Finished : 1/24 Tamiya Porsche 911 GT

[Sennake]

Originally Posted by lumpulus

Seriously, is there a way to tell them apart from the non pre paints?

Uhm, how can I say this without sounding like a snob? The paintjob of these prepainted kits is good, but not super. If I would have painted and decalled it myself (AND if I would get it right without any flaws I add) it would certainly look a lot better.

So frankly I think it's not really nessecairy to make a separate category, a real prize-winner's paintjob will most certainly look a lot better than the prepainted kit. Unless of course the paintjob-level of the contest entries is the same as the Tamiya level.

To really notice the difference, I suppose it would be best if there would be a non-prepainted Porsche 911 GT1 in the same contest as well, but I don't suppose any contest would have that luxuary...

So maybe keep the separate category after all

[RallyRaider]

I understand what you are saying Guy (you don't sound like a snob) if you look at the finish of any regular diecast for example, it is not as good as a top notch hand built model. Which is one reason why people saying models look as good as diecasts has always confounded me.

I haven't had a close look at the prepainted bodies. Do they use conventional waterslide decals? Or some form of painting/printing process? If decals I wonder how they apply them, machine or by hand?

Interesting idea to have a seperate category for the prepainted kits. I wonder what sort of person would deliberately misrepresent their work to enter a regular category...

[G-man422]

Great detail!

[klutz_100]

Very cleanly put together and excellent photography

So Guy, did you put clear over the pre-painted or is it ready cleared?
Are the panel lines "pre-panel lined" (if there is such a word )?
What is left to do (to the body shell)? Sorry for all the questions but I am very curious about these kind of kits.

[NissanSkylineGTR98]

Very nice! The photos make it look almost like the real car

[Sennake]

Originally Posted by klutz_100

So Guy, did you put clear over the pre-painted or is it ready cleared?

No, I didn't, because the body was already clearcoated, and besides it's not just painted and decalled, but also partly built as you can see in this picture :

Originally Posted by klutz_100

Are the panel lines "pre-panel lined"?

As you can see, the panel lines were not pre-painted. I did them myself, what was kinda hard because Tamiya didn't bother scraping them deeper, so they were not really deep enough. On top of that the gloss coat shows hundreds of small "cracks". I simply don't manage to take a picture where that is visible, it's only visible with the naked eye. That is the main reason to do this "straith-from-the-box" build : I don't wanna waist lots of time and energy in a model that only looks good from a distance or on photographs. But those cracks are also a real pain in the ass drawing panel lines, because the paint flows into all these small cracks by capillarity, making them even more visible. So what I did is drawing them with a pretty thick paint instead of the good old diluted-paint method...

Originally Posted by klutz_100

What is left to do (to the body shell)?

Everything except what you see on the picture above. But maybe you should take a look at my homepage, where I put a picture building report online. If you have any more questions, I will be happy to answer them of course.

[klutz_100]

Thanks Guy! I'll visit your homepage ASAP

EDIT: Just visited. Awsome!!

OK, so I do have one last question if you permit
Please tell me how you paint 2 colour wheels like on this build? Basicaly, what technique do use for cleanly masking off the rims before painting the gold spokes?

[gionc]

Well done, Guy
no problem with contest to me: a quick look from real is enough

[Sennake]

Originally Posted by klutz_100

OK, so I do have one last question if you permit
Please tell me how you paint 2 colour wheels like on this build? Basicaly, what technique do use for cleanly masking off the rims before painting the gold spokes?

None. I painted the spokes manually.

[klutz_100]

Originally Posted by Sennake

None. I painted the spokes manually.

Thanks, I've been sweating that for some time and now I know the answer - don't overcomplicate things!