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Fujimi 1/24 scale Martini Porsche 917 K


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 After more then 8 years of one aircraft model after another, and being a long time road racing fan from the early 1060s, I thought it was about time that I included racing cars into my model building schedule. And with time no longer on my side, now is the perfect time to start. 

   Rather then jump into the world of Formula 1 as it seems to be the most modeled series, I thought I'd model a personal favorite from the FIA Endurance races of yesteryear. For me the Iconic Porsche 917 series totally dominated the 1970's Prototype class, and was by far my favorte P type car. Unlike most makes, Porsche didn't race the cars under the Porsche factory banner, but rather had a team or a few teams that it treated as their factory teams.  

   My favorite team from the late 1960s through the the 1980s was the John Wyler Gulf Team. And so I set out to build one of the Fujimi 1/24 scale Wyler Gulf Porsche 917 K versions. Unfortunately, the kit isn't available except from the Orient, so I decided go with the Team Piper version which I picked up at the 2018 Noreastcon for steal. I figured I'd just buy new decals from IndyCal, but when I checked they didn't make any Wyler/Gulf Porsche 917K decals. So I switched "gears" and went with the Martini 1971 LeMans winning car decals. When I opened the box to start the kit, to my horror I discovered that the Piper version was a short track car without the vertical Stabilizers that Porsche added for the 1971 race, which preceeded the long tail version. So I was faced with this:

 

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The correct tail looks like this:

 

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 So I decided to just make my own out of .020 sheet plastic using a tracing of the decals as a guide.

 

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 I drilled holes for pins in both the rear deck and the bottom of the Stabs to add a little more strength to the joint. Also, the car doesn't have those intake ducts on the side of the engine fan housing. The kit does contain plugs, but the fit is pretty poor. So after the glue had dried I sanded them to shape, then a liberal coating of Bondo, and when dry sanded and polished. Feels pretty smooth to me.
 

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 The rear of the  engine deck also needed every seam sanded and puttied, and it's a sinlge piece molding in real life. Only the tail winglets were bolted on. 

  The front deck which is also the top of the cockpit, had it issues, none that weren't easy enough to correct. Fujimi has both radiator housing covers in the kit, so I glued the correct one into place. The cover was to tall, and the Zeus fasteners were way out of scale. I sanded them off, and took down the radiator cover to be level with the body. Now I just have to figure out how to make new fasteners or buy some. Also there is another small intake right in front of the windscreen that wasn't used on this car, so I plugged, and then Bondo'd it. The last item is the cockpit top window. Fujimi gives you a plug for it as almost all the various 917s didn't use it. I glued the plug in. Then Bondo and sanded smooth.

  Fujimi molded the front clip as a separate piece as I'm sure that it was due to how they made molds back in the 1990s, so I glued it on, then sanded, a nice coat of Bondo filler, and got the clip to look like it was molded with front body section. 

 

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 Final polishing is next to get ready for the primer coat. Unfortunately, my order from Gravity paints which inlcudes their complete painting process that I ordered on May 17th was 1st held up due to Mate' recieving the wrong bottle caps. Then on 6/1 he started to accept orders again, but everyday when I check my order status, it's still listed as being processed. Daily using he contact form, I ask for the status of my order and if he offers tracking. Unfortunately, he never has replied to this point. If I need to cancel my order through PayPal, then I'll go with MCW Paints as they get top marks as well.

 

Joel
 

Edited by Joel_W
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4 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

Looking forward to this! Those 917s were monsters. I love Le Mans with Steve McQueen.

 

And it's Dzus fastener, not Zeus.

Slartbartfast.

  My apologies for once again misspelling Dzus, it's a mental thing with me.

  I'm going to have to break down and buy from Japan the John Wyler Gulf Porsche 917K that Steve McQueen drove in the movie, as well as the other John Wyler Gulf cars, as it was my favorite team back in the 1970s.

