Truck Norris 2237 Posted August 17, 2019 After completing the 58059 Porsche 959 I fancied doing its sister car the Celica Gr.B. I'd hoped that someone might ask me to do one for them and luckily I didn't have to wait long before John who I did the Taisan 911 for approached me. As with the 959, this will be an exact box art build - the only deviation being using modern PS and TS sprays rather than the old PC pots and brush/airbrush acrylics. As John only needed a body he'd been eyeing up one on eBay, which was a bit steep. I found this one on eBay UK which was cheaper and already in the UK so no need to be sent over by John from the US. It's missing the nuts and bolts but they can be obtained. The build is very similar to the 959 - a blow moulded body, styrene interior and plastic parts, so the methods I used for the 959 will be used here too. First step was to trim the interior and plastic parts. I cut the parts off their trees with Tamiya side cutters for plastic, then sanded the nubs with 240, 400, 600, 1000 then 1500. For the cockpit tray I rounded off the corners too. I then washed the parts and left to dry: The helmets will be left for now until I have the nuts that fit inside them. I primed the other parts with Tamiya Fine White Primer, then painted the steering wheel TS-8 Matt Black and the door mirror TS-29 Semi Gloss Black. The manual states XF-1 Flat Black and X-18 Semi Gloss Black but I always use sprays whenever possible. The wing was then painted TS-26 Pure White: A week later I masked the wing for the black grilles, and the interior for the black areas. It's not super clear from the photo but the white area between the Tamiya tape and the blue 3M tape is white paper. I try to minimise sticking tape over painted services, even though it's almost always absolutely fine: Much like the 959, part of the light buckets needs to be painted flat black, whilst the area behind the lens remains chrome. To get perfect masks for this I scanned the clear light lens then traced it and cut a mask: As with the 959, the blow moulding of the body gives a very defined line under the bumpers and side skirts which makes cutting it out quite a simple job compared to standard vacuum formed bodies. I never usually score and snap, but it works perfectly for these. As the lexan is very thick at the base relief cuts were needed every 10mm or so: After cutting the body out, I made the additional required holes specified. 2mm in the grille and then 4mm and 6mm for the spotlights. Body ready: 8 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Truck Norris 2237 Posted August 18, 2019 Interior painted TS-8 Matt Black. I'll neaten this up with a brush when the gloves and co-driver hands are painted: Black section of the wing painted TS-29 Semi Gloss Black: Masking for the light buckets worked perfectly: 7 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tizer 606 Posted August 20, 2019 Thanks for posting the progress here! I really enjoy following your builds It's a better overview here than on Instagram Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kamika007z 43 Posted August 21, 2019 This is great! Thank you for sharing this with us!! A quick tip and heads up about these Celica Gr B bodies: the area between (pictured below) the headlight and fog lights are very sensitive and *can* bend and/or break/crack when trying to insert the fog lights in. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Truck Norris 2237 Posted September 15, 2019 Body masked for the rear black section. This is the only black part of the body that's painted on the inside: As there's no overspray film I'm using cling film on the outside of the body. Helmets prep'd for paint - I glue them together as well as using the specified screws, then sand down the join: Black back panel painted. I've also brush painted the lights using decanted PS red and orange, and the filler cap in decanted PS silver. The black trims around the lights and fuel cap are painted on the outside so these don't need to be done too precisely. You can see I've gone outside the lines in places: Front indicators done the same way: Windows and headlights masked. Again, these don't need to be spot on as the transition between the white paint and clear window is covered by the externally painted black window rubbers: You can see I've also painted the specified PS red around the side vents. This is just to bridge the gap between the black sticker and the red surrounding sticker. The edge of the vents are painted black. For the headlights I made exact shaped masks with the rounded corner: Cling film and tape to protect the outside before painting the white: The arches are tricky to tape up. I cut the tape at approx 5mm intervals to allow it to curve: 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Superluminal 3750 Posted September 15, 2019 Epic ninja masking skills again! I dont know how you do it - my concentration (and temper) goes after about 20 seconds when my carefully cut masking tape is stuck to my fingers, knife, sofa and anything except the body shell and then lost all its tack and is covered in fluff. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kamika007z 43 Posted September 16, 2019 Awesome work!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lowspot 299 Posted September 16, 2019 Absolute outstanding skills ! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WillyChang 1814 Posted September 16, 2019 Better than any TEd Talk! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
