Revell 1:24 BMW M3 DTM 2012 (Martin Tomczyk)

[PedroPortnoy]

Hi everyone!

So it looks like I'm building this one... Being a DTM fan myself, I hope I can pull a decent model out of this kit!

This is only my second build... Well, Actually I didn't really finish my first one (Tamiya 1/24 LaFerrari) because I managed to lose one part of the kit and I got pretty p***** . I emailed several european Tamiya agents (I'm Portuguese) to try to get the right sprue without having to purchase the entire kit again and and the UK agent (great guys, really) told me about goldstarstockists (goldstarstockists.net) who were kind enough to order it directly from Japan for just 5£. But it took forever... But it's here now and because I got this one, I'm going to work on both, once I get to the painting stage with the BMW.

I'm building it with Martin Tomczyk's Livery. As you can see, I'm replacing the kit's wheels and brake system with this nice Hobby Design resin kit and those photo-etched parts are from HD too. Both are really great, specially the resin kit which has indiviual parts for the brake discs and callipers to allow the discs to rotate with the wheels, instead of being static... Neat! The wheels look much better than the stock ones.

I also have the carbon fiber decals from RaceDecals43:

Now about the kit itself: as I'd only worked with the Tamiya kit I mentioned before, and having purchased (but no yet built) another Tamiya kit (Red Bull RB6), I have to say Tamiya and Revell are on completely different levels when it comes to modling quality... The LaFerrari kit had pretty much no flash whatsoever, so I pretty only had to remove the nub-marks; but I can say I spent many, many hours removing flash from the BMW's parts I'm not complaining, I think it's part of the fun! It just bothered me that sometimes the two halves of one part didn't really match (like the two halves of a cylinder).

Don't get me wrong, I think it'is is a great kit. It is really well engineered, the parts fit is basically perfect and there is a fair amount of detail, specially in the 'cockpit'. The body parts are actually much better molded than the rest of the kit, as expected. And the kit iiself is A LOT cheaper than most brands, specially Tamiya. Actually, I think it was the cheapest part of this build: both HobbyDesign kits and the carbon decals were more expensive than the kit itself, so... yeah...

One thing I read online a few times is that revell decals are usually really good, and they seem to be pretty fine. In fact, there is carbon fiber decals for the enormous rear wing on the kit's decal sheet, and they look a bit better than their RacingDecals43 counterparts. Definitly going to use them.

Now, about progress: not much really

After all the cutting, filling, sanding, repairing, etc., I started working on some PE parts: Gluing some together and bending/shaping others. Here's the result:

 

 

 

Sorry for:

1. My English;

2. My long post;

3. The quality of the pictures: they were taken with my smartphone since I do not own a decent camera ( )

I will try to update as soon and as often as I can, I promise!

Edited May 19, 2018 by PedroPortnoy

[Draz87]

I've been thinking about getting this one for a while now. How's the fit of the parts? Great work so far by the way, looks like its going to be a nice clean build

Draz

[imster]

great start mate and it looks like you got the PE stuff looking perfect too

[MetroRacing]

I've never been interested in the recent dtm cars. Though I really like the look of that front end. Hmmm maybe I'll be tempted to get one someday lol

Ashley

Edited November 10, 2015 by MetroRacing

[vrsmatt99]

It is a great kit! Goes together really well. The Carbon Fibre Decal sheet is great and really bring the interior alive i think

I am fan of the DTM cars too and have built a few of the Revell kits and really like them including this one.

Looking forward to seeing your build progress, the extra Resin bits look really nice.

If your interested, here is a link to my finished BMW.

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234967746-revell-124-bmw-m3-dtm/

Matt

[PedroPortnoy]

I've been thinking about getting this one for a while now. How's the fit of the parts? Great work so far by the way, looks like its going to be a nice clean build

Draz

Draz, The parts fit quite nicely really. But one of the things I learned rather quickly in this recent (for me) hobby is that it is better to be safe than sorry. So I always check if everything fits even before priming.

That's the first thing I did after removing and cleaning the parts from the sprue: I built the model unpainted using something to temporarily hold the parts together (I used tiny bits of Vallejo masking fluid, works absolutely perfect for that), specially to check if the rear end of the body would sit properly on the rear wheel arches, which are separated parts. After doing that, I noticed there was a sligh gap; it was there because the 'carbon fiber safety sell' (a.k.a. the interior of the car) was siiting a tiny bit too high in the back of the chassis and the body sits on its back end. Just sanded away a bit of the fitting and voilá, perfect! Matt seems to have had the same problem and solved it too.

Other than that, just be carefull with the parts where you have a hole and a cylinder that most go in it, you might get it stuck when checking the fit and ending up braking the 'male part'. Just use a round file or something to get it wider and you'll be fine.

