This step was about the wheels and exhaust.
Here’s the gallery with 47 images of this step.
Lessons learned
- The kit came with two sets of wheels/rims.
- The bottom bracket piece is different depending on what version of the car you’re building (e.g., Japan vs US). I used a panel scriber from the backside to remove the piece not needed in the Japanese version.
- Having reference photos for the heat stress areas for the exhaust helped me make it more realistic looking.
- I’m glad I went with semi-gloss black instead of flat black for the wheels; it better mimics what a real car would look like.
- As expected, the rear suspension didn’t fit well, so the wheels are a little wonky.
- The decals mimic holes/gaps in the bracket. I could have drilled out the holes, but the X-pattern would have been difficult to execute correctly.
- When I trimmed out the decals, they included the number ID. That number comes off just like decal, so it made some random black marks once I slid it onto the model. Next time, I’ll remove the number ID before wetting decal.
This step took about 4.6 hours.