Joel 

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On 6/7/2018 at 8:49 PM, Joel_W said:

  I'm going to have to break down and buy from Japan the John Wyler Gulf Porsche 917K that Steve McQueen drove in the movie, as well as the other John Wyler Gulf cars, as it was my favorite team back in the 1970s.

Joel 

Hi Joel, funny as in coincidental, I am completing a 1970 Monte Carlo build and am trying to perfect the very glossy finish I have seen other modelers can create, I am no where near this process yet and want to get there soon as I want to build my car (2013 Boss 302) soon. I find building in different subjects only expands ones skills in the modelling arena.

I will be following you once again my friend and also a I placed a link for the 917K (on my wish list in Amazon). Not sure if it is the same as you referenced, but I do like the look if it and remember my uncle had this kit in his display when I was very young.

 

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00QW7YDE4/?coliid=I1S6SUIO4P2EHC&colid=2F4YTSAJPI4VE&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Cheers

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On ‎6‎/‎9‎/‎2018 at 7:29 PM, AlienFrogModeller said:

Hi Joel, funny as in coincidental, I am completing a 1970 Monte Carlo build and am trying to perfect the very glossy finish I have seen other modelers can create, I am no where near this process yet and want to get there soon as I want to build my car (2013 Boss 302) soon. I find building in different subjects only expands ones skills in the modelling arena.

I will be following you once again my friend and also a I placed a link for the 917K (on my wish list in Amazon). Not sure if it is the same as you referenced, but I do like the look if it and remember my uncle had this kit in his display when I was very young.

 

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00QW7YDE4/?coliid=I1S6SUIO4P2EHC&colid=2F4YTSAJPI4VE&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Cheers

AFM,

   So very glad to have you along on my maiden Auto build. I'm thinking that learning a completely new painting and finishing technique will come in mighty handy when I do tackle (sooner then later) some of those between the wars Naval aircraft.  Like you, my previous few efforts have been dismal at best.

 

  What I've come to discover is that watching videos of others create those perfect mile deep gloss finishes is way easier then doing it. What I've come away with is a basic understanding of how the whole process works, and it's no where like how I paint military aircraft. For starters I'm going with auto lacquer paints that have been thinned down enough not to eat through the compatible lacquer primer applied in those then coats then increasing to wet coats. Rubbing out the orange peel seems to be a must so that the decals don't need a clear gloss coat, as the paints I'm going to be using are MCW paints which are gloss lacquer to start with. It's the top clear coat that is so super important. Mine going with Lacquer as well, even though the current trend is for a two part Urethane clear like our cars have. Just to toxic for me even with a spray booth vented straight out the window, and the fact that it can easily clog your AB if left to long and it dries. I hear it's impossible to remove it once it gets to that stage. And it's super expensive. Both Zero and Gravity paints sell very small bottles in a 3 part set for $22-25! 

  

  Would love to follow your cars builds. Why not join me with build blogs in ARC's car section. Maybe we can kick start it with others who also build cars/trucks/cycles besides military models. And yes you've selected the correct 917K on Amazon. Wyler had both the 20 & 22 cars with slightly different Orange striping. I'm planning on doing one plus the 1971 Martini 917k Sebring winner. 

 

Joel

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Nice start Joel.
The scratched tails look great!
I built a gulf gt40 a while back and have a Subaru rally car on my shelf of doom currently.

She's there because I polished through the clear coat trying to get rid of orange peel... ugh
I certainly agree that they take a different skill set. 
Following along!

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7 minutes ago, CaptainObvious said:

Nice start Joel.
The scratched tails look great!
I built a gulf gt40 a while back and have a Subaru rally car on my shelf of doom currently.

She's there because I polished through the clear coat trying to get rid of orange peel... ugh
I certainly agree that they take a different skill set. 
Following along!

Capt. Obvious,

 Welcome to my great adventure. I can use all the moral support and technical advice I can get on this one. 

