Questions about paint, customization

[Ohjay]

Hi.

Been looking through this site many a times for inspiration and hints/tips for my modeling, but I cannot find the answer to some of my questions(yeah I have searched, several times) so here it goes.

I recently bought two Aoshima RX-7 (FD3S) kits and the quality is horrible, in my opinion. But thanks to the thread by flyonthewall about his C-West FD3S, I've got a good idea about how to fix this.

But this led me to wanting to do more customization, mainly to the hood. My question is, would it be better to make one from scratch or just modify the original one?

Second question is paint, to be precise, base coat. I'm going to make my FD3S models CYM ones(Competition Yellow Mica for you that aren't RX-7 freaks), but I have no clue about what would be a good base coat.
The plan is: white primer, base coat(gold, white, silver, bronze?), and then the TS-16 Tamiya color. What would be the best base coat to replicate the CYM best?

Can't wait for some of my supplies from HLJ to arrive so I can start these babies. Just to cure my abstinence until a real, breathing RX-7 is in my garage

[g00eY]

well first of all, welcome to AF!

about the hood. you will not want to make a scratchbuild hood. i mean it's possible, but if these are your first body mods then you will just want to modify the one that comes with the kit(if it's possible to make that hood into the way you want it, that is).

about painting. i dunno the color. do you think you could post a pic? i'm guessing if it's a metallic-ish yellow you will want to use either gold or silver.

oh yea... don't forget to show us some of your progress and/or completed models!

[hirofkd]

For the first question, the answer is it depends. If the hood looks pretty much like a stock with a couple of vents added or something like that, then start from the kit part. If the desired hood looks nothing like stock, do some scratchbuilding, using styrene sheet and putty. But I think it's usually easier to start from the kit part.

For the second question, I recommend that you use white primer as the base coat, add TS-16 yellow and then coat it with TS-65 pearl clear to simulate the mica look. If you want to sand, polish and wax to create a mirror-like surface, add clear coat on top of TS-65. Make sure to build protective layers by applying several mist coats on each color.

[Ohjay]

First of all, thanks for the replies.

About the hood, I'm planning something of a Toyota Celica 00-05 stock hood, a recess in the middle, but with a twist. Been thinking about it while sleeping and the vent FAQ on here could probably be applied on that. Guess I'll just have to try and if I mess up, scratchbuild one

And here's a picture of the CYM color: CYM FD3S

hirofkd, will a white base coat really make the yellow look right? Feels more right to have a silver or gold base coat.

g00ey, Yeah some progress can be shown when I begin, I don't dare to show my previous models since I kinda screwed them all up in some way or the other