Toyota Celica GT-Four, 1995 Swedish Rally (1/24 Tamiya kit)

[Scargsy]

So to give @nimrod54 's rally build some company in the GB I'm going with this Tamiya kit but modified with some aftermarket Studio27 decals (for the 1995 Swedish Rally), this particular car (17) was driven by a couple of Finns: Grönholm Marcus and Silander Voitto, however it had to retire due to gearbox issues.

 

Plenty of Celica's did finish however - the newer 205 model (round headlights) coming in 3rd, 4th, 5th and 9th, another of this model (185 with the pop-up lights) coming in 8th.

Pretty good year for Toyota you might think, however this is the season they got caught out for being naughty using illegal turbo restrictors on the new model so got a year ban for 96 and Kankkunen, Auriol and Schwarz (that's the 3rd, 4th and 9th wins in Sweden) were stripped of points in the championship in 95.

 

The reason I went for these decals is the main sponsorship (Castrol) pattern swishes are identical to the Tamiya kit (1993 Monte Carlo) so I'll have some backups if it all goes horribly wrong when trying to get them to conform around the very curvatious body!

 

I've also got some Reji Model snow wheels and tyres, since the kit supplied ones are rather wide looking slicks.

 

I think I've also got some window masks somewhere for this kit, if I can dig them out.

 

Parts shots, etc. once I get around to starting it.

 

[Col.]

Excellent subject choice

[trickyrich]

welcome along and what a nice and interesting subject as well.

 

I do like rally cars and these Celica's did look the part and there were a beast.

 

Good luck with the build, will be a great one to follow.

[Scargsy]

So the kit is not overly complicated compared to modern standards.

All the main parts come in a single bag, body shell in a separate bag.

There are some poly caps for the wheels and also a small piece of mesh for the front grill.

The kit comes with some spare wheels, though these don't fit the tyres, these are I believe for the Africa Rally version that Tamiya released around the same time (the small sprue with the light pod looks like the conversion set they made for the Monte Carlo version) - seems there maybe all the parts in the kit to build it other than the tyres and decals.

 

Comparing the kit decals with the aftermarket, the colours seem a little more washed out on the Tamiya ones - hard to see in the photo, hopefully they won't be needed but good to know I have backups!

 

Here is a comparison of the wheels and tyres, the resin ones will need some cleanup and one of the pegs has snapped in transit (though that could be used as the spare). I notice that the pattern is the same as the unused wheels, though they're somewhat thinner, so potentially I could use those kit wheels and trim them down for the tyres. 

 

The body shell I started on by marking up the raised mould lines with a Sharpie, easier to then see which ones you still need to sand off!

 

 

The rear spoiler had rather a large indent on the underside (the Africa version instructions I checked on Scalemates had you open it from the underside). I decided that it needed filling / strengthening but unfortunately decided to use some 'sprue goo' (plasticard melted in Tamiya Extra-Thin), however this proved a bit hot and ended up melting the top side!

So I ended up making more work for myself!

 

[trickyrich]

it is a nice looking model, hopefully those decals end up being ok.

[Scargsy]

Well this has been languishing for a while - I did actually get a coat of paint on the shell but then it got sidetracked.

So I started by priming it with some Mr Surfacer 1500 (mix of their white and black versions to make a light grey) thinned with self-leveling thinner 50:50.

It needed a little more sanding on the mould lines (see image above) - then I reprimed the area. I didn't save an exact match for the colour ratios but seemed to mix back in quite well.

It was then given a coat of the white primer before being given a couple of coats of Tamiya lacquer white mixed with leveling thinners - I have to say this dries to a great gloss finish (if you can excuse my rather poor aribrush work /c;leaning - leaving some light texturing, more noticable in the images).

The chassis and interior tub were given a couple of coats of the white primer (I want it to look a bit less glossy).

So yesterday I dusted it off and applied what looks like a yellow wrap of masking tape!

Then shot the window frames, door handles and front and rear areas black (again the primer).

Urgh - looks like my masking technique needs some work!

