Lamborghini colour test
Aoshima 1/24th scale plastic kit testing out GreenStuffWorld "Colour Shift" paints
Assembled and painted in 2024
As a kit, this is a pretty simple build, I’ve done a couple from Aoshima, and there’s not really a lot to them when compared to a Tamiya offering. The quality is high though, along with clean moulding, it’s just that Aoshima don’t seem to go to a lot of fuss with separating parts that their moulds can produce in one piece.
Having said that, this kit has quite a few pieces making up the body shell, but I see sense in doing that because these details are going to be seen.
Photos #1 and #2 show the cockpit, engine and subframe all made up and painted. A simple scheme, because I really only wanted to get on with painting the shell to see what effect the Colour Shift paints would give.
The grey is simply Halfords Primer, the red areas were undercoated with MP paints Crimson and then oils were used ( Carmine and Scarlet, both from the Michael Harding range of oils ) to add shadows and highlights.
The engine area was sprayed black and then drybrushed with Steel and Bright Silver from the Darkstar range of acrylics, and further detailing added to the cabin with buttons picked out with Molotow liquid Chrome.
The body shell….. Oh what a trial that became.
I had a thought that I could perhaps preshade the body by spraying grey primer from underneath to cover the lower areas, and then spray white primer from above, and that worked pretty well to be honest.
I’d got a bright Lime Green spray can from a local shop ( I know, cheap stuff isn’t a great idea ) and thought that this would perhaps give a good base for the green / gold Colour shift .
The first coat of green went on badly, the paint settled out leaving areas almost colourless, and other sections with the colour I wanted.
A second coat didn’t improve matters much, although a third try did even out the colour.
However, some areas seemed to reject the paint completely, almost like there was grease on the surface of the model.
I decided that I’d strip the paint off using oven cleaner, which has worked well in the past.
Twenty-four hours later and the green paint wasn’t shifting t all, the oven cleaner hadn’t touched it.
OK, so something stronger then – Wickes paint stripper, a lot more astringent, but worth a try.
Six hours later and the green is still holding on, but it does look like the paint stripper’s affecting it, so back in the zip-lock bag the body shell went
Another day passes and most of the paint is coming off, although I’d have to sand down the white primer to smooth some of the flatter areas.
With the sanding done, the body shell was washed -to get rid of any dust - and allowed to dry in the drying cabinet for twenty-four hours.
Beginning again with the grey and white primer application, followed by several minutes of shaking the Lime Green can to make sure it was mixed properly, and a further three coats of that, and things looked a lot better.
I gave each coat of paint a full twenty-four hours in the drying cabinet before adding the next coat of paint, and a final week in the drying box once the last coat of paint had been added.
It looked OK, but there were still a couple of spots that had faults that I’d normally not accept, however, this was a test shot, so what the heck, lets do the Colour Shift coatings.
Out with the airbrush, and I used the Colour Shift paint’s straight from the bottle, no thinning, and sprayed at about 20psi.
One coat didn’t seem to make much difference, and the covering looked a bit patchy.
I broadened the spray area by pulling back the needle and setting it in that position, which worked better and a second coat seemed to give a more even finish.
A third coat finished things off, although the overall look was matt rather than gloss. I could fix that with some gloss varnish though.
There were still a couple of areas that had paint finish faults – one just in front of the wheel arch on the left side and one on the bonnet.
To mask these I decided to add some decals, the advertising set on each side from a NASCAR decal set and the Manga one on the bonnet being a picture that I printed onto decal film myself.
I added the black trims around the windows, fixed in the glazing and then added the shell to the subframe assembly.
Thoughts
The Aoshima kit assembled well enough, although I think the glazing on some areas looks too thick – the hexagons over the engine in particular look clumsy somehow.
The way the doors are constructed allows for the side windows to be wound down partially or fully, I liked that idea a lot.
The paints – Oh my, what a mess.
The Colour Shift paints advise a gloss black undercoat, “although other colours can be used) – according to the instructions.
I’m thinking that I may have skipped a step and should go back and use Gloss Black – I was trying to run before I’d tried walking.
Paint faults in the underlying paint – don’t use cheap rattle cans is the answer I think.
The Colour Shift paints – at the moment I’m unsure that the effect that this particular colour gives is all that good. I can’t say I’m impressed if I’m being honest.
The Colour Shift range can be bought individually, or in sets of six different colours, there being three of these six-paint sets to get all of the colours. At £22 per set it’s not exactly cheap, but with further experimentation I may yet be convinced.
Using a broader spray on the airbrush is necessary for larger areas, otherwise the effect will end up patchy, and I suggest a very thorough clean of the airbrush is a must after using them, otherwise fugitive flecks of the mica will turn up in any subsequent colours that you use through the airbrush.
I’ll bring the car along to the next few shows I have a display at, and I’m open to discussions if anyone wants to chat about it.
Hopefully I’ll have a second attempt at using the Colour Shift range before too long.