fixed. First step giving the body a wet sand with 800 sandpaper then testfitting the parts for the body which are seperate parts.
You can see that I drilled out the "screws" at the louvers and I planned the insert some MFH rivets but the 0,8mm rivets are simply out of scale so I later filled them again... still not sure what to do about them...
I also made "holes" for all the meshes that are supplied with the kit, normally you should simply glue them on it didn't make a big change in the look but whatever...
I also changed the rear wing support (simply drilled out)
(thanks to JayKay for taking the pics at Goodwood)
First layers of primer sprayed to see how much work is left for the body (and the white metal parts)
and some more testfitting one of the most important parts of multimedia kits...
The Diffusor required some work, the original part (left) is extremly thick so after some sanding and a lot of resin dust, I got a quite convincing result (right)
Interior testfit, the seat doesn't fit as well as the tools box...
And then there's the problem with the rear left wheel which is way to much inside the fender... sorry the pic doesn't show it well, but take a look at Klutz's thread he caught it pretty good
But that's no big deal, you simply have to extend the spacers. I made myself some new ones on the lathe.
Another big part which needs some modifications are the air intake parts..
The stock part (front) looks ok but on the left and right should be meshes which should be glued on the part but I decided to cut the metal away to get some more realism.
But now to the important part, the original intake looks like this...
(again thanks to JayKay)
And this is the stock part (testfit as you can see
)
left stock part and right my modified part, I cut away the areas where meshes should be placed and reshaped the part.
Let's start with some details, the brakes. The kit comes with some nice PE parts which I sanded and glued together.
Then I painted them with Alclad II Aluminium and applied little wash with thinned matt black followed by a little rub with SNJ powder. I am really happy with the look.
I also started with the CF work, worked on the mirrors, rear wing and front splitter. I first painted them with Finisher's semi gloss black which isn't really good if you plan to use MicroSol & Set, the paint starts to "bubble" if you apply to much. Next time I will try the Zero Paints, does anyone have experiance with Zero + MicroSol & Set? Oh by the way decals are from F1 Specialties.
I also made some more parts on my lathe, like the air jack parts and exhaust tips which I have to make again because the first ones are way to small as you can see
This one will be the perfect car for the Racingminiatures CF display base!
Ok thats it for now, today I sprayed another layer of primer on the body and I hope to spray the green (Zero Paint) soon...
EDIT: @ Klutz by the way I found a good color for the rims, Alclad 2 Magnesium looks like the way to go. I painted them today, pics will follow soon.