Spiny

Nearest I can suggest is Ford Tonic Blue, available from Halfords but don't know a) if that will be close enough, or b) what size the metal flakes will be. Got this one in the stash and your pic shows just how big this thing is - it's the only car I'll build which will make the Jag XJ220 look small I think,

Coming back from work, not particularly interesting but a while since I've seen one - a late '90s Renault Megane convertible. And about 5 cars behind, and much more interesting, an A-reg Sierra XR4i in special cropped-down-dashcam quality photo:

Those pins look really intricate and fiddly - sooner you than me making them but the end result is very good, even on the ones you've rejected. Mind you, the rest of the car doesn't look bad either...

You beat me to it, but I was going to say that your summary of the process looked right. I was going to clarify too that you're probably best off using a 3000/4000 grit sanding medium like you would for flatting back orange peel, but it looks as though you used something similar there. Just to be clear, for the best end result you would need to get a new set of decals, and probably end up going right back to a bare plastic body. But you should still be able to get a decent result touching up the decal (this is where a 10/0 brush and magnifying headset will really come in handy). The white will be the hardest to get an exact colour match, but you should be able to get reasonably close. For the black, it's unlike that any difference in colour will be visible. After you've touched up the paint (and tested the touch up with the clear for a reaction) add a couple of mist coats then go with the heavier wet coats. The existing clear will help to protect the decal to quite a degree so you should run less risk of further damage than when you first painted it. Good luck, you've done the scary bit so it should get better from here.

That's annoying, can't think why that would be unless you had a heavier first coat on the model than on the test. From when you've posted it looks as though the decals should have had plenty of time to dry to I can't imagine that's the issue. I wouldn't think decal softener would work, but if it was me I would try to build up the clear a bit, sand it back and if you go through patch up the decal with a fine brush. It helps that the worst seems to be in the black which shouldn't be too bad to match. Again though, test the patch paint with the clear before spraying as you don't want it bubbling up again. Hopefully others have better suggestions than that though.

Well I started out in the usual kit way with two pieces joining together. After 9 months of assembly I was unveiled to the world, but over the next few years further detailing continued before full completion. Unfortunately, as the years have passed I'm now at the stage of parts losing their colour , falling off or just generally not working as well as they once did. More seriously, the primer was bound to be smooth - it's there waiting to be covered by white primer so was always destined to be one of my better paint applications That was my understanding about why there's 3-wiper versions too, doesn't make it look better though (in my eyes). As for the colour, we're thinking along very similar lines: Always good to see references from in period, so if you have them to hand that would be good. Just be aware that I won't be undertaking major surgery, but if there's anything minor it will be good to be able to work off the real thing. No rush - it's likely to be over 6 months until I reach that stage! There's still a quite a few of the Aoshima MGB kits about for sale, at least over here, both chrome and rubber bumper varieties (although I expect they're the same kit apart from the rubber bumper having the Rostyle wheels and rubber bumpers in addition to the chrome parts). It also looks as though a rally version came out end of last year in Japan so expect them to be hitting Europe about now.

I know what you mean about Silver Leaf being a strange paint - I used it on my XJ220 and found that the worst thing you could do is handle it as clear coating brought out a couple of fingerprints on the paint. Never had that happen with any other paint. But when I was reading up on the paint, the consensus seemed to be that you either had to clear it almost immediately (like you have here) or leave it about six weeks to cure. I've tried both methods and it came out ok both times so I expect you'll be ok with the paint. The good news is that, as your Mustang shows, despite being a pain to work with it gives a great end result with barely noticeable flake size.

You're braver than I am (or indeed plan to be) drilling out that door handle. But I don't think you can argue with the end result. I'm very impressed that you managed to drill through the handle so close to the body without making a mess of the door panel.

