Studio27 1/20 Honda RA-107

[Decs0105]

EDIT: I just noticed that I posted quite a lot pictures, sorry... I hope you have a fast internet connection opcorn:

I started the Honda a long time ago and I thought it might be a good idea to finish that one so I spent the last few days/weeks pretty much just on the Honda. This one will be rather short progress thread with many pics at the start because there is not that much left to do anyway still enough to ruin the complete build... clear coat for a body where 85% are covered with decals

some pics of the kit





Ok let's start with the first testfit which is always quite exciting when building multimedia resin/metal kits and to my surprise this one is really great, there are no major faults, good fitment, nice parts to work with, all in all a pretty nice kit.




side by side with a MFH F2007



There was just one little thing I noticed, the gearbox had some fitment issues with the body. One side had a little gap but that could be easily fixed with some sanding


The only other changes I made for the body are simply "nice to have" things , drilled out airbox opening, drilled out the openings for the towrop (I didn't take pics of it at this point but you can see it in the later stages of the build) and I added the last part of the "fin" on the cowling which was molded on one element of the rear wing. After that the first layer primer followed. I used Finisher's power primer + Tamiya grey primer + sanding.




the second layer grey primer turned out great and the body was ready for some paint





Zero Paint gloss black applied, it is gloss but I didn't spray a wet coat so it looks more like semi gloss. It doesn't matter since I will spray some layers of clear anyway




And to "seal" the whole body before the decals go on I sprayed one layer Finisher's GP1 2K clear. It looks quite nice on the pics but I had some problems with dust and quite a few "ugly" spots. Anyway that wasn't much of a problem either because before the decals went on I sanded the whole body with #3000 grit sandpaper.
Before someone asks yes that is cap from a water bottle screwed to the bottom of the body (3rd pic). None of my usual methods to mount a body for spraying worked here so I had to come up with something new. I simply screwed to cap under the body and whenever I paint the body I will "screw" the body to the water bottle to handle it easier. When I sprayed the primer and black I simply hold the body in my hands but since the clear needs way more time to dry I didn't want to risk anything .

[Decs0105]

The Honda memorial build continues...:roll:

while the body was drying I worked on the various other metal parts and as I said they are really nice. Just a little sanding and they are ready for primer. I only reworked the brake ducts, they were just a hunk of white metal so more work for the Dremel, great .


And the wing end plates also received some attention. You know this is actually something really annoying on multimedia kits all the end plates have holes and the wing elements have little pins which match the holes. But it looks just not right if you ask me, they are either way to big or they are simply not there on the real cars. So I closed hole on the outside of the end plate with solder and sanded it smooth (1st pic right side). And the second pic shows you that there is still enough "hole" left to assemble the wing.



ok and now the fun stuff (well it was fun at first ) the decals! I got 2 sheets in my kit due to a Studio27 "pre-order benefit" special offer which was as it turned out brilliant, more on that later... .


the decal for the chassis is the biggest I ever applied on a F1 car, I almost didn't fit in my cup with water... :mrgreen:


I started with the mirrors since I thought "how hard could it be"? Well quite hard, it didn't work really good to be honest I got wrinkles and it wouldn't get in the place I wanted. I always had one black spot from the paint somewhere peaking trough... So I did it as good as possible and decided to just let it dry and move on to some other parts (beside the body) I still had that second sheet to try again . Then I tried my luck on the front wing elements and that worked brilliant. As soon as you put some Micro Set/Sol on and with some hairdryer action they will conform nicely to the parts. As soon as you worked with the bigger decals you kinda know how to get them in place and what you can do without destroying them.
The mirror was just a bad place to start I guess...



Furthermore I decieded for a "full" carbon build which means that I will cover everything with CF decals which is CF on the real car. Sounds nice but means a lot of work...
I normally don't like to make templates for CF parts but since everything is curved or quite complex on this car I just had to. One example are these wings infront of the sidepod where the inside is carbon, outside earth decals. I just put the part on the carbon sheet and kinda rolled the part to get the complete outline (I hope that makes sense ).
Yes I got a bit confused with the direction of the pattern on the right part

but it worked out in the end..



more CF parts...



I used the new revised (darker) 1/20 SMS carbon decals on all parts since they look like the best fit to match Hondas CF look. Especially F1modeling issue 33 was quite helpful in that matter and also to see all the different directions of the pattern but as it turned out it is not really difficult. To my dissapointment they only have one pattern and the direction on almost all parts is from the front to the back of the car... Anyway the revised decals are great and also more shiny than the old ones, see the following pic, there is no clear coat on that!


