Fujimi BMW Z4 GT3 2012

[TheBanker]

Hi all!

So far I've posted some pics of my finished models but havent done a full wip so here's my first attempt at one. The subject is Fujimis BMW z4 GT3 racer from Studie (a Japanese Super GT racing team) sponsored by Good Smile Racing. These guys are well known in Japan for their hobby related products and in this case, the super colorful and attractive Miku Hatsune "itasha" decals that adorn the BMW Z4.

Car will be build with a few additions - namely, Hobby Design's bmw z4 photo etch set, racing seat belt set and scale finishes carbon fibre decals for the aero parts and massive rear wing.

Here's what's been done so far.

Body was washed, primed and lightly sanded with 2000 grit paper. After a couple of days, I airbrushed 3-4 coats of pure white enamel from ACE hardware's spray paint range (decanted from the can). Building up the color using light mist coats resulted in a nice solid white with just a little bit of texture. Here are the results:

The body was left to dry for a week- then wet sanded fully using 2000- 5000 grit sandpaper to eliminate the texture. Once the paint was entirely flat, the shine was restored with meguairs scratch x compound. After a couple of hours of rubbing and buffing, this is what I ended up with.

Then I carbon fibered the window surrounds using paper templates I had cut to fit. For small areas like these, carbon fibre decals really enhance the look of the model as opposed to the plain black that fujimi asks you to do.

And now for the hard part- wrapping the whole body in hatsune miku decals. This task took me about 4 days to complete and used up every ounce of patience (and decal setting solution) I had. The upside is that the decals are thick and work well with mr mark setter and softer, which helps them confirm nicely to the million compound curves. The down side is that they are badly engineered and require a lot of cutting, trimming and unavoidable overlapping which takes away from the smoothness of the surface. I can only hope that the clear coat will help level things out a bit, otherwise it's not going to look quite as good as I had hoped. Here are some pics:

[TheBanker]

In the meantime, I've also been working on the wheels-you can see the mock up in the photos above. First the brake surfaces supplied in the kit was painted silver- then the PE brake discs were attached using super glue - I made sure that I got the direction right as I have previously made the mistake of not following the direction of rotation when assembling brakes- much like those pesky F1 Bridgestone tyre decals. Once all 4 wheels were dry I painted the disc "vents" with diluted black oil paint to give them more depth. After a couple of hours I cleaned up the disc surface with some turpentine "exposing" the metal surface and leaving the black paint only in the recesses to create a realistic appearance. Next I assembled the centre pieces and painted them steel - I then gave them a dark grey wash to pick out the bolts. Once these were completed I painted the brake pads using tamiya titanium gold and glued them to the sub assemblies. Finally the 4 sub assemblies were attached to the underway. Next I primed and painted the wheels semi gloss black and attached them using the poly caps provided in the kit. Here's a close up- I'm very happy with the results.

Now I only need to put on the decals and I'm done! A word of caution to those building this kit: the fujimi instructions are wrong- while fujimi will tell you to fit the front and rear brake pads facing each other, the correct way is to attach them both facing rearwards- the implication of this is that you will have to reverse the PE pieces on the rear wheels sub assembly as well- very fiddly business, this!! Am quite disappointed fujimi made such a huge mistake- quality seems to dwindling while prices are rising .... And engines are almost always missing in most kits...

[heloman1]

Lookin' good, a great scheme and I like the way you tackled the paint, no quick way to a good shine. The perenial problem with two dimensional graphics they don't translate well to a three dimensional model. However it does look good. Thanks for the wip and pics.

Colin

[Steve Noble]

Excellent work so far and the decals are going on very nicely for such a complicated colour scheme. I have one of these myself with all the after market goodies, but I'm still undecided which colour scheme I will build it in. Look forward to seeing this progress further..

[TheBanker]

Lookin' good, a great scheme and I like the way you tackled the paint, no quick way to a good shine. The perenial problem with two dimensional graphics they don't translate well to a three dimensional model. However it does look good. Thanks for the wip and pics.

Colin

Thanks for the comments, Colin! Completely agree with you there. When it comes to a nice and shiny paint job, there are very few short cuts one can take! Learned it the hard way myself on earlier models when my finish used to be far from perfect ... not to say that I build anything close to perfect now, but at least they are somewhat acceptable - otherwise I wouldn't be displaying them on the shelf

[TheBanker]

Excellent work so far and the decals are going on very nicely for such a complicated colour scheme. I have one of these myself with all the after market goodies, but I'm still undecided which colour scheme I will build it in. Look forward to seeing this progress further..

Thanks Steve - Do let me know if you plan to build one as I'm a huge fan of this car and would love to follow your progress! I highly recommend the Marc VDS racing scheme. It makes the Z4 look ultra aggressive!

[TheBanker]

Some more progress from my side- got the windshield/ windows painted. Unlike the McLaren I built earlier, this time Fujimi did not supply window masks so I had to create my own. I simply masked the entire piece on the inside with Tamiya tape, then, using a new blade, I held it up to my lamp and used the raised edge to guide the blade around the window frame. After some careful trimming it looked like this

Then I sprayed it semi-gloss black and attached it to the body. Amazing fit, happy to report no problems there whatsoever!

[TheBanker]

Next I added all the sponsor decals (Over 60 of them! ) This was quite a lengthy task which again took me 3 days to complete. On the fourth day I sprayed the body with 2 coats of gloss clear (mist + wet coat) to seal the decals and "level out" the many layers of decals now stacked on top of each other. I then polished the body with Mequiars scratch X- the equivalent of Tamiya coarse/medium rubbing compound. Here's the result:

Looking like a real Z4 now!! I also added the fuel filler cap, bonnet pins and bonnet louvres (replaced the kit parts with PE)

[TheBanker]

Another update: interior is complete! I tried adding "extras" in the form of electrical boxes, wiring and seatbelts but don't think I succeeded - seatbelts look ok but I made a mess of the wiring and spilled CA glue all over the cockpit. However, as most of it will be hidden anyway I think I can still live with it and try again on another model. I'm happy with the fuel pipe though- added and shiny aluminum tape to make I took more realistic

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[Miggers]

Meguire's is good stuff,I use it on my 1:1 Beemer E46 Coupe.

Daren't show the Mrs this lovely build-up,she adores Z4's and thinks we

should have one as our next BMW.