  Believe me I feel your pain and frustration about rubbing through the paint. I do know that you rub out the orange peel before the clear coats as it will also have a little that needs to be removed.  The last car kit I built I did the same thing, and ruined a $75 Jaguar kit. My temper got the best of me, and it was tossed. I just should have put it down, and later in life tried again.

 

Joel

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Hey Joel,

The mica blue metallic paint used on the Subaru would change shades if polished. It was hard to get a even finish that way.
Which was why I took the lazy method of laying down a few clear coats and just polishing that.

I will try to get back to finishing her soon.

 

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8 hours ago, Joel_W said:

AFM,

   So very glad to have you along on my maiden Auto build. I'm thinking that learning a completely new painting and finishing technique will come in mighty handy when I do tackle (sooner then later) some of those between the wars Naval aircraft.  Like you, my previous few efforts have been dismal at best.

 

  What I've come to discover is that watching videos of others create those perfect mile deep gloss finishes is way easier then doing it. What I've come away with is a basic understanding of how the whole process works, and it's no where like how I paint military aircraft. For starters I'm going with auto lacquer paints that have been thinned down enough not to eat through the compatible lacquer primer applied in those then coats then increasing to wet coats. Rubbing out the orange peel seems to be a must so that the decals don't need a clear gloss coat, as the paints I'm going to be using are MCW paints which are gloss lacquer to start with. It's the top clear coat that is so super important. Mine going with Lacquer as well, even though the current trend is for a two part Urethane clear like our cars have. Just to toxic for me even with a spray booth vented straight out the window, and the fact that it can easily clog your AB if left to long and it dries. I hear it's impossible to remove it once it gets to that stage. And it's super expensive. Both Zero and Gravity paints sell very small bottles in a 3 part set for $22-25! 

  

  Would love to follow your cars builds. Why not join me with build blogs in ARC's car section. Maybe we can kick start it with others who also build cars/trucks/cycles besides military models. And yes you've selected the correct 917K on Amazon. Wyler had both the 20 & 22 cars with slightly different Orange striping. I'm planning on doing one plus the 1971 Martini 917k Sebring winner. 

 

Joel

Joel,

I have my Boss 302 out, your tempting me. Maybe I can work it in between my Hornet builds. 

I too have been watching many Utoob builds with the clear gloss finish. One thing that really surprised me is the Mr Color Super Clear III thinned to 1: 2.5 and in some cases up to 1:3. As for the orange peel finish, I might just plug away at a few practice pieces first to master the mile deep gloss.

 

Dammit Joel...it's going to be an OOB build except some flocking on the floor. 

 

Edited by AlienFrogModeller
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Wow- I’ve managed to scroll all the way down to the auto threads!  Great start so far Joel- I’m looking forward to seeing your progress.  Looks like you may be starting a trend for all of us airplane modelers, ha!

 

Steve

Edited by Falconxlvi
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4 hours ago, Falconxlvi said:

Wow- I’ve managed to scroll all the way down to the auto threads!  Great start so far Joel- I’m looking forward to seeing your progress.  Looks like you may be starting a trend for all of us airplane modelers, ha!

 

Steve

Steve,

   It was like alien territory to me too.  Nothing wrong with us plane jockey's to have another modeling interest.  Of course an interest is one thing, learning to build a car, bike, or truck to the same set of standards that we model aircraft is a whole different ballgame from what I can tell. 

  I'm about ready to do a small update by the weekend. Modeling has slowed down some with the warmer weather little by little finally getting here. And I'm out saltwater fishing once or twice per week. As a matter of fact I fished today, and Porgy is on the menu for dinner tonight.

Joel

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4 minutes ago, Joel_W said:

Steve,

   It was like alien territory to me too.  Nothing wrong with us plane jockey's to have another modeling interest.  Of course an interest is one thing, learning to build a car, bike, or truck to the same set of standards that we model aircraft is a whole different ballgame from what I can tell. 

  I'm about ready to do a small update by the weekend. Modeling has slowed down some with the warmer weather little by little finally getting here. And I'm out saltwater fishing once or twice per week. As a matter of fact I fished today, and Porgy is on the menu for dinner tonight.

