GT-R Complete & Photos

I've wrapped up the build of the Tamiya GT-R kit.  By the time I was finishing up this kit, I was remembering why is was that I tried a wooden kit in the first place.  I get worn out on all the painting, the frustrations of various paint types not agreeing with one another, and the fragility of decals.  Although at least with this project, I took away a few valuable lessons that I can keep in mind for future similar projects.  Here are a few tidbits to remember:

- If it is going to be shiny, use lacquer.  Tamiya's gloss acrylics just never behave when airbrushed.
- Don't use the microSOL (aka Decal Melter) until the decal is in it's final place and already partly dry.
- If some of it will be painted over, remove the underlying chrome plating first, otherwise, the paint will just chip off, despite using primer.
- Give the aforementioned lacquer PLENTY of time to dry before putting masking tape on it.  Probably should wait 24 hours before trying.
- One should probably order a second set of decals for a project like this, as some are sure to be damaged.  Alternately, perhaps one could scan them, and buy a self-print decal sheet so one could make replacements (although I'm not sure about the quality difference here)
- Third party racing harness kits, while pretty cool, might not be worth the effort unless the car is an open wheel type.

Anyhow, with this project completed, I spent a few minutes photographing but this car and the last project (WWII BMW r75 motorcycle).  I recently purchased a new lens, which has some macro capabilities, and tried that out on this shoot.  I am pretty pleased with the results.  Here are a few images of the completed models:

The full galleries are online and can be reached by either following the links on the right sidebar (new feature!) or by clicking the links below:

http://www.hello-napalm.com/photo_cols/bmwr75/
http://www.hello-napalm.com/photo_cols/calsonicgtr/

Also, as you may recall, at the beginning of this project, I set up a web cam that would allow me to both stream images to a web page, as well as do a bit of a timelapse thing of the entire build.  As a result of that, I've collected the images, put them together and made a fancy little video.  Check it out (click on the link under the video to see the larger version):


Tamiya Build Time Lapse from Nathan Fariss on Vimeo.

Next up:  Model Airways' Curtis 'Jenny' wooden plane.  Stay tuned for more model adventures!