Mercedes W08 2017 British GP 1/20 MONOPOST

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stubeck
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Re: Mercedes W08 2017 British GP 1/20 MONOPOST

Post by stubeck »

Great update, What are you using to attach the wing to the nose?

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Re: Mercedes W08 2017 British GP 1/20 MONOPOST

Post by SebLeung »

stubeck wrote:Great update, What are you using to attach the wing to the nose?
The front wing has 4 moulded pins that fit nicely into the wing support pillars - no modifications necessary

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All right buckle up for a long update!

After last update I started working on the white metal parts. Long story short I discovered I hate working with white metal.

Thinned the sidepod airflow conditioners with the side of a hobby knife. This is a must-do imo, in real life they're supposed to look like thin blades.

Original:
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Thinned:
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Bargeboard is also quite wrong so I thinned and shaped it by filing and carving away at it. Original left, modified right
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Few more rounds of sanding and filling
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Finally attache the shark-fin. Held quite well with epoxy glue, but unfortunately the first time I tried blending it into the body with epoxy putty, I accidentally detached it. Second time around I was more careful and I have to say the end-result is MUCH more sturdy than I could ever have hoped for! I don't think I have to worry about it every breaking out, it can probably even withstand small drops. Pretty happy with how it looks as well. The way it blends with the T-wing mount isn't totally accurate but it's passable by my standards.
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Final coat of Tamiya primer on, you can see the shark-fin integration better here:
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Gave the model a black-base in preparation for the silver paint. Used Tamiya TS-29 for the body and Zero Paints SG Black for the small parts.
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Masked off parts to remain black
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Black base is critical for a good silver I think. End result looks reaaaaally good.
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I went back and filled in some areas around the front suspension and airbox with Tamiya X18, where the decals won't cover.
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Yesterday my latest modelling haul came in, just in time: CF decals and 4 sets of spare Tamiya SF70H tyres.
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The Tamiya tyres are soooo much more accurate than the S27 and MFH, especially the profile. Sidewalls looks way too thin on the S27 and MFH ones. I was making a gamble to assume that the rims would fit in the Tamiya tyres, and thankfully they did. It'll end up making a big difference on the final model.

Left is Tamiya, right is S27.

Fronts
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Rears
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Anyways with the arrival of the CF decals I could start really getting into things. I've never really made my own templates or used SMS decals and I gotta say I'm not a big fan of the process, although it is less difficult than I thought it would be. I've been tracing templates only on one side, scanning them, tracing them digitally, and mirroring them.
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I'll be sharing the templates here for anybody to use once I'm done.

I can't think of many things more disappointing than areas in the kit decals that are black instead of CF, when CF decals are included elsewhere in the kit. There's a small black strip where the blue stripe transitions to CF, but this is present on the actual car.
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Here I am now:
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Kit decals are okay to manipulate, but the actual design is...not great
I was very surprised that this managed to conform without any wrinkles on this side...
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...but of course I couldn't replicate it on the other side leaving some small wrinkles. Oh well.

If you're going to do this kit, make sure to put the "airbrushed" black decal on the head rest first before placing the black on the sides of the air intake. I was a "fool" who thought he could simply line up the side decals with the panel lines they were designed to line up with and found that it didn't all go together too well. I might try some advanced airbrushing later to remedy this.
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Also please look at how these two decals line up on the side:
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Come on Studio27... you could've designed the stripes to line up to SOME extent at least... Also there are some small gaps as you can see. I'll have to fill those in.

The cape was no small task to CF but it turned out well.
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Also CF'd in and around the side intake. Note the black stripe decal on the sidepod airflow conditioner, another example of S27 including a black decal instead of printing it as CF.
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Really enjoy the colour of SMS CF decals. The slightly brown tint looks very accurate.
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This is an example of how my skills are limited and why I prefer pre-templated CF decals. It's so hard to cut a smooth curve. I also had to sand out the two little nostril grills on the nose back when I reshaped it, so I cut two tiny triangles with CF decals to simulate it. (Front wing is just a mockup, ignore the big gap between the flaps)
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I tried being really careful to not leave any drops of micro-sol sitting on the surface while applying it, but missed two spots. These unfortunate damaged the silver paint. Hopefully I can just re-spray silver and it'll correct itself, fingers crossed.
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Here's a mockup
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Side-by-side with 1/20 Tamiya SF70H indicates that everything is scaled correctly.
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Next I'll have to start working on the floor which I've been putting off since the beginning. Sigh. I don't think I'll do much other than taper the edges on the side to give the appearance of a thinner floor. I'm not even going to bother with the rear because whoever designed it was clearly making some kind of sick joke. Look at how thick that is!
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Anyways if you're made it this far through my post, congratulations!

