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Steve's Mclaren Mercedes MP4-25; Revell 1/24

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Currently working on the tyre decals. The green band that goes around the circumference is proving a challenge. I am not surprised that many of the finished models that you see dont have this decal showing. I can only imagine the modellers got frustrated in trying to obtain a perfect circle. I shall persevere.





Photo of real tyre
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Thread owner
I’m sure they’re on Spotify ;)
Haha. I'm sure everyone realises those are the real thing Jacko. If only mine could be anything like as good. Sadly you will see my effort in due course. I will amend my post to avoid confusion.
 
Thread owner
Not as much done this week due to other jobs that needed doing but this is the latest progress.


Firstly the decals have been applied to the tyres. I wait for these ones to dry before attempting to apply the very delicate and fiddly outer green decals.
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Here are two with the green decals on. Need a bit of touch up with some green matched paint. They look slightly better from a distance. Very hard to get that perfect round shape.
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Seat belts now completed. I have just overlaid these PE belts over the moulded plastic ones.
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first coat of gloss applied. once the shell is fully glossed the car can be assembled. The rear and front wing/ airfoils are not attached. I have just put them in place for the photo
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The arfoil is not complete. In the kit you get 4 seperate orange decals to cover all the surface area of the airfoil. I have just used the one with VODAFONE on it and then painted the rest of the orange. Just in the process of using some Micro Sol and Set to get the decal seated nicely and then I need to touch up the silky matt black on the inner part of the foil side sections.
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Thread owner
Well they say you cant spot the woods for the trees. In my haste to post an update I have just noticed two faults on the pictures that I was totally oblivious too when I posted them. One of my decals has moved on a tyre and there is an issue with a seat belt. Damn. More repairs to carry out.
 
Thread owner
Been a bit busy lately with other jobs but managed to get some bench time in today. I have fitted the instrument panel and steering wheel into the cockpit and then fitted the completed cockpit area onto the body shell. Now that the body shell has been glossed I have been able to assemble the front suspension unit and then join the body shell to the floor pan/chassis.

The decals have given me some more problems. Firstly on the orange decal that runs from behind the cockpit and joins the rear wing assembly when I was messing around with trial fitting the decal cracked and flaked off right at the join. It must have been slightly overhanging and when it came into contact with the rear wing, where it says "VODAFONE" it just disintegrated. I tried some orange touch up which is just visible if you look carefully in the close up above but wasn't happy with the result. I ended up giving the decal two coats of varnish so that I could smooth it down on the damaged area and have resprayed the whole orange section of the decal. Looks better now but may be a slightly lighter shade of orange.
The second problem I have had is some of the decals have not stuck well onto the tyres. I have got most of them on now. Just trying to get some better adhesion by using Micro Set but I think I may end up putting a coat of clear on to hold and seal them all in place.
Car is about 90% complete now. Things left to do. Tidy up rear spoiler, varnish and fit. I then have a couple of body panels and body parts to fit, two front suspension struts and the wing mirrors. So that said the next pictures will be of the finished car. I am going away for a week but will get this project finished as soon as I get back.

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