And the leftovers after one evening of CF decaling...


Ok back to the earth decals and finally the body. There are two things "wrong" about the decals on the body, one thing I knew of since people on here mentioned it already and one thing I discovered during building. First is this one...
You get Lake Michigan and one half of Lake Superior two times *yay*...


So you either accept that and get stupid questions if someone notices it since the livery will be an eyecatcher or you try to correct it somehow. And now comes the advantage of a second decal sheet if you try to correct it and it doesn't work you simply use the spare sheet and live with two lake michigans . So I was thinking how to fix it... here is what I came up with

I cut out the "x" part (2) and moved the other part (1) down to get the "perfect fit" to the other decal. That left me with a white rectangle which needed to be filled so I looked all over the spare sheet to cut out a rectangle anywhere which would be a good fit... And I found a piece on the nose (I think it was somewhere in africa 8)) and used it as replacement and it turned out nicely. Much better than before and the little steps where the decals are "overlapped" should be fine after the final clear coat... The decal is on the right sidepod (driver view)!


click for high-res -> http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/al...3266323633.jpg

And the second thing I noticed might be useful for anyone building this kit, the decals have almost no excess film but right on the edge is usually a black line around the complete outline of the decal. I can't be seen on the sheet itself but as soon as it is removed from the paper it shows through... It is no problem if the decals are seperated with panel lines but there are also decals that "touch" each other and then for example a black line on blue ozean will look really ugly... After I noticed that I always cut about 1mm of any decal that will have any contact with another decal. There is only one exception, the decals on the cowling which fade to black, these have a little blue line. And I noticed that when it was to late so I will now need to fix it with spray some black on there... I guess that comes from the printing process and the printing of different layers. It's no big deal but saves you some trouble if you know it before actually building it...
I marked it in the pic below, try the high-res pic above to actually see something


I finished the complete body by now but didn't take any pics yet... But I will take some before clearing them incase anything goes wrong I atleast know that it looked ok before

[Decs0105]

here are the first pics of the body with all earth decals applied (already covered with some dust ). The front wing elements have been sprayed with one layer clear, I sprayed them while I cleared the black body just to see how they react to the clear. It worked without any problems, thank god . I first sprayed two very light coats of the Finisher's GP1 2k clear followed by a heavier last coat (I waited about 5min. between each). I am really happy how the fix of the great lakes turned out!








high-res (700kb each)
http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/al...6533373136.jpg
http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/al...6461616636.jpg
http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/al...3635333833.jpg

You do get bored with applying so many decals after sometime but nonetheless it was great fun! The most difficult parts are the nose decal (curved forms su** ) and the ones around the headrest/airbox area. I started with the decal on the cowling then finished both sidepods (see pics in the post yesterday) and then the headrest/airbox. Followed by the big decal for the chassis, which was quite easy actually, and the decals for the nose.
One more thing about the decals, if you take a look at the pic from above the car you can see that the left and right side around the exhaust outlet is not quite the same. The blue ozean part on the right side (driver view) is somehow a bit "smaller". I don't know if this was caused by me (you don't have much choice to apply them any different, the triangle is part of the bigger decal beside it and you have to cut it youself) or if it is just thing of the decals... the pics on the S27 site don't show this so I assume it was because of me. Maybe I get my spare decal sheet out again . Anyway for all who are building this kit it might be useful to pay attention to that area.

[bmwmech1]

Wow, I need to get some of these MM kits... even if it's alot smaller than my Pocher F40, lol. I have a couple of Tamiya 1/20 F1 cars that are in various states of completion, but these MM kits are nice since the subject matter available is so recent. Lots of cool liverys and your build is doing this one justice. New SMS decals look great also, much improved looking. I'll be watching this one...opcorn:

BM1

[willimo]

Beautiful! What a great livery! This is going to look stunning on any shelf or contest table. I can't believe how amazing your decals are turning out.

[WasteGas]

So awesome!

[mrawl]

Very cool WIP! Thanks for posting. I'm not sure how you could stay away from it for so long actually, it seems like it would be very satisfying to apply those decals and see it come up like that. Btw, what do you think of the GP1? Does it lay down nice? Any issues? How about the drying time?

[Decs0105]

thanks guys!

Originally Posted by mrawl

Very cool WIP! Thanks for posting. I'm not sure how you could stay away from it for so long actually, it seems like it would be very satisfying to apply those decals and see it come up like that. Btw, what do you think of the GP1? Does it lay down nice? Any issues? How about the drying time?

