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The DeAgostini 1/8th Scale Ferrari 312 T4 Options
Plymouth57
#1 Posted : 28 March 2021 20:10:23

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DeAgostini 1/8th Scale Ferrari 312 T4 Build Diary.

Well, the preparations are under way! Thanks to Mark at the DeAgostini admin and that wonderful competition which I never expected to come first in, I am now the (very) proud owner of a model kit that I would never have been able to afford to buy (ever)!Cool They say there’s no such thing as a free meal but the team behind this forum have obviously never heard that one! First of all my scratch built Sword Beach diorama gets elevated to the very first ‘Build of the Month’ which was a great honour in itself, but then at the end of the year a superb competition is announced in which all of the nominated monthly builds get the chance to win a one thousand pound model kit (well, all but £1 but who’s counting)BigGrin and then Sword Beach won that too!Blink
My ever grateful thanks go to Mark in America who not only arranged the whole thing but even supplied another F1 kit to one of the lucky voters who happened to cast their vote for the winner. There was no entry charge to take part and no ‘purchase required’ to vote – if that’s not a free meal I don’t know what is. The only surprising outcome (apart from winning) was just how few members took part! Come on you lot! We’ve over 8,000 members on this forum and so few of us took the time to simply send a PM to the organisers to gain the chance to win a free quality model kit?Blink I really hope this won’t be the last competition on Modelspace, I’ve always found in the past that the competitions gave me something to aim for, to do the best I could (whilst probably ruining my eyesight in the process) rather than just ‘making something’ to pass the time. I must admit, some of the deadlines proved a little ‘tight’ with some midnight oil burning towards the end but that’s what you get for wasting time on Total War when you should be modelling! So come on! If we get another great competition in the future, make the effort – if DeAgostini are generous enough to offer such prizes we should be making the effort to support them, after all, no stash is ever big enough – especially when it’s free!BigGrin
Ok then! Photo 1 shows the cause of all my good luck, the completed diorama of the British D-Day landings on Sword Beach in 1/700 scale. Compare the size of the diorama with the ‘shipping crate’ it’s sat on in Photo 2! This is the huge box (handed over the garage drive gate as nobody heard the doorbell), which arrived hot from Mark in America. Not a hint of damage (Mark thought that was awesome) and no customs duty to pay before delivery (that was even more awesome!)
After gingerly opening the boxes (double layered) it became obvious that my worktop in the attic was not going to be big enough to display the contents and so the deep fat fryer and slow cooker had to make way in the conservatory ‘laundrette’ for the ‘family portrait’ on the box’s contents shown in Photo 3. The kit comes in the following: two stiff brown cardboard boxes, (one is buried under the pile), four vac formed clear cards (like most magazine partworks come in) and no less than one hundred and six polythene packets containing everything from tiny screws and fiddly bits to large sections of bodywork not to mention enough pipes, tubes and wires to fit out a model power station! One thing I hadn’t realized was that this car had eight wheels – then I suddenly had a thought and looked closer to find that it actually came with two sets of tyres, one with wet weather treads and one with smooth ‘slicks’ – how’s that for authentic detail!Cool
This will be my first car model to this scale or standard and all being well should end up like the photo in Plan A. Of course, if all goes not well there’s always Plan B!LOL For those who have just spluttered their cups of tea or coffee all over their monitor screens – sorry! I’m just kidding.BigGrin I’m now awaiting some items to come from ebay before actually beginning the build, one of them, a Humbrol product was unfortunately cancelled and refunded as the last one left in stock turned out to be damaged when about to be posted so I’ve had to find another one. I’m also waiting for one excellent source of info to arrive – I never thought there would be one out there but a check on the net revealed that the Haynes Manual series of reference books actually did do one on the Ferrari 312 T series. After looking at some sample pages there’s some brilliant photos of the car in various states of ‘undress’! (Will even help me to know what the various bits of engine actually do as well).
This won’t be a quick build by any means, the diary posts will be split between the Del Prado Victory which is at last under way again after being neglected for far too long, and also a little diorama I was in the planning stage with before winning this competition – a lot simpler than Sword Beach with only three figures in it and my first use of fibre optic lighting (hopefully).Cool
So until the building starts on this fabulous kit, stay safe out there and Happy Modelling to you All!

