AUTO - Rally Cars

Back again. I must admit to a period of non-activity and little enthusiasm for kits in any shape or form. However a wettish Easter, no chores so I spent a couple of hours working on the Stratos. I've put in the panel lines around the doors. When I painted the marlboro red I decided not to mask off the narrow white strip down the side but use some white decal. This I did and also I've put a layer of white decal where the door number goes in case the red bleed through the kit decal.

Not much to go now. Next is the black strip around the windscreen and then basically final construction can get under way.

Great work SeaBee.

I have a later season car I am working on. I have almost finished the roll cage mods and the front bonnet vents too. I really must finish that one sometime this year.

Regards
Nenad

Getting towards the end now. Had a slight boo-boo on the muddying up, though. Gorgot to mask off the wiper paths on the from windshield and go just a bit of "mud" on it. Not too much, though.

To help me out there: does anybody know what thinner/paint remover I can use to thin enamels and not damage the laquers benath? I usually use acrylics and laquers for weathering; did not have the appropriate colours in acrylics and used enamels. Unfamiliarity caught up with me! I usually use laquer thinners on enamels, but obviously that will not leave the laquers (and the clear plastic underneath) alone.

Thanks for the compliment! Anyways, it is Tamiya's new favourite colour - TS51 (if I remember the number correctly) Telefonica/Racing Blue. My biggest fear was silvering on those decals, loads of "transparent" in the decals. But trusty ole MicroSol (red bottle) came through just fine, no sign of silvering on any decal.

The paint job, however, is no longer looking so good... Went for a mtb ride on Saturday morning, came back, watched my bike, saw lots of dust, even though it was quite a hard road we went out on. Combined with what I saw of past German Rallies, I decided to go for a bit more dirtied look - it's not a straight tarmac rally (like France), so they are bound to get the cars dirty. And what the heck, we're here to have fun!

However, had a bit of a hecktic weekend and not finished yet...

Forgot to mention that the paint looks great. What type and brand is it?
/Joel

Hahaha! My way of playing safe!

Sorry, Joel, I only have a point-and-shoot digital camera. This was taken on it's macro mode, believe it or not... Maybe I should try normal mode and see whether I can't zoom more.

Looks great from this distance SeaBee! Any chance of getting some more close ups?
best regards
Joel

Thanks mate! In the end I decided to leave it clean. This is a German Rally car and though Rally Germany is usually very unpredictable weatherwise, the fact that this kit is equiped with dry tarmac tyres, just does not fit a muddy car. I have a Safari Rally Corrolla in the to-build pile which will be more suited to a bit dirtying up.

But good to see an (seemingly) aero guy getting into the auto stuff! Hope you enjoy the build! I presume you got the Tamiya Corolla and not a Hasegawa as mine (mentioned above) is. Tamiya's are a more straight-forward build!

Wow, what a car SeaBee!! Great job! As for me, I did buy some decals before I left Japan but found out they were for a F-1!! LOL Oh, Well!! But also before I left Japan I bought a Tamiya Toyota Corolla WRC kit ( I think the 97/98 version) It was on sale at the LHS that I was frequenting there for like 1200 yen ( bout $12) so I do have a nice kit & can't wait till I get set up in NAS Fallon to start it! - Calvin

It's the 1998 Corolla that participated in the Catalonia Rally w/ marking for Sainz/Moya or Auriol/Giraudet. As soon as I get my barracks room set up I'm gonna get 'er started! - Calvin

Progress update:

Basically finished. See pics below. Absolute great fun to build, no problems anywhere. These are just to show I have actually finished it. Will now muddy it up a bit - first attempt at that, so it may not be succesfull! Hey, we're here to have fun, hey...

The paint seems a bit brighter on some of the pics due to the flash. Actually came out very nice.

Progress update:

Basically finished. See pics below. Absolute great fun to build, no problems anywhere. These are just to show I have actually finished it. Will now muddy it up a bit - first attempt at that, so it may not be succesfull! Hey, we're here to have fun, hey...

