Tameo LH CG881 Build Diary

[TonyLyne]

Hi folks,

As requested, below is how I approached the build of the 1/43 scale Leyton House CG881 from Tameo.

Being a full metal kit this kit needs a lot of prep work and you cant really approach these kits like you can with the traditional ‘shake and bake’ plastic kits.

First thing was to do a dry assembly of as many of the parts as possible to measure fit and alignment.

The rear wing in this particular kit was a mess and needed a lot of shaping to look vaguely like a rear wing and also fit as it was very lop sided.

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Once all fitted and aligned it was off for a wash and ready for priming.

We have a serious shortage of supplies in New Zealand at the moment, so my usual go-to lacquers were not available (at this stage not till something next year) so had to opt for enamels. So Priming was done with a Flatt white base and then rubbed down with Micromesh 4000 grit and then painted.

I was fortunate enough to have a part of the body sent to me from the owner of the car to do a colour match, which we got pretty damn close to the original. Tamiya Coral blue is wrong according to this car.

The mix I used was Tamiya Sky Blue as the lead and then Tamiya Green to tint it and then White to pull down the mixture to the appropriate tint level. Lots of spoons were damaged in the process lol. I opted not to clear coat this build - I normally clear coat but didnt think it was necessary this time.

Once painted then left to dry and start the assembly and detailing.

Wheels were detailed by hand, and Tameo only supplied enough Goodyears for the external walls of the wheels. which is very strange as other kits supply goodyears for all sides.

Top studio rivets were used to bring a bit of life back into the body panels

Tameo decals are pretty thick for this scale and generally don’t conform well to contours, so a lot of solution is needed to shape them. And often the adhesion is just not there, so using a small brush with some thinned out Satin clear lacquer can act as a glue.

Front wing was fitted and then stabilizers added and cleaned up.

Additional details are seatbelts, the kit didn’t have any, so made some out of styrene sheet and buckles were made out of P/E Hose clamps cut to shape.

[RDT1953]

Nice to see something a little different Tony - thanks for posting.

[Joel_W]

Tony,
Great build blog.

My only experience with 1/43 scale kits was many years ago with Starter kits that were basically curbside and all resin. So I had no idea that these metal kits could be that rough right out of the box.

With the modeling shortages you’re facing in New Zealand, can you get most of what you need from the online shops located in Australia?

joel

[TonyLyne]

Yeah Ive done Starter kits in the past, not the easiest to build either.

This F1-88 was a nightmare to build.

RE supplies, yes I order a lot from overseas, including Australia, but even those orders are taking an age to come in - have an order with BNA at the moment and been waiting 3 weeks now. Customs here are pretty tough on paint as well, so bringing in paint can be a challenge.

[Joel_W]

Tony,
The Starter F1-88 looks great. I only built GT cars specializing in Porsches with the 908/3 being my favorite all time Porsche with the 917s close behind. From what I can remember the decals worked just fine.

Sounds like customs has everything slowed to a crawl. Not much you can do about that but for now buy in bulk so there’s less waiting. The online vendors here also have plenty of out of stocks but there’s no customs to go through unless I’m getting paints from Gravity or a model and AM from Spot.

joel

[TonyLyne]

Yeah I have a couple of large orders coming in from AU and Spot at the moment. Taking a long time but seem to be slowly making their way through the system.

Hope I get my usual Lacquers back soon as Im not a fan of enamels but can only use what I have available.

[Joel_W]

Tony,
Out side of basic colors, I use Gravity or Scale Finishes here in the states. Gravity is my #1 paint option. Shipping is by DHL and use to take just 3 days, now it takes 5 days. Even friends in Australia have posted less then a week for the delivery. You just might want to check them out.

joel

[TonyLyne]

Yeah, Im looking at SMS at the moment, a NZ based shop is now selling them on line.

Were quite isolated here in NZ, so shipping anything to us can be a bit of a mission and can take for ever.

The recent commission builds Ive done have all had to be done using Tamiya enamels - not my first choice, but that’s all that’s available. but they came out pretty good.

[cosimodo]

Hi Tony, I can back up Joel’s comment about Gravity paints. Shipping to new Zealand is usually less than a week (even during Covid) and the great thing is, if you’re patient they will make you the colours you want. They made me some Ford Escort colours from the 70’s. a Bugatti blue and currently doing a couple of Ducati colours for me. And they don’t charge for that, just happy to add them to their range.
I am in awe of your ability to build in 1/43 scale, way too small for me. Your kits pictured so far look amazing.

cheers
Michael

[AussieReg]

Great to have you on board here Tony, and huge thanks for posting your thoughts and process on this type of build/rebuild.

I’ve never dabbled in 1/43 scale or metal kits and it’s great to see what superb results can be achieved through your efforts.

Cheers, D

[AussieReg]

Great to have you on board here Tony, and huge thanks for posting your thoughts and process on this type of build/rebuild.

I’ve never dabbled in 1/43 scale or metal kits and it’s great to see what superb results can be achieved through your efforts.

Cheers, D

[Joel_W]

Tony,
Nothing wrong with Enamels, as that’s what we only had back in the 1960s-1970s. Cheap and every hobby shop had both Testors and Practra. The one ounce bottle had a retail cost of .79 !!!

I’d love to try out the Tamiya Enamel line, but it’s not available here in the states even at my usual online retail sites. Never thought that I’d be buying a 30ml bottle of Gravity Model lacquer paint pre thinned for more then $5/bottle. or Alcad2 for more then $9/bottle.

joel

[TonyLyne]

Interesting chat guys this is turning into.

Yeah, Enamels are great and we have an abundance of supply here (you just need to handle them a little differently), Lacquers until our lock downs hit were also plenty available as well. Can still get good results with enamels. This LH CG891 build Im doing for a customer was painted yesterday morning and settled nicely in all enamels. Will leave it a week to cure and then look into detailing it, and maybe clear coat it - still deciding whether clear coating these small scales with enamels is a good idea. Haven’t needed to yet.

Not sure about the shipping to NZ in a week for Gravity paints. I’m still waiting over a month for orders from Spot to arrive - last check on track and trace, still sitting in Madrid Airport, crazy times were living in! But yes, I’m keen to get into Gravity and Zero paints once I can work out a way to get them here in a reasonable time frame. SMS seem to be well stocked here, so will start checking them out.

[Joel_W]

Tony,
with all the major online auto retailers here in the states, finding ones that aren’t home ebay businesses that carry road racing subjects is nearly impossible. So Spot has been my go to resource for several years. Their shipping via UPS is pretty expensive but you do get your order much faster then by country to country post which takes a good month or more in normal times.

Gravity ships internationally DHL and even now I’m getting my orders within a weeks time. I’m pretty sure that Michael does as well.

My Gravity orders are in bulk. Min of 6 bottles of paint at a time, so I do plan out my builds for nearly a year at a time plus what I plan on buying during the year. Primers and clear coats I order locally
and also in bulk.
joel