Italeri Ford Escort RS1800 MkII Lombard RAC Rally

Cleaned up and built the engine. Primed it in Ammo One Shot Black.  

 

Apologies for the terrible phone camera quality. Once the engine is complete, I will take some photos with my Canon. I airbrushed flat metallic aluminium with far from ideal results, mostly because I find Revell paints to be poor airbrush paints. They tend to leave a lot of residue and clog the airbrush, no matter how carefully I thinned and mixed the paint.  

I then brush-painted the small details and tried a couple of new techniques. I dry-brushed a mixture of browns onto the exhaust and used a sponge to add some dark grey chipping effects. The next step is to gloss clear coat the engine and apply some more weathering techniques I want to practice. 

The engine is now complete. Here are some higher-quality photos from my Canon R7. I gloss clear-coated the engine using Tamiya X-22. Once dry, I applied a variety of Mig enamel weathering washes, including a panel line wash to highlight the details, and then some oil, fuel, rust, and general grime effects.  

I am happy with the result, especially considering this part won't be visible once the model is finished unless I keep the hood open. Some improvements for next time: using the Revell flat aluminium paint gave a finish that is far too sparkly, the washes have toned this down and it is far less noticeable in person. But next time, I might purchase a flat aluminium from Tamiya, or elsewhere. I cleaned up the parts and carefully glued them together, but it's still clear where the seams are and moulding imperfections are still visible. Next time, be more thorough with the cleanup of the parts, although so far Italeri quality has been a disappointment compared to other brands I've used so far, so I can only do so much.