A friend is building a 1/24 scale model of my Z Car. It's a Tamiya plastic model kit. Here is my car. He does awesome work and he offered to do this for me! Can't wait for the finished product.





Parts bag (body)



The paint job on the body is the most important part of the build. It will make or break the final product. I use Tamiya spray cans for my paint jobs. Tamiya's spray can paints are state of the art in the model industry. These paints are very expensive and if applied correctly the finish is as good or better than an air brush. The body will take a full week to complete. Layers- Two coats of primer/ Three coats of base silver/ Three coats of clear.




First obsticle was the wheels. The wheels in the kit came chrome plated. The stock wheels are Gun Metal to match his side skirts and front and rear farings. So the chrome had to come off so I could paint them Gun Metal. A quick spray of heavy duty Easy Off oven cleaner and the chrome literally dissolved! No scrubbing needed. A quick wash with soap and water and they are ready for painting.

[img]ttp://www.zsport.org/components/com_joomlaboard/uploaded/images/wheels1.jpg[/img]

Primer is now applied.



Wheels now painted Gun Metal.



Here is the body with the three coats of Silver. I'll let it cure for 24 hours and then mask off to paint the side skirts and farings.



Skirts now painted gun metal.



Body seams are now painted.



Here is the body with clear coat and 3 hours of buffing.

 

Nice !!!

 

you need a shorty antenna man!!!

 

Did you put a CF overlay on your roof? That's sweet.

 

how did you avoid the orange peel effect?

 

 

Yes but I removed it. It is no longer on my Z.

 

Easy, it's off my roof now if that is what you were talking about.

 

No, I mean how did apply the paint so smoothly? Whenever I paint ANYTHING it ends up bumpy (looking like an orange peel)


For example, this is an instance of the orange peel effect on paint, which become especially apparent on models.

 

Does your friend do custom work as well? Let me know.

 

I'm the one who's building the model.
I've just gotten alot of practice in with paint jobs. Experience I guess. Believe me, I've had my share of orange peel and other issues.
Glad you like it so far.

 

Hey zsport1, do you have experience with making custom resin pieces? Let me know.

 

Looks great so far! I especially like how you painted the body seams to make it look even more realistic.

 

kit and work.

 

is that roof painted or the overlay from bat? how do you like it so far in terms of keeping it clean

how does it look under the sun?

 

Yes I do. I don't like working with resin too much as it's a pain. Just depends on what the job is. The blue 350Z in this pic has custom resin nose piece, side skirts, and rear pan. I did all the work on that build.

 

Yes I do. The 350Z Roadster you see in this pic was a hardtop kit that I chopped the top and custom built the rear trunk lid, roll bars, etc...
This kit was about 90% finished in this pic.

 

It was a overlay in that picture. IMHO I rather have it painted. I have already removed it.

 

Nice work! Do you have a website that displays more close-up pix of the cars you have done? Sent you a PM btw.

 

Looks good. I just did a build on a low ryder. haha.

Now i'm working on a 1969 dodge charger. BIG block YEAH!
pure american power.