Joel

Joel,

  Congratulations on the catch!  It’s good to leave the man cave in the summertime every once in awhile.    I’m looking forward to your update and learning along the way.  I have always wanted to build a couple of LeMans/endurance cars from the late 90s- specifically the Porsche 911 GT1, Mercedes CLK GTR, and a McClaren F1.  My dad and I grew up watching all forms of road racing and I fell in love with that era of sports cars.   Anyways- there’s a MiG-15, Sherman Tanks, and Bf 109G-2 to finish before I can even think about starting a new project.  

 

Cheers, 

 

Steve

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16 hours ago, Falconxlvi said:

Joel,

  Congratulations on the catch!  It’s good to leave the man cave in the summertime every once in awhile.    I’m looking forward to your update and learning along the way.  I have always wanted to build a couple of LeMans/endurance cars from the late 90s- specifically the Porsche 911 GT1, Mercedes CLK GTR, and a McClaren F1.  My dad and I grew up watching all forms of road racing and I fell in love with that era of sports cars.   Anyways- there’s a MiG-15, Sherman Tanks, and Bf 109G-2 to finish before I can even think about starting a new project.  

 

Cheers, 

 

Steve

Steve,

  The 1960's through the 1990s is my golden era of all forms of road racing. The exception is that the Champ/Cart/Indy cars ran only ovals back in the early champ car days. Never much of a Nascar kind of guy as the oval races ran about 4hrs, and my attention span wasn't nearly long enough. I do watch the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400, the Glen, and Sonoma races. 

 

   I've got the McLaren F1 team car in my small stash. Your list is pretty darn cool if you ask me. When you want a break from Military builds, just start one and see where  you go.

 

Joel

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I'm trying to finish up my next update, so there should be some posted progress very shortly.

As to the issue with Gravity paints, the status was changed to claim via Pay Pal. I sent Mate two more emails, as well as Pay Pal requesting information. Mate never responded to any of them. Pay Pal gave him till 6/18 to send a response, which as I said he never did. So today Pay Pal issued me a full refund. I checked my order at the Gravity site, and it's still listed as on Hold.

Not sure what's going on there, but since I 1st tried to order from Gravity  paints, Mate has twice stopped accepting orders stating he's backlogged. I've never heard of any company doing that. My guess is that he's having issues getting needed supplies so he can fill his current orders.

Joel

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Finally time for another update, small as it may be. I must confess that this summer, my 1st as a retired person, I've gotten the saltwater fishing bug again, and have been fishing both from pier and boat at least twice per week. That has cut into my previous day time modeling schedule for sure. But now that I've got most of the basics back and in some what control, I don't need to devote so much time to fishing 101.

  Also, since the finish of the T-33A, I've slacked off some needing to recharge my Mojo batteries, as I've been finishing one build, then starting the next one, even on the same day for years on end.

1st up was replacing the Dzus fasteners. For that I just used some .040 sheet stock and punched out discs, then just glued them in place. 

 

4Gb2em.jpg

 

The prototype had two small electrical panels under the large dash panel, located right directly behind the  front suspension A arms.  You can clearly see them when looking through the side windows, so I scratched out both from sheet, a few bits and pieces, & rod stock. I've also drilled out the holes needed for basic wiring. right now they're just dry fitted to get a feel for how they look.  You'll also notice that I glued in a piece of sheet to help block the opening to the wheel well. Fujimi really did a pretty poor job of recreating the cockpit, but I decided not to try and do a complete rebuild, which would be far to much effort, as I'm not so sure I can correctly emulate it. 

 

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There are two seats in the cockpit as per FIA rules, so the 2nd seat which was never meant for anyone one to seat in is as small as the rules would allow. Right behind it is the battery. I started to add some details such as the battery cell caps, a temp tie down strap ( for visual effect), and the back mounting bracket.  I really need to scribe a separation line between the casing and the floor, as it now looks like the one piece it is.
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I've taped up the front and rear body panels to the bottom tub to see if it does indeed look like a Porsche 917K. sure starting to have that look. 
 