Robin.
Plymouth57 attached the following image(s):
Ferrari 312 T4 pic 1.JPG
First wooden ship: The Grimsby 12 Gun 'Frigate' by Constructo Second: Bounty DelPrado Part Works Third: HMS Victory DelPrado Part Works 1/100 scale
Diorama of the Battle of the Brandywine from the American Revolutionary War Diorama of the Battle of New Falkland (unfinished sci-fi), Great War Centenary Diorama of the Messines Ridge Assault
Index for the Victory diary is on page 1
Gandale
#2 Posted : 28 March 2021 22:47:04

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Really chuffed you're happy with your prize Robin and I look forward to following your build when you get going..... Good luck with it all....Cool Cool

Regards

Alan
mwb
#3 Posted : 29 March 2021 03:11:20

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Plymouth57,

Congrats on the win. Well deserved.

If you like to do your own research on the web then please ignore the following. I have this kit also and have been scouring the net for reference pics. Here are a few links of builds on other forums and some sources of pictures that might be useful, hope it's helpful.

https://forum.model-spac...spx?g=posts&t=33703

http://www.modellismo.ne...entauria-1-8-scale.html

https://www.wettringer-m...read&threadID=70937

https://www.flickr.com/p...lbums/72157688881807212

https://www.flickr.com/p...9775712/in/photostream/

https://www.bonhams.com/.../lot/266/?category=list (click the picture to get a series of thumbnails; click more to expand it; they save as PNG files)

wyatt


kpnuts
#4 Posted : 29 March 2021 06:36:23

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Great to see it arrive, eager to see the start.
Ken's the name modeling's the game.
roymattblack
#5 Posted : 29 March 2021 11:08:51

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Well done Robin. Look forward to seeing the build.
This one was on my 'future' list but not now.
I'll follow yours with great interest.

BigGrin
Kev the Modeller
#6 Posted : 29 March 2021 20:42:08

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Looks a fantastic kit Robin and one that I'd love to build myself. I'd be lying if I didn't say that I'm just a teeny weeny bit envious but you are a very well deserved winner of the competition on merit for your fabulous 'Sword Beach' diorama, which was just amazing in such a miniscule scale!!

You say that if all goes well then you'll end up with something like the 'Plan A' photo Robin, but sorry to tell you, if it looks like the car in photo A then it will likely be as much a disaster as photo B? The car you show is a Ferrari 126C2 from the 1982 season whereas the kit is of a 1979 Ferrari 312T4? Flapper Flapper Confused BigGrin

Just joking Robin, I'm sure the finished model will be a success and as it's something out of your comfort zone should be a nice challenge for you? If you need any help just ask away.

Good luck with the build, will be watching as always! Cool ThumpUp

Kev.

Per Ardua Ad Astra
Plymouth57
#7 Posted : 29 March 2021 20:57:52

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Many thanks for all the encouragement and good wishes from Alan, Wyatt, Ken, Roy and Kev!Blushing
Thank you very much indeed for those links Wyatt, I'd found that brilliant build on this forum but the others are completely new to me and will give me an excellent source of ref pics!Cool Cool
Um, Kev, you hit it right on the nail with comfort zones, I put "Ferrari 312 T4" into the search thingy and that was one of the pics that came up! But its red and has four black tyres and a silvery wingy thing at the front - so it MUST be a 312 T4!!!LOL LOL (If its bigger than my dear old Tomos 49cc moped they all look alike!)BigGrin
Hopefully starting soon(ish)and thanks again!