February also marks 1 year since I started my first model last year. How far I've come.
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Re: Mercedes W08 2017 British GP 1/20 MONOPOST

Post by shood23 »

looking fantastic. my one big big annoyance with this car is the thickness of the floor, the flawed w07 had a much better floor and the dtm ferrari sf70 floor is near perfect so why is the w08 so bad i dont know.

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Re: Mercedes W08 2017 British GP 1/20 MONOPOST

Post by CTurbert »

Great job so far! It's kind of hard to believe you've only been building models for a year. This thread is very detailed and shows much work goes in to these 1/20 multimedia kits. Bummer about the green decals not lining up on the sidepods. Good job with your own CF decal templates. Applying CF decals without templates is not easy but it's very rewarding in the end.

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Re: Mercedes W08 2017 British GP 1/20 MONOPOST

Post by stubeck »

Completely agree CTurbert. This is great work!
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Re: Mercedes W08 2017 British GP 1/20 MONOPOST

Post by Jeff »

awesome wip photos, thank you

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Re: Mercedes W08 2017 British GP 1/20 MONOPOST

Post by SebLeung »

shood23 wrote:looking fantastic. my one big big annoyance with this car is the thickness of the floor, the flawed w07 had a much better floor and the dtm ferrari sf70 floor is near perfect so why is the w08 so bad i dont know.

shaun
Yes, while the fin is the most glaring issue in the kit, it is ultimately possible to fix. The floor is just something you have to live with pretty much. It's not even just thick, the thickness has caused a loss of depth detail around the entire floor. The one saving grace is that it'll all be black and covered in CF so hopefully won't be too noticeable when completed.
CTurbert wrote:Great job so far! It's kind of hard to believe you've only been building models for a year. This thread is very detailed and shows much work goes in to these 1/20 multimedia kits. Bummer about the green decals not lining up on the sidepods. Good job with your own CF decal templates. Applying CF decals without templates is not easy but it's very rewarding in the end.
Thanks! Hard to believe for me too. I dove into the deep end that's for sure. I didn't think I had the skills to tackle the SF70H when I started and truthfully I didn't, but it caused me to pick them up along the way. Same goes for this kit. Lots and lots of learning. Surprisingly, while it seems like a lot of work, this one is progressing faster than most plastic kits I've attempted. Once the weather warms a bit and I can apply clear, the end of this build should be deceptively near. Clear coat, floor, wheels + tyres, final assembly is about it. Provided everything continues to go smoothly........


EDIT keep forgetting to ask - the kit includes a bunch of tiny little orange decals that represent stickers placed on the car:
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Does anybody know specifically what these are? Are they FIA inspection stickers? I've seen them on the car in a few pictures
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I've seen a few pictures of the car on track at the British GP without the stickers, but during the race the stickers are present.
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I think I've seen the stickers present on the Red Bulls as well but haven't dug too deep yet. I'm mainly just curious, but the decals seem like a cool addition to the kit to add a little more authenticity
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Re: Mercedes W08 2017 British GP 1/20 MONOPOST

Post by scaleautofactory »

These sticker used due parc ferme rules. No changes allowed with the start of qualifying.
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Re: Mercedes W08 2017 British GP 1/20 MONOPOST

Post by klinad »

Wow nice work so far. I'm planning to build this in the future, I suggest maybe you can airbrush the black colour on the engine cover.The S27 decal also has big black dots pretending to be "shade" look which is not gonna work. Use the decal you applied as a guide and use sliver colour to correct the blace colour where oversprayed.
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Re: Mercedes W08 2017 British GP 1/20 MONOPOST

Post by jorgeralvear »

Super good work with a difficult kit. Great effort on the little details and the carbon fiber decals. Keep it up, you’re close now!
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