Speedy's 2-for-1 TT01E R34 GTR and MAN TGS Build Thread

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

You win!  The coupler for the MAN TGS is actually a black molded part, and I don't have any separate rear wheel arches.

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

So I did a bunch of painting today; the cab, back wall, and front lower fascia are all done.  As for the main base, it's not finished yet but one of the main goals is accomplished.  I have to give a big "thank you" to @OCD for introducing me to the poster putty technique for masking!  The base has an exposed engine, turbo, intercooler, exhaust, transmission, fuel cell, etc.  I wanted to paint those anodized aluminum silver and do a lot of detailing, but masking all those features with regular tape would be very difficult.  In OCD's Beetle build, he used poster putty to mask the front fender turn signals.  The way the putty can fill and follow compound curves and 3D paths is a huge timesaver compared to meticulous taping that would likely leak anyhow.

Here you can see the inside of the shell painted with anodized aluminum silver; the putty is pressed into place, then I surround the putty with tape, and then I surround the shell with cling wrap from the kitchen:

It's easier to see the putty and the outline of the engine parts from the top of the shell:

This is the first time I tried this technique, and I'm 100% sold. For any future shells with lots of molded-in features I now have a way to detail these relying less on decals.

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

Better picture of the results:

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

A teaser of things to come...

[Kevin_Mc 411]

I really like the look of this, and Jason’s BuggyRa Fat Fox, i think they’d look great together and the shells look line fun to build up. 

I’m temped by a kit, the only thing that puts me off is the lack of dual rear wheels like on a 1:1 racer

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

Not a great day today; I tried to cram too many tasks into the available daylight and temperature window which resulted in a color mismatch between the base and the cab of the truck.  I'll eventually show pictures of the whole shell assembled together, but in my mind this shell is now relegated to a development mule for some of the detail parts and decals I wanted to design.  As the outside temperatures are definitely dropping to typical winter values, hopefully I can get some value out of the current shell and follow up with a really nice one in a few months.

[Kevin_Mc 411]

That’s a pity Paul, i’m sure to many on here (myself included) it’ll look perfectly fone but if you’re not happy with it that’s all that counts. 

Still looking forward to seeing it all assembled 

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

I was a little bummed a few days ago but here are some pictures of the kit shell at the moment.  Most of the disappointment from Tuesday has worn off; with my 312T3 parts heading to Grastens tomorrow I plan to turn attention back to this model.

First up is the typical front quarter shot.  Direct sunlight and the limits of the camera sensor cause the colors to saturate, so you won't necessarily see the problem from this angle.  You have to use your imagination a little bit and recognize the black on the front of the shell will extend farther with three grills and two corner air inlets.  Looking at the front of the shell, the visible red on the lower fascia will complement the red across the top of the windshield.  Side steps, headlights, mirrors, wipers, upper sun shade with mounted Michelin Bibendums, lower fog/driving lights, etc. are all thoughts bouncing around my head at the moment.  If you imagine all that, then imagine the shell color changing to PS-61 Orange Metallic as well to work with the Yeah Racing chassis parts better.

Rear quarter view.  I like the continuity between the roof and back cab wall; they'll stay black going forward.  Some sort of 1/10 "Oktoberfest" or Munich skyline framed painting needs to go on the back wall and have gallery lighting coming from the top of the cab.  Tamiya's instructions for box art include painting most of the base black on the inside and then spraying PS-55 Flat Clear on the outside; I didn't like that because I want the engine details to be glossy, and I want the chassis rails to be body color as well.  The idea here is to paint the engine details first, paint the rest of the base body color, and use a vinyl cutter to make flat black panels to fill in the spaces between the frame rails, engine parts, and side body panels.  The two rear LED holes will be repurposed for back-up lights, and back faces of the rear wheel arches will get some running/brake lights.  The side panels could use some lighting as well.

