1:12 Revell 126C2 - Need Help

Hey guys, I have a few questions and need some help with building my 1:12 scale Revell 126C2 F1 Ferrari.... and I haven't built a plastic kit since my teen years and now I'm 45...

GLUE
Can anyone tell me what type of glue used by the professional modelers who assembly resin kits?, I have several 1:18 scale resin models and the glue seems to hold up very well. I don't want to use the crappy Testors glue which holds up for just a few years but then pieces of the model become loose and then fall off. Also How should I apply glue to the model?

PAINT
Okay big question in regards to paint. I glanced at the directions and they have several paints such as Metallic sliver, Matt black, Aluminum, etc... and does anyone have a suggestion to what brand of paints should I buy for the model, especially the Ferrari red for the shell of the 126.

MODEL
Has anyone built this Ferrari from Revell and would you post some pictures of your 126C2 to help me out. I would like to go the extra mile and add some extra details to make the car more real looking.... any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thx
Rob

 

Most resin models are built with cyano-acrylate glues which are available in different thicknesses and setting speeds and can also have a filler mixed in. Most plastic models are built with the liquid plastic model cement from Testor's not the stuff in a tube. The Testor's liquid comes with a fine wire applicator. The CA glues are usually applied with a pin - pick up a drop - transfer to part with pin.

The metallic finishes are best replicated with Alclad paints which are airbrushed over a gloss base coat and then sealed with a clear sealer. Testor's have a metalizer line which also requires a sealer. The aircraft guys use spray paints from SnJ.
Metal finishes on large, mostly smooth, surfaces can also be done with Bare Metal Foil which is exactly what it sounds like and gets rubbed down onto the plastic panel.

For body color everybody in the world makes a version of Italian Red but the best for you is going to be from Hiroboy in the UK. Their Zero paint line has a red specific to Ferrari F1 cars from the 70s.

 

If money is no object and you want to super detail the Revell (Protar) 126C2 model you could pick this up:
http://www.thundervalleyf1.com/main/products/ferrari-126c2-super-kit/

You would basically be tossing most of the Revell kit in the trash and you will need $950 and a lot of patience - Thunder Valley is a one man operation and there is often a long wait for things to be in stock.

 

http://public.fotki.com/Jake777/

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14009

 

I can relate to your post, hobbywise, agewise and kitwise.

Got the same model in my closet.

Glue: I use superglue (Cyano) for most parts as it is quick and clean (only need one drop). Except for chromes and clear plastics, where it fogs them. Use regular plastic cement for those.

Paint: Any spray paint will do. Don't get overly bothered with the shade of red. More importantly google techniques on how to avoid "orange peel". I'm a novice on that subject myself, but it makes a great difference in the finish.

Model: I recommend you do a google search for pictures, that should do. More importantly I recommend to buy a 2nd kit from Revell so you have backup parts for when you screw something up (trust me, you will). Also personally I like it when the driver has been added, so here a good link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290431580136&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Search ebay, there are also Pironi helmets out there if you prefer him (hard to imagine ).

 

Just to add my take on it:

GLUE: I use Tamiya extra thin cement and normal Tamiya cement, if you lay it down well enough it kind of melts and fuses the plastic together perfectly unlike superglue which just sticks it together. I have had more problems like the ones you mention with superglue coming apart. I do use thin superglue if the parts I am sticking are not both plastic (eg photo etched metal) and for clear plastic parts I use white glue which does not fog up the plastic and dries clear.

PAINT:Tamiya sprays could be used for the body and other parts. I know some people have suggested Alclad paints (which are very good) through an airbrush but you might not wish to buy one of those straight away so they would suffice if you are just getting back into the hobby. I also use their acrylic colours for smaller parts mostly through my airbrush but they brush on fine too. As Andreas says try to eliminate orange peel, I found this difficult to be honest but if you go over it with micromesh and some polish you can achieve a perfect finish even if you do end up with some orange peel.

Cant help with pics as I cant stand Revell kits and have not built one

 

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one struggling with this. All summer long I'm painting and repainting a scrap model to get the hang of it.

We have an annual building contest where I come in regularly 2nd. Always loosing out to the same guy who has the orange peel issue down pat. Argh.

