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Tamiya Calsonic Impul Z WIP


robertgreen94
05-28-2009, 09:26 PM
Howdy all,

This is my first post so hopefully I will not make a complete hack of. I was looking for the Xanavi Nismo GT-R R35, and came across this little beauty. I have not seen many of these in the forums so this should be something of a change. Still want the Xanavi when I can find it

http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/P5280001.jpg

I also picked up the Tamiya PE Nismo Z kit, as well as some SMS carbon fiber to spiffy the model up. Here are some picks of the kit to start with. Sorry about some of the quality of the picks, I am using my wife's point and shoot, while mine is getting cleaned.

Instructions
http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/P5280002.jpg

http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/P5280003.jpg

PE Kit
http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/P5280005.jpg

SMS Carbon Decal and Paint, and yes its that blue!
http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/P5280007.jpg

Metal Base
For those of you who have experiance with Tamiya's 1/48 scale millatary series the metal base will not be a big surprise. This is the first one I have done in 1/24, and I think we will see a lot more of these from Tamya. The metal base definitely adds some heft to the model, and it makes it interesting to build

http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/P5280009.jpg

http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/P5280010.jpg

Decals,

http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/P5280012.jpg

Spruces

http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/P5280021.jpg

http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/P5280023.jpg

http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/P5280024.jpg

Anyway thanks for looking and more pictures as I go along. This will be mostly OOB, but not quite. Please feel free to comment, any constructive criticism will be welcome. :smile:

mrawl
05-29-2009, 12:12 AM
I think I'd rather this one to the Xanavi. It'll look fabulous when done.

robertgreen94
05-30-2009, 02:18 PM
So more pictures coming soon of the painting and progress so far. This is my first attempt at some carbon fiber decals, both on the outside wings and the interior. So far its been interesting and I have learnt that there are right ways to do this, and then there are my way to do this. Bet you can't guess which one turns out better. Anyway you have to fall down before you can learn to walk, and get the cookies so we shall see.

I do need help from the experts here. There are very few interior shots of the Super GT cars, but what I have found shows two things. One they like carbon fiber, and two they seem to use some interesting materials. Take a look at the shot below, especially at the top of the dashboard. Based on the bolts at the top front of the dash, it is something placed on top of the original item.

http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/NISMO-Z-Xanavi-Interior.jpg

http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/NISMO-Z-Xanavi-Interior-close-up.jpg

The material looks very much like non slip paint you find on militery vehicles. Does anyone else have any ideas what this is, and how one can go about replicating it. The instructions say paint with Tamiya XF-1. Now I know there is no way its going to turn out the same as the photo, so help please, any ideas.

Comments as always are welcome :smile:

gtziaf
05-30-2009, 04:57 PM
Good luck..
I 'm not Japanese car fun, but I follow this. It 's looking interesting...

mike@af
05-30-2009, 05:11 PM
The material looks very much like non slip paint you find on militery vehicles. Does anyone else have any ideas what this is, and how one can go about replicating it. The instructions say paint with Tamiya XF-1. Now I know there is no way its going to turn out the same as the photo, so help please, any ideas.

I believe what's on top of the dashboard is flocking. We frequently flock our CF dash's and other glossy parts in the cabin to reduce glare. It's been a long time since I've flocked anything in 1/24 so somebody may have a good suggestion of what to use. Personally I believe most scale flocking is way out of scale and prefer to use flat color paints.

Hope that helps!

robertgreen94
05-30-2009, 09:12 PM
Thanks for the suggestion GTMike400 on the flocking. Looking at the picture some more I thought it reminded me of some fine sand paper, so I thought why not see if it works. Here is close up that I had to crop down to post. Sorry about the noise on this I had it set at 1200 ISO by mistake.

http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/_DSC0003.jpg

Here is the original and the sandpaper side by side.
http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/NISMO-Z-Xanavi-Interior.jpg http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/_DSC0027.jpg

What I am looking for is the texture. The sandpaper is 400 grit. I think some where around 800 should be ok. Puts a whole new meaning to using sandpaper on a model :smile:

It is held on by double sided Tamiya tape at the moment so it sits proud of the item.

