A decade in the making

mr.Quality Finish a decade in the making

Is there one thing in this hobby that you are so apprehensive of attempting that it makes you put the project on the shelf for an unknown (meaning very long) amount of time while the momentum of the build evaporates? Or keeps you up at nite until you finally muster up the courage to face this obstacle, knowing that if you can pass this hurdle that the build's momentum will be restored and push you to the finish line? Anyone? I know I am not alone.

For me this hurdle comes in the form of TS-50, also known as Tamiya's Mica Blue. It is one of my favorite colors and represents everything that is Subaru racing, from the late Colin McRae to Richard Burns and their WRC rally cars. The last time I attempted this finish was on Tamiya's 2001 season Subaru WRC based on the rally in Monaco. This was over a decade ago and it did not go as smoothly as hoped. It took forever for the kit to arrive in Canada, almost a year after it's UK release. Which in the meantime the paint that I had bought from the Subaru dealership had dried up. But once I had this kit in hand, it quickly got primed and the Mica blue was decanted and airbrushed on... it was not the perfect finish but it could be worked on. Then everything had to be boxed up and put into storage while I spent a year abroad. In that time the heat/cold in the attic had caused the bag it was carefully wrapped in to leave marks on the body. I've opened that box many times over the years but never really attempted to use that beautiful blue... until now.

The victim this time was Tamiya's fantastic new kit of the Subaru BRZ and I could only build it using one color! Once again, I carefully cleaned up the body, primed and wet sanded and repeated this process until I had in my hands a perfect body shell 'in white'. I knew that if I was going to attempt another car shell, I was going to apply the paint while using a spray booth. So that was ordered and it arrived but alas there was no time to put it to use. A few months later some free time became available so I set everything up and went for it! Once again... it was not a perfect finish but the Mica blue was on (as you see in the photo above). I let the body sit and harden for a few weeks while in the meantime I rebuilt my 'plastic mojo' and made another attempt today...

...and I can happily say that I've finally achieved a quality finish on a Scoobi in the only color it ever needs to be in. It was well worth the wait! _pL