Aoshima Murcielago SV ***FINISHED***

Time to pimp them rides!
User avatar
mattbacon
Too Cheerful To Be A JMN
Posts: 2308
Joined: April 11th, 2011, 1:54 pm

Aoshima Murcielago SV ***FINISHED***

Post by mattbacon »

....well, this one's finally got back to the bench, after I was distracted by finishing the GTA, the XJ220, moving house etc etc...

Image

NIcely detailed parts and good engineering make this a pleasure to build. The engine bay is lined in cigarette foil. I'm not going to town on this one like the XJ220, but I'll busy it up a little. No point in wiring the plugs, though -- they are completely invisible under the inlet manifold. One thing to note, though, if you do decide to wire it, is that the wires come out at 90 degrees to the "obvious" direction...

Image
Image
Image

Not many parts in this assembly, but it looks nicely complex. The engine is the chromed kit part, matt varnished and then treated to some Citadel wash. My owner has swapped his shocks for some aftermarket ones in purple and yellow...

Image

The body in Giallo Orion. You can see the risks of painting parts separately here: the doors and air scoops are a very lightly different yellow from the body, thanks to different amounts of pearl. It was a lesson learned, hence painting all the XK220 body colour parts as physically close together as possible...

bestest,
M.
User avatar
mattbacon
Too Cheerful To Be A JMN
Posts: 2308
Joined: April 11th, 2011, 1:54 pm

Re: Aoshima Murcielago SV

Post by mattbacon »

Slow and but steady progress...

Image
Image
Image

A real symphony of black on black, hence the fact I've 'borrowed" the orange e-gear and paddles from a non-SV Murcielago special edition to brighten things up a bit... A lot of the cockpit is black or grey Alcantara, so I've tried to mix up the textures somewhat.

Image
Image

The engine out of the box. I'll busy it up a bit, but you really can't see the plug wiring under the intake manifold/airbox...

Image
Image

...and I couldn't resist a little test to see how it all goes together...

bestest,
M.
User avatar
JamesPerrin
Looks like his avatar
Posts: 13619
Joined: April 5th, 2011, 8:09 pm
Location: W. Yorkshire
Contact:

Re: Aoshima Murcielago SV

Post by JamesPerrin »

The stitching is a nice touch.
Classic British Kits SIG Leader Better to fettle than to fill
(2024 A:B 5:1) (2023 13:8:7) (2022 21:11) (2021 15:8) (2020 8:4:4)
User avatar
general rocket
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 2775
Joined: May 1st, 2011, 4:42 pm
Location: Telford

Re: Aoshima Murcielago SV

Post by general rocket »

Coming along nicely.
I wish, that I knew what was doing!
User avatar
Clashcityrocker
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 10781
Joined: May 1st, 2011, 12:31 am
Location: Adelaide. South Australia

Re: Aoshima Murcielago SV

Post by Clashcityrocker »

JamesPerrin wrote:The stitching is a nice touch.
Yes, very good.

Nigel
User avatar
mattbacon
Too Cheerful To Be A JMN
Posts: 2308
Joined: April 11th, 2011, 1:54 pm

Re: Aoshima Murcielago SV

Post by mattbacon »

Thanks, chaps!

The engineering and fit of this kit continues to impress.

Image

The red and orange transparencies are provided pre-tinted, which removes one irritating task. I scraped the plating off the top edges of the one-piece light bar, and attached the clear pieces with Formula 560 Canopy glue. The untinted thin pieces at the bottom are handed and need to be checked carefully before applying. They form a < joint with the red parts that fits perfectly.

Image

I wish more car models came with a proper headlining piece -- so much easier to paint. This is grey Alcantara, so it's heavily drybrushed, decalled, matt varnished and detail painted. The rear engine bay liner is a neat single piece moulding that responds well to some detail painting. I'm still not quite sure what holds the engine cover hinges, but it won't be long before I find out!

