Hello again!
My focus for the last week or so has been getting the first batch of parts prepped and painted - here's a selection:
Paint is a mix of Tamiya grey primer aerosol, then airbrushed Tamiya acrylics, with some Citadel metallics drybrushed to try to get a bit of depth.
The seat is Tamiya semi-gloss black with the belts picked out in Citadel Ultramarine Blue. I'd like to try to do a bit of highlighting on the edges before final assembly. The rear wing (and all the other orange parts) is Tamiya Orange over a Lemon Yellow basecoat.
The main body has had some minor modifications - the mounting 'ears' for the rear upper radius rods have been removed, and I've enlarged the openings for where the rest of the front and rear suspension are mounted. Paint is white primer, then a couple of coats of Tamiya Royal Blue, and - so far - a single coat of Tamiya Blue:
The first coat of regular Blue went on this morning, so I'll probably leave that until tomorrow before giving it a light rub-over with micromesh and spraying another coat.
At the weekend I worked through the suspension parts - some of the kit parts have been used (eg. the lower radius rod piece), some have been re-made in 0.8mm or 1mm brass rod (the upper radius rods, rear roll-bar, etc). I've added some tiny damper spring collars from 2.3mm tube, and adjusted the angles of the dampers to line-up better with the main suspension. The front uprights are mounted as a single piece on the lower wishbones, so I've added a connecting piece of rod (to represent the steering arms) which will give them a little more strength. A poor photo, but you hopefully get the idea:
It's coming along. Trying to get decent photos of these 1:43 parts feels trickier than actually making the parts - I promise it looks better in real life! I'll continue touching-up the paintwork on the suspension, etc, and hopefully it won't be too long before I can start assembly. I've also recently bought a can of Mr Hobby Gloss topcoat (rather than the Semi-Gloss I used on the 956) so that's ready for when I'm happy with the blue and orange paintwork. I need to get a base / display box sorted out too.
That's all for now,
SB