McLaren M8B - Accurate Miniatures - 1:24 Scale

[CDW]

After doing some research, I learned about using a food dehydrator to help reduce the drying time of painted model parts...drastically reduce the time.

As I am sure most of you know, various paints can take quite a long time to dry, certain enamels taking two weeks or more to cure. Acrylics can take quite a while. Well, the food dehydrator can cut that complete cure time on enamels from 2 weeks to over night. Acrylics down from a full day or more to 3 hours, fully cured. 

The dehydrator I bought is a 9 shelf unit with a front opening sliding door, from Amazon. The shelves are removable so you have plenty of space for parts. It has a thermostat control for heat as well as a timer. As pictured, I have some acrylic painted parts drying now that I set on 105 degrees F. With this unit, I will return to using enamels from time to time. I avoided them in the past because of the extreme drying times.

By the way, the painted parts now in the dehydrator are for the McLaren. 🙂

 

[CDW]

I should note, this unit is particularly well suited for model cars and other similar sized models, but large ship hulls would not fit inside, obviously.

[Old Collingwood]

What a great idea  - is it a  similar theory to what I do by using a hairdryer?

 

OC.

[CDW]

28 minutes ago, Old Collingwood said:

What a great idea  - is it a  similar theory to what I do by using a hairdryer?

 

OC.

Yes! But hands-free and much better controlled temperature and air all around the parts. It's like a miniature convection oven, low temperature and will not harm plastic unless you set the temperature too high. 

[Old Collingwood]

4 minutes ago, CDW said:

Yes! But hands-free and much better controlled temperature and air all around the parts. It's like a miniature convection oven, low temperature and will not harm plastic unless you set the temperature too high. 

Sounds like you have fallen on something  really useful there mate.

 

OC.

[Egilman]

6 hours ago, CDW said:

I should note, this unit is particularly well suited for model cars and other similar sized models, but large ship hulls would not fit inside, obviously.

It's a nice unit, but I though everyone knew about what low humidity does to paint....

 

Anyway, it should fit all the detail pieces for a ship model, that where it is really needed....

 

Nice find....

[Landlubber Mike]

For acrylic paints, how long will you stick them in the dehydrator?  I usually only have very small blocks of time to model, so if I paint one night, it's not usually until the next night that I will get to it so personally I haven't had a reason to use one, but I could see if I ever started with enamels.

[CDW]

Just now, Landlubber Mike said:

For acrylic paints, how long will you stick them in the dehydrator?  I usually only have very small blocks of time to model, so if I paint one night, it's not usually until the next night that I will get to it so personally I haven't had a reason to use one, but I could see if I ever started with enamels.

 

I'll have to do some more experimenting to give you a definitive answer to that question. I have read others say three hours thoroughly cures acrylics but I have to believe it will depend somewhat on what you have used to reduce the paint. I like to use lacquer thinner with Tamiya paint and that's going to behave a whole lot different than an acrylic thinned with a water based thinner.

[CDW]

Added roll bar, oil coolers, front suspension, and dash/steering wheel components. Started painting the various red/blue anodized connections to various fuel and oil lines.

 

[yvesvidal]

Excellent work. It really feels like building the prototype.

 

Yves

[CDW]

It's been a fun kit to build so far. There are a few fit issues where it seems the engineers maybe didn't thoroughly vet the prototype construction and make adjustments before production, but nothing that is too glaring.

The instructions actually warn the builder that there are a few areas where certain parts you might want to leave out of the construction sequence for ease of assembly. Particularly the area of the engine compartment where the headers take up a lot of space. Just to see how bad it was, I opted to attempt it all but had to abort a couple of small things. An onlooker would never spot it most likely, but it's there (or not there as the case may be). 

[mtaylor]

I saw this in my news feed this morning.... for those of you interested in all things McLaren......

https://autos.yahoo.com/bizarre-v-6-mclarens-newest-150000873.html

[lmagna]

Looks like you are finally getting a little break from silver and black!  Looking super! 

[CDW]

Just now, lmagna said:

Looks like you are finally getting a little break from silver and black!  Looking super! 

I'll be painting some orange before you know it.