Image
Image

Couldn't resist trying it for size. Very thoughtful engineering helps here, too -- the chassis simply clips into just flexible enough retaining brackets front and rear, so it's easy to clip together and take apart. Aoshima provide excellent masks for the clear parts -- just beware that the number and letters of clear part and masks for the three octagonal windows in the engine cover are mixed up (it's obvious which mask really fits which window) and more importantly that the windows fit with the clear edges to the rear, not the black borders as shown.

Lots of small bits and pieces still to do, but I really like the way it's coming together.

bestest,
M.
ShaunW
NOT the sheep
Posts: 26118
Joined: November 26th, 2011, 6:11 pm
Location: Pontefract West Yorkshire

Re: Aoshima Murcielago SV

Post by ShaunW »

Excellent work, the different shades in the cockpit together with the stitching looks very effective as indeed does your engine and chassis work. What a great looking car the Murcielago is.
Doing - Tamiya 1/35th Universal Carrier.

Work is the curse of the modelling classes!
IPMS#12300
User avatar
JohnRatzenberger
Why is he so confused ?
Posts: 15708
Joined: April 5th, 2011, 3:42 pm
Location: Living on a sandbar - Nags Head, NC.

Re: Aoshima Murcielago SV

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

Beautiful, as always, Matt. Your paint work reminds me why I stick with old battered pick-up trucks ....
John Ratzenberger :???:
It's my model and I'll do what I want with it.
User avatar
mattbacon
Too Cheerful To Be A JMN
Posts: 2308
Joined: April 11th, 2011, 1:54 pm

Re: Aoshima Murcielago SV

Post by mattbacon »

Thanks, chaps!

Now for a couple of updates in one, since I've been moving along but haven't got around to posting the pics.

Image

This is the insides coming together. It's great to have a separate headliner, which can be painted independently. The real thing is more grey Alcantara so this is Vallejo German Grey, heavily drybrushed, decals added and then matt varnished. The silvering on the decals is a lot less obvious when it's the right way up!

Image

Back end going together. This is where reading the instructions carefully at the start of the build to figure out all the parts that could be joined to the body and painted yellow at the outset. The instructions would have you add the extreme lower rear of the body shell at the same time as the wing. This way you can glue them on unpainted plastic for strength, prime and paint all together, rather than trying to tack them on at the end.

Image

The headlights are very neat, though you do have to wrangle some pretty tiny parts. My "dopping stick" (a cocktail stick with a very small blob of Blu-Tac on the end) came in handy here. It's best to open out the holes for the head light locating pins slightly, and also check the stalks on the back of the lenses for flash that might get in the way.

Image

Another mock up. The small "quarter-light" windows behind the doors are a bit tricky, and the instructions don't help much. If you look inside the car, on the interior roofline of the window, you can see a small tab and slot into which the projection on the top of the window fits. You need to engage these with an "up and under" that leaves the bottom edge of the window INSIDE the car body, and then swing the bottom edge out into position. You can't add the windows purely from outside, as the instructions seem to show...

Image

The engine completed. There are some wires UNDER the Y-piece that comes out of the back and around the exhaust box, but you can't really see them. The only wires that really make a difference are the two pairs coming from the front of the rocker covers and disappearing back under the intake manifold.

Image

I decided to go for raised inlets -- anything that separates the parts a bit will make it harder to spot the slight differences in colour between parts that were sprayed separately.

Image
Image

The mirror close up is here for two reasons. First, it's really not so easy to see how the two parts of the mirror fit together in the instructions, and it's slightly counterintuitive when you are telling yourself that the "legs" need to mount onto a flat surface ahead of the door window. This is how they should look. The second reason is that the seam between the small leg of the mirror housing and the main part is the ONLY place on this entire model where I have used any filler at all. The fit is extraordinary.

The second picture neatly demonstrates that if you put the mirrors on before fixing the doors, a dispenser of Tamiya 6mm masking tape is exactly the right thickness to prop the doors up with the mirrors vertical while your glue sets. These are attached with "Serious Glue", which takes about 3 minutes to "grab" and a couple of hours to set. But it's a lot tougher and more resilient than super glue, so if you knock a mirror it's not going to "ping off" taking some paintwork with it...

