I have been doing some hiking

The weather started to cool down. I have been going to hiking every weekend.

Hiking San Marcos CA on Sept. 7 Labor Day

The hike took 45 mins up and 30 mins down. It was a good work-out.

a bit more progress on engine

Engine

I have not been doing much modeling. Here is a picture of the current state of the engine assembly.

Decaling continues

I actually find decaling one of the most enjoyable parts of scale car modeling.

shocks

Masking and painting usually takes up a majority of the time I spend in building up a model car.

Table Tennis

I have been playing competitive table tennis for many years. I participated in the California State Games and won a Silver medal in the O30 event.

roll cage

I temporarily put the interior and roll cage together to see where I'll be fixing the seat belts. The roll cage does not have the usual horizontal bar behind the seats in modern day WRC cars to roll the seat belts around with a buckle.

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Decaling

Decals bring race cars to life with their colorful livery. I usually slow down my pace a lot when it comes to decaling, resulting in multiple sessions of decaling. This is because there is no room for errors and a single shot deal in decaling. I use heated up cotton swabs to facilitate decaling. I do use decal set solution, but I try to avoid using decal soft solution as much as possible because it has a high risk of ruining the decals due to its strong softening characteristic. When I do use decal soft solution, I use it sparingly at the difficult places as a last resort.

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Air Filter

The circle template was put to good use in airbrushing the Testors Metalizer Brass for the air filter. A thinned black wash enhances the realism and depth of the filter.

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Painted body

I first used Rust-Oleun automotive primer (light gray) to check for flaws. I then used Dupli-color white primer before urethane white paint. I sprayed Mr. Super Gloss (UV Cut) to prepare the body for decaling.

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brakes

I found circle templates to be quite useful in masking, so I am always on the look-out for such templates in stationery department or daily packaging materials.

Tamiya clear red has a tint of orange to it, unlike Gunze which I like more.

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Radiator Hose

This is the radiator hose that transports coolant between the radiator and the engine block. Its size is pretty big, giving a hint about how hot the turbo engine can get and requires much cooling. As a common technique, I used strips of Bare-Metal foil to reppresent the hose clamps.

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engine block

I used liquid cement to glue the engine block together before priming. I used Testors metalizer aluminum, followed by misting Tamiya acrylic clear blue, red, and smoke. Finally a thin flat black acrylic wash was applied. The rivets holes are for separate rivtes. The spark plugs holes are open for wires.

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Flocked seats

This time I tried using imitation snow as flocking for the seats. After priming, I used strong white glue to prepare for the flocking. Afterwards, I airbrushed the blue color. The back of the seat was airbrushed and masked off before the white glue process.

Body preparation

As with a real car, good body preparation is essential to a good paint job. The molded in rivets and quick releases on the hood are sanded away for future replacement with photoetched parts. The antenna base on the roof is drilled through for future replacement with machine turned parts. Getting rid of the mold lines is a must. Before priming, I like to scrub the whole body with coarse sending pads that can be found easily in hardware stores.

Tamiya Peugeot 205

I picked up this kit from a local hobby store recently and couldn't wait to get started. This kit was actually manufactured in 1985. The white decals have yellowed. But the sunlight treatment seemed to improve the white quite a bit.