Subaru BRZ: Paint or polish? Another tutorial

The Tamiya BRZ is molded in blue which is pretty close to the classic Subaru Blue found on the rally cars.



Usually this bothers me, especially when the colour is fairly dark, as painting it requires putting on enough primer to completely hide the underlying plastic colour. This is especially true when going for a significantly lighter colour. However, there is an option when the colour is a desirable one, and where the quality of the colour embedded in the styrene is consistent across the model.



The flaw you need to watch for arises when the specific assortment of colored styrene pellets which were mixed in the extruder to form the part didn't quite mix, and came into the part in streaks of lighter and darker colours. This set of streaks originates at one of the injection points, usually but not always a sprue connection. This is particularly visible in the trunk and roof of the Tamiya body for the Skyline 2000 GTR, on the right below. (I painted this one gunmetal grey, so there wasn't much of a colour change to worry about).

 

However, sometimes you get lucky. Two recent examples were both from the Fujimi Enthusiast series: the Alfa Giulia GTA, and the Porsche 356 C. Here the bodies were so clean that really all they needed was polishing. The Alfa was a gorgeous red, and the Porsche a very nice white with just a touch of cream. Putting on primer, then topcoat and clear, is always a bit risky and there are always touch-ups required along the way.



Plan B, if the styrene is nice, is to give it a good polish, clean it up properly, then apply clear as in a top coat: light mist coats, followed by a heavier flood coat. An additional polishing step may be needed if the clear tries to form orange peel. The Alfa sure looks good after this treatment, and so does the Porsche, even if the pictures don't show the shine on the white paint quite so effectively.



A lovely trio of '60s icons ... the Europa, a victim of my learning curve, suffers from plenty of orange peel.



So what has this got to do with the Subaru? A quick first pass has hidden what looked to be embedded flaws, so we are off to the races as it seems the body responds well to polishing. This will save me a lot of work. A coat of clear will come after any decals or photoetch.



So what is the technique? I'm still developing it, and will post more as I go along; but I have come across two systems. The first is LMG Micro-Polish, sold in a kit with another bottle of something called Micro-Swirl Remover, various grits of fine sandpaper, and a small piece of polishing cloth. The trick is to work this light cream into the body with a cloth, then remove excess cream with a clean cloth. The Micro-Swirl Remover, which appears to be more liquid and perhaps less abrasive, works the same way.



The other is the well-known set of Tamiya polishing creams in toothpaste tubes, in coarse and fine formulations. These are more aggressive and cut faster than the LMG product, especially the coarse one. I used the LMG on all three of the bodies shown, and so far I am happy. Stay tuned!