m4inbrain

Yeah, did - the stupid Magiseal on the windshield annoyed me just enough. It's great. The applicator works well, and it's stupid easy. Got a perfect result despite not having polished anything ever (with a cutting compound anyway). Took only like 10-15 minutes, will certainly get it again for the shelf.

Yeah, better be safe than sorry.

So.. I started doing some stuff to the shell. Marking, rough cutting, little bit of fitting. Nowhere near done, i'm only at the cutting out stage (maybe 30% done) - but did now enough to give an impression of the scoring method and general thoughts. Let me get the general thoughts out of the way straight away by "pointing out a line on the shell with my finger". I forgot how not fun cutting a shell is. So. Here's where i started. That's already roughly cut out (it was basically on a sheet with all the other pieces, seven in total). Did mark the cutting line (again, roughly - everything is "that'll do"), and started chipping away. More marking while resting hands from scoring with the blade - don't mind the scraggeliness, i'll clean that up. It's just to give me an idea as to what i'm looking at, what i want to paint, what i want to cut out etc. For those of us that use scissors to cut the shell, i will say, the wheel arches came out much better by scoring than i ever managed with scissors. Works like this: Score around the outside, then cut reliefs (can't really break off around too much an angle) and start folding away. It's quite satisfying, that part. Scoring is quite nerve wrecking though, one slip of the knife means that there's irreparable damage to the shell. So far, knock on wood, no damage - i will have to do lots of cleaning up with a dremel (around edges etc), and where i was too scared to go all the way to the line with the knife, but that's intentional. First time with this method, so i'm working with margins here - better to clean something up than cutting too far and looking stupid. Anyway, here's the result so far - the shell is rough cut, as well as the front bumper. Without front bumper, With front bumper (just leaned against it). The marked parts are either cut out or in case of the scraggely lines, will become matte black. That's 2 hours worth of faffing about, ran out of time today - but there's no reason to rush it either. It's certainly not easy to score the shell, but it actually is better/cleaner than cutting with scissors. I think it also could be faster, the main issue here is me being very slow and deliberate, trying to find "my" method (i'm using too much pressure still etc). Will come with time, still stupid amount of stuff to cut out (rear bumper, roof spoiler, rear spoiler, light buckets etc) and with that, opportunity to learn. I am very glad though that i didn't go for the expensive shell straight away, that's for certain lol.

Well, here's hoping lol. Should properly pop with bright silver, just trying to make my mind up whether or not all purple or two tone with black bonnet/roof/trunk, think i'd like both. Good to hear. 😄

Lolz i actually thought the same, but wouldn't really be appropriate on a drifter. I'm sure there's people who would, but if i had an R34 GT-R, i'd probably find something less valuable to slide around a bit. 😄

And today, the rest arrived. Paint, mask, marker for.. marking, brush for brushing: Colours are PS-41 Bright Silver the backing coat, PS-45 Translucent Purple main coat, PS-5 Black as the protective coat/trim, PS-31 Smoke for the windows, PS-55 flat clear for trim pieces (window rubber and plastic door handles ain't shiny). I haven't actually checked whether or not the shell has a protective film (it really should, but not certain) - if it doesn't, the flat clear won't work. The idea is to cut the window trim (as an example) out of the protective/overspray film on the outside, and flat clear that part only. Two or three coats purple, two coats silver, two coats black and then however much PS-31 it takes for me to be happy with the window tint. Never sprayed it, so.. nyeh. Further: The exhaust tip was lonely, so i got a choice of side mirrors (wasn't sure what i wanted), radiator and oil cooler for it. The radiator isn't the greatest (seen much better from sideways RC), but it's the one that modelsport had in their repertoire, so.. it'll do. The bittydesign knife is widely recommended as the tool of choice if you want to score/snap the shell rather than cutting it out with scissors due to it's short blade, it doesn't wander as much. Hence going for cheap scissors, they're basically only required for relief cuts while scoring the shell. Now i just need to find time and courage to tackle that project, going to be a world of hurt lol.

Trailfinder 2 for me. Was fun building a kit, but in terms of driving it's awful (half a yard of slop in the drivetrain etc). Tried sorting that by converting it from 2speed to single speed gearbox, made it slightly better but still arse for actual crawling (probably okay for light/scale trailing). That was an expensive piece of kit that i didn't enjoy at all.

