2018 Ferrari SF71H 1/20 DTM

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2018 Ferrari SF71H 1/20 DTM

Post by SebLeung »

Just received this in the mail yesterday. I've been guilty of being too lazy to create WIP posts here so I figured I'd start one now. I've got very limited MM experience so I'll be taking this VERY slowly so don't expect frequent updates.

First impression is that the resin is VERY light, unlike any S27 resin kit I've seen. The kit is very well engineered and doesn't actually look too hard to build, not much work should need to be done on the body (as opposed to that freaking Monopost W08 for example). Painting will actually be easier than the Tamiya SF70H kit since the red upper portion of the body separates from the carbon fibre underside, unlike the Tamiya kit which requires complex masking. You'll only have to mask the engine cowling fin if you don't trust the provided decal to be fully opaque.

Biggest thing for me will be creating CF decal templates and applying all of it. Pretty intimidating.

White metal parts vary in terms of quality of fit. Worst part is probably the air intake:
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Few other parts stick out a bit due to resin shrinkage
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The fin piece is VERY nicely done.
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Everything else seems in order though. Quite a lot of flash on the resin body but nothing out of the ordinary.
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Partial mockup - pretty exciting!
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I figured I'd ask a few questions to all of you experienced bunch:

1. What's a good 2-part epoxy that allows for very small dosage? I've used one of those J-B Weld double syringes in the past but it always dispenses huge globs of both parts and I end up wasting 80% of it.

2. I've got Tamiya metal primer with the intention of using it for the white metal parts. Is this okay to apply on top of resin? For example, should I secure the airbox to the resin body, and then apply metal primer to the whole thing or apply it just to the airbox before fixing it to the body? Also, does putty have to be applied after the first layer of metal/etch primer or is it okay to apply to bare metal and resin?

3. I'm assuming most people do templating for CF before any of the priming right?

4. Best way to clean up and polish small delicate white metal pieces that are prone to bending? I've got a brass wire brush and #000 + #0000 steel wool for the larger pieces and it seems to work well enough, but it's hard to handle small pieces without warping them.

Thanks in advance
Last edited by SebLeung on Mon Jan 13, 2020 12:28 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Ferrari SF71H 1/20 DTM

Post by lezdep »

I'll try to answer some of your questions.

1. I use 2 part epoxy from hobby store made by BSI industries. 5 min type works well for me. Usually enough time to position
parts. Sometimes even too much time, as you have to hold parts in position till 8min or so, when epoxy actually grabs well. However
I also waste about 95% of the mix. It's pretty much impossible to properly mix it in small portions, imo.

2. I would apply primer after all parts, that could be glued in place, are glued together already. But I use Zero 2K etch primer. Have
not had great experience with Tamiya's one. Does not seem to etch well into resin, metal and PE. I would say most of the time it's ok
to apply putty over resin and metal parts. Not over PE, though, as it might not stick well to bare PE.

3. I do my "CF masks" right before I apply them, after all the painting was already done. Except for clear coat, that usually goes on top
of CF. In fact I don't make any actual masks most of the time. I just trace parts on the back of CF decal paper with pencil. Cut it, apply
and then trim as necessary.

4. Don't have a solution, except for magnetic polisher. It seems to handle small parts ok, but it might still do some bending. So, one
might need to straighten parts back manually after it.

Btw, make sure you take care of fit of the parts before you do any painting. Priming and putting in between fitting is fine. But as soon
as you put final coats of paint on, any further adjustments for better fit could be difficult and lead to troubles, like paint cracking or
chipping or worse.

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Re: Ferrari SF71H 1/20 DTM

Post by SebLeung »

Small update:

DTM SF71H kit seems to have much better shape than the Monopost W08 kit (as it should) but honestly the fit seems worse overall. The parts on the underside of the monocoque are noticeably wider than the upper part.

Blended this part which was slightly too large, that was a small pain. I'd have rathered they let you attach the wings and then fix the gaps around that than this whole portion which is meant to be smooth and flat.
Image

Currently trying to solve the airbox gap by putting some styrene to support the white metal, help guide it into position when I glue it down, and give epoxy putty something to sit on.
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Yes, the entire back of the airbox is covered in styrene. That's how big this gap was.
Image

A bit more shaving and twisting. Gap in the front is pretty big but I'll fill it and re-scribe the line after.
Image

Still just taking this one slowly when my other kits are blocked.
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Re: Ferrari SF71H 1/20 DTM

Post by SebLeung »

Why, for my first MM kits, did I decide to tackle my two most complex, rare, and expensive kits? Jeez. Well I've started now so there's no going back.

Integrating the airbox was and is a huge ongoing pain.
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I also realized a little late that the left camera mount needs to be removed for the Monaco GP version. Sanding down the white metal stub was not a fun task.
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Integrating the fin was a bit more difficult than I expected since the resin has a little "ridge" built into it that hugs the fin.
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The nose needs a lot of clean-up. First step is to open up the slots on the wing support.
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One big issue with the nose/wing: take a look at the way the white metal is attached to the nose
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That's not at all how it's supposed to look.
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The 1/12 resin kit has accurate mounting points, so I guess the 1/20 kit was done like this due to the weight of the white metal? I'm thinking of cutting off the white metal strakes, gluing them to the nose, blending and sanding it, and then hoping that two small pins and epoxy will be strong enough to hold the wing in place.