Robin.
First wooden ship: The Grimsby 12 Gun 'Frigate' by Constructo Second: Bounty DelPrado Part Works Third: HMS Victory DelPrado Part Works 1/100 scale
Diorama of the Battle of the Brandywine from the American Revolutionary War Diorama of the Battle of New Falkland (unfinished sci-fi), Great War Centenary Diorama of the Messines Ridge Assault
Index for the Victory diary is on page 1
Markwarren
#8 Posted : 29 March 2021 23:16:29

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Glad to see you have the kit, looking forward to seeing plan A.Cool BigGrin

Mark
RM1
#9 Posted : 30 March 2021 09:26:10

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I'm very jealous of that kit but you certainly deserve it for that winning diorama. I'll be following this build with great interest.
Malc.
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#10 Posted : 30 March 2021 09:29:24

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Hi Robin,
You’re a very worthy winner of this lovely kit. It’s a beautiful model and you’ll gain so much joy from building it. BigGrin
Regards
Glenn
Plymouth57
#11 Posted : 22 April 2021 20:09:50

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Many thanks to Mark, Malc and Glenn for those kind words!

Many apologies for the delay in getting back! I haven’t been ignoring my fantastic new build of the Ferrari. I have actually begun the first stages but at the moment it’s been a case of one step forward and two steps back! (But at least I’m still getting some more info for reference whilst waiting for some things to arrive!) Talking about that reference material, it left me in two minds at the beginning. You see when the kit parts are opened up a lot of the larger parts such as the front aerodynamic ‘wing’ which begins the build are chrome plated. Now in smaller scale car models the chrome parts always look too bright and ‘toy-like’ so I had intended to tone the chrome effect down with a system I had used before, as you’ll see below. The problem was, in some photos of the T4 in the Haynes Manual, the areas in question do look more like aluminium than the kit parts, but in other photos they looked exactly like the kit parts – a really shiny ‘toy-like’ mirror finish chrome! So in actual fact you can build this huge thing right out of the box (or a hundred and six packets) and still build a perfectly realistic model. On the other hand, just because it did look like that in full scale I still have this subconscious need to ‘scale’ it down – so I will!BigGrin
Photo 1 illustrates the first of the card packs with that shiny front wing, the two end caps, two little poly bags with screws A and B and a little blurred under its protective film, the decals to apply onto that wing. The same components (minus the screws) are seen out of the wrapper in Photo 2. I have to get myself another large multi-compartment storage box to keep the various assemblies in before I go much further! Before proceeding on, the first job was to take out some insurance – the decal sheet was immediately scanned and saved in my Ferrari Build Diary folder on the computer. If, for some reason there is a, um, ‘error’ along the way, I can at least print off a set of replacements on the white backed inkjet decal sheet. Photo 3 shows that shiny wing behind the two end caps. One of them had a small blemish (arrowed) on the inside face which I wasn’t too bothered about as it would be on the underside of the wing when completed (as it happens now it’s even less of a bother as you’ll see later). The first step in the kit instructions is fitting those decals in place but as I’m going to be altering the finish on the wing that will now be coming after all the other work is done. The next instruction then explained that the plastic glue which will be joining the wing and the end caps (actually they’re called brackets) will not adhere to the chrome and so the ends of the wing need to be carefully sanded down to expose the plastic underneath. That of course is perfectly correct. However, it doesn’t mention that the two brackets are also completely plated in the chrome! To get a better joint I therefore sanded down the ends of the wings as per the instructions but I also used the rotary tool with a conical diamond dust tip to grind off the chrome around the bracket locating lugs and also inside the wing joints so all the touching surfaces were plastic to plastic as shown in Photo 4. The second bracket behind the tool is still fully chromed for comparison. Photo 5 shows the full front wing with the brackets glued on in all its super shiny finish. My initial intention was to tone down the chrome with a new bottle of Humbrol Blue-Grey Enamel Wash. This was the method I used in my Frederick the Victorious diorama of a few years ago to turn the silver leafed plastic kit parts and my scratch built sections of his armour made from salmon fish tins (yes really) into an overall ‘steel’ appearance. The ‘kit’ is shown in Photo 6, a new bottle of the wash (the original one in those thrice damned child proof bottles had dried out), a nice soft brush and a mixing palette made from the bottom section of a corned beef tin! The initial attempt using this looked beautiful! As you can see in the top part of Photo 7, I had a lovely, steel / aluminium effect right after I painted it over the chrome. Unfortunately when it dried, it was several shades darker than this, so I removed it with a couple of cotton buds dipped in white spirit. It came off really easily, in fact, a little too easily for my liking! Anyway, I re-applied the wash after thinning it down with clean white spirit to try again. This was nicer than the first attempt but dried more matt which was acceptable, but also with evidence of brush strokes – which wasn’t! The close up in Photo 8 doesn’t show the brush strokes as much as the human eye picks them out (I did like the way the wash picks out the rivets though, and the overall colour too.Cool ) It was a touch and go decision on whether to start again, the effect was perfectly good for the underside but I didn’t want to spoil the top surface if I couldn’t get it right. In the end, I decided that as I’m building a £1000 model here for free, the least I can do is to spend a bit to try a new approach. And so, after watching some very impressive Youtube videos I’ve sent off for a selection of Vallejo products, namely a bottle of their Black Surface Primer, a bottle of Semi-matt Aluminium airbrush colour from their Metal Colour range and a bottle of the Metal Varnish (again for airbrush) to seal it in ready for the decals. I’ll still be using the Humbrol wash to pick out the rivets though! In order to airbrush the wing, I’ll need some means of holding the thing (although I could simply airbrush the top and bottom surfaces in two separate sessions of course) but the easiest way to provide a ‘handle’ was to fix on the actual joining bracket, which secures the wing to the front of the Ferrari’s nose, plus I can be painting that at the same time too. That (obviously) came in the next pack of parts, which is shown in Photo 9.
So in the next installment, I begin my adventures in the subtle art of airbrushing – something which I’ve never been really proficient in – painting the khaki packs on a 1/700 scale figure, no problem, controlling the air and paint mixture on an airbrush – shudder! Lets just say that my first foray didn’t go exactly to plan (but is getting better!)BigGrin
Until then, keep safe as always and Happy Modelling to you All!