That minor problem was a breeze to solve and didn't take me more than a couple of minutes. I'd definitely recommend the kit.

It is a great kit! Goes together really well. The Carbon Fibre Decal sheet is great and really bring the interior alive i think

I am fan of the DTM cars too and have built a few of the Revell kits and really like them including this one.

Looking forward to seeing your build progress, the extra Resin bits look really nice.

If your interested, here is a link to my finished BMW.

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234967746-revell-124-bmw-m3-dtm/

Matt

Thanks Matt!

It looks really nice.

Glad to see someone else that used those RD43 CF decals You did a perfect job with those, by the way.

Edited November 10, 2015 by PedroPortnoy

[Hamden]

Nice start I shall follow with interest

Roger

[PedroPortnoy]

So, back for a quick update on the progress...

The PE kit from Hobby Design came with some bits to replace the fins on the rear diffuser, but, as you can see on this picture, those parts were molded on the bottom of the model, so I had to remove them carefully.

I did it by drilling smal holes along the fins, as close as possible to the underbody and then it just snapped. I then removed the rest with a chisel blade and finished with P600 and P1000 sandpaper. I drilled very tiny holes to know where the fins were before removing them.

Then I had to glue these metal strips to the rear of the bottom, so the PE diffuser fins would fit in place later on.

As you can see, 4 of them had to be precisely bent to match the shape of the bottom. It was not too hard, but it took me a long time spent with the bending tool to get the right shape beore I could glue them.

After all the hours I spent working them out, I thought it would be fairly easy to glue them in place... Boy, was I wrong... I started using small amounts of CA glue, but these little ****** would come loose as soon as I touched them. Time to scrap the glue out. The same happened even after I made some scratches to both the PE and the styrene with a needle file.

I realised I had to use a lot more glue than I was using, because it just wouldn't adhere to the PE. But then the CA would ooze everywhere, making a mess. To prevent that, I put masking tape beside the parts before gluing them, so the CA glue oozing would go on top of it, instead of the plastic:

It worked!!! Only had to run the hobby knife along the edge of the metal before removing the tape. (The blue stuff isn't glue. It's just masking fluid I used to keep the part in place so I could position the masking tape)


Since I was messing with the PE kit, I noticed there were parts for the rear-view mirror and the side mirrors to replace the 'chrome plated' ones from the kit. As you can see on this picture, they are not very reflective:

I wondered if there was something I could do about it.

I picked up my Micro-Mesh pads and from grits 3600 to 12000, it started to be more and more reflective, but with a lot of tiny scratches, obviously. Then I remembered a jeweler once gave me a chunk of this polishing compound for metals (dialux I think) and I rubbed it on with a cloth and ... Here's the result:

Pretty nice when your experiments work, right?

Edited May 19, 2018 by PedroPortnoy

[A5h]

Thats great!!!

very reflective now

[PedroPortnoy]

Greetings

This is another quick update to let you know what is being done on this model and maybe to help anyone who may want to build this model in the future.

I decided to ´'test fit' the model before priming, and I realized two things: the body was not sitting properly and the interior wasn't either because there was not enough room for the exhaust, which, as you will see, ends just under the doors.

As you can see, there is (was) a significant gap between the body and the rear wheel arch, and here's the reason:

Somehow, the rear arch is not smooth as it should be and makes the body sit a bit high and a bit mpre to the front. Nothing a hobby knife, a file and some sandpaper wouldn't solve:



Obviously the left one is not corrected and on the right you can see what had to be done.

It sits a lot better now.

As soon as I'm done filling a couple of sink marks I still have on the body, I'm posting some more pics. I had worked them before but the putty I used shrunk after I was done sanding and left an irregular texture that would surely show through the paint. Actually it happens to me all the time when I use regular model putty (the kind that slightly melts the plastic to adhere properly). The owner of the hobby shop I usually go to advised me to use this stuff instead:

I must say I was a bit skeptical at first, but this stuff is absolutely brilliant... I'll show you in the next post!

[Hamden]

Looks good waiting for more of the same!

Roger

[vontrips]

Nice project...looking forward to it. You seem to be well 'tooled up' for only your second build (funky PE folders and all!)

Perfect English and very nice writing style - going to enjoy this one!

[PedroPortnoy]

Hi guys!

Just a quick update and a bit of help from experienced modelers needed!

I didn't have much time this week to make significant progress, but I did something I also did with the LaFerrari from Tamiya:

As you can see, what I did was masking the areas of one part that are supposed to glue with other parts. I do this because I generally don't like to work with CA glue (super glue); somehow CA glue always seems to find its way to the tip of my finger or my clothes... Besides, plastic cement gives me a little bit more time to align the parts properly.So I do this so I don't have to scratch paint off those areas later, since its a real pain, using Tamiya primer and all, very messy... I feel a couple of hours now will spare me from a world of frustration down the road. What I used was just plain masking tape, cut to size, and good old Vallejo Masking fluid.