Hopefully the window rubbers I can cleanup a bit by applying some brush work using some water based acrylics (should be easy to cleanup any little messes without damaging the lacquer paint) - I'm not sure about overpainting where the paint has bled through though - anyone know if alcohol based paint/thinners would react with lacquer coats? Annoyingly trying to brush touchup with thinned lacquers usually results in it melting the previous paint coat!

 

[CliffB]

It's nice to see this one getting some paint @Scargsy

I'd be tempted to try removing the black paint bleed by very gentle sanding (or scraping with a cocktail stick if very small areas).  It often works for me, although sometimes it does need touch-up with gloss varnish to restore the shine.

Good luck whichever way you go.

 

Cheers

 

 

[trickyrich]

great progress! 

 

Mmm alcohol based thinners will react with the lacquer paint unfortunately, as Cliff mentioned, gentle scraping with something wooden is probably the best way to go. Or if you have some micro-mesh pads, you could go over her completely with some 6000 or 8000 grit, that would remove those excess spots plus give you a nice smooth base for the clears.

 

Anyway, hope you have a great Christmas and a happy new year.

[Scargsy]

So I managed to get a bit of modelling in before my Christmas break to see the extended family...

 

I ran some black acrylic wash down the panel lines, cleaning up cotton-buds and Vallejo airbrush thinner (quite soft on the lacquer paint) - annoyingly a bit too dark on reflection (wish I had some grey on hand).

I fitted the roof vent (after painting the under edges black) and the front popup headlight covers - that proved far more difficult than it should have been! Initially I wasn't sure from the instructions how/where they fitted and assumed they went up to the edge (and was considering masking / painting the black section on them) - however they slip into the body and up to an edge. However painting aside - fitting them post painting was fraught - they are hard to hold in place and glue at the same time (without dropping out the front/back).

 

I did a little bit of touch up with Tamiya gloss white acrylic thinned a little with their X20a and it seemed to work OK without attacking the lacquer too much (before I read the comments) certainly less than using lacquer would but left a little brush marking (on the rear behind the window bottom).

 

I decided to actually use the kit supplied wheels (the gravel set Tamiya handily include as unused parts) since the mouldings seemed crisp compared to the resins (which would need lots of cleanup) plus the kit spare wheel actually has holes for the bolts/nuts already in place. I'm going to use the aftermarket snow tyres however, which means I needed to trim/resize the rims to accommodate the skinnier tyres...

Placing one of the tyres on the rims as a sizing guide, I razor sawed the backs, firstly by making small scoring marks a bit at a time, and moving round the wheel, so I get a cut marking all the way around, then going deeper till they were off. Once cut back they were sanded flat (rub them on a piece of sandpaper placed on a flat surface) - luckily the connecting 'poles' on the back weren't standing proud. Then a coat of Mr Surfacer 1000 grey and voila - will need a coat of gloss white next.

 

Moving onto the clear parts - I decided I'd paint and decal them first before 'clear coating'...

For the windows I used some Hiroboy window masks - which seem to have done a great job at keeping the paint out. The side windows and external parts needed masking too before spraying the inside with Mr Surfacer 1500 black. I then used the kit supplied shade lines decal (attached to the interior) and the aftermarket Toyota and 'Sweden Rally' decals to the exterior). Note the piece is inside a poly-bag in the image and has some masking tape on the sides - this is because I've been taking extra care to try and not get finger marks on the clear parts (esp. before coating) - including using some cotton gloves. I'm not sure where I got the gloves from, one of the kids I think as they're about 3 sizes too small for my meat paddles and it's blooming hard to handle stuff wearing them!

The other clear parts I decided to paint on the sprue - this is a shot of the first coat...

For the black outline / parts the instructions suggest using 'smoke' (Tamiya clear black/grey) (mixed with red for some bits) but as can be seen I used the smoke alone and it didn't give a very deep colour, so I ended up using some black - not shown here!

