MG Metro 6R4 Monte Carlo 1986

[Scargsy]

So my second GB entry will be this mini-beast...

 

3.0 litre, V6, mid-mounted with 4WD in a Metro shell, group B rally madness at it's finest.

 

The kit itself looks pretty comprehensive which is a good thing if you like 6R4s as unlike Spitfires there's no exactly much in the way of choices out there (maybe a resin kit or two).

 

The instructions are in a nice glossy booklet with colour in parts. Decals seem good - I've got some aftermarket window masks from Hiroboy (plus their Zero-paint set, I hope it's a good match the white seems somewhat yellowed but that maybe just the thinners). 

 

All the sprues are individually wrapped. There's a small PE fret, some rubber parts, seat belt material, chrome parts and a metallic MG decal/sticker.

 

It comes with two sets of wheels (I guess the second set are for the RAC decal version).

 

 

The parts just keep coming...

 

Finally the tiny body shell (Plymouth GTX for comparison), which is individually wrapped and packed in a small box to help protect it...

Now I somehow have to fit all those parts into it!

 

 

 

 

[Redstaff]

Great stuff  

Glad to see another car in the build, especially one of these. I'm doing one of it's parents, the Mini Cooper from the '67 Monte Carlo 

I've got one of these for some point in time as well, as group B was my era of standing in wet fields and forests watching these hurtlr by, happy days  

 

Ian

[CliffB]

A great choice .   I'm intrigued by the wheels though, as the ones in the box lid photo look rather lost in those massive wheel arches.  Did they maybe run different width wheels for different surfaces etc?

 

Cheers

[malpaso]

Often the gravel or mud tyres would be much narrower than those for road or proper tarmac stages.  Though it must have been a brave driver who would choose wide slicks for a mountain Monte stage!

The theory of narrower/tall tyres in muddy conditions is the sidewalls give some grip or traction even when the tread is clogged.

By Group B days a recce crew would often run through the stage shortly before to give advice on road conditions and tyre choice.

[Col.]

This looks to be a comprehensive kit of the mad machine. You've got my attention with this subject 

[stevej60]

Wow my Metro didn't look like that! Excellent project.

[Col.]

35 minutes ago, stevej60 said:

Wow my Metro didn't look like that! Excellent project.

Aye but to be fair Steve I bet it didn't cost as much either  

[stevej60]

13 minutes ago, Col. said:

Aye but to be fair Steve I bet it didn't cost as much either  

True Col,not even as much as the kit!

[Scargsy]

I have to say my own Metro never looked as good or went this fast!

 

So I made a start by removing all the body coloured parts from the sprue trees and attaching what I can together to start before priming.

 

I have however made a few mistakes so far - there are a couple of sink marks in the underside of the rear spoiler I should have fixed before attaching and it looks like fitting the light pod (or the empty 'clips' is going to be somewhat harder now I've attached the front bumper.

 

Zero primer seems to have gone down nicely; fingers crossed for the paint.

[Col.]

How are all the parts fitting together so far?

While heading west on the A96 between Fochabers and Elgin on Sunday I seen a pristine Austin Metro on the road for the first time in more years than I care to remember. Painted in the rather strange beige colour which was popular back in the day.

[Scargsy]

3 hours ago, Col. said:

How are all the parts fitting together so far?

While heading west on the A96 between Fochabers and Elgin on Sunday I seen a pristine Austin Metro on the road for the first time in more years than I care to remember. Painted in the rather strange beige colour which was popular back in the day.

So far I have to say the fit and moulding quality is great - maybe a couple of very tiny bits of sink marks on the rear wheel arch tops (hardly noticable) and a few minor mould lines seams.

I guess the joys of being a modern kit

 

 

[bigbadbadge]

What a beastie,  looks to be a nice kit too, will tag along if I may .

 

Chris

[Scargsy]

So I put down the Zero white coat, initially mixing a little self-levelling thinners (though this did make it a little thin).

I have to say it went down amazingly nicely and smoothly...

It's a lovely colour however I have to say maybe a little too creamy to my eyes (considering it might look odd against the kit decals), the kit suggests Tamiya TS-26 (or X-2) which is more of a pure white. I tried to get a photo to show above, obviously photos aren't great at colour reproduction, so I put some milk in as a reference. Paints are from L to R: Zero 6R4 white, Mr Color GX-1 Cool White and Tamiya LP-2. The GX-1 looks like a pure titanium dioxide white (very bright with a hint of blue), the Tamiya slightly warmer but pure white and the zero warmer still.

 

Before my eyes started bleeding micro-analysing overly comparing white tones I decided I'd give it another coat but mixing some of the GX. So 1:1:1 mix of the Zero white, Mr Color self-levelling thinners and the GX1...

I think it's a bit better but it becomes difficult to tell with all these whites!

I masked up and added some sandy yellow for the front splitter and the Zero colour blue - I had worried looking in the jar that it might be a bit on the light side but it seems better on the car.

Somewhat annoyingly that didn't go too well - my masking (with the curve tape) has slipped on the front splitter, some of the white has chipped off, the blue has gone down a bit textured and I've had a bit of blue bleed through.

Anyhow, enough for today, I'll see how it settles, sand back and touch-up as needed once it's all fully dried.

 

[Col.]

Shame about the overspray but nothing a little tidying up won't fix  

[arfa1983]

19 hours ago, Scargsy said:

so I put some milk in as a reference.

Low fat, no fat, full cream, high calcium, high protein, soy, light skim, Omega 3, high calcium with vitamin D & floride or extra dollup?
 

[Scargsy]

32 minutes ago, arfa1983 said:

Low fat, no fat, full cream, high calcium, high protein, soy, light skim, Omega 3, high calcium with vitamin D & floride or extra dollup?
 

Semi-skimmed silver top, chilled.

 

[Scargsy]

So a small update - the builds have been kind of going slow due to work/redundancy/finding a new job but I figured I'd best get it moving forward!

 

I managed to get the decals attached...

I was a bit hesitant attaching them (especially that long arm on the CV logo) but they went down beautifully (probably because they're not a 20+ year old set like my other build).

 

The door number decals I used some artistic license and moved forward slightly to cover some small overspray where the masking wasn't great near the front of the door/wing.

There is a tiny bit of bleed/overspray by the filler caps but since there is some PE fillers to add later hopefully that won't be noticable.

 

I had a few small issues with the decals :

• The small 'infill' part at the corner of the CV on the bonnet (it fills the gap on the left at the intake) didn't really sit well and was a pain to get aligned.
• The 'Monte Carlo Rally' decal on the bonnet is a bit too transparent (easy to see the blue through it, which is weird as the other white decals, e.g. the CV logos are nice and thick.)
• Aligning up all the split 'Mobil' parts on the front grill is a bit fiddly, best to start with the second 'row' (top of the grill, not the top part on the bonnet) as this is full width and has a cut out/alignment point around the MG logo. This might have been easier if I'd done that first before attaching the grill.

 

The next job will be clear coating it - do I go for 2k as never used it before and I'm worried that the ambient temps might be less than ideal or something else?

 

 

 

[Redstaff]

6 hours ago, Scargsy said:

The next job will be clear coating it - do I go for 2k as never used it before and I'm worried that the ambient temps might be less than ideal or something else?

 

Nice progress, decals look to have conformed quite well. I must admit that while I normally 2K my F1 builds, I never 2K my rally car builds as they never seemed to have had that wet look high gloss finish from what I remember. I usually use zero 1 pack clear or Mr Color GX112 with the UV protection, but at the end of the day it's your choice

 

Ian  

[Col.]

This one is looking smart

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Another good looking car with the decals added. 

[Scargsy]

So I bit the bullet and went for the 2k clear - not as painful a process as I'd imagined (I worried about it chemically hardening in the airbrush and cleaning out clear is like mending the emperor's new clothes).

 

 

 

On 07/12/2022 at 17:52, Redstaff said:

Nice progress, decals look to have conformed quite well. I must admit that while I normally 2K my F1 builds, I never 2K my rally car builds as they never seemed to have had that wet look high gloss finish from what I remember. I usually use zero 1 pack clear or Mr Color GX112 with the UV protection, but at the end of the day it's your choice

 

Ian  

Yes I agree that it looks very glossy and 'toy like' I'm planning on flatting it back a bit (well there's a few dust specks in the roof for example that I'll need to micro-mesh out), adding some panel lining (probably with some washable clay stuff) and then I may give it a coat of semi-gloss to finally seal it all.

 

I made a start on the interior, however I've since discovered / worked out that the instructions call for the cabin interior to be black but I've done it in white - too late to change it now though so a bit of artistic license (should make everything a bit more visible though as otherwise it would be a riot of black components).

There is a fair amount of detail for the interior in this kit - even the electrical shutoff key (red bit just in front of the gear level) is a separate component and that black box in front of that panel is a separate piece (no idea what it is but it won't be visible when the dash is installed).

I noticed there are some decals which don't have instructions for placement (there are some Recaro ones which I assume should be on the seat headrests so I've attached them) there is also what appears to be a spare Unipart one which I may attach to the battery. As for detail the part behind the battery is I assume the ECU (appears to have moulded heat sink lines on it).

 

In terms of reference material I found one of the sister works cars is currently listed for sale (if anyone has a spare 1/4 million lying around)... 1985 MG Works Metro 6R4 (carandclassic.com)

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Thats looking smooth and real good. 

[Scargsy]

I'm not sure if this one will make the cutoff date for the GB.

I did manage to get the windows masked and painted but unfortunately I ended up with this:

Looks like the glue from the masks has stuck to the window - anyone know what I could use to remove it - I'm hesitant to try IPA or Acetone as it will probably react with the paint and cause it to run (so would need to go carefully). Oil based stuff would possibly react with the clear plastic. I've tried some other masking tape and soaking it in soapy / vinegary water with no success.

 

 

[malpaso]

If the black paint is acrylic I would try cleaning the tape mess with lighter fluid;

if enamel then alcohol - 

either way you will need to be gentle with any rubbing near the black.

Try the solvent on a spare transparency from the kit or even the sprue should show if it’s going to attack the surface.

[arfa1983]

In the past I have used WD-40 on a cotton swab. But it is impossible to clean off so you need to make sure it is last thing you do on the kit.