I promised in the last post some pictures of the 'Perfect Plastic Putty' from Deluxe Materials, but I forgot the stuff is white and most of the parts I used it on were white too, so the only one worth showing is this:

This is the rear wing and on the bottom side, there was 2 pretty nasty sink marks which had to be corrected. As you can see they were, using this water-based putty. What really surprised me about it was it wasn't the first acrylic putty I used and usually they don't get very hard (you can easily leave a mark with your fingernail using little to no pressure) even after a long time drying/curing and they don't feather very well: you can usually notice where the putty ends and where the plastic begins very clearly.
But this does not apply to this one: it's hard after just 1 to 2 hours and it feathers beautifully if sanded right. And by 'right' I mean not using water (wetsanding), using very little pressure and nothing below P1000 sandpaper (I'd recommend 1500). This is because it is very easy to sand, really: it's rock hard but it is super easy to remove he excess.

Moving on, this is where I'm going to need your HELP, if you would be so kind:

I don't know what paint to use for the rims.

The instructions say they should be Satin Black (semi-gloss black). I've seen many people building this kit and painting the rims black and somehow it never felt right to me... So as I was gathering as many reference pictures as I could online, I realized one thing: the rims on the M3 were not black.

As you can see, despite being pretty dark, that's pretty far from black, I think. Looks metallic to me too...

I think Revell is not completly wrong, since they may have used this picture as reference:

These are black, and this is not the actual M3 that raced through the entire 2012 DTM season; it's the prototype BMW showed to announce their comeback to the DTM. Revell even gives you the option to build the rear wing of this version instead of the final one.


So my question is to anyone experienced with Alclad metallic lacquers or any others: which paint would you recommend so I can get as close as possible to the real rims? I was thinking maybe one of Alclad's darker metallics, like magnesium, dark aluminium or even gunmetal, but since I never used Alclad paints before (but watched many do with amazing results) I'd like to now your opinion about which one to get, or even other brands: your help would be much appreciated!

P. S.: check out this video about this same car:

Edited December 12, 2015 by PedroPortnoy

[larchiefeng]

It looks close to an anthracite grey to me.

[MetroRacing]

I suspect the real wheels are made from a magnesium alloy. So I'd have thought a mix of magnesium and aluminium, maybe steel colours would get a good match.

However wheels are often painted and I agree those look like a dark metallic grey rather than a true metal colour.

Maybe add some grey to the mix to flatten it off slightly.

Ashley

[PedroPortnoy]

Thanks a lot larchiefeng and Ashley

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you´re correct about them being made out of some Magnesium alloy, probably magnesium/aluminium. And yeah, I guess they are indeed painted.

I have a good variety of revell enamels and I do have their anthracite grey among them, and some metallics to mix with the grey. I guess I'm going to experiment some combinations bewteen the grey and some of the metallic colors, like steel, silver and aluminium in different proportions to see which one works better. I have the stock rims to experiment on as soon as I get to prime them.

I'll let you know the results!

[larchiefeng]

I have the Testors Model Master enamel anthracite grey and I think it is a gloss so in order to get that flat finish it will need a flat or satin mixed to get that finish in your pictures. Keep up the good work, this will be a cool car when done.

[MetroRacing]

I was going to suggest Revell steel paint but wasn't sure what paints you preferred.

Personally I'd mix a little medium grey colour with that. Again personally a satin finish would work best I think.

Ashley

[PedroPortnoy]

Well, after searching among all the paints I have, I found several possibilities for the rims:

1- Tamiya XF-56 (metallic grey): enamel. It is already flat/matt, so it might be a really good possibility. One thing that worries me about this one, and that made me exclude Revell steel metallic paint is the size of the metallic flakes. Revell's are huge, they wouldn't look very realistic. The ones on this xf-56 are mcuh smaller and because it is grey already, no need to mix paints.

2- Using a chrome paint' like Tamiya X-11 and then use a satin varnish (might not be dark enough)

3- Using a chrome powder (brushed over a gloss black enamel coat), which gives me a dark chrome effect, and then using satin varnish. (not sure it will work, the powder might react with the varnish)

I will be testing this after priming the model, so I expect to have some results to show you next weekend, I hope.

[MetroRacing]

I'd be interested to see what Tamiya's metallic grey looks like. In all their instructions it's been used to depict parts that are usually made of steel. Hence I've never brought it and used Mr hobby stainless steel instead. (it doesn't look very stainless lol)

I use Revells steel as it does look very stainless when applied lol. I hadn't noticed the large flakes. In fact the tin I have doesn't appear to have flakes in it. Maybe it needs a stir lol

Ashley