R32 would be Gun Grey Metallic for me, R33 Midnight Purple, R34 Silver. Bayside Blue is okay, Millenium Jade is hideous to me. You gotta keep in mind though, my shell isn't a GTR. 😉

Flog it for cheap if it's a TF-50 (might get lucky), or bin it if it's a TF-41. Sucks, but is what it is - there's zero need for a third radio, and nobody is gonna pay more than a tenner for a TF-41.

Small update. The stuff that i "require" to get the shell done slowly rains in. That's the LED backfire kit from Amain, arrived quite quickly. Looks like an LED kit i'll be honest, so there's not much to show/tell here. There's also this: I foolishly decided that, after seeing someone building a rollcage from scratch in a facebook group, that this is easy enough and i'll knock one out in a few minutes too. Because obviously. Gonna be interesting, never played with styrene, never done a rollcage, nor anything "scratchbuilt" really. In regards to the plans for the shell, i'll explain what's going to happen (a few things that i've never done) once everything's arrived, and then, well.. Probably maybe going to build it potentially.

Small update (last post on that matter, sorry) - the guy got back to me, shell painted and cut around 100 euros (plus shipping there and back, probably another £20-£30). Cheapest offer so far, but not immensely far off what i'd pay in the UK (especially considering potential VAT charges/duty if declared as gift). The one thing that makes me consider it though, is this. If he can actually replicate Midnight Purple, i might just bite the bullet.

What, you didn't paint to that standard? 😛 Fired the guy a message, lets see where that leads. Also asked in the club now if someone's willing to cut and maybe paint it (as dumb as i am, i only just now realised that i should ask there too).

Wasn't trying to be rude or something, just pointing out that i did go to places to get quotes, and they're all similarly expensive. The shell certainly does look good, but it's a single piece shell, and not cut out. You can't paint my shell like that, since it requires assembly (the current shell is at least six separate parts, the Fujio even more) - and with that, cutting (as well as light bucket fitting etc). If you don't do the cutting right (and i'm speaking from experience here, sadly, since i'm bad at it), nothing lines up. Main reason why i haven't built a shell for a decade, my last one was a multi-piece drift shell and it was.. well.. something. I'll fire the guy a message and see what he'd quote me on the shell i already have, maybe he does do cutting/assembly but i've missed the examples of it (didn't dig deep since i gave up on the idea). I do appreciate it though, sorry if i sounded annoyed or something, wasn't supposed to.

Small buggy shell, not much cutting required. Spraymask, not freehand. Maybe i wasn't very clear, i didn't pull that number out of thin air. That's a quote for a finished D-Max Fujio 2020 shell. I'm not diminishing Jockeli Paintings work here, but comparing a buggy shell with a scale RC doesn't work. Cutting, assembling and marking/masking the body i am talking about already takes 2-3 hours, painting another 2-3. Decaling probably another 1-2. People don't work for free - £150 is the cheapest quote i got, i went through that because that Fujio shell is a limited edition (200 pieces), and while i fancy one, i don't fancy ruining it with my non-existent skills. That's 5-8 man hours (which already is like £50-£80 at minimum wage), not including paint and material. Also not included would be the £130 shell. Here's someone building the S15 variant (which has less parts), to give you an impression of the difference between the XB4 shell and what i'm looking for. I've got quotes up to £350 (in those the shell is included though, making the job itself £230). I've messaged around 6 service providers and then gave up. For reference, btw - this particular shell goes used for around $250 (haven't seen any in the UK, hence USD). edit: since it just popped up.. 😉

rcMart has the body in stock, so does Amain. https://www.rcmart.com/tamiya-castrol-honda-civic-eg6-vti-190mm-rc-clear-body-set-51421-00032340 https://www.amainhobbies.com/tamiya-castrol-honda-civic-vti-body-set-clear-tam51421/p658648 Amain would be $59.38 delivered (that's incl VAT and shipping, no customs stuff). Around what, £47ish. It's not the kit with the FF01 chassis, but i'd assume you could just get a base FF01 kit (no idea if they do one, but also don't know if it's actually important to get an FF01, and not an FF04 or something since the Evo here isn't on "the proper" chassis either - if we're talking shelf queens, i'd not run any chassis, would just print a show/display-chassis that's able to hold wheels, done). For reference: £30, much cheaper than building a kit for every shell. 😄

Well, always up for a Porsche build thread - as long as it's the orange Jaegermeister livery. 😄 Also like Penzoil/Calsonic liveries, and the Raybrig NSX is pretty legendary. I thought you were gonna stick with more of the 90s stuff, surprised with the R35 there.