 

I too spent ages trying to overcome it and still have problems with clear coats. Now I just do the best i can, go over it with micromesh and then polish it up.

For about £20-£30 you can kick his butt next time A micromesh set isnt too expensive eg http://www.modelsforsale.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=252666 and then the 3 tamiya polishing compounds work very well to finish it off. Same car shown after a couple of hours polishing.
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Orange peel is a function of not enough paint being applied and/or the paint not being "self-levelling". Generally it is easier to achieve a smooth finish with acrylics and 2 part paints than with enamels and automotive lacquers. One trick is to use a thinner that acts to slow the drying process. Lacquer thinner is "hot" meaning it evaporates very quickly. For this reason professional painters use retarder to slow the drying time on a complete paint job but they might use a hot thinner when blending a repair into existing paint as the thinner softens the old paint.
Acrylic paints can be thinned with various things but are usually best with the manufacturer's own thinner unless you know what you are doing. Tamiya acrylics thin well with isopropol alcohol.
Very good lighting is essential to avoiding orange peel as is turning the model to catch the light just right as you are spraying. Model parts must be mounted in such a way as to be able to rotate them in your hand as needed. There is a very fine line between too little and too much. Too little and the paint is grainy or orange-peely. Too much and the paint runs, sags, fills in panel lines and fine details and takes forever and a day to dry. Rattle cans, obviously, are much harder to control than an airbrush so many modelers decant the paint from a spray can into a jar and airbrush it from there if they are limited to a spray can because of color selection.
I can't emphasize enough how important preparation and choice of quality materials are and cannot recommend the paints from Zero highly enough.
On the subject of drying consider investing in a dehydrator. This could be anything from a ~$30 Walmart model to a $150 purpose-built one from Japan but it makes a world of difference. Dries the paint to a lovely smooth finish and doesn't allow dust to settle into it. Also takes the drying time from as much as a month (or longer...) to just a few days at most.

 

Just for accuracy the model in question was designed and released many years ago by Protar in Italy. Protar was started by a former motorcycle racer - Tarquinio Provimi who sold the company to Italeri sometime before his death in 2005. Italeri must have sold the molds to Revell of Germany. I am unclear on whether or not Revell did anything to improve the kit.

 

Thanks everyone for the great feedback so far.... please keep it coming!

Rob

 

Another tip regarding the paint finish: You can strive for realism or a contest winning finish but not both. Real race cars have very little paint on them and it is usually not very shiny. This is even more true of vintage racers. If you want realism the model should have as few coats as possible and the decals should remain on top of the paint with no clear over them. If you want a contest winner or what most people think of as a beautiful model then by all means paint as many coats as needed and bury the decals in clear (test first!) so the car ends up looking like it is made of glazed ceramic.

 

Well, people, hold on.
Dehydrators, airbrushes, special paints.........the man is just getting back into the hobby and needs to have fun. Not invest a fortune and get into the mazochistic processes that most of us put ourselves through.
So here are some basics, that are not so different from what was already said, but I believe it would ease things up.
Tamiya makes few spray cans that would do miracles for you without breaking the bank. Surface primer, TS8-Italian Red and TS13-Clear. You may need more than one from the red, but it is exact match for the color you need (Tamiya developped it specifically for their Ferrari models).
With this particular model, all the glue you need is the aforementioned plastic glue with the needle applicator, which is not made by Testors, but Modelmaster. Modelmaster also makes a line of metalizers, which now also come in spray cans. Some are "buffing metalizers" and the "aluminum plate" will give you the correct effect for the monocoque once buffed. The guy in your hobby shop can explain to you how they work.
The model you are building is neither that expensive, nor rare, so I would build one box stock without any aftermarket parts, just to have fun and to see how things work. If you enjoy yourself then get one more and detail it. You can make one Gill's and the other Didier's and then display them together, one open with all the detail and one closed.
But first try it out and most importantly enjoy yourself and have fun.
We can give you a million and one advices and tips and techniques, but none of them can replace experience, which is what you need. so go get bunch of 1:24 kits and experiment and have fun. See what works and what does not.
and for some inspiration, check out www.italianhorses.com

 

Modelmaster IS Testors.