 

[CDW]

After spraying this morning then a few hours in the dehumidifier, Bingo! We got orange. Is it McLaren Orange? I don't know, but it's as close as I am going to get to it as this is the girl I brung to the dance. 🙂

 

[CDW]

Another favorite past time of mine involves my family heritage, collecting and digitizing old family photos and so forth. Recently I came across a program that animates photos and I've been running so old family photos through that program then sharing them with my family.

These are before and after photos of my great-great grandmother that give a good idea of what this program can do. My g-g grandmother was born in 1838 and the original photo was taken somewhere around 1857 or 1858 as she was pregnant with my great grandfather. The way the program enhances the photo is rather stunning I think.

 

[lmagna]

10 minutes ago, CDW said:

Is it McLaren Orange?

 The question of the year. Possibly the most debated color in not only modeling but for the real cars as well. No one seems to have a definitive answer of just what is the proper color for  McLaren Orange! The big problem is that the closer you get to the real color it reacts just like the real color did, and seems to change as the lighting does. 

 

Your color choice under the lighting you took these pictures looks dead on Craig. Not too light and orange, and not too red. At least on my computer. Congratulations.

[lmagna]

11 minutes ago, CDW said:

The way the program enhances the photo is rather stunning I think.

Quite a stunning difference.

[Landlubber Mike]

That orange looks fantastic Craig, nice job!  Did you find you had to undercoat with any particular color?  I ended up picking up some Tamiya pink primer because I read that it really makes reds pop.

 

That photo and program is so cool.  I don't have family pictures that go that far back, but do have some from the b&W days.  Will need to look into this.

[CDW]

Mike

 

I painted the orange directly over the white plastic of the kit without any primer. However, the undersides of the body panels must be painted flat black. In my kit, the white plastic is rather translucent and I am concerned the flat black will alter the shade of the orange to a darker color. Because of this, I will first paint the underside with a white primer, then paint flat black on top of the white primer. This should cancel out the negative effects the black might cause to the orange. A coat of white primer before the orange would be beneficial as you could skip the concerns about the black undersides.

[CDW]

With the front body assembly and doors attached to the chassis, the next steps will be to mask off and paint orange the area of the silver chassis below the doors. The rear body assembly will be left off to display the engine, transaxle, and rear suspension. 

It's important to note that if you wish to attach the rear body assembly to the chassis for display, you must leave off most of the engine plumbing as the body assembly will not fit with all the plumbing attached.

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Looking great  mate.

 

OC.

[lmagna]

I can't get over how perfect a match that orange is for the McLaren team color. I was pretty certain that the rear body was not going to fit. But with all that work on the engine who would want to cover it up anyway?

[CDW]

Inching closer to the finish. You really have to work to get the tires over the wheel rims. Very tight fit. On the front and rear tires, there is only one way the rims will fit. Trial and error. Will try the tire decals I bought, but they look like they may be a little too large. We'll soon see.

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Superb work mate - looking every inch the racer.

 

OC.

[CDW]

2 hours ago, lmagna said:

I was pretty certain that the rear body was not going to fit. But with all that work on the engine who would want to cover it up anyway?

 

If I had left the center panel out, it might have fit. Too much going on around the engine for the center panel to fit. Will probably fabricate a little scaffold for the rear assembly to rest upon off the ground.

[CDW]

39 minutes ago, Old Collingwood said:

Superb work mate - looking every inch the racer.

 

OC.

Thanks OC

[lmagna]

I have seen pictures somewhere that show the rear body panel just sitting on the ground behind the car while it was having something done to it.

 

Great work Craig it is looking good sitting on tires at last, hope the decals work out.

 

Did you paint the lower body orange over the aluminum monocoque chassis or did you do a white or black primer undercoat?

[Egilman]

On 3/28/2021 at 8:26 PM, CDW said:

It's important to note that if you wish to attach the rear body assembly to the chassis for display, you must leave off most of the engine plumbing as the body assembly will not fit with all the plumbing attached.

Craig, I saw one done where the modeler used the center engine cover as a mold to make a replacement out of paper and white glue.....

He had to relieve the rear body section a bit but once sealed and painted the center cover fit like a champ.....

 

The plastic parts are just too thick......

 

Beautiful paintwork though....

[CDW]

Just now, lmagna said:

Did you paint the lower body orange over the aluminum monocoque chassis or did you do a white or black primer undercoat?

 

I painted over the aluminum but I should have put down white primer first, just to keep a consistent shade of orange. It's a tad off, darker, but nothing that worries me over it.