:sunglasseExperts of the modeling world, please hear my cry and partake upon me some wisdom!:sunglasse

Or for the rest of us, do you think this will work? Or am I :banghead:

comments please.

hirofkd
05-30-2009, 10:37 PM
Alternatively, you can airbrush coarse primer from a little away than the usual distance.
http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=502/2825IMG_1925m.jpg

jla
05-30-2009, 10:38 PM
The sand paper route should be a pretty interesting approach, plus it'd make it a lot easier just to layer it on to replicate the access panels on top.

I personally would still spray it a flat black maybe mixed with a bit of grey, it looks like it'd be a bit of a pain wrapping the paper around the corners and top edge in spots.

robertgreen94
06-10-2009, 11:34 PM
So small update for today. I have been working on the interior and playing around with CF. I must say this is not as easy as people make it look. If anyone has any good tutorials or walkthroughs that they can point me in the direction off, I would be very grateful.


So here is the roll cage and seat area separate and combined.
http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/_DSC0047.jpg
http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/_DSC0052.jpg

Roll Cage in Car
http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/_DSC0056.jpg

Rear Wing
http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/_DSC0007.jpg
http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/_DSC0010.jpg

That's all for tonight, more to follow as I work on the body and wait for more CF to come in the mail.

as always, thanks for the comments

xpeed
06-11-2009, 12:20 AM
Nice! I got to start on mine sometime this summer as well. It's been sitting in storage for over a year now.

guiwee
06-11-2009, 01:05 AM
The sandpaper idea looks cool to me.Ialso think the silver seatbelts are a different twist on the everyday.

gasdriverca
06-12-2009, 04:26 PM
Sandpaper...interesting!!! & yeah decaling inside the tub(cockpit) is a pain but looks good in the end result!

robertgreen94
08-11-2009, 10:26 PM
So its been a while since I posted, so here is an update. Everything was going swimmingly until I put the first coat of blue on the model. Not sure what happened but I ended with a globby, streaky, mess :banghead:. No problems I thought, I will remove the paint and try again. Since i was using lacquer paint I decided to use lacquer thinnner.

Well let me tell you, they don't make lacquer thinners the same. Let us say that the thinner did not stop with the paint. By the time I realized this, somewhere along the lines of, "what is this blue flaky plastic stuff in my hands?" the paint and the car had become a sticky melted blobby thing:banghead::banghead:.

What I should have used is something called "Saclecoat II Wash Away" This is some green liquid that takes of paint beautifully and leaves the model behind (what a novel concept!).

Yes, I had read this, but until you learn, you don't.
So I decided to call Tamiya and order a new body. It is on its way, sometime to arrive this year, maybe...

After a few weeks I decided, I wonder if I could fix the body, no loss if I fail. Well so far after the 4th coat of primmer and sanding, its starting to look a little better. Sure there is a long way to go but all its costing me is sanding sticks, primer and time. Some areas are coming out very smooth, others are still iffy.

Here are some pictures of the progress, lots to work on but we shall try to fix this.
http://idisk.me.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/_DSC0035.jpg
http://idisk.me.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/_DSC0036.jpg
http://idisk.me.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/_DSC0037.jpg
http://idisk.me.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/_DSC0038.jpg
http://idisk.me.com/robertgreen94/Public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/_DSC0039.jpg


So what has this told us.
1. People should listen to advice (well we will not learn that one..)
2. Lacquer thinnner is not all the same. Tamiya is not the same as Home Depot, or should I say that the other way arround.
3. Don't give up; primer and sandpaper are the duct-tape of the modeling world :)

I look at it this way, its a model; worst comes to worst, I buy a new model, learn from this episode and go on. Its a hobby, I know some people may disagree, but I hope to have fun, and in a way I still have/am with this one so, eh..

