Tamiya 1/24 Sauber Mercedes C9

[hatzenbach88]

Well that took a while, about 15 years to be exact!

 

I started this model when I was in my teens and finished it tonight aged 30.  It’s been done in stages with varying equipment and skill levels.  From what I can remember… Sorry photos haven't turned out the best, the "soft focus" hides some of my blunders 😁

 

 

I did all the chassis stuff years ago, it’s all brush painted.  To be honest I don’t think I did that bad a job of the engine and suspension components.  The larger areas that I have brushed are a bit pants but overall its not bad.   Worth saying at this point is that my biggest gripe with the model is the colour I have painted the rear brake ducts and inside of the body (not that you see that).  It’s the mix stated on the Tamiya instructions which turns out a yucky sick colour, it’s meant to be carbon fibre colour...🙄

 

 

I painted the body TS-17 rattle can, quite pleased with it.  The paint came up ok, can’t remember if I wet sanded any of it, think I just used the Tamiya finishing compounds on it.  Couple of blemishes but nothing major, the TS silver colours are quite hard to get a consistent finish on in my experience. I tried to carve out the panel lines a bit and my hand slipped in a couple of places 😡. I filled in the panel lines today using the 0.05mm Stadler pen technique, excellent and so easy.  There’s no clear on any of it. I did consider giving the whole thing a whiff but I applied the decals probably about 8 years ago and don’t want to risk it.

 

 

At some point a few years ago I invested in an airbrush.  It’s the cheap unbranded set you get on ebay.  Compressor is excellent, the 2 airbrushes in the kit are ok (don’t have anything to compare them too) they do the job but I don’t doubt a more premium one would give better results.  My airbrushing skills are still at the level where it is more likely to be me that’s wrong than the tools though.  I airbrushed the rear wing and wheels X-18, might have been a TS-29 can though.  The airbrush has got more use in my subsequent model.

 

I made a pretty good job with the decals if I say so myself.  I use the microscale solutions.  One bad bit is the large black decal below the windscreen, the microsol solution makes the decal shrivel up then dries out flat, well it should, this one dried down with a couple of very thin creases, didn’t look too bad at the time but as time has passed and the model handled the high bit has worn away in places so you see silver paint shining through.  Its not quite perfectly aligned either but it was an absolute nightmare to put on, I didn't want to tear the very thin end bits, looks worse in the photo than it does in real life actually.

 

 

Bits that annoy me.

• The aforementioned sick colour of the brake ducts
• The aforementioned below the windscreen decal
• My painting of the windows, I don’t think this kit came with a set of masks for the windows, I either didn’t paint a wide enough bit black or should have painted the body under it black too, you can see an outline of silver. N.B.  I absolutely hate painting window outlines, I seem to get paint bleed no matter what I do! Any tips?  Hopefully some light coats with the airbrush will give better results than brushing.
• The front brake ducts, the instructions say paint them white, all the pictures I have seen of the car in real life they are silver.  I’m not really a detail freak, you won’t catch me scratch building anything any time soon, but this annoys me!  I had painted them and glued them on before I really thought about it unfortunately.
• Glue marks! What do people use to stick their beautifully painted models together?  I use the Revel stuff and it just seems to melt everything!  I put all the old ones down to my youthful self being a bit rough but even when I stuck the body onto the chassis today I managed to make a mess being (what I thought to be) sparing with the glue, melted a bit of the silver paint along the bottom of the body but it’s not that noticeable.
• Its a kit issue but the front panel on the real car is all part of the body so there's no panel line, it also sits a bit to prominently and is straight whereas the real car has a slight curve.  Could get rid of the panel line with some filler but that would be a difficult job.  Guess I am more of a detail freak than I admit 😁

 

Any feedback or tips very welcome.  I concentrated on the bad bits as one tends to but overall I am pretty happy with the model, as long as you don’t look too closely 😉.

 

For my next one, I am building the Revel Jagermeister 956 kit.  It’s a kerbside so no engine.  I'm using it really as a training model for my airbrush, will try and get round to posting it up.  Going ok so far, having lots of fun with masking tape!

 

[Ian T]

Hello Hatzenbach, welcome to the forum, I reckon you’ve done OK with this build. It looks fine to me. In answer to your question about glue, I tend to use the Revell stuff for larger areas that (hopefully) won’t be seen, but where a bit of finesse is required I use the Tamiya Extra Thin. Hopefully some of the other members will add their recommendations as I hardly consider myself an expert. Regards Ian

[Grey Beema]

I think that you should be really happy with your model, I really like it - I have a Audi R10 in the stash to build for my Son, someday I'll get onto it... 

 

Like all of us here you are more critical of your own work and see things others will not. This is a good thing as on the next model you will endeavour to put those observations right.  Some things will go better and some will not so sometimes it's two steps forward and one back but it is a nett gain...

 

Great model, now onto the next..

 

 

[Draz87]

Looks great mate, what did you think of the kit itself? I've got the dark blue one in the stash begging to be put together

[hatzenbach88]

Thanks everyone.  I'll give the Tamiya thin glue a shot and see how I get on Ian T thanks for that.

 

Draz87, the kit itself is fine.  Its quite a while since I put the engine and that together though but I don't remember anything ridiculous, depends how fussy you are on things like moulding marks etc.  Its quite a straightforward build if you are just doing it out of the box, the cockpit isn't very detailed.  Had to file down a couple of bits to get them to go together properly, the two front brake ducts in the nose spring to mind, there's little holes in the floor they sit in the with a "pin" on the duct to locate , if you do that they look squint so I just filed them off and glued them in straight.  Other than that I don't recall much.  As I said in the original post the "carbon fibre" colour in the instructions is rank.  If I was making it again I would either paint the sections black / dark grey colour or put some carbon fibre decals on the visible bits like the rear brake ducts.  The front panel bit I also mention in the OP is a bit of an inaccuracy that I don't really like, it would be difficult to fix but doable for a skilled modler I think (not me lol).  The black / blue one looks cool, good luck with it.

[pau10wen]

lovely finished model, nice work!

 

Made me chuckle that it took just the 15 years 😁😁

well worth the wait, lovely result