Aoshima: Vertex Ridge S15 [...56k death]

[KevHw]

Hey guys, it's been a while since I last posted a WIP because I've been preoccupied with other things. However, I have been making some progress on this Aoshima Vertex Ridge S15 little by little until I felt I had done enough that could be posted up. I plan to start my two Ferraris for the 60 year anniversary after I "warm up" with this kit, hoping I can finish them both before the end of the year. This is gonna be my first review of a kit too, so please bear with me .



The kit comes with a fair number of parts, a few less than Tamiya. The quality of the plastic however is the most noticeable difference; the Aoshima kit having a thinner plastic than Tamiya's. The body is where the thinner plastic is most evident with really thin B-pillars which could snap if you're not careful. With this kit, the body comes complete without the hood attached. This is a great opportunity for someone so carbon fibre the hood as it makes applying the decal much easier. I'm still not sure if I should follow that popular route or not....



I'll be using the supplied wheels which are bronze Volk TE-37's that come with decals too, which adds a nice touch.

I've had to cut out some of the vents on the front fenders as is on the 1:1 but I didn't want to risk ruining the body, doing the same for the ones just infront of the door panels.



The kit comes with chrome plated parts such as the light housings and brakes, but I decided to change the brakes to ones by Crazy Modeller because I think you'll agree, it just looks a hell of a lot better...

Stock:.................................................. ...........................................PE disc brakes:






I think they look awesome but were a bit of a pain to put together. I had to effectively raise the height of the brakes though, in order for the wheels to still fit under the arches. so, even though the kit has working suspension, mine is no longer functioning . And I realise that the wheels in reality wouldn't bolt on but my thoughts were
1: It looks cool when the wheels are off
2: No one can see them anyway when I display it

Steering angle is drastically cut down too but that's not too much of a problem for me. The chassis and suspension is simple to put together and fits pretty well except for the rear control arm which fits really loosely and makes the rear wheels wiggle a lot! Nothing glue can't fix... Added a carbon fibre decal to the exhaust too which looks better than the stock all-chrome look.

Over dry-brushed chassis (the light makes the chassis more shiny so it's actually less shiny than in the photo):


And this is how she sits, all dry-fitted together for now...

So even though I raised the ride height for the wheels to fit under, it sits pretty well! Now I've got the interior to finish and to prep and paint the body. I was thinking of either metallic red TS-18 or blue TS-15 and I'm still not sure about whether I should add a wing to it or not... Oh and undecided on the CF hood....any suggestions?



If you've read down to here....thanks! Constructive comments always welcome

[chato de shamrock]

I'm liking the body. I never stopped to take a look at this kit. Did you paint the wheels or cover them in clean? They look better then what we normally get when we open the boxes. I noticed the front bumper's corners dont have that curved "thing" attached to them (sorry I dont know what they're called). Do they come separate?

[AllAlone.Gz]

This is a nice kit. Those PE disc brakes are a nice touch!

@ chato de shamrock: Do you mean the wind splitters? Yes, they should be included in the kit.

The kit is looking really good by the way.

[KevHw]

Originally Posted by chato de shamrock

I'm liking the body. I never stopped to take a look at this kit. Did you paint the wheels or cover them in clean? They look better then what we normally get when we open the boxes. I noticed the front bumper's corners dont have that curved "thing" attached to them (sorry I dont know what they're called). Do they come separate?

Do you mean the front canards? They come as seperate pieces. I've yet to do anything to the body except for what I mentioned before; cutting open some vents. Going to sand body down first before I apply them.

Wheels are straight from the box, painted wheel nut areas black, then applied decals and TS-13 Clear coat. However, I applied the clear coat too wet and the decals screwed up a bit. Lesson learned from that . First pic of PE disc I tried to colour in with graphite from a pencil to simulate carbon ceramic (went into a carbon phase ) but thought they looked better shiny and metallic.

