Jump to content

Mazda RX-7 FD


Recommended Posts

Apparently this is my first WIP on this forum (yay?).

 

After the DTM BMW finished I realised that my last civilian road car I have made was more than 5 years ago. It was time fix this so I grabbed Tamiya's RX-7 that has been sitting in the shelf for a "few" years. It was supposed to be original factory-like but I have never been much of a fan of the original rims so I might change them. Even though the paint is Mazda's Soul red you never could get it into RX-7 from the factory so I guess this already is a mild street tune anyway.

 

As said earlier the paint is Gravity colour's two-part Mazda Soul red with 2K clear. Polished with #4000 & #6000 sand papers and machine polished after. Wax comes before the final assembly.

 

Before polishing...

spacer.png

 

...and after.

spacer.png

 

Polishing started with #4000 paper only to smoothen out all the dust and other uneven bits. After this the whole bonnet was sanded with #6000 paper to get rid of the orange peel.

spacer.png

 

After the sandpaper it was machine polished to bring the glossiness back.

spacer.png

 

Extremely hard colour to take photos, feels like the shade differs depending of the light, angle, shades, position of the moon and last weeks weather forecast.

 

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, JeroenS said:

What did you use for polish?

After #6000 sandpaper I used Meguiar's ultimate compound as coarse polishing compound to remove biggest scratches. After that final polishing was made with Tamiya's finish compound to bring the shine back.

 

Depending what you require from the final result, you can achieve good result with only Meguiar's compound but as it is intended for 1:1 cars if you look close enough there are some microscratches left behind. Only to remove these I used Tamiya's compound.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Underbody is pretty much completed also, few details will come after the engine is complete. I decided to try some drybrushing into this and as much as I love completely spotless models I must admit that it looks more realistic with this.

 

Painted with four or five different alclad metals and few tamiya colours, mainly through airbrush.

 

y4mebPoyYtyY0MhvevCGiWaYzYozBSqFulwFsLcb

y4mCXbRZHIFmV6CaZ0xWN_HAHp6he-xiw895T7Xb

y4m740kpJvn9PRZ1oec6QjgDAHEaKEW7Fw3IFui8

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Engine was painted and assembled relatively quickly for me I think. Bit less than two weeks or so. Although this being "old" Tamiya from 90's meaning there wasn't so many parts to begin with. Some details had to be added due to this very reason.

 

All the wiring and piping is sourced from my own stash as this kit didn't come with any eventhough real RX-7's engine bay is full with vacuum hoses and wires. Brake servo pipes are made from 0,1mm brass tube and their connectors from 0,2mm and 0,4mm aluminium tubes. Alternator is so visible with wankel engine it had to be replaced as the original "alternator" looked more like tennis ball than anything else. I mean I didn't even realise what I was looking at when I was preparing the parts for painting.

 

I decided to put CF on the front splitter as bare semigloss black didn't look very attractive. I'm not happy how it turned out but I was defeated by the decal itself. In the end I just had to admit that the surface is too complex to be covered with decal evenly. Luckily most of the creases will be covered by the main body.

 

spacer.png

spacer.png

 

On left is the original alternator provided by Tamiya. "Log" they are leaning up against is toothpick.

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

spacer.png

  • Like 9
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

If somewhere, in the interior this kit shows its age. Lack of parts and details is pretty obvious when assembling it. The details that are there are quite well done but overall this really isn't up to bar by todays standards. There are no armrest or doorhandles in the door cards for example. Despite this I tried to detail existing parts as much as possible.

 

Majority of the real RX-7:s came with black leather/plastic interior so I decided to go with this option also. Painted with few different shades of black despite none of will be visible when ready. Pedals are PE parts eventhough those are visible to absolutely nowhere. Seatbelts and buckles are from my own stash. Floor and parcel shelf are covered with grey flocking.

 

spacer.png

spacer.png

spacer.png

spacer.png

spacer.png

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...