The paint seems a bit brighter on some of the pics due to the flash. Actually the colour came out very nice.

If all else fails... RTFM! And read it beforehand. And think about what they're asking...

Simply put, don't follow the instructions and then come to a point where they somehow decided to expect you to paint a part that you allready enclosed from one side with the roll cage!
For all prospective Focus builder, I presume this has been in the instructions since the first Focus. Just check beforehand, you'll see in the final step of adding rollcages and panel sides, you have to paint some bits at the back of the car's interior on the chassis. To save yourself some extreme frustration doing it through the rollcage, do it as soon as you start the rest of the interior.

Just thought I'd mention it - isn't this what GB's are all about.

Sorry I can't show any progress she-who-must-be-obeyed has had me putting in retaining walls and such like. However I have managed to sand down the ridges between the masked colours and touch up the couple of little runs under the mask. I'm going to put some cut to shape white decal where the kit decals go over the Marlboro red in case they are too thin and translucent. When that's done I'll do photos. Depends when I get those darn retaining walls finished!!

I'm in! My first car GB. Doing a 1:24 Tamyia Mini Cooper.

I'll dig thru my stuff.
Send me your email addy and I'll send you pics.

Cheers
Nenad

Looking good, guys!

Started working on the interior as well. Looked forward a bit and have a quick question. the model I am building is geared to be built a a Duval car. (Performance blue 2002 Focus). Problem is, I want to build a Martin/Park car. But the instructions on the figures only includes detail for how to do Duval (en his navigator's) helmets.

Anybody got some instructions or good pics of Markko Martin's helmet? What I also still want to look at, is whether a full-faced helmat is actually included. To my knowledge, he tends to wear that, instead of the normal open helmets (?)

QUOTE: Originally posted by joelwideqvist Nenad: That interior looks stunning! My best compliments! /Joel

Hi Joel,
Thanks for the compliments. The 206 looks very nice so far.

Currently I am woking on mastering an interior set for my 2001 Focus WRC. I'll keep you posted.

Regards
Nenad

Mark, it looks like a "Warsteiner" sponsored car #25. Withe some smaller sponser markings & a red, light blue and dark blue or purple strip sets for the sides(?) & roof (?). I did see some sponsor decals in a LHS. I might pick them up, maybe find a number sheet of the same style and paint the strips, once I figure out where they go! LOL - Calvin

Nenad: That interior looks stunning! My best compliments!

Nicholma: Tha Stratos seems to be on the way, I await the pics of the red/white livery.

Here's some updates on my progress. As I bought a camera yesterday perhaps pictures can come on a more regular bases..









The Renaissance decals are ok to work with, but the glue seems a bit on the weak side. When applying the decals they tend to move around VERY easily even after pressing them down with a damp cloth. Some terrible silvering appeared on the smaller decals in front of the doors and on the large 206 decal on the roof (wich should be yellow by the way...) I didn't notice that the large area inside the "0" was transparant decal, I thougth that was pre cut. As the decal slid off the paper it was pretty much too late to do anything about it and I'm working on milding the effects. Bonnet decal and rear side decals are not yet applied cause I will attach Sakatsu rivets instead of the pre molded ones. Will paint them today and hopefully attach them on monday.
/Joel

Calvin what scheme came with the kit?

I remasked the Stratos last evening and tonight when I got home from work I sprayed the marlboro red. Looks quite nice, but a couple of small undermask leaks to touch up. I'll leave the body for a week or 2 to harden before handling again. I should have the rest finished by then - well I might if I hadn't spent the last 2 hours on the forum!!

