Thanks to those who suggested coating the Pattos decals with Future before using them -- It worked outstanding! I only lost two decals thanks to my big fat fingers, none to disintegration.

So here is what I was working on -- I finished decaling it today -- I wanted to do an open-cockpit interpretation of the Minolta Toyota CV89 LeMans racer. I acquired one of the white Tyco grand champion kit cars and some French blue Testors paint and went to town.

I free-handed the paint on the nose as there was no way to mask the curve that I could figure out. The sides I was able to use scotch tape to mask the angles off. I sent the decals from the Tamiya Minolta Toyota model kit to Patto and he made me a few sets in HO scale, as well as 1/32 and 1/24 (the next project will be a Minolta car transporter made from a Matchbox Indy 500 set.)

So anyway, long story short, here are some pics of the Tomy Minolta car and my open cockpit representation of it.

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/500/MinoltaToyotaLMP-_004b.jpg
Side by side

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/500/MinoltaToyotaLMP-_005b.jpg
The helmet is the Irish flag. I'm half German, about 1/3rd Irish and the rest a mix of French, etc. My last name is Irish so that's the reason for the helmet colors.

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/500/MinoltaToyotaLMP-_008b.jpg
Back detail

More pics in a minute.

'doba

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/500/MinoltaToyotaLMP-_009b.jpg
Lots of little decals on this car, Denso, Tom's, TRD, BP, Tokico, NCAA, Bridgestone, Cibie, etc.

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/500/MinoltaToyotaLMP-_010b.jpg
I was particularly happy with the airbox detail and steering wheel looks nice in all black. Maybe I will add a few buttons to it yet . . . The twin stacks on the engine cover are black on the Tomy car so I have to detail those yet too.

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/500/MinoltaToyotaLMP-_013b.jpg
The decals wrapped around the curves on this body very well. The holes on the front fenders are for the mirrors, which are around here somewhere.

More pics in a minute.

'doba

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/500/MinoltaToyotaLMP-_015b.jpg
Another angle of the two cars. I have raced the Minolta Toyota in our sports car league since 2001. I went on a title binge in our GTP class with the car, winning the title in 2001, 2002, 2003 & 2004, leading to the nickname "Shea-macher." :lol: We've added an LMP class for 2007 so I thought I'd bring the Minolta livery to that class as well.

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/500/MinoltaToyotaLMP-_016b.jpg
At home on the race track -- this car won't be any shelf queen.

Later.

'doba

Awesome job! :thumbsup:

How could anyone not prefer the open cockpit? ;)

Beautifully done!

BTW: On masking curves:

If you have an example to go by (as you did in this case) take 3" masking tape and cover the example car in the area you want to copy. Use a fine point sharpie to trace the curve you want to mask. (you may have to back light it) carefully peel the tape off and lay it out flat on a piece of clean plastic. Now cut along you sharpie lins with a fresk x-acto. Carefully peel your mask off the plastic and apply it to the car you are painting.

I've done some others by freehanding the lines with pencil on the tape then cutting.

Real nice job Doba! I like the attention to detail! Those small decals can be a nightmare if you don't have a steady hand. :thumbsup:

Evan

WOW!! :eek: Awesome Job :thumbsup:

Wes

WOOHOO!!! NICE

Jerry

it looks better than the coupe. I wouldn't be surprised if Tomy saw it and decided to run a few similar open cockpit cars to compliment some of the other liveries they have produced. Why is it we always think of these things? I see more good ideas on this board than I see out of the big mfg's. Great job Mr. D !!!! nd

Great job!!!

Hi ´doba!

Your open cockpit racer turned out really great! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I never had problems with disintegrating decals from Patto yet (and I had dozens of his sheets cross my workbench over the years!) - even the ones I have laying around for years are still usable (as opposed to some of my selfmade ones I obviously used minor quality paper for)! I´m glad to see you got yours to finally work so well!

Wish I had the balls to just begin my red Tyco kit waiting in one of my drawers for quite a while now - I´m afraid of messing it up!

I really prefer working with resin bodies as these can be easily thrown into a jar of paint thinner and start all over then. Never had much luck with paint stripping styrene/ABS bodies... :freak:

Keep up your great work!!!

Greetings from Germany,

Claus