Then I 'clear coated' the clear parts using Pledge 'floor gloss' - I decant the bottle contents into an old plastic pint glass I use for the process, then dip in the parts in (usually need to separate the bigger sprues into smaller sub-sections) on the end of some tweezers, before dripping off the excess back into the glass and placing the pieces onto some kitchen roll to soak off the excess. I then cover the bits with a box lid to try stop dust settling onto them, decant the pint glass contents back into the bottle (usually by making a small funnel from the corner of a poly bag - careful they can be floppy). After a few mins I move the bits so they don't stick to the kitchen towel where the excess has pooled, then recover and leave well alone for a min of 24 hours.

 

For the dashboard I used the kit supplied decals (the aftermarket set annoyingly doesn't have replacements) - they seemed quite thick but won't be overly visible once in place. For the night stage light pod lights, I painted the backs red (as suggested - not sure how visible they will be) and the lamp insides with Vallejo silver primer - brush painted).

You can see I still have my painting sprues attached (basically attach some spare sprue to bits that will be easy to remove/not visible) to help me handle and clip them when airbrushing, etc. 

Back to the body shell...

Annoyingly the kit doesn't come with lenses for the front indicators (also it's hard seeing in photos if it's a solid lense or a small piece with air vents either side) - anyhow I painted in some silver Vallejo primer (and for the other lights) before overpainting with Tamiya clear orange, the edges will need a bit of cleanup - I might use the trick of Vallejo water based paint and cleanup with their airbrush cleaner (soft on the underlying paint).

The headlamp backs will need another coat of silver - I may uses some old Revell stuff I have (in the little square pots) it's pretty thick but slightly thinned you can get it to nicely flow.

The mesh air intake parts I painted with some thinned Vallejo black primer mixed with some Dunkelgrau, I had initially contemplated cutting these out however the underside/chassis part connects to the back of these points so it would be a difficult modification!

 

With everything crossed I started the task I'd been dreading - that is placing the decals onto the incredibly curvaceous body (not a flat section in sight).

Above you can see where I'd got 1/2 of the main swirly Castrol bits on. I did experience a few tears bubbles and chips but mostly they went on OK - getting them to bed down around those bonnet vents was a pain for example. Luckily they conform right up to the window edges in a fair few places (hiding my other overpainting woes), but might need a bit of overpainting for the window surrounds. There are extra sections that wrap over the rear spoiler (to align) which was a bit of a pain holding the part roughly in place to attach the decal and then removing the part to get it to fully conform around the spoiler. Lots of decal solvent and for the first time the wife's hairdryer was also employed!

 

So the shell is starting to get there, I'm going to need to decide what to do about the chips in the swirls - I worry about how well I can colour match and maybe the repairs will be more obvious?

Still lots to do on the underside and interior too - hoping I can get it done without falling into the KUTA group build!

 

[JeroenS]

The swirl decals look like a nightmare indeed, I'm always weary of any decal, I find there's lots of room for **** ups! But you seem to have them down pretty well, hope you can repeat that on the other side. 

[Scargsy]

So I managed to get a the decals finished today (after finishing the Tomcat GB yesterday and after painting the ceiling in the living room)...

 

There was a spare Castrol and ASG decals (no placement info) so I've placed them on the rear bumper as that seemed to be quite empty in terms of sponsorship decals.

Also unfortunately got a bit of a wrinkle in that KWH Pipe decal bending it over the bumper.

 

The large ASG decals on the swirls also seem a little thin (can see the swirls through them unfortunately).

 

Also the number plate decal for the front didn't sit too nicely (though it appears underneath there was a placement point for a number plate - possibly for the road version kit) - had I realised beforehand I could have filled and sanded it before painting. 

Anyhow it's not too bad, hopefully I can get everything finished by the new cutoff!

[JeroenS]

Good job on those decals. That's why I don't have rally cars in the stash, only an oldie from a time when they didn't do it like this 🙂 

[trickyrich]

wow doing those decals looked to be quite a scary task!!! Curved bodies and flat decals, never a fun job, but it looks like you were very successful, they look great on her, well done.

 

Hopefully it's now smooth sailing to the finish line, looking forward to seeing her in the gallery. 

[Scargsy]

So another bit of progress - though it does always seem to take longer than you expect!