njmlondon 570 Posted September 16, 2019 14 hours ago, Superluminal said: Epic ninja masking skills again! I dont know how you do it - my concentration (and temper) goes after about 20 seconds when my carefully cut masking tape is stuck to my fingers, knife, sofa and anything except the body shell and then lost all its tack and is covered in fluff. Ninja masking skills... so true! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Truck Norris 2237 Posted September 20, 2019 Thanks Guys! White painted: I'd normally back with silver and then black or white again but I've just done white for now - this is for a few reasons: There's lots of recesses that the spray can't get fully into so I want to brush in a bit more paint before backing it. I want to apply the red stripes and be sure I've not gone too far with the red around the vents. If I need to clean it up I can do so before there's too much paint to remove. I though it wise to do the window frames then make sure there's no white visible. It'll be much easier to clean it off before there are layers of silver and black to remove too. The headlights need a sharp masked edge so I'll remove and remask slightly larger so the paint edges are stepped. It's harder to get a clean edge with thicker paint layers. I'll leave the window masks on until the backing colours are done. Started the masking for the outside. As this is a little tedious I'm doing it in stages. First up, the grille, front indicators, front bumper vents, fuel cap, door handles and c-pillar vents: I made little bits of notched masking tape for the vertical parts of the grille. The indicator masks were made by drawing the shape of them and then cutting the inner and outer masks with the cutting machine: Fuel cap masked with a machine cut circle, tape and white tack: Before peeling the masking off: Pretty good result! Just needs some slight touch ups. The next day I masked the window frames using Tamiya's excellent "Masking Tape For Curves" in 5mm and 3mm. Very pleased with the result: Tip: If you remove the masking as soon as you've let the last layer of paint dry for 10 mins or so, then it's possible to remove small bleeds by rubbing it away with a cocktail stick or toothpick. This works a lot better than trying to clean it up with a cotton bud/Q-tip with paint remover. You can see in the top right of the rear window here where the masking was slightly off. This bit rubbed off easily: 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kamika007z 43 Posted September 20, 2019 Incredible work! Question: Should the front grille "T" portion be in white or the whole grille should be in black? In Tamiya's original video, it's shown to be in white: 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Truck Norris 2237 Posted September 20, 2019 9 hours ago, Kamika007z said: Incredible work! Question: Should the front grille "T" portion be in white or the whole grille should be in black? In Tamiya's original video, it's shown to be in white: Thank you! Good question - one of the promo models Tamiya built for the catalogue shots and video has the grille painted up wrong. I've seen quite a few people copy this too. It also has red harness pads where they should be yellow. The manual specifies all black for the grille and another Tamiya promo car has the black grille, as does the box art that appears on the rear cover of the 1989 RC Guide Book. The real car is all black too. Clockwise bellow, 1989 Guide Book rear cover, 1989 Guide Book page 37, 1988 catalogue page 18, Real car in period. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kamika007z 43 Posted September 21, 2019 As always thank you for the explanation! Makes perfect sense. Can't wait for the next update. I'm willing to bet that since the decals are a bit old, it's going to need the aid of a heat gun, especially with the hood decals and rear red roof ones. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Truck Norris 2237 Posted September 22, 2019 Next lot of masking - the vent trims. These were pretty tricky. I tried blu-tack, masking tape for curves but in the end just regular tape and machine cut circles and curves worked best: I didn't take a shot of how these looked before I started on masking the rear light trims the next day. This was the hardest part yet, the trims are recessed slightly and curved making it hard to stick the tape without it lifting: At the same time I masked the rest of the body to spray the backing silver and black inside. You can see there's an extra layer of cling film over the back lights and tape tabs that I'll remove after spraying the backing colours, leaving the rest of the body masked to do the light trims. This included slightly larger headlight masks so as to preserve the sharp edge of the white: I sprayed the inside PS silver then PS black for a totally opaque finish: Then I removed the film over the lights and