In-progress Hasegawa 99 Ford Focus

Ciaran_Dub

Hi,

Well I finally get around to doing this. Two apologies very quickly, firstly I said in the other thread I was building a Corrolla that in fact was a complete lie its a Ford Focus (no idea why I had a Corrolla in mind) and secondly sorry for the poor quality pics I was in a rush last night taking them before the Liverpool match started.

Anyway here we go, this is an idea of what I am building



Pretty standard really, one nice thing about Hasegawa kits is they have some photo-etched parts, for example the seat belts which just add a little bit of realism to the model.

I wont go over the boring stuff, like making sure all parts are in the box and reading the instructions first that is all self explanatory. The first thing I get to working on is the body, this takes the most time and in between drying times the chasis and other parts can be painted and assembled.

The first step is preparing the body because of the mold release agents it is very important the body gets a good wet sanding starting with around 600 grit then upto 2000 grit paper. Once this is done a good wash in soapy water and then I leave it in a closed plastic container and I generally leave it in the hot press so the body can dry. This is left for at least 24 hours making sure the model is completely dry before the priming starts.

In this pic I have laid down two coats of grey primer, this makes it much easier to see any imperfections. I have noticed one already that needs repairing. I will then put on one more coat of grey and then either one or two coats of white primer. I also always sand lightly between coats, making sure the next layer has a smooth surface.



A lesson I learnt from the past is if there are parts to be assembled on the body that will be the same colour as the body assemble them now. In this case it was the roof scoop and front bumper. This model will be in white so it wont be too much of a problem but for other colours especially metallics you need to make sure that the parts get an equal amount of paint on them and that is difficult to do when being paint sepreately.

So while that is drying this is the prgress on the chassis. Now I am going to cheat here a little the majority of the chasis is going to be white and considering the plastic is white I have decided not to paint the chasis, the underside wont be seen (but I will still paint any parts underneath) and the interior you wont see too clearly anyway. So far the door panels, dash and floor pans are done. These were are airbrushed in a mixture of different blacks. The dash board came out well with all the dials and knobs painted with a toothpick. Also the fire extinguisher came out well (even though it was molded to the floor pan) I added some baremetal foil so it would stand out a little more.



So far that is it, this weekend the rest of the priming will be done, aswell as the seats and that will basically be the interior done as there are a couple of other bits already painted.

As a matter of interest if I am maybe writing to much and not showing enough pics let me know and I will cut back on the detail, This is the first time I have written a build diary but I have to admit it is keeping me focused (no pun intended) and motivated.

Ciaran

coolwings

Nice ...

Keep the pics coming , Ciaran.

Ciaran_Dub

Will do Coolwings, next update should be over the weekend at some stage and hopefully I will have better quality pics.