Yes, it is really satisfying actually and I don't really know how I could resist to work on the kit But I also can't wait to finish it now... in the last few days I only applied CF decals (so far almost 2 complete sheets) and I still have the undertray and some small parts to do... And I can't stand any CF decals anymore I just want to get it done

The GP1 set is awesome, it lays down perfect. I just mix it in the recommended ratio and add 30% thinner. Never had any problems, the only small issue is that you get a lot of overspray. But I think that is normal with 2k clear coats... Drying time is if I am not mistaken 24 hours @ 10°C, 16 hours @ 20°C. But I usually wait couple days before working on it, just to be sure !

[jochen kieslich]

Hello Dennis,
this is for sure a great pleasure to watch as are all of your subjects!!!
You are doing "very special things" and your wips are the best lecture and stuff for real aesthetes.
I have to pay tribute, thats what our hobby is all about.
You combine real knowledge about the chosen subject and you do have outstanding skills to turn it into a perfect miniature!

Very best wishes,
and keep on!

Jochen

[Decs0105]

OT: Vielen Dank, Jochen! Das Kompliment kann ich nur zurückgeben .


quick update, I finished all carbon parts beside the undertray which still needs some sanding...

all parts are ready for some clearcoat now. I will defenatly go for shiny CF suspension arms + rear wing and all the little bits but the seat will probably be covered with matt clear aswell as the cockpit itself.

The pics might not always show the correct pattern, that is caused from the resizing. I will look into it to see if I can increase the quality of the files without posting huge files.

front wing element underside and the 2nd pic shows that I kinda overlapped the decal to cover the front edge of the wing aswell. The 2 pics show the two different wing elements but I did that for both...



bargeboards, cams...



T-Cam completely covered with CF. That was a bit**... most annoying CF piece yet . You just don't know how to hold it without damaging the last part you put on. It is made out of 5 CF pieces + 4 "red" decals...



rear wing support, getting the pattern right all the time is just annoying but should look nice in the end... hopefully .



gearbox, most will be hidden anyway but nonetheless it is there...


The seat... first of all these Studio27 seats are completely wrong and nowhere near the real thing anyway after drilling (+ dremel) out the opening for the harness and covering it with CF it looks ok. Since the shape of the seat isn't "right" I just put the decals on how I thought it would look nice. I will tone down the bronze stripe and add some black tape as seen on the real pic above and the other bits then. And I finally used some other CF decals than the normal grey/black ones
By the way 8 CF pieces were used for the seat 8)



I will let everything dry now and then spray some clear. I am just a bit worried about the freaking cold temperatures here in germany, right now -17°C (night ) and the basement is not heated :cry: :cry:

[jaykay640]

Phantastic! I never liked the real car but this looks awesome!

[ghoul_gh]

so good~~~

[Captain Mark]

Great progress, looking forward to seeing it completed!

[Decs0105]

next update...

I clear coated most parts. I used Finisher's GP1 set again, awesome stuff. I didn't have a single problem with the decals, no wrinkles or bubbles. And it turned out to be quite shiny . The earth decals look really stunning now with the clear on, they really came to "life". Before I sprayed the clear I corrected the "blue line issue" from the decal that fades to black (discribed in one of the post before) with simply spraying some black paint.

There is some slight orange peel at some spots but that will be gone after polishing aswell as the "step" on the cowling where the decals start.









again some high-res pics, the earth decals deserve that
http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/al...3730626537.jpg
http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/al...3961306465.jpg

and some pics from the cleared CF parts


yes the inside of the end plates is covered with CF too, aswell as all other faces


high-res pics of the endplates
http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/al...3534343137.jpg
http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/al...3463303531.jpg

I am not quite sure if I will leave the suspension parts that shiny, I am afraid it will look kinda stupid when everything is shiny... I might go for a semi gloss finish instead... :roll:

Originally Posted by Decs0105

...And the second thing I noticed might be useful for anyone building this kit, the decals have almost no excess film but right on the edge is usually a black line around the complete outline of the decal. I can't be seen on the sheet itself but as soon as it is removed from the paper it shows through... It is no problem if the decals are seperated with panel lines but there are also decals that "touch" each other and then for example a black line on blue ozean will look really ugly... After I noticed that I always cut about 1mm of any decal that will have any contact with another decal...

I actually did take some pics showing this, the pics are quite bad but you should see what I described above.
notice the black line where two decals "join"...

just cut about 1mm away from the decal and you get a perfect join!

[mrawl]

Wow, you're not kidding about it coming to life with the clear. That looks fantastic.