The doll's house is very nice
and I can fully believe it takes 100's of hours to complete, but you're missing my point. Although a
whole 1/12 scale model can indeed take you 100's of hours (but this is a choice), the
body itself likely won't (maybe on a bad resin model...), especially not on a R/C car meant for running. Note that I don't count
paint drying time as time spent
building a model, because I'm not
watching paint dry - literally. If I did, any of my models, even the really simple ones (single piece resin), would have 100's of hours building time...
For example, I'm currently working on a cute super deformed car. I must have about 10 hours work on it, including the little diorama I scratch-build over the weekend. If I were to count soaking the resin bits in dishwashing liquid addled water and primer and paint drying time, then I can happily add about 10 x 24 hours - but that isn't literally time
I spent working on the kit (I used that time for other, more important things).
It also all depends on your model building philosophy.
You can be anal about all of the details of your kit and take 1-2 years or more for a model, finishing it perfectly (often more 'perfectly' than the real thing), and after a while you'll get burnt out on model building because the model is never perfect enough.
Or you can go to the point where the model is good enough, where fixing its flaws does not become not a frustrating enterprise, and call it a day and continue with the next step or model.
Personally, I went through the first thing. It sucks - anytime you want to start another model you begin to hate the mere thought of the type of work you'll have to do to make it 'look good'. Models are never finished, and many end up shelved because you just can't get 'em 'right'. It's depressing.
Now I do my models using the other way. Not only I am getting a lot of models done, my skills are also improving at a much higher rate than before. And I realize it is not about fixing all of the flaws, it is about making the errors in places no one will ever see.
So, to get back to the Porsche 935 Turbo body, I see the following steps: Basic clean-up and filling the greater defects => let it dry => wet-sand => dry => apply primer => dry => repeat last four steps as needed until you're happy with the result (2-3 times ought to do it) => paint => check for defects (fix if necessary) => decals => glosscoat (not if stickers instead of decals) => buff it up. I would not go the whole way of building it as a real scale model, because running it once would trash the perfect finish - mishaps happen after all, and that would make a lot of work a waste of time.
Now, of the steps I've mentioned, for the average person who is not a scale model builder, most could be ignored, as such people won't notice the defects in the finishing anyway. At least, so is my experience with non-modellers who see my models. I see a lot of flaws, they think they're great.
I have some photos of the cars they have in the Tamiya factory in Shizuoka somewhere..
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