BMW M3 (Tour de Corse '89) | Beemax 1:24
Author | Krzysztof Szpakowski
Update 1 | 26.06.2021
I would like to present what I will be doing for the next few months.
BMW M3 (E30) in the rally version of the François Chatriot / Michel Perin crew, who finished second in the 1989 Corsican Rally.
A Beemax / Aoshima kit will be used to build the model.
The whole red color on the model is a decal.
The kit is, of course censored, but Beemax has avoided this dilemma in a rather clever way. I bought a set of photo-etched plates and additional decals for the model.
Although the quality of the decals look great, I decided to paint the red fields on the car. As a result, I had to buy another set of decals to be able to carry out this project in this way. Renaissance decals have the advantage that you do not need to put so many layers of decals on top of each other, which will favor the painting and polishing of the model.
A few photos of the BMW M3 and sprues with parts, that I think are of very good quality.
The rims of the model will be enriched with bolts and valves produced by scalecars.online
Tires will get markers from Decalcas.
The rear part of the seats will be covered with Scale Motorsport kevlar decals.
Unfortunately, the manufacturer of the kit did not add to the set of manual fire extinguishers and an internal fire extinguisher. The handbrake lever is only available as an add-on and is made of photo-etched plates. Unsure of the final effect of this part, I prepared the handbrake levers from the Subaru Impreza just in case. Will I use it, time will tell.
Colors for painting the model.
After the initial inspection and preparation, I am optimistic about this model. The castings are very good quality of the decals as well. I will check the fittings of the parts soon. Being honest, you can feel from the model that it is repackaged from a racing version to a BMW rally version. Despite a few changed sprues, some work needs to be done to bring the M3 up to the rally specs. As you know, life is an art of compromise and it seems to me that the Beemax has achieved this compromise, but as a model kit, the racing version is better prepared.
If someone decides to build this model, I recommend buying additional decals from Beemax, otherwise by making the model ‘straight out of the box' you will get a censored miniature without a handbrake, rear mud flaps and one wiper, which the manufacturer recommends to put on the other way around (because it's another detail from the racing version) which looks bizarre.
Time to start work!
The first work on the model is checking the fitting of parts and testing the fitting of the suspension.
The first step to make the model look like its original and adapt it to the specification of a rally car is to modify the hood. The rally car has bolts securing the halogen frame as well as the ends of the washer wires to the windscreen. I noticed these details in the photos of other BMW that I took at the Donington Park Museum in 2014. Of course, these details are also visible on a original car, there is only more difficult to see them due to the quality of the photos available.
Below, the hood before and after drilling.
The next work was to remove the excessive plastic from the grille, removal 'B' which is characteristic for every BMW, and the lamps try-on and drilling the bumper.
Work on the rear, from which it was necessary to remove the tailgate clips as well as drill the wall between the lamps for the fuel filler.
At the end of today's update the try-ons of the rear lamps, spoiler and bumper. In addition, I removed the locks on the doors to replace them with rivets as well as drilled a slot in the roof for the antenna and cabin air inlets.
In today's update, work on the rims and tires.
As I already mentioned, the original bolts will be removed and replaced with scalecars.online product.
Before reaming, I removed the inner edges of the rims to make them look natural.
Comparison of narrowed and non-narrowed rim.
Removing screws and reaming rims for air valves.
Rims painted with primer and Tamiya TS-21.
Rims with new bolts and air valves. The color of the bolts is Tamiya TS-42, the color of the valves is Humbrol 33.
Tires fitted and wrapped with decals, tread rubbed with sandpaper to add the realism.
Pirelli decals - Beemax
P.Zero decals - Tamiya
Tire markings - Decalcas
Front rims markings (red dots) - Tamiya
Below, the effects of two weeks of work on the BMW Prodrive.
At the beginning, puttying the fuel filler flap, the lack of which I found on a real car.
Then the car body had to be perfected, seams and unevenness were removed.
The model was painted with a primer and a white Tamiya's spray TS-26 base.
The next stage of work was masking the model - 5 hours of taping.
Painting with Tamiya TS-49.
After removing the masking tapes, I had to make a few corrections, but overall I am satisfied with the result of the work.
Try on the grill :)
The next stage of work on BMW M3 has begun - applying decals.
Day one and the first decals on the model. White and gold stripes cut from original decals sheet and applied individually.
13 stickers in total... About 4 hours of work.
Day two.
First Bastos and Motul decals on the car! I used a Renaissance decals on the model's hood. Bastos crests on the sides of the model is also Renaissance, because the golden color looked better than the Beemax one. Bastos decals on the sides of the model are Beemax.
Each decal was cut into 5 pieces and applied separately. Today's work took me 6 hours.
In today's update, day three and day four of the decals application.
Day three is 21 decals and 7 hours of work. Day four is 15 decals and 5 hours of work.
Now the car body is waiting to be cleaned of decal solutions and debris from cotton buds. The next step is to clear coat.
The model was painted with TS-13.
Below are the first results of polishing.
Simultaneously with the polishing, the work focused on the finishing of the front bumper. Indicator lenses are painted with TS-73. Halogen covers got black frames to visually bring the model closer to the original. The hooks for lifting the car in the service area come from the model set, not from an additional photo etched set. The reason is that the PE plates would be too thin for the real hooks and, moreover, it would not be possible to stick yellow markers on them.
The air inlet mesh has been painted black, while according to the manual, the detail is to be painted white, which is a mistake. In general, the bumper of the model comes from the racing version and has two air intakes. I made the mistake of not blocking the top inlet, convinced it would be completely covered by license plate. However, this is not the case and if someone does not realize and makes the model according to the instructions, then will have an incorrectly made front bumper. I covered the holes with white masking tape, because at this stage of work the bumper was already painted, glued and polished. It's not a perfect solution, but I think I handled the situation.
Small details can change the overall look of the model. And that's exactly what happened when I put the headlight lenses. Eventually, the model begins to look appropriate. I put the M3 emblem on the grill. Beemax added an appropriate sticker, but forgot to add the part to put the emblem on. I put halogen mounting bolts on the hood. I also made the panel lines and added several decals.