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 Next up my is to complete the cockpit with  a little more added details. as for the seat harness, I'm leaning towards the Tamiya 1970s F1 harness in Red. The price is half that of the fabric ones, and being inside the cockpit, I'm not so sure that cloth is really needed. 

Joel

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Very nice!  I've got  5 of these in the stash. Going to be using your build as reference.  I really wish someone would do the 917/20(Pink Pig version) and the 917/30.  After seeing and hearing one of these at Lime Rock Park Vintage Festival I was hooked.

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5 hours ago, dekon70 said:

Very nice!  I've got  5 of these in the stash. Going to be using your build as reference.  I really wish someone would do the 917/20(Pink Pig version) and the 917/30.  After seeing and hearing one of these at Lime Rock Park Vintage Festival I was hooked.

 

   Dekon70,

    Wow!! 5 in the stash. Sure hope that  you start to build them and post your work. I'm going to be buying the John Wyler 917K  as I'm a huge Team Wyler fan.

Joel

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2 hours ago, CaptainObvious said:

Joel,

The bodywork looks great. I can't wait to see her in primer.

 Capt. Obvious,

  Priming as I type this. Update with a fair amount of work in a few days.

Joel

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 One again I've finally got enough accomplished for my next update. 

  The most simple of operations was joining the two body sections, which I did with Tamiya Extra Thin and tape. Well, I really should have use a liquid type glue like Testors as the Extra Thin by capilary action worked it's way through the Z type lip joint, and when dry I had what amounted to dried melted plastic with a ton of CO2 holes. I started to rescribe the joint line, but it looks like I still have more to do. 

  I turned my attention to detail painting the two electrical side panels as well as the boxes on the back cockpit bulkhead wall, then wired them all up with lead wire from UMM-USA. 

  Next up was finally priming both the upper body sections and the chassis.  I started with the inside of the chassis, and the inside of the the body. Since my references seem to show that the Martini cars had a gray primer color for the interior, I used Mig Ammo Gray primer thinned 1:1 with Tamiya X20-A.  Came out just fine as it usually does. 

  Now I had to prime the outside of the shell and chassis. I'm going to be using MCW model Auto paints, as my order from Gravity USA became an excersize in frustration that eventually I had to get Pay Pal involved, and they issued me a full refund.  Their gray Lacquer primer, like their paints come pre-thinned, and boy are they thinned. Mike, the owner, said that they thin them about 125%. Looked thinner then skin milk. You get a one oz bottle that just made it through both parts.  The primer went on silky smooth until I deviated from even lite coats, and tried to get better coverage by going over the same sections without 5 min between coats. The end result was some really horiffic Lizzard skin, much worse then Orange peel. I let it dry for a few hours, then using warm water with a drop of Dawn, I very lightly rubbed it out in no time with 6,000 followed by 8,000 Micro Mesh pads. I also gave the rest of the body and chassis a smoothing out. Unfortunately, I rubbed through in several spots, so I had to re-prime.
 
  The only trouble I had was that I didn't have any more primer. So using a clean 23ml Tamiya bottle, I mixed  Tamiya Gray primer heavily thinned with Tamiya Yellow cap, till it was as close to the consistancy of the MCW primer as I could get. Stupid me didn't keep a record of the mixture. Next time I'll be trying Mr. Gunze 1,000 primer over the MCW primer just because I can thin it myself and make a lot more for less, and I'll keep records so I can duplicate it. 

   I also painted both the driver's seat flat Red, and the 2nd seat that only is there because the FIA ruling body said that the prototype class cars had to have two seats and a spare tire no less. The fire extingwisher was painted Tamiya Gloss Red, and line was added from the nozzle to the engine compartment, as that's how they dealt with engine fires back then. Usually when there was a fire, the car burnt till a safety crew got there. 