as always, comments are welcome

KevHw
08-11-2009, 10:49 PM
I'm very sorry to hear this mishap to your project. I found out the dangers of using lacquer thinner on plastic the hard way too. From what I can see it's good that there still appears to be some body details that escaped 'melting' and I'm sure if you persevere you can rescue it to a good degree. Since you've ordered a new body, at least you can use this one for a future project. Hope your new body arrives soon.

guiwee
08-13-2009, 11:27 AM
Well since youre here in states you could have used some 91% alcohol and stripped it
that way..Also maybe you could have drilled out the holes in your roll cage.I think your ref. pic. showed them open. I too am working on this model(just painted so far)
The blue is lovely!! When you called tamiya and told them what happened did you have to pay to get them to ship you a body? If so how much? Is this their normal policy? I didnt know you could just call them up like that.

robertgreen94
08-13-2009, 07:12 PM
Yeh, I was not really thinking with the paint stripping. I have used 91% alcohol on Tamiya acrylics and it works ok, but not on the lacquers. The green stuff I have now works the best, but I forgot I had it back then. Good spot on the roll-cage, I had not thought about that until you mentioned it.

In regards to the body, I found the phone number for customer service on the eTamiya web site and gave them a call. They said i could order just the spruce and the body I needed, but they did not have any in stock in the US for that kit as it was too new. They placed the order from HQ and said they would contact me once it arrived. I would then have the option to buy. The cost was going to be around $6 for the body and $5 for the spruce. Not bad really, except it was going to be 12 to 16 weeks before the part was here. So I will see what I can do, and if not I know a very nice replacement is on its way

guiwee
08-14-2009, 11:03 AM
The kit isnt that new is it? Its been out for at least a year or two right?
heres mine
http://i715.photobucket.com/albums/ww151/guiwee/Calsonic%20Impul%20Z/018.jpg
all ive done so far is just paint the body and a few sprues maybe we can compare notes as we build? gotta few pics you might like!!
http://s715.photobucket.com/albums/ww151/guiwee/Calsonic%20Impul%20Z/

robertgreen94
08-15-2009, 11:32 PM
Well new is a relative term. Its new enough for Tamiya USA customer service that thy do not have the spare parts in stock, as I was the first person to ask for a replacement body. The internet really does not show how nice of a blue this is. Its the kind of blue that you are not going to miss on a shelf.
Guiwee, what color undercoat are you using on your model, primer, white, none or something else.

anyway, back to more sanding. I am also working on a Pug 206 rally car and the Ducati Desmocedici, so these will keep my busy.

guiwee
08-16-2009, 12:10 AM
Washed, scribed(a little),sanded..1500grit...primed..sanded(2000grit )....two mist coats 15min apart...2 wet coats 10 min apart..

robertgreen94
12-01-2009, 09:22 AM
So after much sanding, primer, sanding and primer, I managed to get to a state that I felt merited me continuing with the model. I had to take some liberties as in the process, some of the finer details were, well, no longer fine, or there anymore. I used Tamiya Lacquer paint which went on beautifully, the decals went on well, however due to the original problem, the plastic had shrunk/warped in areas, so the glass did not fit perfectly anymore.

Lets put this one down as a learning opportunity. The final issue came to the top coat. I had been told that Mr Hobby gloss coat was very good, so I gave it a try. I tested it on a scrap piece of plastic and no issues with the decals.

So off I went, sprayed my first coat, left to dry and get this.

http://idisk.mac.com/robertgreen94/public/pictures/Calsonic Impul Z/Med/photo.jpg

If I wanted a crackle effect, I would have used a crackle glaze. It looks like the gloss, that is now matt, caused the paint to shrink! But at least the decals were not effected.

