Revell's Renault R23 - Paint Test that took over!

[Hugh Jampton]

This is my first post, I have been a keen reader of Britmodller for many years and finally registered a number of months back. Like many other members I got the model building bug again when the kids got older and I got some time back for myself, although I still dabbled in figure painting from 10-120mm.

My interests vary between F1, Sc-Fi & AFV although I really do like the look of the Wingnut Wheels WWI aircraft, maybe one day!

Again like many others it turns out, I very rarely complete anything but I am trying to reform away from the bad habits of the past, but not yet.

Anyway please see attached photos of one of my most recent projects, Revell's Renault R23, to be honest, I can't actually remember when I bought the kit and the main body had been undercoated and top coated in Halfords Ford Olympic Blue 2-3 years ago, I stopped after realising the yellow bodywork decals were going to be a bugger. Last year, being a Williams fan I bought the Tamiya FW13 kit and decided I would spray the bodywork instead using the decals but a practice run would be a good idea and brought out the R23, that's when the daemons inside took over, the model is now almost complete but I think it would be worth showing some of the 'in progress' pics.

Apologies for not taking photos until a later stage, it was suppose to be a bit of practice after all and after all it's a simple kit, to get the masking right I photocopied the decal sheet and laminated it so I could cut the masking tape to suit. Masking completed I sprayed with Halfords 'Rover Inca Yellow' and was rather surprised with the outcome, after gloss varnishing I cut the blue/silver piping off the yellow bodywork decal and applied on top of the colour border along with the other decals, I did have a minor problem with some of the smaller decals melting due to a overzealous initial first coat of varnish, which was easily touched up.

It was the when a thought entered this tiny brain of mine, and this is where I may offend the modelling purists, 'WEATHER IT' like you did your Warhammer Valerie and a number of tanks, personally I think it's to heavy but I can live with it, bearing in mind originally it looked like something out of the Lombard rally (many may still think this) but I was able to take much of with a simple cloth.

Regards

John

[roymattblack]

Sounds good, but your pictures aren't working......

All I get is a rectangle with a picture icon in the middle which won't load if I click it.

Roy.

[Hugh Jampton]

Roy

I'm working on it, loading through photobucket but new to this. Bare with me.

John

[Hugh Jampton]

Working at last

As you can imagine, the wife loves me working on the dinner table.

[S5 modeller]

Looking good, nowt wrong with working on the dinner table, I use ours too. The wife of course is suitably unimpressed.

Matt.

[Madmonk]

That's a great start Hugh,

I'm one that thinks the weathering is a tad over done, even if they visit the gravel traps every lap they don't get that dirty, the majority of time the main dirt on an F1 is discarded rubber from the tyres.

The FW13 is a nice kit, I have one half started and did the same as you in painting the main colours rather than trying to get large areas of decals to conform!

Cheers,

Warren

[Hugh Jampton]

I'm tending to agree, I've gone over the top. I was weathering a Leman Russ tank at the same time got carried away. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it!

However, surprised with my first F1 project in over 30 years, knocking up a simple stand and noticing a couple of 1/24 scale figures, so I bought a figure and set of Alonso helmet/overall decals and set about paining the figure which I absolutely loved. The Alonso decals were for the year later I believe and only realised after completing the helmet with a dark blue disk on the top of the helmet so I painted over the disk with a design resembling the original.

I have tried to add rubber marbles to one rear tire using gravel and black paint, I'm not overly happy with this attempt and will try some building sand mixed in with paint. Along with toning down the distressed look and making a Camera for the nose that I had lost previously.

I'm on the way to completing my sons birthday present from a few years back, another 1:24 scale from Revell, the Ferrari 2007 and was thinking of giving the weathering another go, it's obviously darker but I shall be more subtle this time.

Then onto James Hunt's M23.

Regards

John

[schumyboy83]

Looks really good, Like the figure, Where is that from if you dont mind me asking,

[Hugh Jampton]

There's a lot of figures from www.bestbalsakits.com, payment seemed laborious when I inquired, so I had a look on ebay and am almost certain I bought it from the same company (I believe it's the guy from Belgium who has been mentioned several times on other posts), just searched for 1/24 scale driver. The figure was a pleasure to paint.

The decals were from Hiroboy, helmet decals were tricky but a light coat of varnish and a slight touch up did the job.

John