Meng 1/24 scale 66' Red #3 Ford GT40 MkII of Gurney & Grant
Apr 22, 2024 4:49:11 GMT -8
kyledehart5 likes this
Post by Joel_W on Apr 22, 2024 4:49:11 GMT -8
Finally, after nearly 18 months away from the bench, I started a new build: The Meng 1/24 1966 Red #3 GT40 MkII that Dan Gurney and Jerry Grant drove in that year's 24 hour LeMans race.
Work started with the chassis tub. I painted the interior Mr. Color primer Black including the two Aluminum cans that were used to satisfy the rules for trunk space. The cans were air brushed with Mr. Color Aluminum, and when dry masked, and the chassis tubing repainted as needed.
Next I masked the interior of the pan including the Aluminum cans, and primed the exterior with my own 1:1 mix of Tamiya Gray and white primers thinned with 1:1 with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner #400. When dry a lite wet sanding with 4,000 and 6,000 emery cloth, then several lite coats of Gravity CG 130 Guards Red Lacquer paint. After 3 days to dry and cure I wet sanded the shell with 4,000 through 8,000 emery cloth, then a gloss clear coat of Tamiya gloss clear LP-9 lacquer. When dry it was also wet sanded. Finally it was decal time. Indy Cal has the correct decals, so that's what I went with. Love the decals but having to very carefully cut out each decal is really time consuming and gets to be a pain to say the least. After a few days to fully dry, I glossed the decals with ScaleFinishes Honey Gloss. 3 days later I started the wet sanding, and polishing process.
During the painting process I worked on the driver's tub through priming, painting including the front suspension. By far the hardest part of the interior painting was the Aluminum center tunnel which was painted with Mr. Color Flat Aluminum. What turned out to be nearly impossible for me to accomplish was the two rear panels of the front wheel wells. Try as I might, and I tried literally for days, I just couldn't get them to fit, so I ended up doing a lot more sanding and filing then should have been necessary. The end result is that they do fit, but I wore the finish off a lot of the left panel. I'm still debating if I should carefully mask and repaint since you'll never see the front compartment once the dash and main body shell is glued in place. Oh, and as for the two seats, they're just placed there for the pics but still need work and of course seat belts and harnesses. One issue I had was trying to paint those chrome seat metal gromets. Try as I might with my poor eyesight, I just couldn't get it done and look correct, so re-paint after re-paint. So it's 50/50 at this point if I'll even attempt it once again.
joel
Work started with the chassis tub. I painted the interior Mr. Color primer Black including the two Aluminum cans that were used to satisfy the rules for trunk space. The cans were air brushed with Mr. Color Aluminum, and when dry masked, and the chassis tubing repainted as needed.
Next I masked the interior of the pan including the Aluminum cans, and primed the exterior with my own 1:1 mix of Tamiya Gray and white primers thinned with 1:1 with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner #400. When dry a lite wet sanding with 4,000 and 6,000 emery cloth, then several lite coats of Gravity CG 130 Guards Red Lacquer paint. After 3 days to dry and cure I wet sanded the shell with 4,000 through 8,000 emery cloth, then a gloss clear coat of Tamiya gloss clear LP-9 lacquer. When dry it was also wet sanded. Finally it was decal time. Indy Cal has the correct decals, so that's what I went with. Love the decals but having to very carefully cut out each decal is really time consuming and gets to be a pain to say the least. After a few days to fully dry, I glossed the decals with ScaleFinishes Honey Gloss. 3 days later I started the wet sanding, and polishing process.
During the painting process I worked on the driver's tub through priming, painting including the front suspension. By far the hardest part of the interior painting was the Aluminum center tunnel which was painted with Mr. Color Flat Aluminum. What turned out to be nearly impossible for me to accomplish was the two rear panels of the front wheel wells. Try as I might, and I tried literally for days, I just couldn't get them to fit, so I ended up doing a lot more sanding and filing then should have been necessary. The end result is that they do fit, but I wore the finish off a lot of the left panel. I'm still debating if I should carefully mask and repaint since you'll never see the front compartment once the dash and main body shell is glued in place. Oh, and as for the two seats, they're just placed there for the pics but still need work and of course seat belts and harnesses. One issue I had was trying to paint those chrome seat metal gromets. Try as I might with my poor eyesight, I just couldn't get it done and look correct, so re-paint after re-paint. So it's 50/50 at this point if I'll even attempt it once again.
joel
