More painting done for F1-GTR long tail

I was only able to spend one night down at my modeling workbench this weekend, but I've done quite a bit more painting for this build. Most of other parts beside body panels are painted in their base colors by now. Some detail brush painting is left to do and then body panels, when Gulf colors arrive. In one hand I'm looking forward to Gulf colors, in other hand I'm a bit horrified with all the masking I will have to do.

Primer is on

Completed parts preparations and mounted then on sticks and toothpicks. Then sprayed Tamiya grey primer. Gone through almost a full can of primer for this model. As soon as primer dries I will start painting other parts beside body panels. Still need to get matching paints.

Preparations work in progress

There is some progress, but not much to show. I'm stuck in preparations stage. Glued some parts before priming and filled in seams and injection marks. Aoshima designers managed to put most of those marks out of sight, which is great. But some still need to be filled. Fit is great all over the kit and I'm pretty happy with that. Next will be primer.

Dry fit test assembly continues

More progress on test fit assembly. Nothing is glued on or permanently attached yet. I'm very impressed with the fit of parts overall. Doors do not fit 100% likely because of thin plastic at their tops. But rest fits very well together. Body just clicks in place and leaves to visible seems. Fit of windows is really amazing and they are quite thin for a plastic kit. Beside error with front gills and weak brakes, I have no other issues to point my finger to. Aoshima has done really great job.

Aoshima F1-GTR Long Tail started

Couldn't wait any longer and started my first build of new Aoshima kit. Plan is to build it pretty much OOB with addition of PE set and after market livery decals. FIA 1997 Gulf livery car is the target.

Just started my usual dry fit assembly. Overall impressions are very positive. I'm quite impressed by the level of engineering and detail level. Especially engine detail. It looks very good and pretty accurate. Cockpit has great level of detail as well. Casting quality is very good and very little clean up, beside removal of usual mold seam lines is needed. Injection pin marks are generally placed in hidden areas and only small number of them will need a fill ins. Brakes are a weak point and suspension is a bit compromised, but they won't be very prominent on completed model.

Fit is very good and in some instances I couldn't immediately understand why parts just click into their places and align properly. Design is very clever. Most of the parts hold together well on dry fit just by virtue of tabs and pins on parts. Haven't gotten to body parts yet, but I expect fit will great there as well. That will be next step.

I think in terms of engineering level, fit level and detail level this kit is very close to best Tamiya 1/24 scale kits. Don't know about over all accuracy yet, but it has been good fun assembling it so far.

Besides mentioned weak brakes, one of the things bothering me a bit is the quality of plastic. It feels different from those types used by Tamiya and Fujimi. Seems to be lower quality. Hopefully it won't affect end result.

PE set is a bit unusual and is more like extra detail set. Beside actual PE items, it contains small number of CF decals, wires to simulate electrical cables and seat belt fabric. Not too many PE parts are included, but they are still a good addition to what is already a well detailed kit, imho.

Here are some photos to show progress so far.