Joel

 

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 Just a quick update.  

   Yesterday I Air Brushed the shell and chassis MCW Martini White. The paint, like their primer is already pre-thinned to what they said is 125% automotive Lacquer thinner to automotive Lacquer paint.

   Now I've never done this before, so I watched a good dozen videos of build blogs I've been following, and everyone has their own technique and style. Well, everyone but me that is. 

  Since the paint is so THIN, I went with a 14-16 flow psi. The biggest issue was how much to I open up for the paint flow. I decided to go with the two mist coats exactly as I would for a aircraft model giving 5 mins drying time between coats. 

   I also have a brand new paint booth rather then my home made one with lights!! Works great. And I still wear my respirator for all air brush jobs except the very tiny 1 min acrylic sessions for small parts. And I've even gone to wearing it during the clean up process with LC. which I now do in my paint booth as well. The fumes lately have been getting to me  m:-)

   For the 1st wet color coat, I started to open up the paint valve till I could get a wet look, but it's so easy to go to slow and get some rippling, so I made sure I did full passes at a decent rate. I ended up doing 4 wet coats, but they weren't really wet enough after I looked at the shell and chassis.

   I wasn't to happy with the results. Not smooth enough to the touch, some uneven areas, and more damn dust and a cat hair or two. I guess I have to clean the paint booth prior to using it. 

  Gave it a hour or so to dry in my paint bin, then gave it a good, close inspection. Looked better now, but it still needs some wet sanding.

  Here's what it looked like yesterday:

 

fKvdzr.jpg

 

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    So today I wet sanded it with Tamiya 3,000 sponge.  After wetting the shell and chassis I put a drop of Dawn dishwashing liquid in each area as I worked it to further protect the paint. I slowly worked my way around till I sanded every section. Then a wash with warm water. 

   To say I was amazed at the difference would be an understatement. Smooth, and consistent with a slight shine. So now comes the big question. Do I clear gloss then decal, or just decal directly on the smooth surface?  

Joel

   

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Have a look at thescalemodeling channel on YouTube. His name is Tom Rutijer( I really hope I spelled his last name right.). He usually decals first, then a light mist coat over the decals and lets them set for a few seconds. Then he sprays the gloss coat over the entire body. Doing it this way, the solvents in the gloss coat he uses doesn't "eat" the decals. He uses Zero Paints 2k diomand clear.

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I also forgot to mention the primer I use. I began using Badger's Stynelrez(another wierd name) primer. It's already prethinned for airbrushing. Levels off extremely well. Even when I hose it on. Also dries pretty fast. It dries to I would say an eggshell finish. Hobbyworld USA carries it. I've been using it for a few months now and I love it! Of course, my experience may vary from others.

 

Edited by caudleryan
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12 hours ago, caudleryan said:

Have a look at thescalemodeling channel on YouTube. His name is Tom Rutijer( I really hope I spelled his last name right.). He usually decals first, then a light mist coat over the decals and lets them set for a few seconds. Then he sprays the gloss coat over the entire body. Doing it this way, the solvents in the gloss coat he uses doesn't "eat" the decals. He uses Zero Paints 2k diomand clear.

Caudleryan,

  Thanks so much for the info. I've  seen way more then a dozen race car builds where the builder doesn't bother with a gloss coat pre decaling. the paint is smooth enough. My paint certainly is smoother then I've ever achieved before, but my background is military modeling only. 

 

  I decided to just stick within my comfort zone and I used MCW's gloss clear, then rubbed it out. Silky smooth surface. So far the decaling is looking just about perfect.

  

  I also decided to take a pass on the 2K Urethane gloss clear for now for a few reasons: it's really toxic (I use a respirator and a spray booth), once it dries in your AB that's the end of it as LC doesn't remove it, and it very expensive @ $23 for enough to do one or two models. 

 

 As far as primers go, I prefer to use a primer of the same base as the color coats will be. I know that's old school, but I'm that old.

 

Joel

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