The picture I showed was the better of the two sides, and it had the benefit of direct sunlight.  This side has the more obvious painting errors, and the indirect lighting doesn't saturate the camera to the same extent.  At first I thought the side steps would hide the issue with the lower fascia, but when I saw the main cab next to the base and realized it was game over for getting a perfect outcome.  I have to fully admit to everyone I did multiple things wrong, rushed the work, and paid the price for it.  Oh well.  I'll get another shell in the spring.

On the plus side, I'm 100% happy with the putty masking technique as mentioned earlier.  Imagine the flat black vinyl panels in between the chassis rails, between the engine parts, in front of the intercooler, and between the side panel supports.  PS-61 Metallic Orange, PS-5 Black, PS-48 Anodized Aluminum Silver, and vinyl will be the next color scheme.  The vision is there; execution will take time.

[Jason1145 3986]

Speedy you're a perfectionist a bit like me... no... wait..... I'm not lol, it looks awesome to my eyes but as Kevin said, it's only you that needs to love it!

The anodised aluminium parts came out almost cold looking to the touch, so life like, thanks as this reminds me to go hunt down my remaining half can of anodised aluminium left over from the roof of my TB03 Calsonic GTR to use here on my BuggyRa... I'm only masking off 3 bits on my truck bed though as I'm too lazy

FWIW you can always avoid colour mis matching by going two tone, sometimes it just can't work though due to decal colours etc... I'm pushing ahead with two tone on my BuggyRa, black lower chassis base and a yellow top cab... with a yellow back wall I guess... maybe black would flow well seeing yours here... yeah it's too many ideas again gulp!

Great MAN truck though... have you the energy to start the BuggyRa now?

[Kevin_Mc 411]

Wow! That engine, turbo, intercooler, pipework and gearbox all look great. That’s a great-looking colour scheme, really well thought out and works really well. It’s a pity about the colour but if you can salvage the shell for use as a runner or test bed for other techniques then it’s not a total loss. 

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

1 hour ago, Jason1145 said:

Great MAN truck though... have you the energy to start the BuggyRa now?

Nope, the Buggyra will stay in the stash for a later build date.  I "still owe you a 10-second car" meaning I'm way behind on contributing some speed runs to your ongoing thread!

[Jason1145 3986]

4 hours ago, speedy_w_beans said:

Nope, the Buggyra will stay in the stash for a later build date.  I "still owe you a 10-second car" meaning I'm way behind on contributing some speed runs to your ongoing thread!

Dude, I almost had you!

Nurburgring, never been.

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

Finished the wheels and tires today.  For the wheels, I used a black paint pen to color the center axle hubs.  I had also ordered some black serrated nuts to match the paint.

Goodyear is a partner of the FIA's Euro truck racing series, so it made sense to use their logo on the tires.  I grabbed the corporate ID image from their web site, used the free program Inkscape to convert it into a vector drawing following the radius of the tire, and then used a vinyl cutter/plotter and its software to scribe the decals.

[Jason1145 3986]

I going to do exactly the same thing to my Fat Fox tyres.... as in.... look for some tyre decals I have somewhere and use those and hope they look as good.

How are you going to stick the decals to the tyre wall?

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

The vinyl has adhesive on it already, so in the photo they're attached.

The process goes like this:

• The design is created in a software package and the result is a SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) file that is a description of lines and curves you want cut into a material.  Creating the design can be fairly automatic if you have a high-contrast photo image with maybe some touch-up of the path points.  Otherwise tracing the image may be required.
• That SVG file is loaded into the cutter/plotter software, where the lines and curves are converted into machine instructions that cause the machine to lift/lower the knife, move the carriage or material around, etc.
• The material is self-adhesive sheet vinyl; once the pattern is cut then the unwanted vinyl is removed by picking or peeling it up.  In this case I had to pick out the centers of the Os, D, A, and R in Goodyear, then peel up the surrounding vinyl.
• With only the logo left on the backing paper, then some clear transfer tape is laid over the vinyl and peeled up.  The bond between the transfer tape and the vinyl is stronger than the bond between the vinyl and the backing paper, so it lifts and keeps the position of the the characters.
• Finally, the transfer tape and decal are positioned and pressed into the sidewall of the tire.  The bond between the vinyl and the sidewall is now greater than the bond between the vinyl and the transfer tape, so the decal remains on the tire as the transfer tape is removed.