Well, I looked at HobbyLink & Rainbow Ten for some decals for this thing. I have the original kit decals. Doesn't look like there is anything wrong with them, just thick as a postage stamp! Plus, I have absolutely NO idea where to put them! LOL Like I said, the kit came in a bag and I guess Mono figured everyone that was gonna build it would have the box. A google search turned up some photos of some 450's but none in the scheme that came w/ the kit. I noticed Hobby Link did have quite a few decal sheets availible. Is it possible to "adapt" some other cars decals to this make? I may be able to find some generic sponsor sheets here in Japan but without any references I'd be shooting in the dark, per se. - Calvin

QUOTE: Originally posted by nicholma Nenad reminds me has anyone seen the new Haseqawa 2003 Focus kit? I 've just seen the box not whats inside.

Hi Mark,
I have several of the Hasegawa Focus 2003 WRC on order form Hobby Link Japan.
When they arrive, I will take some pics and post up a review for you guys. I have a few Fujimi Murcielago's coming as well...Woo Hooo!

Haven't seen it, but saw on MMH that there's a set of Duval (BP) decals available. Can't remember by whom or for shich race though...

Calvin, that's an interesting kit. I built the ESCI version several years ago. It all went together reasonably well if I recall.

Nenad reminds me has anyone seen the new Haseqawa 2003 Focus kit? I 've just seen the box not whats inside.

If this doesn't end until Nov. I might join in. It would be a break from the aircraft & armor that I've been putting out for the last 8 months. Anyone know the Mono 1/24 Mercedes 450 Rally kit? I doubt if it's valuable or anything. I got it on Evil-bay w/ some a/c kits, bagged with the original decals. It's a curbside kit, so I doubt it would take too long to put together as long as I don't count rivets or anything! LOL - Calvin

Hello,
My name is Nenad Mitrovic.
Here is my entry in the contest.
It's a 1999 Ford Focus WRC driven by Colin McRae and even has the illegal water pump.....








Regards
Nenad

The Stratos mudguards have been redone and the body painted again in white. Now just letting it harden off before masking again for the marlboro red. Below is a photo which shows what the rear guard looks like from the kit and the 2nd photo is what it should be like.



You can see in the first photo that the top of the guard doesn't meet the top of the body which it does in the 2nd. Not much of a difference but an important one for a rivet counter!


I looked a bit more closely at my reference material (Piero Casucci's Lancia Stratos and Klein's books Rally and Rally Cars) and it appears that the rear mudguard shape change quite regularly and sometimes both team cars on an event may have different shaped guards.

Quick update: started working on the suspension, will most likely be adding it this weekend. Then it's time for the interior...

Sorry for bad photos but here's some progress of my build.
Here's the underside. "Engine" is done and whole part is slightly weathered. Exhaust is AlcladII polished aluminum and Tamiya X-32, heat stains with tamiya clears. Missing is some areas to be painted black as protective shielding.



Body shell is painted with Tamiya TS-49, a few mist coats and then I had to put on three wet coats to get rid of some areas where I had not been careful enough and got some dull spots. Let's see how the panel lines turnes out after such a treatment... Protection at the lower part is made as mentioned above and so far painted TS-14 black, will be treated with some semi-gloss clear after clear coating the whole body.
As the protection is added on to the body with styrene there is a bit of a lip that I wanted black. Masking tape would have covered some of this area but I got the tip to use Bare Metal Foil for masking off the nearest area and it turned out very well.
Paint doesn't look any good on these pics, it is in fact deeper and not that pink...





Most minor parts are painted. Working on the details of the dash for the moment. Have some minor cable work to do and seatbelts. Here are some of the more worked parts. CF tank and door sides plus mirrors and the weathered transmisson parts. Fire exstinguishers are sanded, painted, decalled and then got some black tape as straps.
Seats got decals from the kit and transkit and were then sprayed with Modeler's flat clear (I can really recommend their line of clears)
Sorry for the lousy detail. CF on doors and mirrors turned out great but I must admit the tank has some weak spots.



Well, we'll see what I can bring on til next time...perhaps some photographic skills...
best regards
Joel

I hear that I am lucky to have a basement storage room of 30 square meters to use for my modelling :-) Heated and not humid. Costs me approx 30 USD a month but as I let the father in law store some crap there I'm down to half that sum.
/Joel