Tamiya Blitzer Beetle - 2011 Reissue

[GreenBar0n]

Lengthening the motor wires, and the 1060 ESC wires took some time, the leads were too short.






Ready for the body and paint.

[GreenBar0n]

The Tamiya TS-14 Black will be here tomorrow.

[GreenBar0n]

Going to give it one more coat of TS-14 black tomorrow.

[GreenBar0n]

Repaired some problems with the paint, will let it dry until tomorrow and then put the decals on.

[GreenBar0n]

Turns out there is a lot of brush paint work that needs to be done on this model.

The seam on the helmet was really bad, going to have to putty and sand it to erase that line.




Going to try to finish the body completely tomorrow. The driver will take a bit more time.

[GreenBar0n]

You never can tell which Tamiya models come with a pre-cut decal sheet - the Blitzer Beetle definitely does not.


Not sure which is worse, brush painting or decal trimming, but this model has both. Have another couple hours to go.

[GreenBar0n]

All the decals are cut, will finish the brush painting and then add them.


One more hour left on this one.

[GreenBar0n]

Had some extra decals, couldn't understand where they went.


Turns out the vintage Blitzer Beetle has a rear window to put the decals on.


2011 RI has no rear window, or place to put those decals.



Still need to paint the tail lights on and finish the driver.

[GreenBar0n]

Here's how those tail lights turned out, from last year.

That's ridiculous, and getting fixed today finally. Will do boxart tail lights, in Orange, Red, Red.

Need to finish the driver too, helmet is sanded and primed, need to come up with a paint scheme. Wish I was better at painting flame jobs, or had a vinyl cutter to make masks.


These are the last two details.


Excellent painting weather outside here today, can't paint lacquer indoors with my spray booth. Time to get started.

[GreenBar0n]

That's a lot of choices for the helmet color. Leaning towards the turquoise to make him stand out, but the Metallic Orange is also interesting.


Going to start on the tail lights, and think about the driver for a bit.

[GreenBar0n]

The BB windows are factory tinted, you can't really see the driver too well in there.


Made some bold choices on the paint, we'll see how this turns out through the tinted windows.




Need to wait another couple hours for the paint to dry, before adding the final details and gluing it all together.

[GreenBar0n]

Had to put an American flag on the helmet, he started to look like a UN worker.


Tail lights are better now.










Calling this one done.