The kit itself is much more complex than Tamiya's F1-89 kit, with maybe twice the amount of sprues. The brakes in particular are much better, consisting of multiple parts rather than Tamiya's common practice of just making them in one piece that's difficult to paint.
While test fitting though I couldn't figure out why the gaps along the nose were so huge, I'll be embarrassed to admit it took me a whole 10 minutes of inspection until I realized the body was somewhat warped and the nose twisted to a significant degree. I was super scared to do it but I figured there was no harm in trying, so I warmed a pot of water to steaming temperature (not boiling), and dipped the nose in for 3 seconds at a time, lightly twisting to correct after every dip. I was very pleased with the results, especially given the fact that I thought there was an 80% chance I'd just melt the nose.
Before:
After:
I found it odd that the fuel cap (? I'm not actually sure if this is the fuel cap) was provided as a separate piece to be glued on, but the fit was terrible and a lot of sanding was required to make it flush.
Again, compared to the Tamiya F1-89 kit, the engine was much more detailed and more importantly, properly scaled. I did however notice that the parts are grouped and moulded in such a way that painting will be more difficult. For example, suspension arms are moulded to the top of the gearbox. Small price to pay I suppose.
Shot with 4 layers of Zero Pre-2004 Ferrari Red.
When I did the Tamiya kit I put the decals straight over the semi-gloss Zero Paints and found that it was quite susceptible to silvering, so I decided to what Zero recommended and lay down a tack coat of 2K prior to decals, but to be honest it wasn't much better. Oh well. Next time I'll do a full gloss coat before decals.
Then I did the full gloss coat of 2K which I still can't quite get 100%.
There was a decent amount of orange peel on top of the sidepods, even when using a 50-25-25 mix of clear, thinner, and hardener as recommended on forums. I also find that every time I shoot 2K, the model seems to become statically charged and small dust particles and fibres from all over the room will come in and get stuck in the clear. Anyways. I attempted to polish the orange peel out which I've also only had varied success with. I'd heard that some people swear by the micromesh system to flatten orange peel, and some others just using 2000 grit wet sand, so I decided to try both. On one sidepod I used micromesh before using Mother's 3-step polish and on the other I used 2000, 2500, 3000 before polish. Both had a similar and meh result. Nice and flat but plenty of micro scratches that can be seen when held up to the light. This was even with 3 rounds of polishing. I don't get how you guys do it honestly.
Next I'll be painting the floor.
. Keep 'Em comin'.
