LEXUS IS 350 (Fujimi 1/24) Work in progress #6

Hi all, .... Oh? Did I post yesterday too?? It's miracle!! Anyway, don't stop posting for today's updates.

 One more thing to do on front axle. Normal setting of this kit was a bit too toe-in. I wouldn't like my Lexus's tires worn out quickly:)  So I cut the link shaft and re-jointed in a plastic pipe. Now the alinement looks good. The pipe was painted in flat black later.
  

 Then covered by this part. Actually I can't see anything under this panel so I didn't need to paint that pipe...? BTW, this cover part showed "Ultra-fit" between the body and chassis, so I recommend you to fit this part after docking the body and chassis to make their docking easier. I happened to do so (I did all the suspension, wheels and tires after docking them because I wanted to hold the chassis surely when docking to the body. Also it was good to adjust the balance between the body and the wheels. 

The final polishing has been held with Tamiya's finishing compound. I tried to do this after attaching almost everything to the body, because I would touch the body too many times so that bunch of fine scratches would be made. This trial went so well, I could skip one polishing process so I could prevent cutting through the clear coat.

 Roof antenna(?) was attached with Konishi's Aquli-Anchor (clear bond). I couldn't manage to make it clean, but I could wipe the excess with enamel thinner.

 Now the exhausts (the center was drilled) and metal logos were attached. Wow, I can't help smiling!! Looking cool!! Best thanks to my best hobby friend Denith, who gave me those logos for free!!! I like your "real" IS 250 in gun-metal too!!!

Fujimi's genuine chromed mirror parts shows good reflection, too. I set 0.5mm plastic rod in the mirror stay, and same 0.5mm hole were drilled on the body side, then used the clear bond. It's stress free when I use the clear bond, no need to worry about harming the body paint!!

That's all so far, I'll treat the number plates soon, and upload this lovely one on the gallery!!
OMG, this progress is only #6!! I spent until #33 on the last crazy GTO. It's soooo relaxing! 

See you soon, hopefully ;)

LEXUS IS 350 (Fujimi 1/24) Work in progress #5

Hi all, there were some progress on my lovely Lexus :)

Before docking the body and chassis, these hoes were needed to be drilled.

This is backside. Using very small nuts and bolts; they are actually for the glasses, about 1mm thickness.

Nuts were fixed onto the chassis with CA glue. Now it is ready to attach to the base. But for now I'll leave this until finishing all the works.

One more thing to do before docking the body and chassis. I attached the black tape (insulating tape) on the bottom of the rear window 'cause I could see through the inside body from the gap. I can't leave it if there were any gaps between the body and windows which the real car doesn't have.

 Now docked and the wheels were test fitted.

Muhhh.....? I can say the wheels look a bit small now. It's a kind of fair seeing the pictures, but if I actually have a look with my eyes, still... yes, they were small.

Then I tried to "inch-up"... oh, this was what FUJIMI meant!!! (It's not, as you knew)
I applied 0.25mm plastic paper, 2 layers. This was, 1mm-up for the 1/24 wheel, meaning about 1 inch up. 

 Slightly inched-up.

 Then applied silver paint for the test fitting, please ignore the rough surfaces on the wheel rims.

 It was fairly looking... fair. But I felt it still plain.

Then I tried this. Looking super cool!!!

To fit Aoshima's wheel to Fujimi's kit, I needed to slim the axle.

 ...Still showed the negative camber, also the height of the body was a bit high. 

I found the wheel rim was hitting to the shock spring. It's a bit rough solution but I scraped the spring. Don't care what we can't see...lol. And, top of the shock absorber were 1mm cut off to low down. I attached 1mm cut plastic pipe to the lower arm to fit the low-downed shock.

 To fit to Aoshima's loose hole (I can say Fujimi's pin is too skinny, anyway they were from other makes), I simply attached slender masking tape.

 Now it's good! Centre gold parts were re-painted in Tamiya's enamel Gold Leaf (X-12? as I remembered) 'cause the original surface was a bit rough.

There was no need to adjust the height or width on rear ones. 

That's the progress so far, thanks for watching!!! Have a good nite... zzzz

LEXUS IS 350 (Fujimi 1/24) Work in progress #4

Hi all, sorry again I was away so long... You know, it was Christmas time.

But now I'm almost there with my lovely Lexus. Let's post for today.

I masked and black out the rims of the windows.

Then tried to apply the Mirror Finish (Hasegawa's) on edges. From distance, it seemed fairly ok...

But I could see it was not clean enough from near. I found I couldn't do any better so...

Peel the Mirror Finish off and masked again. This pic shows how I mask the curved edges. I make skinny masking tape by cutting, then it becomes easy to apply to the curved lines (if the curve is sharp, I apply the wide tape on body then cut with design knife; as you can see on the right).

Then use wide tapes to cover other areas. Then I would apply cling wraps to the lest of the part.

This time I used this good one on the moles.

Now I'm confident with masking.

I'm happy with this brilliant finish, too. Actually the real car has black moles inside (window side), but I think this is clean enough and fairly looking good as a scale model.

Another problem came up. The masking tapes left the marks on body paint. I heard someone said "using leveling thinner, the paint never dries so the mark would be left", now it is verified... lol.

So I again clear coated (using normal lacquer thinner) and polished.... Though it was good to protect the silver window moles.
To prevent the fade of the gross on silver moles, I managed to apply the clear coat from far (20-30cm away from body) and made mat finish firstly, then after looking the silver paint being protected finely, I applied more coat then polished (like clear coating on the decals).

Just some metal files were used on the back of this plated part to fit to the body. Looking good overall.

