In progress: Boxster SE - My Moby Dick is Black :)

[klutz_100]

Hi to all AF-ers

This is model my no. 4 and I've christened it my "Shiny Black Moby Dick" 'cos since I started it about 5 months ago it keeps getting put back in the box after the next thing goes wrong. So far it's been stripped and painted 3 times, changed body colour twice, the A-post has snapped twice and it has developed a non-OOB livery concept of it's own.

I think I'll finish it this time round thanks to the learning curve on other builds so, following a more experienced AF-er's advice, I'm posting it (Obi Wan, this is for you - thanks for your help).

The Kit is Tamiya Boxter SE. Well known to all. My goals this time are to a) finish it b) develop some painting skills.

This is how it now looks after 2 mist and 2 wet coats of TS gloss black decanted (that's a whole other story - you should see my workshop walls and ceiling !!) and shot through my Aztek 430.

on the underside you can see the original body colour (Valejo Metallic Black). Due to the complicated masking I'm not going to risk another "there she blows!" scenario so it stays as is and the official version is that this is a special underside protective coating developed by Porsche especially for the Polish market due to our severe winter weather. Sound convincing?

close up of the engine. this will be "washed" later on.

a quick test fit

and deliberation on the rim choice. I'm going overall for a black/metal theme and wondered how it would look with black rims. I've decided to go with the SE rims but to shoot A2 polished aluminum on them.

let me know what you think and also please (someone) give me some feedback on the way i've posted the images. Is it quicker/easier or is it a major PITA?

coming up.....interior design gone mad

Thanks for looking

[Vitalik]

Great start, Stevenski!
BTW, where are foil stripes? j/k )

[MPWR]

Well, you're waisting no time between builds. Good man!

Guess fourth time must be the charm, as the body paint looks great. The underside masking and detailing looks very good also. I can say from experince that given a wash, the engine, suspension, and exhaust detail on this kit really look terrific (the engine underside is the same as on the 996/GT3 kit, rotated 90 degrees). Looing forward to seeing how it comes out.

(Remember when this guy told us all he was a beginner? )

I still like using full size images in a post instead of thumbnails, because it requires less effort to view it. I'll be curious what other people think.

[mickbench]

Hi,

I built this kit, and painted it on Jet Black, and enjoyed it very much so. It was a great kit to build, and check out out sig for the build pic's - might give you some ideas..

Your build looks to be motoring on.. Like the idea of the "cough" special all wether undercoating.. Ha..!!

Paint the trim flat black.. It makes it look better up close..!! I did, glad I did. Good luck on this, I'm working on my forth right now, a Merc SLK. You should see my garage walls.. I tested TS17 with TS13 on them, looks a little brighter on there now..!!

[klutz_100]

Thanks for the feedback.

Originally Posted by Vitalik

Great start, Stevenski!
BTW, where are foil stripes? j/k )

Don't worry dude, They're coming You're going to die laughing when you see what I've got in mind for this one.....

Originally Posted by MPWR

I can say from experince that given a wash, the engine, suspension, and exhaust detail on this kit really look terrific

Hope you'll forgive me if mine is a little less terrific than yours?

Originally Posted by mickbench

Paint the trim flat black.. It makes it look better up close..!!

Thanks! I did that yesterday for the first time ever. Man, was I nervous that I would break te A post for the 3rd time I already saw your VERY nice build and in fact you are the reason I stripped the interior paint job that I had and started over again Mine was very similar to yours and I thought, hey can't do that now....thanks for the motivation to try harder we'll see waht happens

[sjelic]

Nice job Stevenski, very nice in fact. Little more polishing and the paint will be perfect. As for the rims I would go for rear one but with chrome lip and as for pictures.....I don't like them like this. But this is only me.

[Vitalik]

Originally Posted by MPWR

I still like using full size images in a post instead of thumbnails, because it requires less effort to view it. I'll be curious what other people think.

that's my opinion

[Gridgirl]

I like the "Great Black Whale". Your undercarriage is still a bit shiny for my taste, but a wash should dull that right up

I'd have to say that I prefer having full images in the post to having thumbnails. Having more than one window open makes it cumbersome to hide my AF addiction when the boss comes in and asks for a document.