What I will try next is taking a photo of the body base and see if I can get the software to (mostly) automatically generate the flat black vinyl panels needed to highlight the chassis frame rails, engine parts, etc.

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

Worked on blacking out the lower deck today.

I started by taking a picture of the body outside; the resulting image is about 5000 x 3500 pixels and each pixel represents about 0.07 mm of physical resolution.  After loading the picture in Inkscape, it was just a matter of tracing to establish the shapes.

Delete the original image, fill the shapes, and save the file, and use the cutter to outline the shapes in some matte black vinyl.

Here's the result.  It's pretty close to spraying the inside of the shell with PS-5 Black and then spraying the outside of the shell with PS-55 Flat Clear, but I get the benefit of shiny engine parts and body-color frame rails / side panel mounts.  I think it'll look more striking in PS-61 Metallic Orange later.

One thing I noticed in several 1:1 racing truck photos is the lower fascia is completely cut out for air flow.  So I removed the top grill in the cab and the middle grill in the lower fascia.  Conclusion:  Leave the top grill surface in place on the next cab, but removing the lower fascia center grill adds some depth to the look.

[Kevin_Mc 411]

That looks brilliant!!

[Scipunk 383]

Following this as i love your OCD...lol

Also i work at a vinyl shop so i can appreciate the use

[ACCEL 2014]

i liked the black outlines before you installed the vinyl, but i'm giving the vinyl a try, it's metallic black (left over from my work trucks cracked side-view mirror )

i did the YR orange also but used different bearings and shocks. these builds are so much different than any other just because of all the exposed feature these carry

i really like your color scheme came out so tough looking.

interesting note on the bearings with the logo, mine are still bagged up, i'll have to check them.

so many bearing company's, Fast Eddy supposedly provides bearings for a lot of others to sell with their kits.

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

5 hours ago, ACCEL said:

i liked the black outlines before you installed the vinyl, but i'm giving the vinyl a try, it's metallic black (left over from my work trucks cracked side-view mirror )

Thanks; the black outlines actually were tracings done over the photo of the truck in Inkscape.  I didn't actually use a marker or other instrument to make those lines.

I'll be back on this project in a few days.

[ACCEL 2014]

i'll be darn i thought it was a paint pen of sorts, still looked hecka neat.

you must be a wizard in photo shop.

 

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

A little more progress on the MAN TGS to report...

• Made trim for the front and side windows.
• Copied and cut the door handles and front corners in black vinyl.
• Used some ABC Hobby fine line tape on the main cab panel lines.
• Copied the MAN logo and grill trim, and cut it in chrome vinyl instead of using the printed decals.
• Cut out two more openings in the lower fascia so all three are exposed.
• Copied and cut the side vent decals in black vinyl.
• Temporarily taped the lower fascia to the main cab just to test overall assembly.
• Installed the fifth wheel and rear bumper.
• Copied and cut bezels for the rear lights.
• Made a duplicate of the front MAN logo and used it on the rear bumper.

Next steps:

• Mesh material for the front openings
• Wiper blades
• Mirrors
• Steps
• Lighting
• Sun shade
• Side exhaust pipe
• Dull the fifth wheel finish
• Cut body posts
• Detail powertrain
• Detail rear cab wall
• Maybe a few more graphics embellishments

[Kevin_Mc 411]

That looks so good! On my screen you can’t see a colour difference at all, the details seem to break it up enough. 

[ACCEL 2014]

Superbly done,

does your truck have a piece for the rear of the cab?

MAN that looks nice....................

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

On 2/7/2019 at 2:52 AM, ACCEL said:

does your truck have a piece for the rear of the cab?

Yep, I just installed it this time...

Small updates:

• Made some wiper blades
• Used the kit mirrors
• Made and installed some mesh in the grills
• Cut the body posts
• Dulled the fifth wheel

More soon...