Thanks for the kinda comments....please keep commenting

[nicecar]

It should be blue
And what an awesome spoiler! This kit looks awesome, cant wait to say more

[Risko]

Nice kit, I had fun with it... one strange thing happened to me and a mate as well. The paint didn´t like to dry on the right rear panel above the wheel. Never seen the problem before, I had to repaint it, so I did with different sort of paints, allowed more time to dry between the coats and.... same again

About the wide body vents between door and fender, I have sanded with my Proxxon/Dremel from the inside of the body to open the vents.

[Risko]

Ah, and I think the seat position has to be some milimeters behind, bc from kit this seem to be for very small driver and passanger

[bai]

I think some camber will suit her nicely~

[KevHw]

Ye will need to rip-up my seats and glue them a bit further back . Thankfully the floor isn't so easily seen, so no one can see that I ripped them up . And Im not going to risk extensively damaging the body if I Dremel the other vents out so I'm leaving those =/.

UPDATE:

Well, I decided to tackle the hood and went for the CF look. Looking around at people's work everyone has a much more realistic CF pattern. I got mine mainly for my F430 project which is why the pattern is specific to Ferrari, and considering my limited funds and patience, I thought I'd use the pattern I already have, instead of buying and waiting for another one.

This is my first large CF decal work, my very first being the control panel on my Xanavi NISMO 350Z (WIP coming up in future) then the exahsut muffler for this kit's chassis. I was a little bit put off by what Kaho said about his CF work taking a little under 2 hours...but I tried my best and this is the result.

Body has been wet-sanded with 800 then primered. For the hood, I wet-sanded with 800 and removed the badge and "wiper washers"...? (the two bumps on the hood). Then sanded down with 1500grit and then sprayed Gunmetal to give a good base colour for the CF.










The ride height looks ok, had to lower the rear after realising I left a part out that holds the chassis to the body . (I love how the brakes are poking through)


Rear left wheel doesn't quite sit centred and I'm not too sure how to fix that.

Doing the hood took in total from sanding --> primer --> paint --> CF decal about 40mins...so I'm hoping it turns out ok, especially since Kaho says he spent almost 2hours! I've still got to apply clear coat to it and then polish. Praying to God the infamous TS-13 doesn't destroy my decal

I'm falling towards Mica Blue (or Metallic Blue) for the body and I'm definitely adding the wing . Just hoping my LHS has stocked up on Tamiya Paints.


Please tell me what you think

[speedphreak]

LIGHT coats of ts-13...Dust it on the first couple coats to let the decal know its there! haha..Then gradualy heavier coats.

[KP60]

very nice kit, and great job done so far!!
if you want my opinion, go with the red colour, and offcource put on the wing!!

[mugenhb]

Originally Posted by speedphreak

LIGHT coats of ts-13...Dust it on the first couple coats to let the decal know its there! haha..Then gradualy heavier coats.

I agree I've used TS-13 on almost all my carbon fiber projects and have never had a problem, just build it up slow it may look ruff but further medium wet to wet coats will take care of the ruffness.

[AllAlone.Gz]

Man this thing is looking sweeet! Great CF work! The TE37's are a nice touch to the car! Are you planning on painting the cannards? You should of slapped on some carbon fiber on them too!

[ricerboy]

S15's are awsome nice work it looks great

[KevHw]

Ok, been really slow progress having started uni not long ago.

Paint is on, been lightly wet sanded to get rid of a few bubbles and now needs a final coat before polishing and clearing. Just waiting now for the weather to be better since it's going to rain heavily tomorrow .

TS-13 on bonnet was fine, no wrinkles or anything. I did make a slight tear whilst trying to get rid of some dust that landed on it so had to patch it up with a small piece of decal. After clearing, it's not that obvious until you get really close.

Dry-fitted:









Interior is pretty much finished, moved the driver seat back a bit to a more realistic position. As for the canards, I at first thought about doing them in CF but I'm deciding to leave them the bodycolour so it doesn't appear too modified. Trying to go for the weekend trackday look. Photos don't show it with wing, but I'm going to include it in the finished version.

TS-15 Blue came out a bit darker than I expected/wanted but for some reason looks fine in those photos. Hopefully maybe one more update before it's fully finished.

Thanks for all the comments.