SPECIAL NOTICE!
As I type this, I'm actually just over half way through the build, and as I can never build anything without trying to add on as much extra detail as I can(Blink Crying Blushing ) I've been finding a lot of instances where the extra detailing would have been much easier to add or begin if it had been done much earlier in the schedule. To help those who might be reading this diary before building their own kit I will be doing some back-tracking from time to time and adding in some helpful upgrade hints which, if you are going down that same road might save you some of the trouble I've brought on myself!BigGrin
Watch out for UPGRADE INFO appearing in the main text, although the majority is added on as I go, some of it is 'retro-fitted' ('cause I didn't know it was there at the time!)Blushing

Robin.
Plymouth57 attached the following image(s):
Section 1 Front wing pic 1.JPG
Section 1 Front wing pic 2.JPG
First wooden ship: The Grimsby 12 Gun 'Frigate' by Constructo Second: Bounty DelPrado Part Works Third: HMS Victory DelPrado Part Works 1/100 scale
Diorama of the Battle of the Brandywine from the American Revolutionary War Diorama of the Battle of New Falkland (unfinished sci-fi), Great War Centenary Diorama of the Messines Ridge Assault
Index for the Victory diary is on page 1
admin
#12 Posted : 23 April 2021 06:43:37
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I am delighted you are enjoying (don’tcha just hate it when a paint job gets messed up??) your kit so much! It’s an added bonus that you are giving us such a great build log. Thank you!

Stay well,

Mark
roymattblack
#13 Posted : 23 April 2021 08:24:29

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A really great build diary.
It's going to come in very handy when I start mine - I have the kit next to me right now...Love
Markwarren
#14 Posted : 23 April 2021 08:36:45

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Very nice start, will be watching with interest.Love

Mark
tf64
#15 Posted : 24 April 2021 21:57:28

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Nice update Robin, and a good read thank you for posting.

