Air Cooled - Porsche 911 GT2 (Taisan Starcard)

[Tibi Keke]

You dont need to panic because of the decals. If is yellowing something than just the transparent or the white parts of the decals.
If you use the clear Mr. Hobby Top Coat Gloss, this is a good clear, will not harm your decals and will seal them, so the danger of yellowing is eliminated! Will not crack, is compatible over any paint! BUT if you spray from the can or from Airbrush, you will get some orange peel because it dryes very fast on the surface! So, you need to polish again, and to my surprise this clear is harder then the TS paints! Another small problem is that this clear needs days or maybe weeks to dry completly if you dont use something to accelerate the drying. (something like a drying boot or food dehydrater ). I dont have something like this, so i need to take a vacation and wait...

I think the best alternativ is Tamiya Wax or something similar. Make a test on a scrap...

[Robi J]

Originally Posted by mrawl

The decals go yellow?!??!

Sorry Mark, I meant yellowing of the TopCoat itself, not the decals.

Robi

[markrider]

so whats the concluson on the clear coat,
which is best for any paint

keep up the build im keeping a look out

Mark

[mrawl]

Originally Posted by markrider

so whats the concluson on the clear coat,
which is best for any paint...
Mark

Sorry for the slow updates but I don't have much time for modeling and I spend too much time on this addictive forum! I've almost finished decaling the body. They look good to me, like they're painted on, so I'm not clear coating this one. Anyway, I already committed to that decision, and I don't think it's necessary, I'll just wax it. If I was going to clear it I would try Mr. Top Coat. I like the slight contrast b/w the paint and the decals - I'd lose that with clear. Also, I don't think they clear them on 1:1s and the thought of markings floating under clear makes me think of a surfboard or a coin/insect clear-casting! I don't even like plain colors under clear because it looks a bit toy-like and out of scale to me (super-thin clear coats look ok). Mind you, I've never really studied the decal thing up close, so I could be way off base here I'll be checking it out at the upcoming model meets for sure!

[mrawl]

An update! Yay!

In our last installment, I decided not to clear over the decals, so I did the window trim before applying them...




And now, my first foray into serious decaling! First surprise - the STP decals are made in two parts. The kit has two decal sheets due to color or transparency limitations I suppose. I must say, these seem to be very high quality decals.


Can't see it clearly here, but the STP red really pops.


The MIZWA decals require some imagination (try it some time, you'll see...).


I cut back all the trim, but these stripes were big slabs of clear with the red printed on them, so I cut them up into pieces. That's to avoid any strange appearance from the clear (aka paranoia), and so I had better control over the alignment (also aka paranoia).


Here's the side number without a panel line - looks wrong to me, so I will do the lines...


...like this.


The headlights gave me some grief - because of the black background I kept seeing microscopic bubbles in the glue/future/whatever - I couldn't get rid of those damn bubbles. So I finally painted a black trim onto the glass before attaching - problem solved! (damn those bubbles!!!!)


This piece had a sloppy fit. Had to haul out the epoxy.


And these air ducts were very tricky, again with the epoxy, carefully sized and shaped.






Now this is just sadism - are they kidding? Can anyone work out how this is supposed to work????????


Well, ok, the first piece is fairly obvious (actually, not really, but whatever...). Considered painting, but wanted to go with the decals. Now, tell me, what's up with #8??? Mind boggling.


Well, I just bludgeoned it into position - came out ok.


Shaped pins on the top piece, rivet on the bottom, next to the GT decal,





And here's how that all came out...








A really big thank you to Tham for saving my ass with some spare decals. The STP decals on the rear-sides were trouble - just sliding them into position with water was enough to split them. They're sitting on a saddle shape. The only way I could find to not have them split on me, was to deliberately induce a pucker in the center and then get rid of it later with decal solution. Thanks Tham, I owe you one.

[jano11]

Beautiful!
You did a great decaling job on this one.

[Robi J]

Yes, very clean and precise decalling. Nice job on the rear wing re-shaping.

Bravo Mark

Robi

[Tibi Keke]

It look's very cool Mark! Your kit is soon ready!

[ddtham]

Mark,


Awesome progress!!! I can see it all coming together now. I'm glad to hear that you can fully utilized the decals

Have you decided on what you're using as fuel filler?

[mrawl]

Hi Tham, yep, I did make a filler plate. It's not exactly reality-based (!), I just did something that I thought might look decent on this particular model. I'll probably do something a bit more "correct" on the RSR.

Just some plastic and wire.


And brass.


And brushed aluminium.


It's got some depth to it, but I screwed up - I had the wire poking out like bolt heads, but it ended up getting levelled. Oh well, I'll use rivets next time.








Here's some mesh I did that I forgot to mention last time.

[Duncan1098]

Your doing a great job with this kit, lovely work with the decals, I did this kit many years ago and remember the decals were very testing! That filler plate looks really good aswell, very cleaver, also impressed the the red decals round the air intakes, I painted mine, couldn't work out the decals.

[Porsnatic]

Great progress!!...nothing like a Porsche!
I can't wait to see next chapter on this adventure.

[sileightsix]

Great job cutting the film so close to the decals. They really look like little precise vinyls. bravo!

[KorkyOtt]

Well you have really done an outstanding job on this one. An excellent black paint and finish, superb decals and a spot on fuel cap. Quick! put it in a show case, on the shelf NOW before something goes wrong. LOL

[klutz_100]

I don't think you should be at all disappointed with the fuel filler thingy. It is excellent in every way - from idea through execution to final appearance