Windy37 Posted July 5, 2020 Share Posted July 5, 2020 Well after enjoying building my last two Aoshima Beemax kits , I’ve made a start on this , a BMW M3 Group A rally car . Built and run by Prodrive , before Subaru fame came , this is a kit of the car driven to second place on the 1989 Tour de Corse by Frenchman Francois Chatriot . I’m building it as it comes , but I’ve ordered some Bastos decals from Spotmodels , Bastos being a cigarette company and therefore the kit doesn’t include them in the decals. I think the kit is based on a Beemax M3 touring car as it comes with racing parts that won’t be used and extra parts to turn it into a rally car. The box and contents. Most of the parts moulded in black need to be white so spraying was the first job. Chassis sprayed white and detailing painted. The touring car jacks are on the chassis still , rather than make a mess trying to cut them off , I thought I’d leave them on . They blend in anyway . Underside fire extinguisher not so sure about though !? After a top tip from the Forum , I wound a thread of cotton around the coil spring , after painting the upright silver, then coloured the coil with a Sharpie .Removing the cotton left a clean finish . You need to mark the legs though , so they don’t get mixed up when building up . All the parts added to the chassis. There isn’t a sump guard in the kit , so may have to make my own up later . This shows suspension and brake detail and cool side exit exhaust . Thanks for looking , Gary . 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnlambert Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 I've not seen that trick with the cotton thread before, I may have to borrow it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamden Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 Nice start on this one, really liked the E30's so will follow along if you don't mind? Roger 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Noble Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 Lovely start!! I also may use the old cotton thread idea 💡 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windy37 Posted July 6, 2020 Author Share Posted July 6, 2020 6 hours ago, Hamden said: Nice start on this one, really liked the E30's so will follow along if you don't mind? Roger By all means follow along , Roger . The cotton tip , as I said , was suggested from a Forum member . Once removed it does leave a nice clean finish . Thanks for your interest , Gary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windy37 Posted July 19, 2020 Author Share Posted July 19, 2020 After a week off , more progress this weekend on the BMW . Basically I’ve got all the interior parts painted and built up into position. For the seatbelts, I used my tried and trusted method of red electricians tape , cut to 4 mm width and 50 mm long . I’ve used the decals for the belts on the seat fronts . Then came building the roll cage . The instructions suggest building this up as one piece , then putting into place , but , experience has taught me to build rollcages straight into the car . I dry fitted it first and managed to break the drivers side in two . 😩 . It was a clean break , so hopefully it would glue back together easily. I put the co drivers seat in place , and then built the roll cage from that side , letting each section set , before adding the next piece . The broken piece glued back into place well and I then wrapped the cage in masking tape to pull it all together and allowed to set . The seat belt harnesses fasten on the rear bulkhead , the kit having no means of doing this , so I drilled 4 holes and cut the sharp end off 4 cocktail sticks , and pushed these these through the holes to act as fasteners . When painted silver they should look ok . The dashboard sits at the front of the roll cage and is pushed into slots on the transmission tunnel . That’s all for now , thanks for looking , Gary. The touring car origins of this kit means there’s no handbrake , so I made my own out of plastic strip . Rear wheel drive rally car with no handbrake..... ! The broken roll cage section and the seats with belts ready to go in . I made the foot boards out of plastic, painted Matt black . Seatbelts fastened back on the bulkhead , using cut down cocktail sticks . Rollcage in and masked to pull it all together, broken piece fitted back really well . 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy J Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 Nice work Gary I somehow missed the beginning of this one but I'll be following from now till the finish 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windy37 Posted July 19, 2020 Author Share Posted July 19, 2020 49 minutes ago, Andy J said: Nice work Gary I somehow missed the beginning of this one but I'll be following from now till the finish 🙂 Thanks , Andy . So much new stuff being posted you sometimes don’t know where to look first ! Gary. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamden Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 The interior is coming together really well, looking forward to the next instalment Roger 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpnuts Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 All looking very nice and I like the thread tip. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windy37 Posted July 20, 2020 Author Share Posted July 20, 2020 Thanks for all your comments . I took the tape off the roll cage tonight and all is straight and true . Gary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windy37 Posted July 25, 2020 Author Share Posted July 25, 2020 After finishing the interior, I’ve made a start on bodywork jobs . And that means decalling ...... These are the decals , big pieces , the entire bonnet and rear end are all decals. I might paint the rear if I can get a good match with the paints I have . The Bastos decals are Renaissance, from Spot Models . To make it easier to apply , I cut the long side decal across the door handle . I was dreading smoothing it down over the famous M3 bulging wheel arches , but it all went down really well . There is a slight gap where the cut is , but this will blend in easily. And the front half .... The interior, just needs doorcards fitting . If you’ve looked , thanks , Gary. