Subaru Impreza WRX STI double project (10)

At some points, I managed to give some progress bit by bit. Now this STI is almost finished and here are some pics taken earlier.

The chassis was painted and weathered by some washing and dry-brushing.

The Cockpit is really straight forward but there is a 2-tone coloring that I need to manage. I added some minor stuffs like decals, photo etchings, seat belts later on.

The rest on the body was wrapped up step by step.

So after some weeks, this STI is finally completed. I will need to give her a light wash over the panel lines and then she will be put into a proper case. Haha~! Thanks for watching, and I hope I will be doing the same for the Ken Block piece soon as well!

Subaru Impreza WRX STI double project (9)

This kit has been abandoned for some time and I just picked it up and polished it this evening.

Seems everything is still fine and I should be working on this ride as the next key milestone.

Subaru Impreza WRX STI double project (8)

Polish is completed. I think it is fairly done. I didn't really have the decal handled very well on the edges of the doors, so the panel lines are becoming not very smooth anyway.

Subaru Impreza WRX STI double project (7)

Need to be speed things up during my beloved's business trip. I have to gt as much progress as possible during her absence so I can spare more time with her later on.

But this clear coat is a beast! It is now very hard and I found it difficult to polish to a satisfying gross. It took at least double time for the same gross I had with GX100. But the gross it result is wonderful. Not sure it worth the effort after all but it doesn't hurt to try new products anyway~

Subaru Impreza WRX STI double project (6)

I have tried the clear coat from Barchetta for the first time. It works almost the same as the Finisher GP2 paints. There are already containers in the package so I am able to do some better measurement when mixing the paint. Anyway, I didn't really have any comment about the paint yet as they are still drying now.... Wish me luck~~

Subaru Impreza WRX STI double project (5)

At this boring day without anyone around, I have decided to spend the day pulling this all together.

I finalized the body work, doing a final priming. Then have the White, Black and translucent yellow painted.

And I also got most of the decals laid down. This is now looking mor like the rally car now~~

Subaru Impreza WRX STI double project (4)

After a few short sessions, the body work has been finalized. 

Here are some highlights. First is the intake duct on the roof. I have pick up the one from the donor 206 kit and extended it with plastic sheets, smoothened it and reshaped it according to reference.

The front spoiler had a couple of big fog lights. I have remove thm and recreated the fins.

The rear spoilers are also replicated. The smaller one extended from the roof are the original parts but reshaped, and the big spoiler is modified from the donor 206 kit as well. 

Hope to start the paint job soon and get things ready sooner for decals and clear coat.

Subaru Impreza WRX STI double project (3)

Right, this is one of the major scratch-building work need to be done to the KB livery.

I got a spare Tamiya Peugeot 206 WRC (forget about the year, I think any of versions got the same spoiler anyway) and took its spoiler as donor. Then I stacked a few plastic sheets around and formed the basic structure.

Subaru Impreza WRX STI double project (2)

Working on the body with the stock Sti, I am putting this into Finisher Sea Side Blue. The color is so great in bare form. Probably it will be serviced with clear coat tomorrow and we should be able to how it will looks under coating.

Meanwhile, the mod Sti will be under major reconstruction. First of all the front intake will be reshaped, with the fog-lights removed.

At the same time, I have found a bit of time modifying the little rear wing from the original. I cut about 1/3 of its depth and filled a little piece of plastic at the corner to complete its shape.

Subaru Impreza WRX STI double project

I am always a great fan for the Subaru Impreza. Even though the type GG has been one of my favorites other than GDB, I have decided to start this project for a double build first, just to get rid of the bigger boxes in the room~~ ^_^"

Like most of the other projects, I have pre-assemble most of the body parts as a start. The Aoshima kits usually are not the most comfortable kit to work with. And I believe this STI is of no exception. The plastic are harder than those with Tamiya or Fujimi kits and the injection pins are always very visible. And the panel lines are not molded very well at all. I have to smoothen along most of the panel lines as my very first step.

As a very quick follow up work, primer was applied and I have double checked the panel lines again and prepared some of areas where will potentially affect the polishing at the end. These kind of observation and preparation are essential to a smooth project execution.