Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Priming started for F1-GTR

Finally had a chance to start priming F1-GTR parts. Not much visual progress, but important step. For me priming usually signifies the end of part modifications and test assembly. There still be some filling and sanding done on body panels and some other parts, but many parts are ready for paining now. Semi-gloss black will be used the most as base for Carbon Fibre decals. And there is a lot of CF on this car. I've run out of Zero 2 part etching primer and will have to source some in local auto paints store. Hopefully they have some good quality 2 part etching primer available. Here are some short right from my paint booth while parts are still drying. Black'ish colour on chassis is just not steered properly primer. Rest of parts were sprayed later after I properly steered and mixed more primer.





Monday, December 9, 2013

First sub-assemblies for F1-GTR

More progress on this build. Had a pretty productive weekend. Ran magnetic tumbler last Friday for about 4 hours and got most of the parts cleaned. Only big parts remain to clean manually, because they wouldn't fit into tumbler. I've permanently assembled engine and gearbox parts, before painting. I was tempted to leave them as they came out of tumbler - shiny. But on real car engine is aluminium color and gearbox is steel color. So, will have to prime and paint these 2 sub-assemblies and other parts. After clean up number of imperfections appeared in metal parts. There are also imperfections in resin parts, I will have to fix. They cycle of priming/sanding/priming can take long time. So, it could be a while before next updates in this WIP appear.


Friday, December 6, 2013

F1-GTR's gearbox and rear suspension

Worked on gearbox and rear suspension parts last night. Almost finished. Test fitted most of it, but could not get parts, which connect gearbox to body to stay on for test fitting. So, I've done partial tests and I think it is good enough. Will probably have to do minor adjustments when I reach final assembly steps, but I don't imaging there would be any major issues. Going to start cleaning up parts in magnetic tumbler tonight.



Monday, December 2, 2013

F1-GTR's engine parts prepared

I had only few hours for modeling this weekend and spent them preparing engine parts. Started couple of parts from gearbox as well. It's all held up by gravity only, so I couldn't move it from my work table. Fit of parts is pretty good. MFH cleverly designed many pins and tabs to help align parts and held them together. Final assembly shouldn't be an issue. Not too many parts are left to prepare before all could go into tumbler for cleanup. But severe lack of modeling time slows progress down.