Aoshima Brabham BT52 - Gordon Murray's turbocharged arrow

[kiseca]

Decals are now on the upper body shell. Some tidying up around the edges needed and I see a fold that I need to take care of around one of the fuel tank openings (don't know which side is inlet and which is breather - or if both are the same)

 

They were a real challenge to get on and to lay them down nicely. Partly because they move around and move around.... and then are stuck solid and can't move them with water, Microset, wishes to a genie, nothing. So I had a limited time to get it right, and the big blue section on the top bodywork is two pieces. One for the front that stretches down the sides of the cockpit, and a smaller one that wraps over the engine / rollover hump. They have to align perfectly or the join will be obvious, but because they move, and both have some quite pronounced curves and severe edges to cover,.... well it was very challenging.

 

I had splits near both bubbles above the suspension. I didn't get the edges to line up perfectly where the two different decals meet on the fuel fillers, I need to take care of the aforementioned fold on one side, and there's some trimming needed around the fuel tank holes and rollover hoop hole. Overall though, it's looking a lot better with them than without them.

 

There are also blue bodywork decals for the floor: For the leading edges of the radiator housings, I had painted them blue when painting the floor, and I've decided to just leave them painted. the stickers won't make a difference, and the leading edge stickers are also two parts that need lots of careful work to get them to overlap nicely and then lots of patting and smoothing with cotton buds / tissue to get them to lay flat without wrinkles. The top ones were awful to work with. There are also blue decals for the blades that live underneath the wing mirrors. Apparently the car has those blades because there's a rule saying the mirrors are not allowed to extend outside of the bodywork when viewed vertically, and when they reduced the radiator size, there was no bodywork beneath them. I couldn't get the decals to adhere to these surfaces at all. They're a funny design, with splits so you can fold them at 90 degrees around the edges of the bodywork. I could get them to lay flat, but not to stay flat while I tried fold them around. Eventually I gave up and painted those too.

 

 

 

 

I've also made a start on the wheels. They show as all black on photos I've seen on the car, but the decal sheet shows them with a silver rim and a silver ring around the hub. That looks cooler in my opinion, so that's how I'm painting them. They now have a nice thick coat of Humbrol 11 on them. I'll give that a few days to make sure it's properly dry and then put a coat of Tamiya acrylic matt black over the top, and sand the rims back to the silver. A coat of gloss will finish the job.

 

I have rubbed the tyres down to get rid of the moulding join line around the middle. It makes them look a bit worn and I thought it came out quite well. I'll share some photos of that work a bit later when the wheels are ready.

 

The white parts for the radiators are also now painted. They'll be completed and on the car hopefully by the end of this week. Still to to paint some details, assemble all the parts (looks like a challenge since some of the piping has to line up with the upper body shell and has no indentations to orient it properly. I also need to put the decals on the radiators... probably better done before I assemble them, because they'll need some careful pressure to get them to sit down into the ridges.

[Malc2]

Looking good.

What a difference the decals make!

I would do a test of Tamiya acrylic over Humbrol enamel on some scrap plastic before trying it on the wheels - as the enamel tends to react badly, I could be wrong though!

Have you considered rings of BMF instead?

 

Malc.

 

[kiseca]

14 hours ago, Malc2 said:

Looking good.

What a difference the decals make!

I would do a test of Tamiya acrylic over Humbrol enamel on some scrap plastic before trying it on the wheels - as the enamel tends to react badly, I could be wrong though!

Have you considered rings of BMF instead?

 

Malc.

 

 

Thanks for that. I hadn't considered BMF, never used it before.

 

I've had problems (understandably in hindsight) with enamel on top of acrylic, but I've done it the other way around a few times without problems so I'm confident the wheels will work out. I leave them a while to make sure they've cured completely.

 

I used Tamiya acrylic over Humbrol 11 enamel for the radiators on this build so I'm reasonably confident it will work out. I find it's much easier to sand back through the softter acrylic to the more hardy enamel.

[kiseca]

Wheels are done. First I did them in silver (Humbrol 11 enamel). Then I applied a light coat of Tamiya XF-1 flat black:

 

 

Then I used 1000 grit to sand the rims back to silver, and some 1500 grit to sand the centres back to silver. The centres were harder to get to. I cut a thin strip of the sanding paper and wrapped it around the end of a length of sprue. After sanding I brushed on one coat of Humbrol acrylic gloss and added the decals. I had previously sanded the tyre contact surfaces down to remove the centre ridge. It also happens to give them a used look.

 

 

Wheels installed in tyres: 

 

 

In addition, the rear wing is now painted, decalled and assembled, in that order. It needs some touching up before it gets a clear coat.

 

The radiators are also complete and installed, and the gear lever mechanism has been painted and installed.

 

In these images, the tub and wheels are installed. The rear wing is loose. That won't be added until I have completed the steps I listed above. The bodyshell also needs a clear coat before I add the mirrors and headrest.

 

Apart from those only the induction cover and fuel fillers are as yet not done. Hopefully I can have it wrapped up this weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT: Fixed image links

 

 

 

Edited March 28, 2022 by kiseca

[galaxyg]

Excellent

[Malc2]

Looks great!

 

M.

[kiseca]

Final piece painted and ready. There's a decal for the white BMW lettering but it's raised detail on the plastic so I painted the lettering it instead of trying to get a decal to sit nicely down on the edges.

 

This piece is carbon fibre on the actual car. The instructions ask for metallic black. I mixed 6 parts Vallejo Model Air Black Metallic with 3 parts Vallejo Anthracite and sprayed it, because the black metallic on its own looks too much like metal (I used that on the shock absorber top mounts).

 

 

This part isn't glued on - it would prevent the top bodyshell from either being added or removed. So with this piece painted, the model is complete! RFA thread here, for those interested.

 

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by kiseca