This Step-by-step blog shows how to turn the 1/24 Tamiya Ford Mustang GT4 in an approximant replica of the Australian Supercars Mustang. Using the Classic Racing Resins Supercars Ford Mustang Conversion kit. This kit comes with a reconfigured nose, hood, rear wing assembly and also has other detail parts unique to the Austrian Supercars series with a right hand drive dash and seat mounting assembly. This blog will show step-by-step in detail on how to convert your kit properly.
What you need to build this kit
The 1/24 Supercars Ford Mustang Conversion kit is available at The Model Car Channel Store
The kit comes with 23 Resin parts with 2 clear resin headlights. This kit will require an experience model builder with scratch building skills. This kit is NOT for inexperienced builders. This conversion process requires lots of cutting, testing fitting, multiple adjustments. The fit-up of the parts depend on the individual builder. Everyone will cut the parts off differently and with that said the results may very from builder to builder. YOU MUST have experience with using filler, mostly Apoxie Sculpt.
Donor kit
The donor kit for this resin conversion kit is the 1/24 Tamiya Ford Mustang GT4. You can purchase a kit HERE on ebay.
Decals
Indycals offers the 2019 DJR Penske Shell V-Power #17 or #12 (Bathurst and Newcastle) and 2019 Tickford Racing Monster ( Bathurst) sheet. The 2019 DJR Penske Shell V-Power sheet has all the markings to build that raced in the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 or Coates Hire Newcastle 500 are available here at Indycals The 2019 Tickford Racing Monster sheet has all the markings you need with the spectacular green livery and flat black scheme. You can purchase an Indycals Monster sheet HERE. and Indycals Shell sheet HERE
Building supplies needed….
Zona 39-925 Replacement Hobby Blades, No33 Micro Saw 32 TPI, 5-Pack
Gorilla Super Glue 15 Gram, Clear, (Pack of 1)
Gunze Sangyo /Mr Color C138, Clear Green (For headlights for Monster Mustang only)
DRILLPRO 10Pcs 0.8 – 3 mm Titanium Coat Carbide End Mill Engraving Bits
Dremel 4300-5/40 High Performance Rotary Tool Kit
Cleaning Resin Parts
Its important to clean resin parts thoroughly. Its recommended to clean resin parts with Tire Bleach or Oven Cleaner to get the mold release oils off the surface. De-burring edges and sanding and rough areas down are typical. Sand and scuff with fine sand paper to create a surface for the primer to attach too. Its required to use lacquer Primer on the resin parts before painting, DO NOT USE enamel paints, they don’t stick to resin. I recommend using Tamiya Grey surface primer.
The Build-up!
Cutting off nose and hood
I recommend using Zona 39-925 No 33 Hobby Saw blades for sawing off the highlighted cutout areas. These saw blades will fit in most x-acto knifes
Attaching nose and hood
Use superglue to attach the front resin nose onto the front fenders of the Tamiya kit. Its important to test fit the front nose and use the frame studs on the front off the chassis to align the front nose.
Aligning this nose and hood isn’t the easiest thing to do. Don’t get discouraged as there will be ways of smoothing out the bodywork.
After the front nose superglue cures, next test fit the resin hood in place. Try your best to get the hood as close as possible. If it doesn’t fit 100% correct, DONT WORRY as you will be able to sand and fill any gap with Apoxie-Sculpt. Get the hood as close as possible and hold it into place with masking tape.
Apply superglue to the underside of the hood around the whole underside of the edges of the hood. Use as much glue as you want to insure strength.
Right hand drive modification
Use a dremel with this type of bit to cut out the area highlighted in red.
DRILLPRO 10Pcs 0.8 – 3 mm Titanium Coat Carbide End Mill Engraving Bits
After cutting out the highlighted area, use a sanding file to clean up the edges
Superglue in the right hand drive seat mounting plate
Add Apoxie-Sculpt to fill in the gap behind the front wheels. Use a sanding file to smooth out the bodywork around the fenders. There are no sharp edges on the fenders
Use the dremel and carefully grind down the area seen in the picture below.
