Nissan skyline GTR R34 Z-Tune

[Nataan92]

Hi All,

I recently started my next project which is the Nissan Skyline R34 GTR Z-tune by Tamiya. Along with the kit, i bougt the tamiya detail up set for a bit more detail and realism.

The Z-tune is my favourite version of the R34 skyline, and also the most rare, with only 19 produced worldwide. 18 of the 19 were produced in silver, but one was built in Midnight Purple. This is one of my all time favourite car colours. It apprears black in shadows, and purple in the light.

 

In order to get this colour, I had to go to the autostore, and get them to mix me a can of touch up spray paint to the correct paint paint code (Nissan LP2) I know that zero paints make their own version of this colour, but its not available in Australia (and i dont have an airbrush...) so spray can it had to be.

Unfortunately, the spray nozzle didn't allow the paint to lay very flat. There was a fair bit of orange peel in the body & chassis. The body can be fixed with a sanding and then polish, but that will have to wait until it is properly cured.

 

While the body cured, i got working on the chassis. Most of this had to be the same as the body colour. Again, because of the spray nozzle being too blotchy, the finish didn't come out great, but it looks ok. A few areas were masked off and semi gloss black was applied. The orange peel in the purple actually helped with the black, to make it look like a textured black finish that is often found on the underside of a car. The moulded in engine and gearbox were hand painted in flat aluminium paint.

Next up was the front and rear suspension sub assemblies. These parts were very accurately detailed and went together perfectly. (like all tamiya kits) From some research i did, i found that some of the paint insrtuctions were a bit off, and i found that the drive shafts are actually made from carbon fibre. so i made those changes, and added some carbon decals.

Im really happy with how the brakes came out. the PE disk rotors look really realistic. I added some black paint to the slots, and sanded back the face to look like they had been used.

Final Chassis assembly.

Thanks for looking, 

Nathan

[jchrisf]

Looks really good... what did you use to paint the suspension, engine and exhaust?

[Nataan92]

9 hours ago, jchrisf said:

Looks really good... what did you use to paint the suspension, engine and exhaust?

Thanks. The suspension control arms & Engine were hand brushed with tamiya XF-16 Flat aluminium, and the exhaust was painted with tamiya TS-17 Gloss aluminium spray paint.

[Funkychiken]

Great car, love the colour, and it's com8ng along nicely!

[Dann Tier]

Looking BEAUTIFUL!!!

[DrKerry]

Looking great!!!! Love the color on it!!!

[PatW]

Really good, fine build. Super colours throughout.

[jchrisf]

On 5/13/2018 at 7:04 PM, Nataan92 said:

Thanks. The suspension control arms & Engine were hand brushed with tamiya XF-16 Flat aluminium, and the exhaust was painted with tamiya TS-17 Gloss aluminium spray paint.

Wow.. I am going to have to get me some of that paint.  Looks like it was sprayed on.

[Nataan92]

Hi All,

Thanks for the nice comments.

I finally got around to polishing the body last night, had to wait for some polishing bits for my dremel... This was the first time I had tried using the dremel to polish. It made a bit of a mess, flicking polish everywhere, but i am very pleased with the result. Unfortunately when i was wet sanding the model before polish, i sanded a few tiny areas a bit thin, and went through to the primer. I think i should be able to touch up these areas so that it isnt as noticeable.

Anyway, here are some images.

Before Polish

After first stage of polish (Meguiar's Ultimate compound) removes the fine sanding scratches

After final polish was Wax

 

Next up will be the interior.

Thanks

[jchrisf]

Nice.. I'm surprised the Dremel isn't too fast for polishing but looks like you have the perfect touch.

[Nataan92]

57 minutes ago, jchrisf said:

Nice.. I'm surprised the Dremel isn't too fast for polishing but looks like you have the perfect touch.

Thanks, yeah i thought it might have been too. I had it on the slowest possible setting and used very light pressure. I wasnt using the dremel brand polishing bits because they are far to hard. I bought some soft woollen generic bits off ebay. 

 

[Dann Tier]

Great job on that body!!!!

[Cool Hand]

Looking the part so far mate.  Interested to see the next update on how you did the interior.

 

Ive been on a bit of a Nissan binge lately, such cool cars and some super nice kits out there.  

[Nataan92]

Hi All,

I have just completed the interior. The real car has a black leather, and red alcantara inserts. Personally im not a huge fan of this colour break up, but i will do it anyway.

To acheive the red alcantara, i first primed the plastic with tamiya White primer, then hit it with tamiya bright red, then finally with some flat clear (i dont have any flat red paint...) once this had dried, i masked off those sections and went over the rest of the pieces with semi gloss black. 

included in the PE set for this kit, are some carpet floor mats. ive never seen this in a kit before, its a nice touch. Becasue of this, i only had to flock the rear parcel shelf.

A few decals were applied for the gauges, centre screen, seats and the steering wheel.

Thanks for looking

Nathan

[Nataan92]

Hi All,

This is my final update on this kit.

I kinda got in the swing of things, and just smashed out the rest of the kit and didnt really take any photos. (not that there was a great deal of the kit left to do)

The clear windows we masked up using the supplied window masking stickers

Then I Masked off and painted the window frames of the body, as well as the front lip spoiler/splitter.

the only other bits to go were the lights, and other small pieces on the body.

Behold, the completed model.

Thanks for looking

Nathan