Another Marui project - Ninja/Shogun

[silvertriple]

I think I totally forgot to mention here that I got lucky to find a Shogun with its box in much better state than the first one a few months ago...


The bodyshell is in good state, but it certainly needs a new paintjob: the paint is leaving by flakes here and there, so there is a chance I can save it...
In the meantime, the chassis will go in its current state under a TBG body that I paint today...

I first cleaned, masked the windows and used some tape to mask the silver part...


Then I applied black, then silver. I'm not happy with the bonnet, I should have looked at it better when cutting the masks...


I then applied MCI-racing stickers and more or less found a way to hide my mistakes...




And while I did this, I lauched a single and long print of a Ninja/Shogun/Coors chassis. The print is in PETG, and I did use PLA as interface layer, but I could even have done it more effcient with a 100% interface. Here the interface is partial so the result is not perfect. The geometry of this chassis is particularly adapted to do this...



I still have few test to do, but it looks good...





I will have to take care of a Thunderbird Coors as well, and the paint is going to be a nightmare...

[Dadio]

A good days work , I have a love/hate relationship with body painting.

[silvertriple]

A good days work , I have a love/hate relationship with body painting.

This is exactly the term to use : love/hate relationship
And while I have a lot of things to help with the Silhouette Cameo 4, the Thunderbird Coors is complex if you want to make it right... And while I tend to move away most of the times from the box art, the Coors is among the ones I feel I need to do box art...

There is Red, gold, white, silver, black, and color separation needs to take the stickers positions and sizing into account (and the body is a reproduction body, so sizing maybe also an issue)...
Yeah, it is months that i'm procrastinating on this one

[Dadio]

A good days work , I have a love/hate relationship with body painting.

This is exactly the term to use : love/hate relationship
And while I have a lot of things to help with the Silhouette Cameo 4, the Thunderbird Coors is complex if you want to make it right... And while I tend to move away most of the times from the box art, the Coors is among the ones I feel I need to do box art...

There is Red, gold, white, silver, black, and color separation needs to take the stickers positions and sizing into account (and the body is a reproduction body, so sizing maybe also an issue)...
Yeah, it is months that i'm procrastinating on this one

Best of luck

[silvertriple]

It took the whole afternoon...

I set everything in the table so I have reference points...


I first used the copier to laid some key stickers on the side to understand where to put the lines. The other body on the table is an original one, and it is slightly bigger, so better to have a proper reference... I used this to set my lines masks...


Once the whole set of masks was ready it was time to start.
Red, first, then white, then silver then white to back it, then gold and white to back it, and finally black...





And it was time to remove the film...


Then another task : cut the stickers...


I started to put the main ones for which there was clear inidcations on the manual...


Once that was done, I had to ftech the box to get the sponsors right... And noticed that the boxart is unclear : there is difference between the main part of the box and the sides of the box. I finally used mostly the side, as it was clearer...



There is still a few details to deal withn but this will be done later on... It took me a bit more than 6 hours... And I still have at least another one if not 2 Coors bodies to deal with (but this will be later)... At least I should be able to pull soon a picture with the 13 Marui cars...

[silvertriple]

Work in progres...


I'm trying to get a 3 colors helmet for Bill (white, gold, red), but it maybe totally overill considering that the driver is on the left side, and there is a net on the left windows, and that from the front, we will only see the red on top of the black visor, but I really love details, and Bill is really detailed...
the yellow helmet will be for the Shogun driver, while the red will likely take place in the Hunter prototype...

[Coelacanth]

That Coors T-Bird body looks fantastic. I'm not a fan of the Shogun box-art though. The silver and gold just don't seem to go well together.

[silvertriple]

That Coors T-Bird body looks fantastic. I'm not a fan of the Shogun box-art though. The silver and gold just don't seem to go well together.

Well, to be honest, black and gold might be enough and better, actually, and very JPS inspired (that's the plan if I succeed to save the original body)

Today is bank holiday here, and the start of a long bridged double week-end
So many things to do during this period and before the first vintage events of the year...
I launched a Glanzer bath in a big box for a few bodies I expect to save. The box is big, and once this bath is over, I''ll reuse the liquid for the two next bath that goes after this one, hopefully with successfull results...


I also worked a bit this morning on Bill, and there is some progress... They made a wonderfull work detailling his face...

[1911Colt]

There is still a few details to deal withn but this will be done later on... It took me a bit more than 6 hours... And I still have at least another one if not 2 Coors bodies to deal with (but this will be later)... At least I should be able to pull soon a picture with the 13 Marui cars...

Congratulations on a job well done. Amazing work! The Coors T-brid is one of my all time favorite 1:1 racecars.

[Coelacanth]

That Coors T-Bird body looks fantastic. I'm not a fan of the Shogun box-art though. The silver and gold just don't seem to go well together.

Well, to be honest, black and gold might be enough and better, actually, and very JPS inspired (that's the plan if I succeed to save the original body)

The Shogun indeed does look sharp in JPS colors.

[Dadio]

I think I'm more impressed with the painting of the drivers head ! as an old mechanic my hands shake like mad from a life of using air tools , trying to do detailed tiny painting is ... well I have a daughter who's very good at it now and I'm forever 3d printing stuff for her so she does the tiny bits for me now .

[Coelacanth]

Agreed, that driver head looks about as realistic as you could get!

[silvertriple]

Thanks guys!

You know, when I was 14, I did not succeed to do this properly... Then way later, I found a trick... Generally, I would use masking tape for the external side of the helmet. Generally I mask the face, and use spray paint to do this. Here it is more complex, because of the mask Bill have : there was no way to put use masking tape on this. I used a trick : I cut a fin part of semi rigid transparent to correspond to the mask visor, and forced it inside. I masked the nose and face using tape. Bill's mask was painted with spray paint.

Then for the rest : face color is applied with a 000 pencil (slightly used, as it is more difficult with a new one), and eyes and pupils and other details are added using a tooth pick...


Now saying this, Bill is way more complicated than many other driver figures, espcially because of the mask... And I believe I need to cut another visor to put in the mask at the end, because I feel it will be needed (totaly useless, so it's a must )

[silvertriple]

Bill has now eyes


On the cleaning bath, there was tremendeous progress...
after two hours one of the Hunter body was cleaned.

After two additional hours the Alpine Rallye Sports bodyshell was clean as well... (There is chance I can get it reproduced by the same friend who did the Hirobo Hilux bodyshell repro)

The two other bodies are still in the bath (24 hours) : Shogun body still have some areas uncleaned (but it should be fine ine a few hours). The second Hunter body still have some gold resisting if it doesn't change by 2 hours, I'll remove them from the bath and will use some paint killer for what is left...

In the meantime, I designed and print a part to gather the paint flakes within the bath the most efficiently possible... I've printed it in PETG and will share the file on markeworld later today...


The idea is to keep the bath as clean as possible to work on the next bodyshells (I have 2 Coors and at least a big bear bodyshell to deal with after this)...

[silvertriple]

Driver figures are complete...


I rubbed the last bits of black on the Shogun bodyshell with a tooth pick and it's now perfect... I did not rinse the bodies with water, just used a towel to dry them, and the white shadow do not appear... This shogun body will be painted pure black, original stickers will stay, and I may complete them later on (if the one I get from MCI-Racing are with the same tone)...



There is still some gold on the Hunter body, but I'll try to remove it using some paint killer. If not, let's say it will get the right to stay there, and the body is likely to finish White/gold instead of White/Yellow... I put one of the Coors body in the bath as it is going to be next.