Minardi M193 building diary is now published on Modelersite.com

I took my just-finished Minardi M193 to IPMS Kickoff Classics model contest yesterday at Santa Clara. The car is really lucky to win several awards, including Best of Show award. I really appreciate judges paid attention to my work and likes my work eventhough the car is only a curbside conversion.




There are a lot of entries this year than last and the show is great! For this year award, I think I am just plain lucky... because I spot a stunning, super detailed modern civilian vehicle on the show. It is Tamiya Ferrari 360 Modena built by Mark Rawling. You can trace this link in AF.com to see how he built this super Ferrari.. I too think Mark's work should have won him the Best Auto and even Best of Show award yesterday. This is the best modern civilian vehicle model I have seen in the past 10+ years. Just a bad luck for Mark yesterday.

Mark, do bring your Ferrari to Tamiya/Con next year. I think your work will bring you a trip to Japan.

Finally finally finally... my Minardi M193 is completed. After more than 12 months of on and off building, it is finally done. Result is not perfect, but I am happy with it. Check out the images and enjoys. The full building diary will be posted on Modelersite.com soon.




View the full gallery here --> Minardi M193 Gallery

Finally made some progress on Minardi M193 cockpit. I used Modelers D923 CF decal to cover entire surrounding and coated with semi-gloss coat. Dash was covered with SMS CF decal. Seat was sprayed with SMS texture spray paint and then covered with flat black. Result looks quite pleasing. Seat belt was done with Modelers 1/20 seat belt set. Very minor wiring (only 1 wire ). Next part will be brakes, uprights, suspension, transmission and undertray... Enjoys..

Some progress on the Minardi. All CF decal are applied on front and rear wing. Clearcoating and polishing is done on front wing. This time I used Tamiya polishing compound and modeling fax after micro-mesh polishing. Result is pretty good. Rear wing is more difficult to polish because I didn't separate the wing end plate from lower wing element. big mistake.. so I will clear coat it again and only polish the outer end plate surface. The mirros are CF-ed as well. At the time I am writing this blog, rear wing and mirrors are just clearcoated and being baked in the dehydrator.

I bought a Gunze leveling thinner as suggested by Master Johnson and it works much much better than regular Gunze lacquar thinner.