Finished - Tamiya 1/24 WRC Subaru Impreza 2001

[Modelcrafters.GP]

Hi guys,

I've finally finished my first WRC car model. It's pretty much a simple out of the box affair, no photoetch and interior wiring to worry about (although my Impreza book had plenty of references to use), and addition of the odd CF decaling where appropriate on the real car.

After doing the standard practice of prepping, painting and finishing off with polishers and wax, the kit was ready for mudslinging. On an armor display, weathering is almost a must, but for an almost perfectly finished body, it felt strange to mess and weather this kit.

I went for a low-key approach using the Tamiya weathering master pastels and snow/mud pens. The pastels had difficulty remaining on the car, I suppose its due to its glossed and waxed finish. I sprayed a little Tamiya flat earth to build up the dirty layer. I'm not sure if I added too much mud onto this kit to knock it off scale. But looking at the punishment the real cars go through in these rallies, I guess its OK? I firmly think that I used a little too much weathering, but since this was my first time, and not the last, i'll use this Impreza as a learning experience.

I felt I wanted the car to remain in its display case/base (plus I was nervous about making a huge diorama for the first time out), so I decided to start small on the learning steps. For the base, since this car was raced at Monte Carlo in variable weather, (I think snow was present in a lot of the stages in 2001) I used a water and white glue spray to hold down the mixture of Woodland Scenic's gray blend, buff and brown ballast, and a fine sprinkling of snow. I have to admit that I still haven't gotten down the fine art of making a good muddy diorama despite my big collection of how-to books from diorama making masters. I guess sometimes that no matter how much reading gets done, the truth of someone's ability is shown only when they get real hands-on experience.

Anyway, here are the pics before someone says this thread is useless without pics.





















Thanks for checking out my thread.

Happy modeling! Vince Wu

[stevenoble]

I think your model is excelllent.I never cover mine in mud for fear of ruining them but you have made a really good job of the diorama.Nice touch with the figures inside as well.Excellent work all round keep it up!! Steve.

[rallymaster]

Hello,
this is an excellent build ! It's your first dio ?? Wooww congratulations !
But if you allow me to make some comments, you would better have done this wheatering for a muddy rallye, this make me think about RAC rally more than MC... Maybe because it is so realist and you made it so good !!!


Phil

[sync-]

but if you whant to clean it up then how do you do it?

[NissanSkylineGTR98]

Wow! Great work, it looks very realistic!

[SteveK2003]

That looks awesome. Great work with both the diorama and car. And good idea to start small: If/when I ever get to building my own, I'm going with a 1/43rd scale, and also raiding the model railroad department of my LHS.

As a constructive criticism to add to what Rallymaster said, the Monte 'mud' tends to be very dark, and it is usually a general overall film on the car with very heavy patches on the rear bumper and behind the wheels. When it is very thin or dry it is sort of a gray or brown.



I have lived with the 'winter spray' for 28 years so I'm sort of an expert They use rock salt on the roads here so the cars get white (Until the snow starts to melt and gravel and silt starts to mix in with it), but some towns around us with lakes or rivers nearby use sand or fine gravel instead of salt, and that just creates a film all over your car (It's also not so great to drive on as is just forms a mashed potato-like substance on the road).

[boxjelly]

greatness

[Modelcrafters.GP]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the kind comments.

This would be my second attempt at using a background beside a plain base. My first diorama included trees of two MSGundam anime robot models reconnaissing a slight 1/100 hillside with trees. I don't know if I should really consider this a diorama. There aren't any trees and I feel its imperative that I must have more trees or shrubbery to make it a diorama. I guess this is from all the pics I have of figures, armor, buildings and trees all lumped into one.

One thing for certain though, i'm quite happy with the decision to start small. If I decided to do this car rampaging through a 2'x2' forest diorama and mess it up due to sloppy or unrealistic modeling, I think that I would be definitely be put off by the thought of doing another dio.

I'm going to take the observations you guys said about the MC dirt buildup, and apply it to my '05 Impreza MC kit real soon (couldn't help it -- I still haven't completed the 787B I said i'd do and I started primering the '05 Subaru at 2AM).

Happy modeling and try playing with dirt once in a while. It reminds me of being 4 years old again.

Vince Wu

[Vric]

That is dirty ! I love it

[winstona]

Looks really good and realistic! I don't think I would have the courage to dirty up my car to make a diorama like yours.

Winston

[sportracer02]

Hi,

not bad, looks good, although I´m your opinion, that the dirt is a little bit too much.

Another remark: make some tracks from the wheels to the base. Further the tires on your car are for tarmak, not for off road purpose.

[Myx_85]

Wow!
It looks perfect!
It looks absolutley dirty!! (and off course, reallistic!)

[quadzero]

Originally Posted by winstona

Looks really good and realistic! I don't think I would have the courage to dirty up my car to make a diorama like yours.

Winston

first thing i thought when i saw the pics but im glad you did it. the part i love most are the people, super job there, really brings life and more to this great build.

[hrmodeler]

Cars looks very nice, but there is too much mud for MC rally.

[Spitfire7]

Very nice model there - Maybe a bit too muddy for the Monte Carlo, but very nice nontheless