GT40 MkII '67 Daytona (Fujimi) - Progress

[nmsmith]

Hi there,

In truth this is not yet a progress thread as I'm only beginning to plan the build. My little brother insightfully bought this kit as a Christmas present - good man!

I am struggling to find any reference pictures for this kit so far. The best I have is a fujimi - issued photo of the completed model. I have ordered a GT40 history DVD from my rental place, so we'll see if there's anything in there. Otherwise suggestions or pictures welcome.

1. Colour
My instinct tells me Tamiya "Camel Yellow" would look good. The closest Tamiya colour to the G-S original is their lemon yellow. Which is correct?

2. Similar cars
Were there any other cars which I could take as a reference? Perhaps most MkIIs were very similar?

3. Japanese instructions
Obviously most steps are plain and simple. One part though, Step 10, has lots of japanese writing, including two parts which are not given paint colours . . . to fill in two pairs of holes in the rear cowl?
I did once see a post on here pointing to an instructions repository, but I can't find it anymore.

4. Paint codes
Most paints are given as e.g. H93, and I have converted these to Tamiya. Some parts say to paint H4 (A24). Is the A24 just another yellow option?

Apologies for so many questions, and my habitually wordy posts!

[freakray]

For the paint conversions, have a look at this one and see if it helps:

http://rayscars.topcities.com/PAINTSGunze.pdf

I am interested in what other answers you get as I have this same kit to build

[nmsmith]

Thanks, Ray. Your chart confirms the equivalence of Tamiya's basic yellow paint, X-8, the same as TS-16 spray, I believe.

TS-34 Camel Yellow would probably look better, given a combination of the box art and personal preference, but I'm not certain without a reference photo.

[RallyRaider]

There are some '67 Daytona pics on the NSAAC site, unfortunately they are black and white.
I assume you are building the number 1 McLaren car?

Compared to yellows on other GT40s Camel Yellow looks too orangey to me. Trying to match vintage race car colours just using pictures is a very dubious process. It is often best to de-stress, pick something that is "in the ballpark" and looks good to you.

[nmsmith]

Thanks Phil - I had looked through those but overlooked the Daytona shots. Looks like the car was very, erm, involved in the racing. Now to decide whether to model oil stains . . .

[freakray]

I have one photo of the car somewhere, in color, it's either on this PC somewhere or on a CD somewhere, I will look around for it.

As Phil says, the photos can be very deceiving as aging has diminished the clarity of the colors, not only that though, IIRC the photo I have is in the oil stained livery

[Jay!]

Originally Posted by nmsmith

4. Paint codes
Most paints are given as e.g. H93, and I have converted these to Tamiya. Some parts say to paint H4 (A24). Is the A24 just another yellow option?

When Fujimi (and the other non-Tamiya makers) reference the H- and A- numbers, those are for the Gunze / GSI Creos "Mr. Hobby Aqueous" line of paints, and for the "AutoColor" line of paints, respectively.

I know several distributors of the GSI Creos paints, but I don't know if I've seen them for AutoColor. Does GSI make those, too?

[nmsmith]

Over the past week I have properly started this car. Unlike in the past, I began with the body, as I wanted to get things right.

First cut out the hole on the left side of the bonnet


and plug the gap with a bracket for the fuel filler, at the same time filling in the previous hole on the right of the bonnet


This has been the first time I have used modelling putty. It's fairly disconcerting to use, given that it gets everywhere, and sets so quickly.


Comparing the difference between sanded and out-of-the-box tyres:


I wanted to do the wheels early on too, given that they looked fairly stylish on the box.


After sanding, and test-spraying, and stripping, and sanding again . . .


This was the final appearance of the putty prior to painting.


At this stage after a couple of coats of primer I was beginning to worry about the putty still showing through.






And then I realised I had been priming the body without adding the flared rear wheel arches and the rear wing faring, so I promptly added them and continued priming!


The farings blended in quickly, but I am still worried about the putty showing through when I do my colour coats later in the week. Here is the current state of things after about five coats of primer. Incidentally I have bought Tamiya's "Camel Yellow" for the body. I made an aesthetic choice. Authenticity purists, my apologies!







Please comment or ignore as you see fit!

More to come, all in due course.

[speedthrill]

well that's strange. Could it be that the putty is still whet?
Never had that though

[nmsmith]

I think it's just that it's very dark green, and I am using white primer.

[freakray]

The putty is likely showing through because of it's dark color, you would have been better to spray a grey primer first and then a white primer to cover the grey primer.
Grey primer would also have shown any imperfections or uneveness of the putty work.