Next -- putting it all together.

bestest,
M.
User avatar
mattbacon
Too Cheerful To Be A JMN
Posts: 2308
Joined: April 11th, 2011, 1:54 pm

Re: Aoshima Murcielago SV

Post by mattbacon »

Image

Now the doors are on. The first thing I did was to apply silicone "Plastic Parts Grease" (from the bike store) to the hinge pins on the door arm, and the inside of the socket on the car body. This lubricates the mechanism and, more importantly, stops any kind of glue capillarying inside the hinge and locking it up. After some trying and cursing, I discovered the best way to deal with the door struts is to pop them into the hole in the body, and hold the body shell at angle so you can slide the relevant slot in the door over the hanging strut as you manoeuvre it into position. Once the door was solidly in place, I taped it shut and did the next one. There's a square cover that holds the door hinge in position inside the car. I'd scraped the paint off the plastic around the hinge, and left the cover unpainted, so we had a good plastic to plastic contact all around. I then used plastic cement to stick the cover in place, and left it overnight. I figure that sometimes you can get a lot of leverage on doors like this that might pop a superglued cover off, and I wanted to be sure that once the body was in place it wouldn't need to come off again to retrieve a tiny scrap of plastic. The extension of the strut inside the body makes it harder to put the body over the chassis, and you need to flex it rather more, which I also didn't want to have to do too often.

Which leaves us here:

Image
Image

The last thing I discovered was don't try to put the front wing on when the instructions tell you! I could NOT get it to fit properly onto a bare shell, but for some reason if you attach it last of all, with the chassis in place, it fits perfectly and attaches to the front edge of the chassis plate very nicely. So the body isn't coming off again. Acid test on the doors still to come, but at least the engine cover opens and closes perfectly!

bestest,
M.
shangos70
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 4418
Joined: May 1st, 2011, 11:14 am
Location: Doncaster, Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire.

Re: Aoshima Murcielago SV

Post by shangos70 »

Beautiful motor and an excellent informative build.
User avatar
mattbacon
Too Cheerful To Be A JMN
Posts: 2308
Joined: April 11th, 2011, 1:54 pm

Re: Aoshima Murcielago SV

Post by mattbacon »

Thanks, Shane!

Assembly more or less finished (though I mustn't forget to add the little front quarter indicator repeaters or reflectors). And yes, the doors do open, and stay open. Now to find out if they close!

Image
Image
Image

Clean it up, touch up the paint, and then time for decals...

bestest,
M.
User avatar
JohnRatzenberger
Why is he so confused ?
Posts: 15708
Joined: April 5th, 2011, 3:42 pm
Location: Living on a sandbar - Nags Head, NC.

Re: Aoshima Murcielago SV

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

That looks really good. I was going to ask about the yellow but I can see it is your lighting that washes out some areas. I hope all those hinges are sturdy.
John Ratzenberger :???:
It's my model and I'll do what I want with it.
ShaunW
NOT the sheep
Posts: 26118
Joined: November 26th, 2011, 6:11 pm
Location: Pontefract West Yorkshire

Re: Aoshima Murcielago SV

Post by ShaunW »

Wonderful piece of modelling Matt and a very interesting and detailed build thread, thanks for taking the time and trouble.
Doing - Tamiya 1/35th Universal Carrier.

Work is the curse of the modelling classes!
IPMS#12300
User avatar
mattbacon
Too Cheerful To Be A JMN
Posts: 2308
Joined: April 11th, 2011, 1:54 pm

Re: Aoshima Murcielago SV

Post by mattbacon »

Thanks, gents... I'm calling this one done now:

Image
Image

More pics when she's had a visit to the studio...

bestest,
M.
Post Reply

Return to “Cars, Trucks, Bikes, Locos and other civvie vehicles”