Use the dremel to grind out the area on the bottom edge of the side skirt
Use a sanding file to clean and smooth out the area in the picture above.
Use the template supplied in the instructions to trace out the area for the fuel inlet area.
Use the Dremel and grind out the fuel inlet area out
Using the measurements of the exhaust tip part, trace out the area for the exhaust exit area
Use the Dremel to grind out the exhaust exit area and glue in the exhaust tip.
Rear wing
Always under any circumstance you must scuff your body with a scratch pad. Do so give the paint to grab onto. Not doing this your paint will flake off or lift when you add other layers of paint.
Resin always needs more clean up work than regular plastic injection kits. The rubber molds and mold release has the tendency to add oil to the surface of the resin. Its highly recommended to wash resin parts with tire Bleach and then use a scratch pad or 400 grit sand paper with Dawn dish washing soap to clean any possible contaminates off.
Super Glue the rear wing assembly together. You will need to decide what size of rear wing endplates you want to use as they used smaller ones towards the end of the season.
Sand down the rear wing element studs after the super glue dries.
Use Bondo Spot filler to fill in any pin hole.
Primer
Sand the Apoxie Sculpt and smooth and rough spots. Use Tamiya Grey primer and cover the body in a light coat. The purpose of primer is to show any imperfections and to give the color paint a clean surface to adhered to. Its very important to use white primer after using the grey primer as your base coat as Tamiya spray paint is very thin and transparent
Use Bondo spot filler for fillin in any pin holes in the body
Be patient when it comes to the cleaning and priming stage of the build as it will no doubt require a lot of filling cleaning and re-primering the surface until its ready for color.
Adding Tamiya grey surface primer helps the eye to see any imperfection. Also only use Lacquer paint on resin. Using enamel will cause you problems.
Painting
For the DJR Team Penske cars I recommend using Tamiya TS-8 Italian Red and TS-26 Pure White
How to paint the Monster Mustang – IMPORTANT!
When painting the Monster Energy Tickford Racing car its important to follow these steps exactly or you WILL have issues. When achieving a flat black paint job with waterside decals you must start out with gloss Black paint FIRST before applying the decals. You CAN NOT apply waterslide decals over flat black paint, or the decal backing will NOT adhere properly to the flat black paint and will dry with a nasty looking foggy look around the clear parts of the decals.
- First use Tamiya Gloss Lacquer
- Apply Indycals Monster Decals with Solvaset Decal solution over gloss Black paint job
- Let Indycals Decals dry for 24hrs
- Apply Tamiya Flat Clear over the Gloss Black and Indycals Decals
Use Walters Solvaset decal solution for the best results when sticking the decals to the surface. I prefer using Indycals decals whenever possible. The nice futures of Indycals decals is the are fresh, not too think or thick, easier to handle than a lot of decals, Indycals decals always works great with Walthers Solvaset decal setting solution. The white decals are actually WHITE when you apply them over any colored painted surface and have the least amount of transparency than any decal manufacture I know, especially kit decals! Decals for this conversion kit can be purchase from Indycals HERE
Apply Tamiya Flat Clear over the Gloss black and Indycals
Apply chrome paint to the inside of the headlight, this will help the green head light lens have a more reflective look.
Paint Headlights on Monster Mustang
Paint Mr Color Clear Green on the inside of the clear resin headlights
Superglue on the Ford Mustang emblem and paint flat black and then use Molotow Liquid Chrome Marker to paint it chrome
Use Apoxie-Sculpt to fill in the back taillight panel where normally the fuel inlet is located.
Final steps….
After all these steps that hardest is now done. The rest of the building process is self explanatory and relying on the Tamiya kit instructions for the rest of the build will take you to the finish line. The front pin on the frame will mount up into the holes in the resin nose.