Rest of the body went through some priming to see expose any imperfections.
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Fin looks mostly okay, it's not perfect but I think it'll look fine once it's coloured and cleared.
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This piece on top of the nose continues to be a big pain. It looks fine on the left side but the right side is very hard to smooth out, especially behind the little winglet. I don't think I'll be able to get this perfect. Also, the edges between the white metal and the putty/resin are smooth, but in the light you can see a slight bulge since the metal piece is wider than the resin.
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Airbox camera mount smoothed out nicely
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Dry fit
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Floor has some awful fitting pieces. The middle section looks worse than it actually is since it's being propped up right now, and the screws will close the gap somewhat. You can't see in this picture but the rear under-body piece that goes under the transmission pretty much doesn't even attach to the mid-section.
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This piece is the worst offender in the kit so far in terms of fit. I've already shaved off about 1mm on both sides to get it closer to the witch of the monooque. Not sure how I'll fix the widtch and the gap on the lower part where it attaches to the floor though.
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I also want to take this opportunity to call out the weakest part of this kit BY FAR: the tyres. Highly disappointed with them, especially since I mainly wanted to the Monaco spec to get ultra-soft tires. The colour is closer to magenta and purple as if they wanted to mix ultra and hyper soft tyres. And look at the alignment of the prints! Only the top right is aligned properly. Look at the rear tyre on the bottom right, it's not even close. I've seen other pictures of this kit online and it seems like mine is not unique in this respect. To add insult to injury, 2017-2018 spec Pirelli tyres shouldn't have the print on the inner side of the rear-tyres. The provided rears have print on both sides. Sigh. My hope is to acquire spare Tamiya SF70-H tyres and use S27 Pirelli decals for pink hyper-softs, since these are just unacceptable.
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Re: Ferrari SF71H 2018 Monaco GP1/20 DTM

Post by Andrey »

Zero paints has a new product
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Re: Ferrari SF71H 2018 Monaco GP1/20 DTM

Post by racingkars »

Nice progress.
I have 2 of these (Aus / Can).
I will follow with interest.
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Re: Ferrari SF71H 2018 Monaco GP1/20 DTM

Post by SebLeung »

All right it's been almost a year now! Since the Lotus 102s are out of the way, it's time to make a push to make some big progress on the SF71H. Don't wanna fall too far behind the modern F1 kit release cycle...

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I mentioned having to do this in previous updates but never posted the photo - I cut the strakes off of the wing main plane and blended them into the wing supports on the nose:
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Some white metal pieces were awful in terms of smoothness and sink marks. Prepping white metal is still my least favourite activity. Over the past week I was making a push to have all parts that will have the red body colour on them primed and ready for base coat.
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I painted the fin white and created a mask for the white decal. I don't want to risk the red showing through the white.
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First time using pink primer! Decanted Tamiya spray can and shot through my airbrush. I've heard mixed opinions on SF71H red. To my eyes it looks extremely similar or the same as SF70H red but whatever. Maybe the SF71H is more pure red? My SF70H was primed with white, I'll prime this in pink and if it affects the final colour then so be it.
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The front suspension parts have a part of the body attached to them to ensure good fit (which it succeeds at doing), but that means I need to prime and paint these little pieces at the end of the arms as well. A little annoying.
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I painted all red parts with Zero Paints SF70H red tonight, unfortunately the halo piece fell off of an alligator clip while the paint was fresh and it ruined the paint, and the piece that has the S-duct exit on top of the nose/monocoque made contact with another piece while its paint was wet, causing a chip in the paint through to the primer. I might have to completely redo those parts but I'll wait to post pictures until those pieces are ready. Hopefully I'll be able to post consistent updates from here on out!
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Re: Ferrari SF71H 1/20 DTM

Post by BMW »

You are looking to make good progress on an average kit.
Well done!
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Re: Ferrari SF71H 1/20 DTM

Post by SebLeung »

BMW wrote:You are looking to make good progress on an average kit.
Well done!
Thank you! I think I would still consider this a very good kit, probably above the quality of any Studio27 offering. Just seems like I'm encountering natural challenges of multi-media kits.

On to the update

Painted! All parts that will have any hint of red has been painted in Zero Paints SF70H red. As mentioned in the last update, I had to re-prime and re-paint that top metal piece that sits above the front suspension. To the naked eye it seems like a fraction of a shade brighter red now unfortunately, but it's so minuscule that it doesn't show up in photos. Otherwise it looks great!
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The shark fin mask came off nicely as well. The included decal includes the entire white piece so I'm debating if I should lay the entire thing on top of the white portion or cut out the individual graphics and put them on.
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I masked and painted some of the parts that will be covered in carbon. This took a lot of time and I'm surprised I had zero incidents of paint lifting upon removal. I hope to spread out my CF templating and application so I don't get burnt out trying to do it all in one phase as with my W08.
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Quick mockup of the front-end - beginning to look like a real car!
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Overview
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And today I began applying the silver stripe decals along the body. I was debating masking and painting but I don't want to risk anything. The decals were very thin and easy to manipulate so I have no regrets at this point.
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I feel like I've made an incredible amount of progress this past week, I'll try to keep my momentum. The next phase (decals) will be massive though so we'll see.

Thanks for looking!
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Re: 2018 Ferrari SF71H 1/20 DTM

Post by racingkars »

Looking good!
Nice to see your progress.
I am working on the same kit (Canada version) which i am trying to convert to a USA version
Kars

http://www.racingkars.nl (WIPs)
http://www.racingkars.com (sales)
Websites in Nederlands/English
English is not my native language, so sorry for any incorrect words or style... I have no intention to offend you.
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