Ford GT40 1966, Meng, 1/12

[cmatthewbacon]

So, I have been painting lots of pale blue, some of it less successfully than other bits, hence slow progress... but at last, progress there has been.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still no glue, no filler, and some well-hidden screws!

 

best,

M.

 

[Coors54]

On 3/29/2021 at 12:13 AM, Jo NZ said:

I'm sure someone else has all the details, but the main visible differences are around fuel pump positioning/number/pipework and chassis colour. (Blue for Shelby and black for H&M).

Interesting comment there @Jo NZ, I'm planning on building an H&M prepared car and wasn't aware that their chassis were not blue.

 

Dave

[cmatthewbacon]

And that's pretty much it for the basic build:

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's a big beastie!

 

Time to get to work on the decals, and then probably some light "track" weathering to bring it all together: I quite like the images of the 66 car at the finish, where you can see the road grime, and also the bright marks where it's been wiped off by working hands...

best,

M.

 

 

[Jo NZ]

Nice work! Note that, curiously, the screen wiper is also body colour.

[Pouln]

Looking really nice. Can you give an estimate of the time it took to get to this stage?

[cmatthewbacon]

Thanks chaps! @Jo NZ that’s useful! I must admit none of the photos I have clearly show a colour, so I figured I was only deciding between silver (light in pictures) and black (dark)! Fortunately, that part pops off easily for a respray.

 

@Pouln I’d estimate somewhere between 25 and 30 hours bench time. The most challenging aspect is actually juggling the very sizeable main body parts through the paint booth and drying, hence the apparently big jump between the latest photos and the chassis stage before! It’s a really well engineered kit with excellent fit. It helped that I’d tried the 1/9 Kawasaki Ninja build first, just to get a feel for the way to approach one of these no-glue Meng kits.

 

best,

M.

[cmatthewbacon]

For... reasons, I have some pictures of the built beast without weathering. So here they are. There's still work to do,but I'm quite happy with where we are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the home straight now... proper RFIs later in the week!

 

best,

M.

[Spiny]

That could easily be left as it is and would still look excellent.

[dnl42]

She looks amazing! Excellent workmanship!

[Harry Callahan]

Absolutely amazing model, very impressive.

[Pouln]

Beautiful model. Panel lines are really nice. Paint work is fantastic and the decals finish it superbly.

Well done!

[cmatthewbacon]

Thanks, all... and one last visit to the bench:

 

 

 

 

Anybody want to buy a used race car? One careful owner... two hooligan drivers, though. But only 3000 miles on the clock...

 

Now time for the final RFI pictures.

 

best,

M.

 

[Toftdale]

Simply stunning, thanks for sharing Andy 

[kpnuts]

Amazing build 

[Coors54]

Fabulous result Matt, can you explain how you achieved the remarkably realistic weathering?

 

Dave

[stevehnz]

I'm, going about this bass ackwards really, having already done the RFI thing, I'm interested to know did you use Meng's colour calls on this or your own info Matthew. I've a couple of 1/24 kits & decals to do this one & the winning car, they're a bit special to Kiwis of a certain age. & I'd be interested in what you used. This is one kit I don't have in stock.

Re what @BESTBALSAKITS said about the red wings, I've long thought the scheme on this was just an early version of Gulf colours. 

Steve.

[cmatthewbacon]

Thanks, gentlemen! @Coors54 For the weathering, I used a mix of (mostly) Tamiya Rubber Black acrylic, with a bit of Linoleum Brown added until “it looked right”. Airbrushed lightly using as many reference pics as I could find... you can see where the grime picks up. The box top image of this car from Fujimi is really helpful. Once it had dried for about 10 minutes, I just attacked it with a bit of sponge moistened in X-20A thinner and eventually my fingertips! You don’t want very much thinner, otherwise you end up with drops of thinned paint. Just enough to soften the paint so you can knock it off mechanically. @stevehnz the main body colour is a Zero blue colour matched for this car. I bought two jars for a thing this size. The other colours I took from references, though the chassis is a Tamiya blue metallic I had to hand which looks “close enough”, and I used some artistic license in terms of silver and gold (titanium and champagne...). The exhaust are a mix of AK Bronze and Stainless Steel.

best,

M.

[McG]

The weathering is superb, even capturing areas around the wheels and bonnet where mechanics would place their hands. 

 

You'll need to build a second one and leave it in the pristine condition as the pics of both the pristine and then weathered car look really good. 

 

[Michael Church]

3 hours ago, McG said:

The weathering is superb, even capturing areas around the wheels and bonnet where mechanics would place their hands. 

 

You'll need to build a second one and leave it in the pristine condition as the pics of both the pristine and then weathered car look really good. 

 

I expected @cmatthewbacon to reply that he made 1/12 scale mechanics' hands to precisely replicate how their pushing the car would selectively remove grime  

[the x-man]

I realize this is an old thread but I am now building this kit and now its time to lay out the decals. They are cracking everywhere. I cannot use them. Did anyone else have this problem with the Meng decals?

So I ordered a new set of cartograf decals but they are for the trumpeter kit instead. Will they work on the Meng kit?

so decal prep was a clearcoat, solvaset and micro sol. I've been modeling for 50 years and never had this problem with any kit.

Edited March 8 by the x-man

[the x-man]

anyone?