Ford Mustang GT4

My latest project is Tamiya's Ford Mustang GT4 race car. Since I am a fan of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, this car will be painted with Tamiya TS-4 German Grey with a Tamiya TS-13 Gloss Clear top coat and a white roll cage with a black racing seat to represent the car shown there in 2017. I haven't built a race car in a very long time. Let's see what I can do with this kit!



More Mustang to come...

I've been seeing a lot of this kit. It looks awesome. This will be the fist I'm seeing it built. Looking forward to this.

Thanks Dirk! I have been watching Youtube builds of this kit and it seems to practically fall together. Maybe if I shake the box with all the parts in it...

Keep watching, nightflier. There's more to come!
I pulled the body out of the baggie it was in to inspect it for mold lines and flash and surprise! There are none! Now on to a bath! The instructions say to leave the chassis white and I thought it would have been grey like the body color. I started to think about taking a "body-in-white" and Multimatic Racing in Canada building the cars with roll cages and such and then painting the bodies. I suppose the chassis would have remained white while they painted the body grey with the usual overspray.



More Mustang to come...

The body looks great, really crisp.

Not just the body, but all the parts are crisply molded.

mrmike wrote:Not just the body, but all the parts are crisply molded.  

Makes life so much easier.

nightflier wrote:

mrmike wrote:Not just the body, but all the parts are crisply molded.  

Makes life so much easier.

It sure does!
I did a little painting today. I painted the wheels with Tamiya TS-42 Light Gunmetal, the exhaust system with Tamiya X-31 Titanium Gold, the front suspension and disc brakes with Model Master Acryl Arctic Blue Metallic, Model Master Stainless Steel Metalizer, Tamiya Titanium Gold and Tamiya Chrome Silver. The chassis is coming along...



More Mustang to come...

Looking seriously good.

Thanks nightflier!

There it is! There's one mold line on each side of the A pillar and runs the length of the upper door on both sides. There's a mold line on each corner of the rear bumper, too! I have highlighted them in pencil. A mockup of the chassis with all four wheels and tires.



More Mustang to come...

A little sanding and filling Mike, chassis looks really good

Thanks nightflier! The body has been sanded and now to wash it again and let it air-dry. Then I can primer and paint the body.

I'm not big on modern Mustangs but this one has got all the right extra bits.

Looking good Mike.

Thanks Al! Even at 3 years old, interior pictures of these Mustangs are hard to find or I am just looking in the wrong spot. I would love to add some interior wiring if I can.

More work on the interior has been done. The roll cage has been assembled and is not glued into the interior. I used Bare Metal Foil for the clamps on the two bottles in the interior. The grey bottle with the two clamps on it is suppose to be painted with Tamiya XF-63 German Grey and it is not listed in the Paint Callout. Since I don't have that color, I used Model Master Acryl Gunship Grey. I want to wire all this up, but I haven't been able to find any schematics or diagrams. Maybe someone knows where I can find them.



More Mustang to come...

Great work Mike.

These might help. If not just wing it would be my advice!!

Thanks nightflier and Al!
Al, I have seen those pictures before and they do show some detail. But, I want more!!! LOL Thanks for posting them!

I have been wiring the interior components of the GT4 Mustang. While I tried to find some good pictures showing the wiring, I decided to just wire everything freely with no particular reference. It's all a guessing game for me and I am having fun!



More Mustang to come...

More wiring added to the interior. I added the drivers seat with harness that I had cut out of the decal sheet since it would be too flat just using the decal alone.



More Mustang to come...

Looking good Mike, love the seat belts.

Thanks nightflier! I may look into removing them and cleaning them up more. Closeups reveal a lot of cleanup is needed.

I removed the seat harness so I could apply the decals to the seat, so I swapped the straps around and reglued them to the seat. One of the things I had noticed was the white edge around the harness and I used a black Sharpie to mask the edges. The interior is now decaled and wired and while the wiring may not be totally correct, is does add something to the interior. I installed the dash after adding the decals to the center stack and I used a couple of PE rings for the instrument panel.



