Lotus 102D Update

This update will focus on the application of the clear coat on the main body components.

I applied the clear coat last weekend straight from the can, using Testors Wet Look Clear. I waited about 5-10 mins between coats, and applied the final heavy gloss coat for my third coat. It came out very smooth and glossy and I left it to dry for about 2 days. After that I applied some touch-ups here and there, straightened out the black lines with some Tamiya gloss black acrylic paint, etc.

Now for the problems!

Unfortunately some of the decals bubbled up under the final coat of clear; The bottom right portion of the Frazer Nash logo on the right side of the monocoque behind the headrest, the R in the Tommy Hilfiger logo on the same side, and on the Number 12 on the nose. These were all less than 1 mm and are not very noticeable. I might be able to flatten and polish them out. Also, some of the black paint under both Tommy Hilfiger logos seeped through and was visible on the white portion of the decal. I cut a rectangle of white from the Tamiya decal sheet and just covered it up. You can't even tell it's been patched!

Another annoyance is the darker green decal on the rear cowling. It cracked in a few places during application, as you can see in the final pic. I attempted to cover up the cracks with some spare green decal but it looks kind of patchy. I am tempted to mask it off, respray using green paint, and apply more clear coat but I don't want to layer up too much paint so I may leave it as is.

Most of these problems are very minor and wouldn't be noticeable to most modelers, but I tend to be a perfectionist and focus too much on them. Overall I'm pretty happy with how this part of the build came out.

The next few updates will focus on final assembly.

Lotus 102D Update

I've made a lot of progress on the Lotus 102D since my last post.

I painted the pieces that were going to covered in carbon fiber with Krylon Satin Black straight from the can. This paint goes on pretty well, dries quickly, and has great coverage. After that dried I applied more of the Studio 27 carbon fiber decals. Halfway through application I ran out of Micro Sol but read that Tamiya'x X20A thinner can substitute as a decal softening solution. I decided to give it a try, and it was perfect! The decals reacted much better to the X20A than they did to MicroSol. The X20A did leave some surface blemishes but a coat of clear should take care of that.

After the carbon fiber decals were applied I assembled the front wing, then applied the logo decals to the wing elements and end plates. You'll also notice the lower rear wing element has already been glued to the endplates. This was done before painting. Gluing 4 loose wing elements to 2 wing endplates while worrying about keeping everything square isn't a lot of fun, so having the bottom element glued in place before final assembly helps keep everything square, as well as allowing the other 3 elements slide in to place with some static friction.

Next step was to clear the carbon fiber pieces. I was going back and forth between using a glossy clear coat (Testors Wet Look Clear), and Testors Metalizer which has more of a duller flat finish. I ended up going for the glossy clear coat. The carbon fiber may be a little too glossy for some peoples tastes, but I'm happy with it. I may end up deciding to dull down the clear coat, but that is TBD.

Lotus 102D Update

Here's an update to the Lotus 102D build. I have actually made most of this progress within the last few months. Since this blog is new I am very close to my posts being current.

This car has a quite complex 5 tone livery. It's yellow, green, and black with slightly darker shades of yellow and green triangular shapes. Out of the box, Tamiya provides a very intimidating decal sheet which assumes you will only be painting the car yellow. The other 4 colors are all decals which can be quite daunting, plus they tend to be slightly transparent.

My solution to this was to paint the car yellow and mask off for the green and black portions. I bought an after market decal sheet made by Shunko that includes all sponsor logos plus the darker yellow/green 'triangle' decals.

Here's the car masked off for the green after painting it with Tamiya TS-16 yellow. I used Tamiya TS-35 park green straight from the can which proved to be an excellent match.

Immediately before masking tape removal. This is the most nerve wracking part. 

Success! Nice clean lines. 

Masked off for the black on the bottom halves of the monocoque. Here is the final result. I used Tamiya X18 acrylic shot through my airbrush.

After some careful studying of the masking lines I noticed I needed to clean them up a little bit. The green areas needed to be slightly larger which meant extending them by maybe 1 mm or so.

Here's the end result after it was carefully masked and resprayed a few times. I did not expect this part to be so tedious!

I also had to respray the black but I didn't take pics of that. I also had to touch up some of the green/yellow around the headrest and various other parts. I'm probably boring my viewers with too much detail.

Now for the fun part. This is after applying all the decals from the Shunko set. They came out beautifully and really add a lot of life to the car. The only caveat is for some reason Shunko didn't include a darker green decal for the top of the airbox (where the Lotus logo is), which also extends to the top of the engine cover. I spent a few minutes mixing up some Tamiya acrylics that matched with the darker green decals, masked off the areas, and sprayed them with this mixture. I think it's a pretty good match! I will probably apply clear coat this weekend as it will be warmer and less humid.

My next update will focus on the wing elements and other parts that will be covered in carbon fiber decal.

Tamiya Lotus 102D

This is my current project, Tamiya's Lotus 102D. I bought this kit at a regional model car show back in September. It was always on my build list so I'm glad I happened to come across it. I actually started this build in October 2017, though the Red Bull RB6 eventually took up most of my time.The first part of any F1 build I tackle is the engine/gearbox. This is a fairly common engine in Tamiya's 1/20 Grand Prix Collection, having been used in the Jordan 191, Benetton B192, McLaren MP4/8, as well as the Lotus 107 and 107B. The engine and gearbox assembly has been painted with Alclad aluminum, Krylon Semi Gloss Black.

I used Tamiya's recommended mixture of a light metallic brown on top of the gearbox. Various components were detailed with Testors chrome silver and Tamiya titanium gold. The driveshafts and exhausts were painted with a mixture of Alclad pale gold and steel.

Carbon fiber decal has been added around the intake trumpets, rear wing support, and brake ducts. I used the carbon fiber templates made by Studio 27. They are impressively engineered and generally fit pretty well though there are some minor gaps here and there. I also carbon fiber decaled the floor and airbox.

About my blog

Welcome to Speed in scale. This blog will primarily feature both completed and in progress scale models of Formula 1, and various other cars. I also offer commission builds. If interested, please contact me for pricing details.

Below is an example of what you can expect to see in future posts. This is my last completed build, Tamiya's Red Bull RB6, completed in December 2017.