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ARTICOLI RECENTI

I thought I would share a photo collage with some of the reference pictures I looked at on the web. The finished car will be very bright, but it will be stunning.

These are the contents of box. The quality is excellent. You have everything here to build a fantastic scale model

First thing to consider when using resin materials is health and safety. You should wear an appropriate mask when sanding, using a file or drilling resin parts as fine resin particles can be dangerous if breathed in. These photos are carried over from my Ferrari 488 Pista build.

Also, always wash all resin parts in soapy water or use an anti-silicone degreaser before priming and painting. I actually did both here. The degreaser product I’m using is by Zero Paints. This stage is needed to remove any resin release or production agents. You risk the primer or paint not laying down on the resin properly if you miss out this stage.

Preparation work on the resin included sanding out some imperfections on the body shell using 1500 grit sanding sponge. I then used a 0.15mm scriber to open out the panel lines (make them a bit deeper). The panel lines on the Alpha Model resin body shell were nice and crisp in the main. The slightly troublesome ones were the door handles and the fuel filler cover. These hadn’t been molded very deep so were trickier to scribe deeper. I started the process with a needle scribe which helped.

I also took the opportunity at this stage (before primer) to make templates for the twill weave carbon fibre. I usually use Tamiya masking tape for this. For the roof of the car though I needed a wider tape. I’ve found KIP masking tape to work similar to the 50mm wide Tamiya masking tape.

Here is my completed stock of carbon fibre templates for the body work.

This is a trial for me. Before I primed and painted the body shell, I painted the inside elements of the body. First of all I used Mr Surfacer 1500 black as a primer. I then painted the wheel wells with Tamiya LP5 Semi Gloss Black lacquer and the interior of the car with LP60 NATO Black lacquer. The NATO Black will go well with the paint that I’m using on the seats.

I then masked the black paint work and went ahead and primed the exterior of the body shell with Mr Surfacer 1500 white before I gave the whole body shell a base coat of Zero Paints Pure Brilliant White. This gave me a perfect base for the Lime Essence base coat

Finally I was able to go ahead and get the Lime Essence base coat from Zero Paints on the body work. At this stage I was considering Lime mirrors however I subsequently changed my mind and the mirrors will be black.

It was now the debates started on Facebook. Should the car colour be pearlescent? I then researched further on the Aston Martin site and came across the ”strong solid base coat is combined with a xiralic gold effect coat to create a prism-like visual refraction for a particularly vibrant highlight” specification. I decided that the base coat needed more of a pearlescent effect. This was achieved with a couple of light coats of Zero Paints Pearl Tinter. The test spoon confirmed the effect that I was after but I should have given it one further coat of Pearl Tinter. So… three light coats required on the body work when I get to it for real.

Holding the spoon against the base paint work confirmed that I was nearly where I wanted to be pearlescent effect wise. Note that the spoon also has a clearcoat on it, hence the shine.

The car body painted in the awesome Zero Paints Aston Martin GTE Le Mans 2019 lime essence with a couple of light coats of Zero Paints Pearl Tinter

Here is a close up picture of the final body colour prior to 2K clearcoat. I think it’s awesome.

This is the rear lower wind deflector. Alpha Model provide lime coloured decals to cover this however, I wanted to ensure the lime on the black/lime deflector was the same pearlescent effect as the body work paint. I decided to mask up and prepare to paint the Lime Essence colour rather than using the kit decals.

First thing necessary was a base coat of brilliant white (I used Tamiya’s LP4 Flat White lacquer paint this time to achieve this). White is of course the required base colour for the lightness and brilliance of the lime essence colour.

Next up was a few fine coats of Zero Paints Aston Martin lime essence and also Pearl Tinter.

Then I was able remove the masking tape and had the perfect effect of lime and black on the rear lower aerofoil.

Back to the car body, I used the carbon fibre decal templates that I had previously prepared along with ScaleMotorsport Twill Weave decal (part number 1020) to enable me to represent the carbon roof, lower side effect and front wing panels.

Close up view of the carbon wing panel and lower side effect. The panel lines have been highlighted using Tamiya Black Panel Line Accent Color.

And a close up of the carbon roof. Once the 2K clearcoat is applied the body colour and carbon effects will stand out wonderfully.

The carbon decals were left to dry for a week now before airbrushing Zero Paints 2K Diamond Effect Gloss Clearcoat over the car body and also the gloss black door mirrors. This was all then set aside for a couple of weeks to fully cure.

While the car body’s 2K Clearcoat was curing, I moved my efforts to the interior. This was the effect I was looking to obtain… black leather with lime highlights. I planned to add lime centre stripes to the seats using the decals provided in the Alpha Model kit. Alpha Model also provided decals for the lime stitching. The areas around the door arm rests and the centre console would have to be masked and painted.

I wanted to add lime coloured seatbelts, just to be different. I remembered that the more recent Alpha Model kits came with etch seatbelts which of course can be painted, so I used the belts from the Civic kit. I will use third party seatbelt material when I get around to building my Civic. The etch belts are absolutely perfect. I hope Alpha Model will add them to all future kits.

Here you can see how I was able to bend the etch to give the look of a real seatbelt coming out of the door holding mechanism.

I managed to get a real nice black leather effect on the seats and other interior parts using Tamiya LP65 Rubber Black and then clear coated with Mr Color GX114 Flat Clear thinned with Mr Hobby Self Levelling Thinner. The GX114/SLT combination gave a nice semi matt finish for the leather look. Here you can see the seatbelts painted lime too. The decals are provided by Alpha Model for the seat stripes and the lime stitching. The stitching is a fantastic addition from Alpha Model. The decals laid down perfectly when used.

In this photograph you see the completed seats. I used semi gloss black on the seat movement mechanisms and also on the seatbelt catch. I also added red to the seatbelt catch trigger. You might also see that I used black flocking on the floor.

I just love how the seatbelts came out… perfection. The etch belts were shaped, primed, base coated white and then top coated lime. The etch connectors were masked so that I could paint the black bit.
Below you see the finished result.

All the components for the passenger side door. I used the kit decals for the lime door highlight line. The highlight area behind the arm rest was painted with the Zero Paints lime. As detailed before, I also painted the seat belts.

The completed door interior for the passenger side. To say that I was happy with this is an understatement. I loved how it looked

Onto the centre console. Again the lime area here was painted. I hand painted the aluminium style dials before applying the label decals.

The dashboard area is primarily Tamiya LP paints rubber black, with a semi matt finish to represent black leather. The air vents were painted semi gloss black, as were the speaker covers and the top air vents. You can also see the steering wheel assembly here, ready to be attached to the dashboard.

The completed dashboard assembly.

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