Yeah you're right, no Group B sets. Odd. Guess it's a licensing thing. Xanavi Nismo R34 next?

Nah. Looks good bud, expected worse after your comments lol. I agree that the wheels are close enough to the original, but they do need their ralliart/enkei decals (here's where i admit that i'm an Enkei fan-nerd, would love a set of Enkei Tarmac WRC Evo on the GTE lol), doesn't look right without. To me personally, the tyres themselves are a bit too aggressive, are those scale? Do like the collection though, albeit, certainly needs more Group B man-rally rigs. 😄

Depending on the mistake, embrace it lol. Back those spots with brown, it's rust spots now. 😛 What problem arose, paint adhesion issues or bleeding?

Yeah lol, not many "mistakes" that can't be fixed in "post processing" lol, wouldn't worry about it. In fact, it's a healthy attitude to have, to not be bothered by small mistakes etc - something i can't, i do get annoyed if i make a mistake, that's why preparation for something takes usually as long, if not longer, than the thing i'm preparing for. That said, i do enjoy "building" the shell, so i can't really argue that my time is worth more than that - i see it as fun (at least prior to painting lol), rather than a chore. In the end, i'll probably keep it as a mix of "some shells homemade", and "some shells pro-painted". For example, the £130 unpainted/uncut shell i kept mentioning in my thread is a shell limited to 200 pieces. That's probably something that i'd give to someone who knows what he's doing, rather than me slipping with the blade and then scramble to figure out how to hide that disaster. As an aside, cheers for mentioning PS-31, i actually forgot that too. Because of course i did.

It's been a decade since the last shell lol, so there won't be much to be looking forward to (is there an equivalent to race car driver excuses?). Funny you say that, i did look around for a "professional" cut/paint service, but after seeing the moon prices some people charge, nah. £150 to get a shell cut and painted in solid colour, that's too dumb even for me. I'd rather do it myself, pay myself the £150 and buy another shell with it lol. Maybe the wife is gonna buy that excuse. Really not an arts guy either (unless we're talking the secret arts of homemade barbeque sauce), but, you know. Even considering getting an airbrush system and going all fancy like, though that's probably not going to happen. Maybe. I just thought i'd throw that out there, knowing myself, something like the lower A pillar part there is something i actually might miss (in germany we say "can't see the forest because of all the trees" - so much stuff going on that obvious things might be missed). Either way, done painting that Evo now?

Looks good bud - for the wires, i personally would get a sleeve and just run them through one sleeve. If you have access to a 3d printer, you could also whip up some "combs", that you click in every few inches - a bit like spark plug wire spacers, similar to this. Just to keep the wires parallel if you don't fancy sleeving it. At least that's what i'd look into at the beginning - just as a suggestion. On that Evo shell picture, are you done prepping? I know it's a bit cheeky, but there's a few spaces where there should be more tape. Don't want to come off as smart-arsy, obviously, but the vents need covering, as well as the tiny part at the windows (bottom of the a-pillar), as well as the bottom part at the windshield (the "drain" part). Of course i don't know your plans with it, just pointing it out in case. B-pillar can be either red or black, so there's that. I'll also explain what i'm going to do for the first time ever, maybe it's something you might want to look into too. I'll be spraying window trims from the inside (so basically a "2 stage window mask"), i've seen an interesting video where someone then went ahead and carefully craft-knifed the window trim on the outside of the shell (the overspray film - never done a Tamiya, i assume they are wrapped too) out, to spray that with Tamiya flat clear, making the window trim, well, obviously, matte rather than shiny. To me, sprayed trim always looks odd because rubber really isn't that polished looking. I thought it was a cool idea, never even thought about it - never done it either obviously, but depending on how "nice" you wanna go with it, that certainly is something worth looking at. For the vents, too - basically any black plastic/rubber parts, cut them carefully out of the overspray film, then quick coat with matte clear.

Of course, it was her. 😉 😛

I don't see why not, it's just two small pipes pushed into each other, soldered to a metal popsicle stick. Only issue would probably been the heat treatment to get the exhaust tip uniformly discoloured, but that can be figured out. I actually think i'll try next time, probably gonna be fun - and might be able to make an extra buck at the drift club lol.

For reference: shell and exhaust arrived, so here they are. 😄 Love that exhaust thing, so cute. Actual metal too. I mean, i could've cobbled that together myself, so a tenner seems quite steep for that - but what the hey. Still waiting on everything else.