More painting completed for P34

Masked and painted aluminium and black on chassis, seat and cockpit cover. Ready for decals now. I run out of Alclad aluminium, so painted SG black first and then used Alclad polished aluminium instead. Looks OK, I think.

Progress on P34

Finally an update. I have not stopped, and while body parts were waiting for clear coat, I've continued painting and working on small parts. Most are done, either with air-brush or hand brush painting. FORD logos were dry brushed. I need to work more on that technique, but I think it's better this time. I've attempted for a second time to do some weathering with Tamiya smoke. This time I think I've got better results. It's hard to capture on photos, because effect is very subtitle. I've applied smoke on engine, gearbox and some suspension arms. I feel it did make a difference. From plain coloured, parts went to somewhat used look. This build will pretty much be the first one, when I start assembly long before all the parts are ready. One of the reasons, is that I need engine/gearbox assembly to play a role of a jig, so I could align all the pipes of exhausts and glue them together properly before putting, priming and painting. I don't see any way to get them ready before that. Body parts were clear coated with Zero 2K afterwards and are almost ready for decals. But first I need to mask and paint aluminium colour on the chassis.

Decals are done and Zero 2K clear is on F10

Finished decals on wings and applied some CF decals. For this build only selected areas will be covered with CF decals. Zero 2K clear was also put on later. Drying at present and waiting for polishing job. As soon as polishing is done it'll be pretty much ready for assembly.

Finished CF job for MP4/27

For weeks I've been working on CF job for this build. Pretty much done. I don't plan to CF whole suspension of this model, only front arms. Under body and nose are done. Rear and front wings are done as well. Pretty much all decals are ready as well. I've put more Alclad Aqua clear coat over decals and CF later. Got a small bump of clear where it run and accumulated. It's at the very end of engine cover. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it yet. I'm going to let it dry for a while and then probably attempt to polish it off.

Decal work continues for F10

Small update after almost 3 weeks without a chance to work on models. I've continued with decal application for F10 model. Wings are almost done. I will need to do CF decal application later.

Most difficult part of decal job is done for MP4/27

With warm, sunny weather back to GTA, my motivation and energy levels are quite high at present. I like decal jobs, so I decided to continue with one for MP4/27. Spent weekend applying decals to body and some wing elements. I opted to use all decals for day glow red instead of painting. That let me avoid painful masking and paint matching headaches. I've warmed up with decals on wing elements, before I started big ones on the nose and side pods. As expected big side pod decals were problematic, because Fujimi made simple flat decals for such a curved surfaces. With lots of Mirco-Sol and some heat from hair drier, I managed to put them on with not too many and not so big wrinkles. Most wrinkles are on the underside of side pods, so hopefully will not be very visible. Clear coat will help a bit too. I did screwed up nose stripes though. They are a bit of center. For the rest there weren't any troubles. Apparently McLaren has even less decals then Ferrari. I basically have just few more to apply on rear wing end plates and front wing elements.

Same as for F10, I've decided to use CF decals on wing elements, to avoid extra masking and painting of SG black.

Finished decals application on the body

Finally an update for this model. Decals were applied to the body according to reference photos. Despite reports about problems with Fujimi decals, they work just fine for me. I prefer to use warm water and Micro-Set solution while positioning decals. I found Fujimi decals reacting well to Micro-Set and Micro-Sol. Flat decals, like those Shell logos on side pods, are always problematic over highly curved surfaces. That would be my only complain, but it's generic and not specific to Fujimi decals. As evident on the photo, I've put body panels together and used masking tape to hold them. That trick allows me to align decals properly, according to shape of the car and reference photos. If decals are applied on separate panels, there is a chance to get alignment wrong. Fortunately there aren't that many decals on modern Ferrari F1 cars. So, decal application job is not too hard. I still have wing elements to complete next.

I'm not settled yet on use of CF decals for this model. Usually I don't bother with plastic kits. However on some of the wing elements applying CF decals might be easier then complex masking and painting of SG black. Also there is less risk of ruining paint job, if I use decals instead of SG black paint.

I really cannot understand people who don't like decal application. I've spent months preparing and painting, and only few hours applying decals. Yet model never looked better then now. Decals really make it alive for me and enjoy process and results a lot.