[klutz_100]

UPDATE – interior

Thanks for your feedback on the photos – the “nays” have it

Newsflash – this could be the end of the road for this build
Moby Dick has breeched again! Details below but back to the update:

My re-thought livery concept for this car is “Black and Silver”
using X18, A2 aluminum and –yes, Vitalik just for you BMF!!
(did I mention already that I love this stuff? )

Here's where I am (was?) going with this...:



First of all - the cabin. All parts were shot with X18



The seats. Since the kit seats have separate backs, I utilized this
to make them 2-tone and masked and shot parts with A2.
I thought that it would be nicer and easier to leverage
the joining seam rather than try to hide it with putty etc.



Interior and dash were masked, shot with A2 and then flocked.
I detailed the door panels by covering the armrest with BMF and then
tried to replicate a speaker grill. This was done by masking off the
bottom of the door and cutting out the speaker cone oval. This was
shot with A2. The masked area was the widened by 1-2mm
and X18 was shot through some wire mesh. IMHO the idea is OK, but I
didn’t execute it 100%.
The floor mats were made out of some leftover PE mesh
from somone’s Octavia which I cut in half and whit glued to the floor.



The dash radio was trated to a double dose of BMF!
First I put BMF on the radio facia which I wanted to be silver. I then
masked off the whole dials area which I wanted to be black.
After applying the A2 I removed the top layer of BMF and Presto!
I lightly washed the dash and centre console with a mix of
black and darkgrey.



The tub sitting on the chassis assembly.



You might notice in some of the photos that the passenger side dash
speaker deal looks a bit strange? Believe it or not but I have never
applied a decal to a non flat surface before. The first decal didn’t sit
very well and so I dried in front of my bench lamp – miracle! The heat
from the bulb set the decal into place beautifully. All right!, I thought
and repeated the process on the other side. S**T! I kept in front of the
bulb too long and the whole dash warped on that side. The there is now
absolutely no fit between dash/window/body!!! I’m going to take this
build as far as I can for the principle of it, but short of buying a whole
new kit just for the dash and decals, I guess this whale is beached. Of
course I will try heating and bending but I’m not very optimistic.

Anyway, I test fitted the cabin, chassis and body and this is what I
have – I like it, anyway.



You might have noticed that the wing mirrors and the fins in the side air
vents have been BMF-ed (I know, I’m weak). I will make a how to for
the side vents because I am sure there are lots of beginners like me out
there who think that BMF is a lot harder to use than it actually is.









Please someone tell me what you think.
I know it’s probably OOT but I’m learning still.

[mickbench]

Hi,

If you need it, I've got a spare boxster dash you can have, but I don't have the decals for it. You can get decals from Tamiya spares, you can in the UK and USA anyhow. If you want the dash then let me know.

Other then this, it looks to be cool idea.. I know all too often that sometimes you just need some spares.. PM me if you want me to post you the parts I've got.

[INsejn]

Awesome Silver/chrome mirrors looks great with black body (like on Audi S4 or S6)

[Big Kahuna]

Great Work Stevenski!

[klutz_100]

UPDATE no 3– underside

My hero mikebench is saving this build with a spare dashboard from his great build– Big thanks!

While waiting for the dash to arrive I thought that I would experiment a bit with underside detailing. I washed the engine and suspension, plumbed the front brake callipers and added some brake lines and made some metal rivets/nuts. Here’s what I got:



Brake lines:
The kit underside has “pipe lines” moulded in and could be masked and painted. I know my masking limits and this would undoubtedly be a disaster for me so I took this route: I cut small lengths of solder wire cut to lengths and bent to shape. I ribbed them to give them some texture and used CA to fix them in between the moulded brackets

Rivets:
For some extra effect, I created some real metal rivets/bolts by cutting thin slices of solder and CA-ing them in place. Once the glue set I used a homemade sanding stick (2500 paper glued to a plastic coffee stirrer ) to level and polish the rivets.




Brake callipers:
This was more for practice and not meant to be an accurate representation. First I drilled the callipers and glued in some red wire then drilled the wheel arch to pass the line through. Then, to create a rubber seal (grommet?), I inserted some black wire insulation thick enough to feed the calliper wire through. When the wheels are posed, the wire moves slides within the insulation.




Next step, Polishing the body, fixing the dash and final (?) assembly

Hope you like it

[mickbench]

You're going for detail now.. My masking really sucks as well.. So I didn't bother with the pipes on my build. You're underside details are better then mine. I would never have thought of using solider for piping..!!

Dashboard is being posted today, not sure how long it will take via airmail, but it shouldn't be long.

[KTem]

Very nice work! But, about BMF, it's foil, right? So doesn't it wrinkle when you apply it to windowtrim?