Edit: make absolutely sure that you test any clear spray that you use before applying to your finished model! Tamiya TS-13 is known for attacking some decals. You need to make a little test panel with a piece of similar plastic - an unused kit part for example - spray body color - let dry thoroughly - apply spare decal - an unused number for example - let dry thoroughly - spray clear. If it is going to attack the decal it will probably do it fairly quickly.

Also, on the subject of decals - make sure to pick up from your hobby shop bottles of Micro-Sol and Micro-Set. You'll need them to make the decals conform and suck down nice and tight to the bodywork. Never apply a decal on to flat matt paint or onto the rubber tires - the rough finish of the paint will prevent the decal from sitting flat and sometimes this shows as an effect called silvering - little dots where there is air under the decal. On the tires the decal will just not adhere without some help. In both cases a light coat of gloss clear is applied before the decal and then a light coat of matt clear goes on top to restore the flat matt finish. Decals should always be trimmed as closely as possible to the actual design so get a small pair of very sharp scissors and trim away the clear edges that are often present. Real race cars don't have clear borders around the sponsor logos.

 

Thanks all, I actually learned a bunch of new techniques on here, which just might help me with the orange peel challenge.

Yesterday I went to a hobby shop and stocked up on everything but paint. Also ordered an airbrush and a dehydrator. Next trip will be to a specialty store for the paint and all.

As for lucky's comments regarding the detailing kits, I would agree: That's overkill when you're just getting back into the hobby. Also a lot of the detailing kits have insanely small pieces, which if you try to apply them, you might end up ruining a model with too much glue rather than an added detail. I do like "big" metal pieces like eg. wheels, which add to the realism of a model, but I'm not fan of "metal bolts" the size of a millimeter or less.

BTW: At the hobby shop I looked for the cheapest car model I could find to practice the anti orange peel techniques and guess what I found: 308 kit from Revell was cheaper than anything else. 2nd cheapest was the Daytona Miami vice car. Ferraris cheaper than American Iron? Go figure.

 

The detailing kit that I pointed him to was mostly intended to be humorous as there is no way that somebody just getting back into the hobby would be spending $950 dollars on something like that. The secondary purpose, of course, was to show him what can be done with models in this day.

 

Again you are talking professional results. TS13 clear by Tamiya will atack not only some decals, but also some colors even by Tamiya. But if you put surface primer, then ts8 red and then ts13 clear it would be just fine and then put the decals. He wants to get back into the hobby, not win the NNL east or something.

 

No actually all I was trying to do was prevent the poor guy from having a disaster on his first model. The kind of disaster that would have many people binning the model and leaving the hobby.

 

That's why I recommended to get two kits anyway: I always end up with one major disaster with some piece where nothing but a fresh piece can save the day.

 

I'm too cheap to do it that way!

 

Well it depends on what kit we're talking. The limited edition resin kits starting at $ 500, there I only have one.

But a "cheapo" Revell or Tamyia kit, where there are plenty around, no big drama to get a second one. And if you don't need all the parts use the rest to build e.g. a monocoque to create a pit area diorama.

...For my 641 I used up 2 kits plus the detailing add-on...

 

There is no disaster possible if he just does notclear coat the decals. We forget that there were great models made years ago, well before microsol and dehydrators or any special markets. As a matter of the fact, he can probably achieve the results he needs without clear at all. One step at a time. There are quite few people who I know, who wanted really bad to get back in the hobby, but after just one kit found out that it is not for them any more. Why invest a fortune for a try out?
Stop giving a rookie, PRO exercises.

Black Horse, I would follow the instructions and painting in the kit. Nothing more, nothing less. See what happenns. If you enjoy the results fine. If you think you can do better, then get another model and step it up. There is no shortage of vintage Ferrari formula 1 kits out there.

Myself, I have two of the G.Villeneuve 126s in 1:20 from Fujimi sitting in my garrage waiting to be opened.

 

That depends on the scale. In 1/12 it is a rather finite number of kits.

Personally I prefer keeping all models in the same scale so they compare sitting next to each other. And I like the big scale because of the details it can show.

 

I don't see any reason for you to be rude or argumentative.

 

And I am neither rude nor argumentative. But next you are going to recommend him to buy a mini lathe to machine his own rims for a better effect.
Contrary to what a lot of people would claim, you can actually build a great model without airbrushing, dehydrating, or using any aftermarket goodies.