Regards

Trev
Work in progress:

Started San Francisco 2


























kpnuts
#16 Posted : 24 April 2021 22:13:27

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Great start mate.
Ken's the name modeling's the game.
Plymouth57
#17 Posted : 02 May 2021 19:45:15

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Many thanks again to Mark, Roy, Mark Mk11, Trev and Ken! BigGrin
Again, apologies for the delay, as you'll see below its been a bit of a waiting game whilst I keep changing my mind!Blushing I'm finally (almost) fully equipped now so things should be back on track...famous last words!Blink
The contents of the second pack are shown again in Photo 10, here we get the first of the tyres (this is a racing slick one, I’ll probably be using the wet weather types with the treads on the model but I’ll be trying to pick out the raised lettering on this one for practice later), we also get the nose cone to which the front wing is fixed onto (actually in to is more accurate) and most importantly the bracket which screws into the underside of the wing (arrowed). Also, there are two poly bags with Type A and B screws. The bracket is first push fitted into the locating holes on the underside of the wing (a pretty good tight fit too) and is then permanently fixed in place with a Type A screw as shown in Photo 11. Photo 12 shows the bracket from the rear with its support strut engaged in the rear locating hole.
Photo 13 illustrates the airbrush I’m using, a Model BD-130A which is basically a cheaper (but pretty good anyway) Chinese copy of very similar airbrushes made by western companies. I was very lucky to ‘inherit’ both this airbrush and the accompanying compressor shown in Photo 14 from my good friend ‘Godan’ who supplied the set via Ebay, so I could produce a painting of a Humpbacked Whale for him some years ago. He then bought himself another airbrush/compressor set up and left this one with me (with my eternal thanks)!Cool
My newest foray into airbrushing involved a purchase of Vallejo products shown in Photo 15, as you can see on the labels, Black Surface Primer, Semi-matt Aluminium from the Metal Colour range and a clear Metal Varnish to seal the paint for the decal application. The first task was to airbrush the shiny chrome wing with the black primer coat. The bottle had no mention of thinning the primer, only a distance to be airbrushed from so I (naturally) assumed it was a ‘pour and go’ media – wrong! I couldn’t get anything to come out of the nozzle until I thinned it down in the paint cup and eventually out it sprayed. I did finally manage to obtain a pretty nice uniform coat as seen in Photo 16 but it took ages compared to the expert’s videos on Youtube. I then came to the conclusion that it must be my maintenance (or lack of) of the airbrush. Because of my rare use of the airbrush I’d never gone for any of the ‘proper’ materials like cleaners and thinners etc, just used good old clean water. I now decided it was time to get the real thing so I sent off for a set of cleaning tools as shown in Photo 17 together with a bottle of Vallejo Airbrush cleaner. I also sent off for a spare 0.3mm needle and nozzle set (seen at the top of the group, the one in the airbrush does have a slight ‘kink’ at the point) and also, as the various videos recommended, a second water trap to fit onto the airbrush which is shown at the extreme right in the group photo. There is one already on the compressor outlet but one on the airbrush end of the hose is also a good idea. The cleaner set and solution duly arrived and I dismantled the BD-130A to soak the nozzle and nozzle cap in the solution overnight. The cleaner isn’t cheap but after ordering it I discovered yet more Youtube videos which showed how to make the stuff yourself for a heck of a lot less!Blink I’ve just got hold of the last of the ingredients today so I’ll be making some up as a soaker and using the Vallejo bottle to spray a few drops through the brush as a last ‘super clean’. I’ve also discovered how to make up acrylic paint thinners as well so more on that later. After soaking the nozzles overnight I brushed over them removing some well caked on old paint and then went to screw the tiny nozzle back onto the front of the brush. Then it all went wrong! Not using my reading glasses I hand threaded the nozzle on and then rotated the little wrench that came with the brush until it locked onto the nozzle nut to tighten it on. It was only when I noticed that the nozzle was now laying in the palm of my hand I realized the wrench had actually located onto the nut as I applied it and the act of ‘searching’ for the nut had sheared the nozzle off leaving the threaded shaft in the head of the brush! The remains of nozzle number one are seen in Photo 18. Fortunately for me, that gold coloured cylinder in Photo 17 contains a sharp pointed reamer for cleaning paint out of the inside of the nozzles, I found that by sticking it into the severed shaft and turning anti-clockwise the broken piece came right out again!Cool Anyway! Thank goodness for that new needle and nozzle, they both fitted on like a dream but for an extra insurance I’ve also sent off to China (its cheaper) for another two needle and nozzle sets AND an additional set of five more spare nozzles – just in case!
I hadn’t yet come across the home-made thinner recipe when Photos 19 and 20 were taken which show the effect of airbrushing the Vallejo Semi-Matt Aluminium. I had to thin the ‘airbrush ready’ paint slightly with water to get it to spray fine and light but the coverage was really good which showed how important a really clean airbrush is to getting it right (and having a non bent needle probably helps too!)
The next task was to give it a couple of thin coats of the Metal Varnish. In the bottle, the varnish seems as thin as water, but once again I had to thin it down further to get it to spray. This was accomplished eventually and once it was dry (only a few minutes unless you are going to mask over it) I then came to the next delay – I’d gone from too shiny to too dull!Blink Even with the varnish, the semi-matt aluminium was still too matt for my liking. Another watch on the Youtube tutorials later I was sending off for a bottle of Vallejo Dull Aluminium which, despite the name was actually shinier than the semi-matt. It only took a few days fortunately and by this time I’d mixed up a small bottle’s worth of home made airbrush acrylic thinner to use instead of plain water. This was 2/3 water, (distilled if you live in a hard water area), with 1/3 Isopropyl Alcohol and about ten drops of Glycerin. I found the Dull Aluminium sprayed on very well and a single coat was enough to cover. The Dull Aluminium wing is shown in Photo 21. Photos 22a to 24b illustrates the added depth given to the rivet and nut/bolt details on the wing and under bracket. I first used the Humbrol Blue-Grey Enamel Wash with a small fine paintbrush to ring the rivets and any right angled faces around the nuts and bolts. The beauty with the enamel wash is that any mistakes can be simply washed away with white spirit on the brush with no effect on the acrylic paint and varnish underneath. Once dry, the raised rivets and details were then picked out with Mig Matt Aluminium, by sewing needle tip for the rivets, and fine brush for the nuts and bolts and those grub screw thingies on the end brackets shown in Photo 23. The rounded rims at the front of the support bracket were also highlighted in the Mig paint by brush.
So, (finally) I’ve got the ‘metal work’ done on the wing and in the next installment I can get the decals into place to complete this first section. Oh, nearly forgot, during all this I also found another airbrush accessory I could really do with (apart from a spray booth of course), just waiting for another parcel from China with a twin airbrush stand to fit onto the compressor – two hands are just not enough!BigGrin
Until the next one, stay safe and Happy Modelling to you All!