More Mustang to come...

Great detailing Mike.

Thanks nightflier! The thing I am disliking about my builds are the closeups and crooked detail decals. I'm gonna have to use my magnifier for now on. I may have to find or build a safety net for the interior like those I have seen in pictures of the Mustang GT4. I also found that there are no tire decals, so I dug out a set of Goodyear #1 Eagle tire decals from my decal stash. They are not the right brand, but the tires will have markings.

I thought I had finished the chassis until I realized that I had not glued on the door panels. The wheels and tires looked like it was missing something and then I realized that the tires don't have any lettering on the sidewalls. I don't have any Continental sidewall decals, but I do have some Goodyear sidewall decals by Slixx and I used those instead. I'll let this dry a while and then I'll give it a coat of Testors Dullcoat.



More Mustang to come...

I pressed the wheels and tires together and did a mockup to check my work.



More Mustang to come...

I finally got the Mustang GT4 into primer. I'll let this dry for a bit and inspect the body and then on to Tamiya TS-4 German Grey and Tamiya TS-13 Gloss Clear.



More Mustang to come...

I got the Mustang GT4 into four coats (two mist and one medium and one heavy) of Tamiya TS-4 German Grey and two mist coats of Tamiya TS-13 Gloss Clear, so far. More Gloss Clearcoats are coming shortly.



More Mustang to come...

That looks brilliant Mike.

Thanks nightflier! A couple more coats of clear and then some polishing and then on to decals.

Looking good Mike. Love the dry transfer tyre lettering.

Thanks Al! The tire lettering is water slide decals with Dullcoat clear over it, not dry transfers.

I ran out of Scratch X 2.0 and went down to the auto parts store to get another bottle and they had changed the name to just Scratch X now with wax.  I ended up with Nu Finish Scratch Doctor since it doesn't have any wax in it.  Scratch Doctor doesn't seem to be as aggressive a polish as Scratch X 2.0, so I'll be using it a bit more.  

I have polished most of the body with Nu Finish Scratch Doctor.  I need to go over a few areas again. 



More Mustang to come...

I got back on the Mustang GT4 today and I added the front and rear pieces like valances, grilles and lenses. And, of course I just couldn't resist doing a mockup. I'm liking this!



More Mustang to come...

The Ford Mustang GT4 is coming along! I am having a little difficulty with the nose spoilers and installing them. The taillights were painted and I messed them up bad when I tried to paint the black borders around them. I put them into a container of 91% alcohol and removed the paint. I'll try again, hopefully with better luck this time.



More Mustang to come...

Having messed up the taillights, I stripped the paint once again and will repainted them on the correct side. I was able to sort out which taillight goes where using chrome sprue D. Now to carefully paint the taillights!



More Mustang to come...

Another hurdle out of the way! I figured out a way to effectively paint the taillights by using a black felt tip pen and marking the blacked out areas of the taillights on one side and then painting the backside with Tamiya X-27 Clear Red. Then I glued the lenses to the chrome backings when the clear red dried. It's not perfect, but it is done.



More Mustang to come...

I started the task of decaling the Mustang GT4 today. And, I have a long way to go.



More Mustang to come...

The decals are on and complete! Yes. I know I used the wrong decals for the front wing spoilers. I had issues with the correct decals and used these instead. A quick mockup and then cleanup, touchup and final assembly!



More Mustang to come...

It looks great Mike. I haven't built a Tamiya kit for a few years, I'll have to get one out of the stash.

Tim, out of all the Tamiya kits I have assembled over the years, this is the best one yet!  Thanks! If I shake the box just right, a completed model will come out of the box!

Man that looks sharp

A real stunning build.

Thanks Dirk and Spanky19! It's not quite done, yet. I still have more to do on it and then I'll post my final pictures in Completed Models.