Started 10 Sep 2010 - Completed 21 Sep 2010

This kit was mainly built as a test bed for the range of Zero Paints and Clear coat available from Hiroboy.com.

Instead of some of the Tamiya colour callouts, paints used were:-

Alclad II Black Primer
AlcladII Grey Primer
AlcladII Aluminium, Stainless Steel, Jet Exhaust, Hotmetal Blue and Hotmetal Sepia
Zero Paints - Williams FW14B White
Zero Paints - Williams FW14B Camel Yellow
Zero Paints - Pre Thinned Clear Coat Lacquer.

I also used Pilot Sliver and Gold marker pens to substitute for X-11 and X-12.

Construction consisted of building subassemlies and then painting. For example the instructions, have you build the engine and add small items (oil filter etc) then paint, whereas I built as much of the engine as I could, then painted and added the small items towards the end of the build.

The main body parts were all primed with AlcladII Black Primer, masked where Semi Gloss Black was called for, and then I used AlcladII Grey Primer. After curing overnight I went over the surface with Micro Mesh pads and the Promodellers polishing sponges to make sure all blemishes were taken care of. I then sprayed the Zero Paints White. I left it for 18 hours to totally cure and then went over it with the polishing sponges again. Finally the side pods were masked and I then sprayed the final colour coat of the Zero Paints Camel Yellow. The instructions say that the paint cures as a Matt finish, but after using the polishing sponges the finish starts approaching a Gloss Finish.

This was a good sign and I then started with the decals...this is were the problems started. Although the small decals were applied with no problems, the main large blue ones were a pain. They would not bed down to surfaces and applying and decal solution did the usual wrinkling you would expect. However they didn't flatten out as with I have come to expect with newer decals, and even had them curl back on themselves, exposing the white and requiring a touch up with paint. In the ideal world, the blue would have painted on and the pin-striping and other markings would have been decals.

However the best part of the build was to come - the application of the Clear Coat. This was done after allowing the decals to dry and cleaning off any residue. I sprayed a light mist coat, and after no reaction by the paint or decals, I sprayed a wet coat and left it to cure. After an hour, the coat was dry to the touch, and the next day was rock hard and as shiny as you see in the photos. Amazing stuff.

I completed the building, but managed to screw up the tire decals. So only three tires got the full Good Year on one side (they should be on both sides of each tire, but I ran out). I will probably remove them and spray the logos once my templates I ordered show up.

To finish I knocked up a clear visor for Mr. Patrese, created a printed base based on turn 1 of the Monaco GP circuit, and placed it in my A4 picture frame.