Robin.

Oh, and Mark, Yes! Don't we just!LOL
Plymouth57 attached the following image(s):
Section 1 Front wing pic 3.JPG
Section 1 Front wing pic 4.JPG
Section 1 Front wing pic 5.JPG
First wooden ship: The Grimsby 12 Gun 'Frigate' by Constructo Second: Bounty DelPrado Part Works Third: HMS Victory DelPrado Part Works 1/100 scale
Diorama of the Battle of the Brandywine from the American Revolutionary War Diorama of the Battle of New Falkland (unfinished sci-fi), Great War Centenary Diorama of the Messines Ridge Assault
Index for the Victory diary is on page 1
tf64
#18 Posted : 03 May 2021 07:48:37

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Hi Robin,

I read you're having fun with your airbrushing, another good chapter to your build thanks for posting.

Regards

Trev
Work in progress:

Started San Francisco 2


























roymattblack
#19 Posted : 03 May 2021 09:50:28

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It looks as if you're having fun with this one.
Every time I look in, I'm tempted to make a start on mine...Love
darbyvet
#20 Posted : 03 May 2021 15:08:15

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Looks great.I am experimenting with the vallejo metal color paints.I do dilute the primer a bit with thinner and add a couple of drops of flowe improver.They both really help the flow through the airbrush.I am using the gloss black primer and I find it takes 2-3 light coats to get good even coverage at 20 psi pressure. I dont thin the metal paint, but I do shake it up well.I find you need to apply thin coats or it will run, but it does give a really nice finish.it shows EVERY impefection just like other metallics so prep of the part is really important.

Carl

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