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Noble Posted July 25, 2020 Share Posted July 25, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Windy37 said: After finishing the interior, I’ve made a start on bodywork jobs . And that means decalling ...... These are the decals , big pieces , the entire bonnet and rear end are all decals. I might paint the rear if I can get a good match with the paints I have . The Bastos decals are Renaissance, from Spot Models . To make it easier to apply , I cut the long side decal across the door handle . I was dreading smoothing it down over the famous M3 bulging wheel arches , but it all went down really well . There is a slight gap where the cut is , but this will blend in easily. And the front half .... The interior, just needs doorcards fitting . If you’ve looked , thanks , Gary. Looks very good. The decals went on well. I have this kit and I plan to paint the red areas. Mr Color Shine Red is a pretty good match for the decals. Edited July 25, 2020 by Steve Noble 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windy37 Posted July 25, 2020 Author Share Posted July 25, 2020 1 hour ago, Steve Noble said: Looks very good. The decals went on well. I have this kit and I plan to paint the red areas. Mr Color Shine Red is a pretty good match for the decals. Thanks , Steve . I have shine red , that's what I'm going to try . Gary . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windy37 Posted August 2, 2020 Author Share Posted August 2, 2020 Been busy decalling the BMW . The decals are going on well . I painted the bonnet and boot lid area as I didn’t fancy decalling all those areas . I traced the bonnet decal , then matched it to the position on the bonnet to get the line right , so the gold edging in the Renaissance decal kit lined up correctly , which to my amazement , it did ! Thanks for looking , Gary. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Noble Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 Looks excellent, nice masking and a decent match with the red to the decals 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windy37 Posted August 2, 2020 Author Share Posted August 2, 2020 Thanks , Steve . As I found we my previous Beemax kits , the decals go down with fine accuracy and are easy to work with . Gary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windy37 Posted August 12, 2020 Author Share Posted August 12, 2020 Just a quick update . For the first time in my modelling career, I’ve not painted lights lenses . I know you can buy clear orange and red for lense paint , but for years I just use normal paint and I’ve always been happy with the results. However , my daughter has a good selection of paint marker pens , so I tried a red and orange on the lenses and after a couple of coats was amazed with the results. Combined with the chromed backing inserts, I think they look great . Here’s a shot showing the left lense in place and the chrome insert ready for the right lense . Think I’ve messed up with the touring car style quick fill fuel filler , research shows me it would just have a cap , included as a decal . Thanks for looking as always, Gary. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spiny Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 It might not be the end of the world with that filler - difficult to be sure of sizes from photos, but would a 2mm or so length of sprue in the hold work as a filler cap, or would that be too narrow? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anteater Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 So many tricky decals, but it's going to look great. I'm watching with interest as I have a Renaissance Bastos decal sheet but no firm plans for what to apply them to (for which you can read that I am slightly intimidated by the prospect of applying them to anything without messing them up). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Noble Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 Rear lights look very good. I'll have to try that idea!! Those red decals look pretty tricky to apply and I'm not the best decal applyer in the world. Might look to paint the red, but that would probably be a p.i.t.a as well... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windy37 Posted August 12, 2020 Author Share Posted August 12, 2020 1 hour ago, Spiny said: It might not be the end of the world with that filler - difficult to be sure of sizes from photos, but would a 2mm or so length of sprue in the hold work as a filler cap, or would that be too narrow? I'm thinking a blob of filler in the recess of the filler "hole" might do the trick, then apply the decal over it . 57 minutes ago, Anteater said: So many tricky decals, but it's going to look great. I'm watching with interest as I have a Renaissance Bastos decal sheet but no firm plans for what to apply them to (for which you can read that I am slightly intimidated by the prospect of applying them to anything without messing them up). Over the years I've learnt to take time and be patient with decals . The rewards will be great . 32 minutes ago, Steve Noble said: Rear lights look very good. I'll have to try that idea!! Those red decals look pretty tricky to apply and I'm not the best decal applyer in the world. Might look to paint the red, but that would probably be a p.i.t.a as well... All the bootlid and area around the rear lights can be applied as decals , but I chose to paint it . Much easier ! Thanks for your comments , much appreciated. Gary . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatW Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 Super build! Paint and decals are looking really special. I also may borrow the cotton thread idea. As a rally marshal in the day the M3's were a superb rally machine on both tarmac and rough stages, the rear end sliding round the bends at speed, especially the hairpins! Our youngest son had the 2.5 engined 3 series 2 door in that red as a road car/daily driver! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windy37 Posted August 13, 2020 Author Share Posted August 13, 2020 1 hour ago, PatW said: Super build! Paint and decals are looking really special. I also may borrow the cotton thread idea. As a rally marshal in the day the M3's were a superb rally machine on both tarmac and rough stages, the rear end sliding round the bends at speed, especially the hairpins! Our youngest son had the 2.5 engined 3 series 2 door in that red as a road car/daily driver! Thanks ,Pat . I don’t remember experiencing a rally M3 in full flow . Do remember watching the Prodrive M3 British Touring Cars though driven by Frank Sytner and James Weaver amongst others . Doing research for this build I have seen some great You Tube footage of sliding rally M3’s . Patrick Snyers on the 1988(?) Manx Rally in a Prodrive M3 is amazing to watch . In some ways the early Group A cars were better to watch than Group B cars ...... shock statement, I know !!!! Gary . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamden Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 2 hours ago, Windy37 said: In some ways the early Group A cars were better to watch than Group B cars Most definitely agree with that statement! BMW looking stunning in its war paint - great workmanship Roger 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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