Has anyone had the same issue with "Mr Hobby, Gloss Coat". I think I will go back to Tamiya Gloss, or does anyone else have any other suggestions

935k3
12-01-2009, 11:31 AM
Bfore you give up try using ammonia to remove the Gloss cote. Ammonia will not harm the underlying paint or decals. If this is the Gunze clear that is like Future it will come off with ammonia.

da_ashman
12-01-2009, 05:44 PM
The crakle effect looks really awesome!!! Cant beleave your pisistance with this model, i wouldve added it to the parts box or left a dent in the wall with it by now.
The Z race cars are awesome, i build the Xanavi version & that went together very well, brillantly executed kit

MidMazar
12-02-2009, 01:36 AM
The crakle effect looks really awesome!!! brillantly executed kit

:iagree:

robertgreen94
12-06-2009, 01:19 PM
Thanks for the comments on this model. The crackle effect is interesting, and apparently it seems to effect Tamiya lacquer's. In regards to the flat look, I must have go a can with the wrong label. It is clearly flat, yet the can clearly states gloss. Oh well. I have added it to my collection, and as they say, no pain, no gain. Even though I had a few issues, I have learnt a lot in this model that I can use going forward. Especially as I work on the rest of Tamiya's Z family.

Hope to have shots of the new member shortly, which will probably be the XANAVI Nismo Z.

star21
12-06-2009, 04:31 PM
I actually kind of like the crackled look. It reminds me of broken marble.

mrawl
12-07-2009, 03:46 AM
Wow, what a nightmare. How long did the lacquer dry before you cleared it? Could it be the way you applied the lacquer? Was it straight out of the can?, or air-brushed with thinner? Was it applied too thick perhaps? Can you tell us exactly which clear you used? Was it Mr Top Coat in the blue spray can? How did you apply it - mist coats first, or just a single wet coat? Sorry you had all that trouble dude, that's really terrible. You might want to practice on a cheap model next time!

da_ashman
12-07-2009, 05:20 PM
If your gonna build the Xanavi Z, i highly suggest you paint the 2 colours, then clearcoat, polish, then apply the decals. Dont clearcoat them, i clearcoated my Xanavi R34GTR, the clear affected the decals, not heaps but enough for me not to be happy. Ive made the mistake of clear coating over decals heaps of times (recently did it on 3 models 2 months ago) & now i think i may have learnt my lession (maybe...). There is a HUGE debate between modellers about clearcoating over decals, personally im on the fence, i agree with both sides, & yet Im a signwriter & i know exactly how the graphics are done on cars. But thats just my 2 cents....
Good luck for your next build

935k3
12-07-2009, 08:43 PM
Try Future for clear coating it is the safest of all clear coats. I use Future with Zymol brand wax applied over it to deepen the gloss. All you need to know about it can be found here http://www.swannysmodels.com/TheCompleteFuture.html

robertgreen94
12-07-2009, 11:06 PM
I have used future on other models, especially military. Its nice that I don't have to leave the room because of the fumes, but I have not tried any car wax on top of that. Future has never looked 'glossy' enough. I like Tamiya's gloss, but the wife hates the smell so I only use it outside.

As they say you live and learn, and now if I want a crackle effect, I know how :)
In the end I enjoyed the journey, even if the view at the end was not exactly what I expected, and it all about having fun, isn't it?

nakadds
12-08-2009, 01:13 AM
HI , do you know how to put together the photoetch bonnet pins(located just below the tire stencil on the pe set)?

Macio4ever
12-08-2009, 03:48 AM
I had once the same effect.
In my opinion blue has not dried enough and clear was sprayed a bit too heavy. Gunze Top Coat has IPA which attacks even TS paints. TS paints and Gunze C are durable but longer contact with IPA makes them crack or melt.

Other option is that blue was sprayed too heavy and reacted with primer. By coincidence the effect has appeared (and magnified) when clear coated.

Bad luck. Anyway, don't give up!

Balls77
12-08-2009, 06:58 AM
I had a similar "experiment" once where I had thick coats of paint that was not quite dry, sprayed the clear and same effect.

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