Fujimi Sauber C30 Monaco GP (w/ engine)

[Jeff]

looking great, nice to see a modern-era f1 car with engine detail.

[CTurbert]

Well I sprayed the body components with 2K clear and it looks beautiful. I used Splash Paints 2K clear and it went on super smooth.



Unfortunately one of the front wing elements reacted badly to the 2K clear and bubbled up. I believe this was because the decal was applied to paint that was flat so it wasn't fully adhered. Realizing this, I attempted to spray Tamiya acrylic clear thinned with Tamiya lacquer thinner over the other decals on the wing elements, and of course I ran in to more issues!. I assumed this clear wouldn't be as 'hot' as the 2K, but I was sorely mistaken!

Here it is! The Telmex decals were sprayed with 2K and bubbled. The other elements were sprayed with Tamiya acrylic + lacquer thinner and wrinkled. The front wing main-plane actually looks perfect. I managed to cut the "Action for road safety" decal from the large white decal that went on poorly as I documented in prior posts.



Hopefully I can find spare decals to fix the above issues. I posted in the Wanted forum, so we'll see!


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[CBartholomew4677]

Looking great!!! I am a Sauber fan, he was one of the true old-school F1 team owners that I loved. Great to seethis car being built, i like the simple white and gun metal paint job, and you've pulled out of beautifully.
Keep up the great work.
Cheers,
Chris

[CTurbert]

Thanks for the comments!

Also, a huge thanks to Gruppecfan who was able to send me the decal spares I needed. The problematic front wing pieces will be stripped and repainted Also a big thanks to R.Wells who was able to send me a spare rear push-rod piece after mine snapped in two spots!

I was able to make more progress over the past few days. The engine, gearbox and exhaust has been installed along with added heat shielding. The exhaust was painted with a mixture of Alclad steel, gold, and aluminum over semi gloss black. I applied CF decal on the monocoque sides and also more foil on the rear of that piece. If I were to build this kit again I would remove the engine cover attachment tabs along the floor and attempt to glue all 3 engine cover pieces together.

On a side note, the Monaco GP version of this car had these odd looking cooling chimneys attached to the side-pods. Unfortunately I didn't realize this until the monocoque was fully painted so the attachment points are a little rough. I'm not overly concerned about this.

Here's the car with the engine cover on and off. The fit is nearly perfect unlike the Fujimi MP4/6!

I need to add a seatbelt (need to find Takata decals somewhere), finish the front suspension arms, front/rear wings, wheels/tires and various components before I can call this one complete

[vekkuli]

Stunning. Does this have the "blown Diffusor"?

[CTurbert]

Stunning. Does this have the "blown Diffusor"?

Yes, I believe the C30 had a blown diffuser.


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[CTurbert]

Yet another update! This is nearly complete, except for the front wing assembly, rear wing, adding a seatbelt, detailing the steering wheel, wheels/tires, and various small parts.

While going through the box I noticed a small chrome plated parts tree which includes the wing mirrors and two exhaust tips intended for the curbside version of this kit. Apparently these pieces attach to the mounting tabs I had mentioned in my last post, located near the exhaust exit. Realizing this I removed the bare metal foil, cut off the mounting tabs, sanded it down a little and re-applied the foil. It looks a lot cleaner and a little more realistic:



I also attached the front suspension and wheel hubs minus the push-rods which I painted incorrectly!



Front nose attached including the turning vanes. Interestingly enough the turning vanes on the real car did not have a CF pattern.






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[CBartholomew4677]

Fantastic work!! The Sauber looks awesome, gonna be a great addition to the collection. Looking forward to seeing you wrap it all up.
Cheers,
Chris

[CTurbert]

Fantastic work!! The Sauber looks awesome, gonna be a great addition to the collection. Looking forward to seeing you wrap it all up.
Cheers,
Chris

Thanks! Hope to have this completed soon.

I've been working on fixing the errors I outlined in previous posts, specifically regarding the front wing endplates, elements, and winglets. Fujimi included white and red decals to be applied after painting them black. These are the decals before and after being applied. They look good, right?




Well, I ran in to a near disaster. I wasn't happy with the white decal on the mainplane so I removed it and sprayed it with white primer, cut out the "Action for road safety" decal, applied that, and sprayed it with 2K clear. Luckily I was able to save that piece. As for the other front wing components, the white decals didn't completely adhere to the black paint and lifted/bubbled/wrinkled when sprayed with clear:






I dumped these pieces in brake fluid, stripped the paint, resprayed them with white primer + red, and cleared with 2K clear. I also removed the Claro decal with the white background from both front wing endplates because this too was badly damaged, but I don't have photos of it. I plan to mask the endplates and spray the white areas with white primer, apply a spare Claro decal, then clear the entire endplate. So far, so good. A huge thank you to Gruppecfan who was able to provide me with the decals needed to fully repair the front wing disaster!





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[CTurbert]

The front wing parts have been successfully rescued! I masked off the front wing endplates and sprayed them with Tamiya white primer.







I'm now in the middle of the tedious task of applying carbon fiber decal to the edges of the wings and endplates. I'm still waiting for the replacement decals to arrive but hopefully I can finish these up within a few days and start putting this together.





I applied the Pirelli transfers but they look awful. The color is not even so I might just steal the Tamiya SF70H tire transfers since those are also yellow.



Also detailed the steering wheel. Waiting on a PE harness + green fabric to arrive.




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