In work: Viper GTS

[Martin S]

Hello there !!
My latest project, a AMT 1:25 Viper GTS Coupe that Im restoring. It was started many years ago, but luckily never finished so all the clear parts and details were still in good condition.

I stripped all the paint and started over:



The engine has been rebuilt and slightly detailed.




The body was then primered and sanded:




For paint, I mixed a special lemon yellow color from some Tamiya X-8 Lemon (!) Yellow and X-2 white, about 50-50.
The painted body was then masked up and I sprayed some gunmetal colored stripes. The gunmetal paint was mixed by X-11 Chrome silver and a touch of X-1 Black



Right after this picture disaster struck !
I was too quick and didn't let the yellow paint harden fully. The result was that the masking tape made some pretty serious damage to the yellow paintjob. Damn.
Had to wait a week or so and then sand the yellow down again to a smooth finish, mask the stripes and shoot a new coat of yellow.
Now it looks better, but there are still some minor stuff to fix before clearcoating. I'm really pleased with the colour choise at least. The gunmetal and lemon yellow really looks good together dont you think?

[kunta]

Nice restoring work.
Lemon Yellow and gun metal stripes looks cool.
Keep up the V10 monster project!

[DukeMan]

Nice color! I agree with Kunta, the yellow and gunmetal goes very nice together and the engine looks really good.
Keep it up!

/Fredrik

[GvEman]

looks good!!

[SupaMan89T]

Looks awsome!

[Spitfire7]

Nice colour choice.

[Jurva]

Those stripes looks very smooth. Keep up the good work.

[ol' dude]

That color combo is awesome!! Keep us posted on the progress of your resto!!

[Porsche Carrera]

Nice!

[cooltc2004]

sweet

[blubaja]

Hey,

Awsome! Color combo works great. Nice detail on the engine too. Keep up the great work.

Frank X.

[Samurai75007]

Looks good. I love vipers, that’s probably why I got a job where I work with them every day... anyway don’t forget that the vents on the top of the hood are black...

[proosen]

This is going to be a good looking snake when finished. You sure did find my soft spot, yellow paint jobs....sigh! Looks very good indeed!

Keep us posted.
Niclas

Edit: Men hur f-n lyckas du jobba med dessa akrylfärger? Av alla jag försökt så är det bara en som blivit duglig, alla andra har sett bra ut men gått åt fanderns innnan de blivit klara. Tycker den är för mjuk och vill aldrig härda ordentligt, har en lastbil som efter ett år fortfarande inte gick att peta på ordenligt utan att sabba lacken!?

[JTRACING]

Great Restoration!!!!

[Martin S]

Today I have been fabricating some nice wheels.
The box wheels looked really small. Here is a short How-to on wheel and tyre fabrication:

First you need some plastic tubes. I found these 23 mm tubes used for electric installations in walls.
Cut it off using a sharp knife:



For theese wheels I will use the stock rims as a center. I cut off some thinner tubes that fit inside the bigger ones as support for the centers:



Make a chamfer on the edges to get a nice rounded lip of the rims:



Then get the Bare metal foil out:



Then I put the centers in. Looks pretty nice already:



I did some testing today, and discoverd that you can make your own tyres (slicks at least) out of self vulcanizing rubber tape. This tape starts to vulcanize when you stretch it out, and then the tape layers bond together forming a solid rubber layer. If you put the last layer with a little overlap over the "sidewall" of the tyre it will get nice and smooth. Takes some practice, but soon you can get pretty decent tyres that are made out of real rubber !
(I missed a little bit on the edge of the rim where the BMF splitted):



The final result is pretty "bling":