To attach the clear parts, I use this method. Masking tape on tip.

Then use just a little bit of clear bond (Konishi's Aquri-Anchor). This glue is good, 'cause it's easily wiped off by tooth pic or enamel thinner without harming the body paint.

I reckon the rear combi looks somehow too brilliant as if it's turned on, but still it's fair. It was already in clear red, so I surrender to replicate "clear orange" part.

 That's all for today, have a nice Monday!! I'll go to bed.... ;)

LEXUS IS 350 (Fujimi 1/24) Work in progress #3

Hi from sunny Sydney :) I know most of you are now preparing for the winter, but here it is now getting hotter and hotter. I should be patient to keep myself from going fishing but modeling.

The polishing process has been started on my Lexus.

 #3000 Mr. Hobby's Polishing Cloth, and #6000 Laplos, then Soft 99 Fine Compound applied.
After every process, I washed with dish washing detargent.

Then Tamiya Course Compound applied. Still fine scratches were seen, but these would go away after the next step.

Tamiya Fine compound applied. most of scratches had gone.

Tamiya Finish Compound applied. I am happy with this result!!

This is the weapon for this build.

 "Sujiborido's micro polisher 123" on Toyo Associates' Mr. Meister Pen-type motor tool "PT-αⅡ". To apply compound with this combo, I set the rotate speed very low.
 These combos made the job much easier and quicker. I don't feel any numbness on my hand.

Now I'm sure I'll be finishing this one very soon happily. What a good rehabilitation!


See you soon:)

LEXUS IS 350 (Fujimi 1/24) Work in progress #2

Hi,

Some of my friends asked me in person, "what paints and thinner did you use actually?"

These are the all casts for Lexus body painting.

I called the thinner "Retarder Mild" in the last post but that was wrong, sorry. It was "Mr. Color Leveling Thinner". That's the special thinner for airbrush which provides us smooth surface. "Retarder Mild" was the additive to normal lacquer thinner; if the "Retarder Mild" was added to lacquer thinner, it works the same as "Leveling Thinner", actually.

This is the picture after Super Clear applied. I can say the sanding or polishing are almost not needed (actually I will).

The gross on the bonnet is not enough, but on the fender or around the head lights are almost perfect, 'cause I made the airbrush "stay" fairly long (You could say I should have done the same thing on the bonnet. Yes, I should). I should have applied more clear at the same time on the bonnet to save my time to polish. But I also know, this "Orange peel" would disappear once some sanding process were taken place.

Side body also shows almost perfect shine. Muum, I should have used this method on last GTO, I don't know why I didn't trust my good-old method.

Now I am looking forward to the next process; sanding and polishing.

Have a good night (or good day, good evening!; Thanks for visiting from all over the world)  

LEXUS IS 350 (Fujimi 1/24) Work in progress #1

Hi all,

I've started my rehabilitation. I choose Fujimi's LEXUS IS350 (1/24), because....
1, I've heard lots of good reputation; great on styling, good parts fitting, etc
2, Engineless easy kit= I can try several thing on painting of body
3, I like this car, but not too much= I can stop doing too much (I feel sorry about this to owners of IS 350 or IS 250)
4, Overall, I thought this is the best for now for my rehabilitation (I got ill doing too much on the last one; 288GTO full open).

Package:

It says "Inch-up" series #18, but ironically you can see the wheels seem to be "Inch-downed"(I sort of like that balance, though.

What's included in the box

 ...Every part has fine and sharp molds, I felt like I was looking at Tamiya's kit.

Dry fitting. Front and rear bumpers, side skirts... everything showed perfect fits!! I really doubt like "Is this really Fujimi's job???". Some say the tires and wheels are small, but I like this balance. I like the height, too. Amazing thing was, there needed no adjustments!!!

Front grills also shows perfect fits. Window part as well.... Oh, I am really confused, am I really working on Fujimi's kit...??! Anyway, this is perfect for my rehab.

First sanding with #800. Some dents were found, but still not so deep so that easily I could sand off.

This time I'll try something new (or, back to my basic). To examine the painting and polishing scheme, I airbrushed GSI Creos (Gunze Sangyo) Super Clear (lacquer based paint), thinned with Retarder Mild (Super Clear 1: Retarder Mild 2).  After drying for 3 days, I sanded with #1500, #2000, #3000, #4000 sanding papers, then polished with Tamiya's Course Compound, Fine Compound, Finishing Compound. I am so happy with this smooth gross. Since I was using only GSI Creos's paints and was only happy with results (such as 246GTS, 427 Cobra), now I decided to use them again.

 Then the body color was airbrushed. GSI Creos's Metal Black 70%+ GSI Creos's Super Italian Red 30% = Dark Brown Metallic. I couldn't take good pictures though, this color seems better to my eyes than this picture! I'll wait for 3 days, then I'll apply some clear coat (with Super Clear).

 During waiting for the body paint dries, just quickly proceed to chassis. Since I would never see the chassis from the bottom after completing this Lexsus, I airbrushed silver on certain places...

Then airbrushed flat black around the silver, even without masking. It's enough, even I thought I didn't need to paint the chassis (I couldn't be that too lazy). I believe I would do the same thing on these kind of easy kits.

Quickly move to wheels and tires. Still, it shows perfect fits, I don't even need to cut the back rims out...! The plating were taken off by soaking in the breach (I used White King, thinned with the same amount of water).  Then I found these wheels had nice colors themselves!! I don't even paint the wheels (maybe).

That's all for today, I reckon I'll finish this work very soon (I would take only about 10 hours to finish, I believe!!). I am sure I am having fun....:)

Have a nice day!