sprayed the trims. This worked very well. Just needed a little clean up with a cocktail stick and some slight touch up with a brush. Suddenly the rough looking outside-the-lines lights are pretty smart: 23 hours ago, Kamika007z said: I willing to bet that since the decals are a bit old, it's going to need the aid of a heat gun, especially with the hood decals and rear red roof ones. If they're anything like the 959 ones then they'll be entirely unresponsive to heat! I'll see how I go, but it was a bit annoying doing the 959 and getting the paint so right then the unavoidable sticker wrinkles It's a much less curvy body this one so hopefully will behave 7 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mwcam 0 Posted September 28, 2019 Hi, I am really impressed by your quality of work having found this site. Keep up the outstanding work and look forward to the updates on this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MockTurtle 239 Posted September 28, 2019 yup ...consistently impressive. thanks for sharing - i've learned a lot reading your posts. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Truck Norris 2237 Posted October 13, 2019 Stickers done. As expected these are the most frustrating part of these vintage builds - the glue isn't great so a few corners needed a tiny bit of superglue to stay down - specifically the red number 3 and 4 stickers that end just at the top of the doors below the door windows. Like the 959 they don't shrink with heat, and they also come up a little short in places. Cockpit details brush painted and the black tidied up. The pic was taken in my new spray booth with LED lighting so it's a bit clearer and less shadowy than the other pics taken with the bits on carpet. Helmets masked for the black trim. I'm using a combination of Masking Tape for Curves and regular Tamiya tape, the faces are masked with white tack, it doesn't need to be that accurate as the faces will be brush painted flesh, so it's just to cover the eyes really (which will remain gloss white): 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lowspot 299 Posted October 13, 2019 I think I ve never seen a better one than yours. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Truck Norris 2237 Posted October 16, 2019 Helmet trims painted. Rather than TS cans I used the manual specified XF-1 as I now have an airbrush: The faces are brush painted and the eyes done with a cocktail stick. As with seemingly every Tamiya face moulding, this method annoyingly gives one perfectly round pupil and one not so round. I fitted the steering wheel and dashboard sticker so the cockpit is now finished: One final bit of painting then it's on to assembly. The mirror needs the reflective surface painted silver, not the whole surface though, there's a border. I cut some circular masks for this. First up is one the same diameter as the mirror to ensure it's central: Then a couple of larger ones to guard against overspray, plus tape over the back: Previously I would have had to use the TS equivalent or close match to the manual specified X-11 Chrome Silver, and waist a ton of paint spraying such a small area. Not any more though - airbrushed X-11: 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MockTurtle 239 Posted October 16, 2019 hey you've got an airbrush now... you should give alclad metallic colours a try! ...i think you'll like it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Truck Norris 2237 Posted October 17, 2019 It's done! Unlike the later cars where the light buckets are stuck on with tape, and the wings with rubber o-rings and body clips, final assembly for this involves lots of small nuts and screws. As the body set came without them, I made a list and located the same hardware. Buying bag D for the Sand Scorcher provided the majority of them, with just the nuts and screws for the driver heads needed additionally. As I didn't have a chassis to use for the photos, I replicated the kind of shot seen in the Tamiya Guide Books, with the finished body laid out with a selection of different paint types, markers and brushes: I like the inside to be as neat as the outside: More pics in my showroom: https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=134343&id=43050 20 hours ago, MockTurtle said: hey you've got an airbrush now... you should give alclad metallic colours a try! ...i think you'll like it. Yep, already on my shopping list! 7 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
didcos 37 Posted October 17, 2019 Thanks for sharing. I really admire your masking skills. I hand painted all the window trim and details on mine, which looks quite good. But your work is clearly another level! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fuijo 880 Posted October 17, 2019 An expertly built Tamiya body shell is a beautiful thing indeed. Stunning! I love the Guide Book style photo. You should do more, and then put together a Guide Book. I'd buy one. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tony Trans Am 0 Posted February 5, 2020 Just resurrected my Celica, it wears its old body shell but I'd like to restore it and I need one of these! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites