Aston Martin DBR9 - 2008 LeMans Winner

[AlanGrant]

Hello folks!

 

As I said, I'm a newbie and this is my second ever kit. The first one was a Sukhoi SU-27 "Flanker" from Revell. I'd like to share my building process to get some advice.

First off, I choosed this kit just because it is a starter kit with some paint and accessories and because I think the "Gulf" colors are a cult in racing cars, some of the greatest livery ever made.

So let me introduce to you the Aston Martin DBR9 that I aspire to replicate.

 

 

And here are the components of the kit, for a 1/32 I think it's a well detailed model.

 

 

 

 

First step: I filed down some mold mistake

 

 

 

 

 

After I discoverd that some colors are dried out (fortunately not the "Gulf Light Blue"). Aaaand...I thought I could use the Tamiya black color I already had, to replace the one in the kit, but while painting the car floor I discoverd that my Tamiya is a gloss black not mat black, so now I have to cover the disaster and gain some knowledge in paints codes.

 

 

Any advice, thoughts? I have to buy new colors and I think I'll go with Vallejo or Italeri Acrilic paints.

 

[Fastcat]

Hi Alan

             From what I can remember, the Airfix kit is a good one but just a bit basic. The body is best assembled first as far as possible and any flaws dealt with before painting. Most of the black areas are bare carbon fbre so a good stock of different weaves is useful.

Can't comment on availability or accuracy but Hiroboy does the appropriate colours for Gulf.

 

Dave

[Toftdale]

Hi Alan,  I don't think I have ever read anything other than negative comments about the paints supplied in the Airfix starter kits, so you've probably had a lucky escape. Vallejo certainly seems like a sensible option to me, although it may be worth considering rattle cans.  I have this kit and although I have not started it yet I have followed a few threads of it being built with interest and I do remember that the Aston Martin badge on the bonnet decal does not line up with the raised wings on the bonnet.  Hence most people sand this area down before painting.  With regards to your gloss black you may well be able to remove the shine using some fine abrasive, or even matt varnish.   Enjoy your build and welcome to the forum - Andy 

[Spiny]

I'd second using rattle cans (assuming you have somewhere you can spray without suffocating yourself). Personally I don't get on very well with an airbrush and it's very difficult to get a good finish on cars with a paintbrush. As others have said, Tamiya is a good place to start, although other paints I've used with some reasonable success are Revell, Humbrol and Halfords (full size automotive store, not sure what the Italian equivalent is). Unfortunately I have no experience of Vallejo or Italeri paints so can't comment on those directly.

 

One thing I would suggest is to get hold of some cheap plastic spoons and practice on those before spraying your model. That will also allow you to make sure that your primer and colour coat (and clear coat if you're using one) are compatible before committing.

 

As for the gloss black, you could get away with keying it (light sanding to create a rougher surface) then going over it with a matt black paint instead. If you are using Tamiya colours, their X-Pots are gloss while XF-colours are matt. Satin black for Tamiya is TS-18 and you'll probably see that called out in the instructions in quite a few places if building a Tamiya kit.

[johnlambert]

There is lots of good advice in this thread.

 

Ford Bermuda blue is a fairly good substitute for Gulf blue, if you can get hold of some.

 

When it hasn't set solid I find that the Humbrol paint in these Airfix starter/gift sets can be useful for detail/brush painting as they don't have strong solvents that can lift previous layers of paint.

 

On the subject of painting, I found it quite challenging to paint the wheels and tyres.  If you can cut circles of masking tape, you will have a much easier time.

 

Another tricky area with this kit is the decal that goes around the radiator opening and up the bonnet.  This is very flexible and challenging to position.  I would also recommend checking the fit of the windscreen wiper before you fit the body to the base as I had to drill out the hole afterwards and ended up with a bit of dust on the top of the dashboard.  You might need some strong clamps to hold the body to the chassis while the glue sets.

 

When it's done, it makes a very attractive model.  I hope you enjoy building this kit.

[Fastcat]

Hi again Alan,

                          I also think the front splitter was larger at Le Mans, also the two dividers in the front air intake weren't silver colour, I think they were natural carbon fibre.

I had the first issue, way back and the decals and some of the smaller details weren't correct for Le Mans but were OK for the press release car. Andy is right about the Aston Martin badge but that may have changed if the decal sheet was updated. Anyway, it's easier to apply the decal if the badge is removed.

 

Dave 

[AlanGrant]

Thanks folks! A lot of great advice right here, so thank you very much, I appreciate every hint.

 

@FastcatThanks a lot, I've never heard of Hiroboy before, there's a lot of great material on their website. For the car "precision" I'll not get crazy about it but surely I'll sand the badge down this evening.

 

@Toftdale For what can I see the colors should be Humbrol, but one thing I understood is that I don't have to take for granted that I can finish the model without buying other stuff. Great advice for badge and my mistake with the gloss color.

 

@Spiny Thanks a lot, I'm trying to avoid rattle cans because I'd like to pass from brush to airbrush, I'm just strating out so I don't want to buy to much stuff and take this path step by step, assuming and accepting that I'll not get a perfect color. Anyway thanks also for paint advice.

 

@johnlambert My man! I have your WIP thread always open as reference, I really hoped in your answer but I didn't want to bother you with pm. Thanks for the hints I hope you'll follow my wip.

 

 

This is a great forum, I'll post soon.

[keefr22]

My go to acrylic paints for brush painting are mainly Games Workshop Citadel and Revell Aqua and occasionally Valejo Model Color - they all work well, although I don't like the dropper bottles the Valejo come in so I often decant those into small plastic bottles with a screw top so that I can stir them properly. Any of those Airfix paints I get go straight in the bin.

 

If you want to airbrush the Gulf colours and want the 'correct' colours, both Gravity Paints Spain and I think Number 5 paints available from Spotmodel, also in Spain, would likely be cheaper for you to get than Zero from the UK. If you do choose to use any of those brands be aware they are 'hot' (ie will melt plastic!) laquer paints so need to be applied over a primer and applied in mist coats.

 

For carbon areas if I don't feel like decalling them (which often happens!) I use a dark gunmetal paint rather than black as it gives sort of an impression of carbon fibre.

 

One thing I seem to remember about the main decals is the ones in the kit is they aren't complete for the race - IIRC the Le Mans decals for the class the car ran in aren't on the sheet, and there may be other small ones missing too.

 

Keith

 

PS to the forum

 

Edit - sorry, just noticed that Dave @Fastcat had mentioned about the decals.

 

 

[Fastcat]

Hi Alan and Keith,

                               Yes, the kit decals weren't complete for Le Mans. I got a set of complete decals from Colorado Decals (made I think by Carpena) but they no longer seem to be in business. They weren't particularly cheap, as I recall but it was a case of being the only alternative in town. Le Mans Decals from Spain do a simplified sheet now, with fewer separate items but I've no experience with it so can't say if it's a good fit on the Airfix kit or what the quality is like. Other decals in the range are very good but modern cars have so many advertising stickers on them that any decals would need to be tailored to the kit.

 

Dave

[AlanGrant]

Hello my model-scale-friends, some small updates.

 

With brush painting all the process is a lot slowed down, I'm trying to understand how to manage at my best the waiting time between coats and such.

I'm learning a lot with this model, I noticed I painted a lot of unnecessary parts and a lot of stuff on the sprue when I could just snapped them out before painting. I guess I'll not manage a great one, but I'll learn a lot, I'm sure.

 

So, here the little steps forward:

• I sanded down AM logos;
• Build up rollbar;
• Glued wheels and give a test to the floor (I guess this isn't the right word);
• And final coats on: rollbar, seats and inner wheel/wheel housing;

Unfortunately I also noticed:

• I didn't paint the rims, but I have time to do that;
• first coat of gulf blue is pretty shitty-looking;
• Cement seems it doesn't do a good work on painted pieces;

This evening I'll give a second coat to the car body and assemble some inner parts.

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

[Windy37]

Hi Alan . Personally when starting a new kit I decide which paint colours are needed on which part then paint those parts with that colour , then repeat for the next colour etc , etc . I leave the parts on the sprue then touch up once I fit the part to the kit . This works for me , and although a lot of detail painting in one go is  tedious , you do seem to able to assemble large amounts in a small space of time . I tend to spray larger surfaces and exterior parts such as grilles , mirrors and spoilers / wings as it gives a better finish . 

  All this works for me , maybe not yourself ! 

Gary . 

[AlanGrant]

@Windy37 Thank you so much, everything helps! I'm trying to improve my technique so every hint or advice is welcome! I'll try

[Spiny]

I'd also add to that don't worry about how the first coat looks, unless you absolutely slather the paint on (in which case it will always look terrible) then the coverage witht he first coat will always be poor. The standard rule is that many light thin coats will look better than one thick coat.