I decided to do a fair amount of brush painting as it's faster than all the masking and cleaning up of the airbrush!

For the undertray and front arches I painted them in the kit recommendation of a 1:1 mix of gold and yellow-green to simulate Kevlar, though possibly it could have done with slightly more gold.

I managed to get the underside done - I used the spare gravel suspension that Tamiya handily include, it gives a slightly higher ride height than the kit additional extras on sprue C (for the road Monte Carlo version).

Getting the rear suspension all lined up and in place was a bit of a struggle due to all the parts that need aligning at once though I found it easiest to attach the horizontal strut to the damper / hub first, so I could get the alignment pin in place. It still all looks quite fragile - hopefully I won't end up breaking it all putting the wheel on (like I did on my last rally build in the previous Swedish group build!)

For the interior I'm not sure what colour to paint the fire extinguishers - the instructions suggest silver, though possibly I might do red for a bit of contrast. 

Other than that I've painted up the rear of the seats (again in the Kevlar colour) and added the kit decals for the seatbelts. It would have been better to scratch build some or maybe just cut-out the decals with the backing paper to give a more three-dimensional appearance but time is short!

 

I still need to decide if I'll add the night stage lighting, I did drill out the attachment points for them though I found some further info on the actual car - it had gearbox trouble very early on (didn't even post a time for the first stage) though I did manage to find a photo of it here on this website. Also it looks like I made a mistake and put the driver/co-driver name decals on the wrong sides - oh well!

[Scargsy]

So it looks like I made it to the finish line!

 

The seats were inserted and given a brush coat of thinned Vallejo satin varnish to seal the decals.

 

The body was given a coat of Mr Top Coat Gloss from a rattle can, still the best gloss finish I seem to be able to get...

The wheels were given a couple of coats of Tamiya X2 white gloss but it just didn't seem to want to give good coverage.

All the smaller interior parts (handbrake, gear mechanism, etc.) had been inserted and so I added the roll cage parts and spare wheel - ready for the seal up...

The body was just too shiny and toy like to my eye, so I hoped to dull it back a little, unfortunately I didn't have any flat-clear rattle cans on hand so just brushed it with some thinned Vallejo satin clear. Annoyingly even after a couple of hours it still seemed a little tacky when handling it, but time was pressing so I did my best to not get fingermarks in it whilst carrying on. The front grill mesh was inserted and the insert for the bonnet vent.

I attached the glass work using Microscale Krystal Klear and also some Tamiya extra thin - where I thought I could get away with it near the non-visible parts in case if fogged.

Then as test fitting the interior to the exterior it clicked into place without glue so I figured I'd leave it - no point damaging it now!

I decided I'd fit the kit supplied mud-flaps, these are not mentioned in the instructions for the Monte-Carlo version but a look on Scalemates and I found the Safari version instructions to see which ones went where and looking at the photo of the real car it seemed to have red ones at the rear and black ones on the front. These were given a couple of coats of Tamiya flat-red, it didn't really want to coat well (especially over the black primer), I gave them a final brush coating of it too but the less than smooth covering I wasn't too concerned with as it gives them a bit of a dirt like patina.

 

The mudflaps, wheels, mirrors and wipers were all added and I left it overnight to let the clear PVA completely dry behind the light lenses before the final photos...

 

 

[Scargsy]

In the end I didn't fit the light pods, I could have done with some decals on the wheels and I'm not overly happy with how my lights turned out, but it's done!

Tyres also have some annoying mould lines down the centre - I added a bit of texture with some filed down bits of white styrene and some white weathering powder.

 

Bonus shot with the Galant VR-4 rally car from the last Nordic GB...

 

 

[desert falcon]

[trickyrich]

well done on completing her she looks great!  

 

It seemed to be a reasonable trouble free build though the decals, the swirly ones didn't want to play nicely!

 

It certainly was a nice and bright colour scheme and she goes very nicely with the Mitsubishi.

 

I'm glad you could join us again, and it was nice to have more rally cars in the build as well, I hope you enjoyed yourself as well.  Now what will you build for round 3? 

[helios16v]

Lovely build.