Don't go expecting this one to be completed soon, I'm not expecting it to get started in earnest until early 2022 but with the British weather I figure I need to get this painted before it gets cold (and wetter). This one is the Aoshima kit which was rereleased a couple of years ago - I'm doing the rubber bumper variety as that's what was on the roads when I was a kit. The fad of returning them to chrome didn't start until I was much older. That is an option with this kit, as has been said many times it come with the chrome and rubber bumper parts, but I'm sticking with the unfashionable rubber bumper version. One thing I'm not sticking with though is the triple wiper setup the kit comes with - to me that just looks wrong. So I did a bit of googling and eventually found out where the holes should be for the two-wiper version. The good news is that the driver's side wiper doesn't move from where the kit has it so only had to drill a hole for the passenger side. And as the wiper holes are symmetrical, I could have used the kit to get the location but instead I did it the hard way by finding a drawing of where the hole should be in the real thing and scaling it down. If anyone is wondering, that dimension is 11mm (just under to be precise, but 11mm is close enough) and it just needs to sit the same distance from the windscreen as the other wipers. The hole for the middle wiper needed drilling out anyway, so all I had to do was fill the hole for the passenger wiper. With that filled, I gave it a coat of grey primer to identify any sink marks, mould lines etc. And the good news is that there are very few. I'm not sure how Aoshima did it, but the only mould-lines I could identify are on the front and rear valances and (annoyingly) within the headlight recesses. I did wonder if they'd followed the chome belt line, but if they did I can't see it even in primer. The photo should make it obvious where I sanded it down - there's very shallow sink marks on the passenger doors which is why they got a smear of filler. And the filled wiper hole sunk so has had a second fill, but I'm hoping that will sand smooth next weekend. And that's as far as I've got at the moment, unless you count a coat of primer on the chassis and the wheels. Expect somewhat slow and erratic progress on this until I get the Jag finished. Thanks for looking.

Time for this week's update, and catching up with friends today meant that it's a bit shorter this week. First of all, the obvious one - decals. Almost all the gold stripes are on now, just the roof to add. And apart from the valances they've all behaved surprisingly well. At the moment the rear valance decal is coated in Microsol to try to encourage it to sink into the number plate recess. It didn't want to go into there with just the Microset and water but I'm hoping that with this or one more application of the Microsol it will sink down right - it certainly seems to be behaving better than the Belkits decals of this time last year. The front valance decal also wasn't keen on sinking into place, but unfortunately without me noticing this one didn't go on centralised. Fortunately most of it will be hidden by the numberplate in the end, and the shot below makes it seem worse as the cocktail stick is offset the other way. I don't think moving it is an option though - it's fully settled in now and any attempt to move it is likely to damage it. Meanwhile, a little more progress with the engine. The oil pan has been finished and fitted to the engine now along with the starter, while the belt assembly is also painted up and the alternator added. This and the fan just need gluing in place now. Meanwhile, the exhaust manifolds are painted in steel, but I want to add blue paint onto the runner where they fit onto the block before gluing in place. And those cam covers are also nearly done, just one more coat of black to the end currently in tweezers and they will go on too. With paint started on the front suspension/subframe and the exhaust pipes I'm hopeful that better progress will be made next week. Nothing really interesting in terms of techniques here, it's just been cleaning up the parts, painting and gluing with no major headaches. Thanks for looking.

For anyone else using the decals, I will reiterate (and cannot overstress this) - once you have the decals in position don't touch them. I've been applying them with Microsol plus a (relatively) generous amount of water, and in most examples have resisted the temptation to press the decals down. But today, I thought that the decals weren't sinking into the recess in the front valance so pressed it down with a cloth. Result - that side has some small wrinkles in, and with it holding in place at that side the whole thing has shifted off centre In truth, these decals seem to be amazingly compliant regarding the curves if you leave them alone to just do their thing. But they really don't like being hurried! You really do have to ignore the air bubbles, wrinkling etc which develops int he first five minutes and just trust that they will sort themselves out.

Looks good, not a lot wrong with that one. One thing there is still time to do which will help add ot the realism - if you add a small bit of matt black paint to the recesses at the back of the exhaust it will make a surprisingly large difference.

Yet another very nice build from you, I have to applaud the paint in particular, even more so given that you've avoided burning through the paint on all those sharp edges. Have to admit that the subject leaves me quite cold though, like the F50 the LaFerrari is one Ferrari hypercar which just doesn't do anything for me.

Just be sure to test the clear on a bit of the decal sheet first (I usually use the descriptive text most sheets have at the bottom) to make sure the clear doesn't damage the decals. I'd hate to see the clear make a mess of such a good bit of decalling.

My main question is how did you spend 1000 hours on it and keep your sanity! More seriously, the result is excellent with so much detail - you might think it should have been better but I think it's one you can be proud of.