The headlamp vacform has been a headache…
Although the kit cames with two copies of vacforms, I couldn’t to adapt successfully to the headlamps contour, so I made copies of the front of the car with resin, to build new vacforms. It adjusted without problems at this time…
I have started the decals work…
To detail the hood latches follow the same method that once employed Mr. Kamimura… I make it with wire of 0.1 mm and 0.4 mm tube. Before cutting the tube I fixed a piece of masking tape to get better handling and avoid losing the small pieces if it decide to “jump”.
I put the wire around a pin to form the ring and once formed the two “legs” of wire is passed into the tube. A drop of superglue on the end fixed it.
The safety locks of the wheel nuts are a photoengraved parts with a good detail.
Meanwhile came the Renaissance spare decals.
I continue mounting the rear wing, which is difficult to adjust because the wing only touches in four little points of its brackets and the accuracy that must be taken in the assembly … but with a little help, it has become perfect …
The rear wing is made up of a centerpiece of white metal and four photoetched parts, two for the wing brackets and two for the side panels.
I start cutting the wing 1.5 mm, because comparing with the reference photos I felt it was too large. I attach the wing to the side panels, adjusting and align using the caliper.
Now comes the complicated, set the wing to the brackets, because the wing stands on its brackets in four very small points, so I should get a strong union, which supports the weight of the wing, with the difficulty of the alignment accuracy required.
I start measuring the distance between the points where the brackets will be placed in the chassis.
On a piece of resin, I make two cuts to the measured distance, where I align and temporarily set the wing brackets.
I also make two reference marks under the wing at the same distance.
Then apply epoxy on the brackets and drop the wing in place. It is easy thanks to the marks I did.
A few minutes later I clean the rests of epoxy with acetone and let it dry for a night.
The next day I take out the brackets from the resin piece with the help of acetone and the wing is finished…
I’ve masked the front lights to paint it with matte black.
It´s ready for the decals, but when I put the first in water… explodes…
I’ve contacted with Renaissance and they has sent me a new decal set.
After adjusting and preparing the body, I gave a coat of Tamiya white primer followed by two very light coats of Racing White colour from Number Five (ref. N5-B001).
When it had dried, I masked the white areas to paint red with Number Five paint (ref. N5-M012). As between the white and red areas will be placed a golden strip decal, the work of masking is quite easy, because any slight error between the two zones will be hiden with the decal on top.
Once dryed the red paint and retired the masks, I applied a light coat of Zero Paints prediluted varnish , that will serve me as protection for other processes and avoid silvering on the decals.
And this is the result:
I’ve mounted the dashboard and there is a large space between the body and the dashboard. I fill that space with with epoxy putty.
With this it is ready for primer and paint.
I´ve mounted the dashboard to adjust the interior with the body, and I had to sand the body and the interior in many places because the top of the interior part was touching with the body.
The engine will not be almost seen, so I´ll not lose too much time in detailing it. I must simply do a clean mounting of the engine and give some washes to make it more visible the beast inside through the little openings.
It has some of the cylinders outputs blinded with resin, which I opened with a drill. One of them had a surprise inside, It came blinded by a silicone plug … definitely a part of the mold that was inside this part…
I made the panel marking and had to make symmetrical the two fuel inlets.
I have started reviewing the kit. It has some missing and defective parts, so I asked to Renaissance for replacement parts and they will send me the parts.
I sanded the body of kit which has some symmetry defects, as in the front lights. Repair this defect would be a very hard work that finally will be imperceptible if I adjust the decals to simulate that it´s symmetrical.
The upper air inlet is marked but comes blinded too close to the edge. Being so thin I prefer to open it with a drill, making it deeper, and add later a piece of cooper sheet on the top.
Finally I add some putty on the edges and grey primer, sanding to get a smooth surface.