Skoda Fabia S2000 (2012 Czech Rally - Juho Hänninen / Mikko Markkula) - 1/24 Belkits (2)

The kit comes with the decals for the green parts of the body, and it's not just solid green, but with a bit more metallic finish to it. Looks quite nice but I'd still prefer to paint the body myself as it gives me a better control over the coverage of the pattern, you never know whether that decal will fully cover the whole body, a millimeter short is a millimeter short.

The paint I use is Zero Paints, they have the white and green specifically made for this kit. I got this from a web shop in Spain. I think they are easily available in UK, but for some reason nobody's shipping them to Australia.

First I did the white coat, then mask it for the metallic green.

Once the green is done I move onto the black lines. I've used the new Tamiya curve masking tape, like the name they curve better than the old yellow masking tape, and the edges are alot smoother. The edge of the yellow masking tape is a bit rough in my view, maybe it's because of the paper's fibrous nature.

I've always photocopy the decal sheet before I start, it can be used as a template for coloring, or repair decal in case I messed up one.

the headlights, had a bit of fun with the carbon fiber decal.

All done, one final check before putting them together. Unfortunately I kind of messed up the decal for the rally stage, did my best to fix it.

Skoda Fabia S2000 (2012 Czech Rally - Juho Hänninen / Mikko Markkula) - 1/24 Belkits (1)

To be honest I'm not a big follower of rally races, but when I come along interesting kits, I can't just let them pass! Besides it's good to see models kits of other cars being made. Afterall most European model cars we get are Lamborghinis and Ferraris (Occasionally Mercedes, Porsches and BMWs.....)

The Skoda Fabia S2000 kit was released in late 2015. Took me about 3 months to finish, it was quite a straight forward built this time. The kit itself was detailed enough, and come with photo etch parts.

Starting off with the interior. The doors are made of carbon fibre, so I try to apply carbon fibre decal on the doors. For me it's like doing a practice, I know I'll come across alot of cabon fibre decals when I build F1 kits later, besides even if I failed here, it's on the inside of the car, behind a roll cage. Hardly noticeable...

Good thing it turned out better than expected. First cut out the approximate area of decal, then apply it and let it wrap around the edges. Once dried (give it a day or so), use a blade to trim the edges off, and the parts without decal (the door handle, and the part below)

Next the seats. If I remembered correctly, the seat belts are 2mm red ribbons. I set the photo etch part in place with a bit of white glue. Once that's done I glue the seat belts in place.

The spare tyres. The instruction shows how you should tie the belt, but I find it too small to work with so I simplified it, looks close enough.

Putting the interior together, with the chassis.

I added a few more carbon fibre decal on the driver's side. The pattern is a bit bigger than I expected, but it'll be hard to see once the body is on. 

I'll leave painting for the next post.

Fiat Abarth 500 - 1/20 Fujimi (Completed)

Since I'm in the middle of moving, I just did a few quick shots with my phone. If they look good enough here I guess that's the way to go in the future. Saves time setting up photo booth and camera.

 Now that I put all the parts together, I can help but notice how bad the bumpers are aligned with the body, the rear is especially worse....

The interior, glad I did the knobs on the panel. 

I applied the decal onto the photo etch parts, works quite well.  

The kit also include this box....it's suppose to come with the real car, but I'm not sure.....any Abarth owners know?

Overall this is a straight forward built. One note to self: next time it's better to fit the bumpers to the body first, and modify the base to fit.

Fiat Abarth 500 - 1/20 Fujimi (1)

2017 already.......

It's not I've given up on making models, it's just I'm too lazy to upload photos.
Actually 2016 has been quite fruitful (on model making, and other stuff...)
5 kits completed, hopefully I have the will to upload all of them this time.

So first I should start off with something easy, a kit of my dream car: Fiat Abarth 500.

At first I treated it as a "break" from the Williams FW36, which is taking forever.....but in the end the short break has become an extended break.....

It's a very straight forward build, the only major modification are replacing the grills in the front and rear bumper, and removing the side strip. I used the photo etch parts from Hobby Design.

All that solid grill mesh has to go.

The same for the little one on rear bumper.

Some minor adjustment on the rear bumper studs, it's quite tight to begin with. If I don't trim it down now it's unlikely it will fir after painting.

Removing the side strip. Fujimi uses the same body from its Fiat 500 kit. It took a while to get the surface right.

Very straight forward on the interior. I got my reference from some car sales website.

The suspensions, too bad you can't really see them once the wheel is on.

Pre-fit, though this this the last time I will see this color scheme. While applying the gloss cost I messed up the side decal, so the whole thing has to be stripped and repainted.

This time I go for the 2-tone color scheme, black and white. First I paint the base white, then get the red center line done. After that cover it up and paint the top part black.

and done!

some minor correction on the red line. Late last year Tamiya released a masking tape that curves better, if that was available when I build this kit, I'm sure the red line can be much smoother. (It's not too bad not though...)

and the repaint is done!

For chrome bits I use Alclad II Chrome, first time I used this paint. Very easy to use and the finish is great! I apply it after buffing the body, as I've heard a clear coat on top will ruin the chrome shine, something I don't want to risk this time. Also something to note is the paint is not a very strong sticking agent, if you rub hard enough you can rub it off. You can still handle it normally but it's better to pay more attention and avoid if possible.

 It's not very clear on this angle, but the chrome works really well.

Last bit, the number plate from the kit is quite thick, juts replace it with a 0.2 mm plastic strip.

And that's how it looks before final assembly.

Next time it'll be photos of the complete kit.