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Aoshima Beemax BMW M3 Rally Car


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34 minutes ago, Hamden said:

 

Most definitely agree with that statement!

BMW looking stunning in its war paint - great workmanship

 

             Roger  

Thanks , Roger . Group B , in retrospect,  never really fulfilled it's potential after the Portuguese deaths . Group A cars maybe didn't look and sound as far out as Group B cars , but they provided just as much action . 

 Gary.  

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On 8/13/2020 at 9:11 AM, Windy37 said:

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 . 

Yes I even remember the DJ Mike Smith racing for Prodrive, ( just 20 miles away), I was on Airfield marshaling in the day (his heli flying was chronic) and yes, Frank and James was a favourite driver of mine. I've also watched Patrick's career over the years, he's still in the Belgian Rally Championship but in a new Golf if I remember rightly, that's also well decaled/vinyl wrapped in multi-colours! 

 

 

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16 hours ago, PatW said:

Yes I even remember the DJ Mike Smith racing for Prodrive, ( just 20 miles away), I was on Airfield marshaling in the day (his heli flying was chronic) and yes, Frank and James was a favourite driver of mine. I've also watched Patrick's career over the years, he's still in the Belgian Rally Championship but in a new Golf if I remember rightly, that's also well decaled/vinyl wrapped in multi-colours! 

Do you remember Mike Smith and Robb Gravett had touring car team , Trakstar , using Sierra RS500's ? I converted a Tamiya Texaco Sierra into  Trakstar car years ago . Memories eh , Pat !

 Gary . 

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On 8/14/2020 at 3:39 PM, Windy37 said:

Do you remember Mike Smith and Robb Gravett had touring car team , Trakstar , using Sierra RS500's ? I converted a Tamiya Texaco Sierra into  Trakstar car years ago . Memories eh , Pat !

 Gary . 

Yes I do! In fact a friend had two RS 500's on the road! He asked me to build him a Tamiya road going version from a race kit, which I did. For payment (which was only the price of the kit) he offered his huge Winnebago for one of my Marshaling jobs at the F1 GP that year! I had to turn it down unfortunately as we had to park on grass for the weekend at Silverstone but it was waterlogged after heavy rain! He had put 25 gallons in it to make sure I did the 10 mile round trip ok, it did 8 miles to the gallon!

Yes vivid memories that I wish I had written down as every weekend there was different! 

Oh Patrick Snyers car last year was a VW Polo.............

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On 8/13/2020 at 7:52 AM, 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!  

Bertie Fisher, Austin McHale and Mike Rimmer thrashing their M3's around the Manx lanes is a sight and sound I'll never forget.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bumper fitment time on the M3 . These fitted well , but I masking taped them while the glue dried. You’ll notice the hooks on each bumper , used for jacking the car up . Another Group A rally thing , always looked a bit Ben Hur ish to me ! I have also fitted the grille , the BMW kidney needed painting while , it was chrome . Nearly done now , soon time to put body to chassis . 
 Thanks for looking, Gary . 
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Nearly done now , just bodywork parts to fit , starting with the roof vents . How to make the open vents look like they have left a hole in the roof ? I didn’t fancy cutting the square hole , so I blue tacked a vent in place , then masked around it . 
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Then I took away the vent and filled in the square with a black marker pen . 
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The end result , the black over paint looks like a rubber seal around the vents . 
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Having never used masking tape on my early models , I wouldn’t be without it now . 
 Thanks for looking , Gary. 

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I ve been glazing the BM this weekend. Loads of drama ....  The kit doesn’t come with window masks for painting the black surrounds , always a job I hate . So I purchased a template kit from Hiroboy , applied and sprayed semi gloss black. I then left to cure for , maybe too long , because when I removed the mask a sticky , gluey film was left on the windows. 
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The sticky mess after peeling the mask 

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I panicked , thinking kit ruined , and tried a drop of nail varnish remover which nearly melted the window I tried it on .... 

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I tried hot water and soap , to no avail . So I googled “removing sticky stuff off plastic “ and it suggested this ....

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I bought some from Amazon and I have to say it’s a model saver ! A drop of this , leave 5 minutes and gently rub with a rubber grouting tool and the sticky mess disappeared. 
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The damaged window I cut off and have replaced it with one I made up from some clear plastic from an empty  flat bottle . There is a difference in the 2 sections, but it’s better than the damaged piece . Can you tell ? It’s the rear three quarter window . 
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This is how the other side looks , I always take the drivers window out so interior detail can be seen . The window sections glue to the frames on the body and luckily there is no rubber painting to be done on the exterior of the body . I might paint the outside edges with some Matt clear to take the shine off the black on the inside . 
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So after all this drama , thanks for looking , Gary. 

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7 minutes ago, Windy37 said:

It's following fellows like yourselves , Andy ,  thats giving me confidence to experiment when things go wrong.  

Thanks , Gary . 

 

That's the beauty of the forum Gary, plenty of help and advice is available people only have to ask 🙂

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1 minute ago, Steve Noble said:

Good save on the window. Out of interest, how long did you leave the masks on the windows? I ask because I have quite a few of those Hiroboy masks to use myself...

If you remember, we had some really hot weather in early August and I put them on at the beginning of that , sprayed them and left them in the shed during the hot spell . I got around to removing the masks after about 3 weeks . I think the heat in the shed has warmed the glue up too much . It was all the masks that caused problems, be wary ! 
  Gary. 

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17 minutes ago, Steve Noble said:

Thanks for the heads up. I usually remove any masks after around 15-20 mins, so should be fine 🙂 

I will remember that in future, we went away for a week so I forgot about them ! 

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23 minutes ago, johnlambert said:

All this talk of paint masks is very helpful, I have a set to use with a Tamiya Honda NSX, I must admit I'm a bit wary as I've never used anything like that before.

The biggest problem I find with using them is actually lining them up accurately.  I tend to cut them in half , I find them easier to apply then . 

 

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11 minutes ago, Windy37 said:

The biggest problem I find with using them is actually lining them up accurately.  I tend to cut them in half , I find them easier to apply then . 

 

Yes, getting them lined up is my biggest worry, thanks for the tip.

Edited by johnlambert
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4 minutes ago, johnlambert said:

Yes, getting them lined up is my biggest worry, thanks for the tip.

Once you've lined them up correctly use very light coats, almost dry at first, this will seal the edges and make sure you get a crisp line with no bleed under the mask. You can apply a little heavier once sealed, but I never go too heavy. I tend to use a quick drying paint such as Vallejo Model Air and as I said earlier remove the masks after 15-20 minutes to avoid any excess glue issues.

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Well rescued. I think you're right about it being the hot weather which caused all the problems, I have a similar issue with the Porsche. What I've found is that the IPA tends to work at removing gunk, although it may be more expensive than your sticky stuff remover (or may even be the same stuff).

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