Mazda MX-5

2024 Model Build #3 - 1/24 Mazda MX-5

I had wanted to build this for a while for my father as he owns one of these. It's the Tamiya 24342 kit. I had no real issues in the assembly process as everything goes together really well. I decided to give Zero Paints a go with their Soul Red which is a two part paint. I think in the end it came up a bit darker than it should have. I didn't rescribe the panel lines so after priming, painting and 2k clear-coating, some of the panel lines were filled so the panel liner wouldn't flow. I make the stupid mistake at this point to rescribe the line and the scriber jumped out of the line causing a bad scratch. I tried a could of ways to fix it but both were very noticeable. In the end I had to get another kit and redo the body. The second time round I still had one line that wasn't deep enough (fuel filler), so I tried out the new Real Colour paint marker and wiped the excess off with a bit of paper towel. I wasn't sure it'd work, but it came up really well. The second time I used the Tamiya spray can (TS-95). I've never really used them before but it was so easy and consistent. The finish was noticeably better.

The interior and chassis is a combination of Vallejo and SMS paints. I did more brush painting than usual to force myself to get better at it (and save on heaps of masking on the underside). I'm very happy with out that came out in the end. I added black flocking on the interior which was a bit better than on the last kit I did. I used satin varnish this time to stick it down instead of PVA and it turned out a bit less lumpy. I also did my first real attempt at custom decals for the number plate to match the real world one. It took a while to find all the letters and numbers in the correct font, but I'm really happy with how they turned out.

During the final polishing I somehow managed to chip the boot so I had to decant some paint and use a toothpick for the touch up. It's noticeable, but I didn't want to risk the rest of the finish in trying to do more to fix it (lesson learned from last time!). Having finished the body I then switched the chassis over and in the process managed to drop the whole model onto the tiled floor 🙁 Thankfully the damage was surprisingly minimal - mirror, window, door handle, interior trim piece and antenna fell off but nothing broke. It didn't take too long to fix it. This time I'm sticking it to the display box base to avoid future catastrophes!

The lessons:
- Rescribe panel lines at the start.

The firsts:
- Custom number plate decals
- Flocking using varnish
- Using Real Color paint markers

The good:
- The best finish yet (I said that on the last one too, so I guess I'm still improving!)
- The underside, especially the brush painting is a lot better than I usually achieve

The bad:
- A small chip on the boot.
- Having to redo the body due to a silly mistake the first time round
- A few glue spots on the seats

I currently have 3 models on the go - A Challenger 2 that's taken me 18 months so far but is nearing completion, plus a Revell Porsche 918 and the new Tamiya Porsche 911 GT3 RS.