Mosler MT900R "Ichigo-Ichie"
Ichigo-Ichie, "one life, one encounter", is a Japanese concept associated with the tea ceremony that suggests each moment is unique and unrepeatable, something we should live with the awareness that it will never come again. It's similar to the Latin phrase "Carpe diem", but the latter is more about seizing the day, while Ichigo-Ichie invites us to be mindful of the uniqueness of each moment.
The association of this concept with the car arose quite by chance, in the broadest sense of the word. I wanted to do a paint job on a car, inspired by BMW's "art cars", specifically the BMW M3 GT2 decorated by Jeff Koons that competed in the GT2 category of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Andy Priaulx, Dirk Müller, and Dirk Werner at the wheel. I knew it would be on a sport car, but I hadn't decided which one. Looking for possible models, I chose an NSR Mosler MT 900R that I had saved for other plans that never materialized. The Mosler itself isn't a car I particularly like, for many years it was the car to beat in slot car racing competitions, but I've done very little speed racing myself, in fact, I haven't competed in anything for years and it's a car that held no interest for me. Even so, I bought a kit to decorate it because, in a way, this car is part of slot car racing history and undoubtedly marked an era in track racing here in Spain, so I got myself one. The reason for buying the kit was to decorate it to my liking because, as I mentioned, the car itself doesn't do anything for me. That said, I admit it's incredibly fast and very easy to drive (I'm referring to the slot car; I have no idea about the real one).
I already had the base and the inspiration for its design, and I also wanted to use the car to practice with enamel paint. But instead of painting longitudinal stripes of different colors on the black car, as is the case with the Le Mans BMW, I painted transverse stripes of different colors in a rainbow pattern using red, orange, yellow, lime green, Mediterranean blue, and purple, all in Humbrol gloss shades (references 19, 18, 69, 38, 48, and 68 respectively). Since the lines between the colors weren't going to be sharp, when I painted one color, I rinsed the airbrush a little and applied the next one, so the painting process was relatively quick.
Naturally, the painting process began with the prepatation of the body as I usually do: a few light sanding passes and a coat of spray primer, Dupli-Color gray in this particular case, before applying the colors.
After letting them dry, I masked the entire bodywork lengthwise and randomly with 2 mm wide strips of masking tape to give a speed effect, similar to the way Jeff Koons' BMW is painted.
With the entire car masked, I applied a coat of gloss black enamel, and once the tape was removed, the car looked like this:
The result is interesting; it's basically the effect I was going for. Since it's enamel paint, the drying times are considerably longer than with acrylic paint, which allows for more time when removing the masking tape without creating a "sawtooth" effect where the paint tones meet. On the other hand, the paint is more toxic, and the painting tools (brushes and airbrush) must be cleaned with solvent. They are considerably more cumbersome to use than acrylic paints, but the results are very good, in some cases superior, both with matte colors and when painting with glossy tones, as in this particular case.
To break up the monotony of the design, I painted a pink stripe with Humbrol enamel, reference 200, on the front and rear of the car. I also wanted to paint the spoiler in the same shade of pink and coordinate it somewhat with the bodywork so it wouldn't look like a pink blob on top of a multicolored car.
Once the paint was completely dry, it was time to apply the decals. I didn't want to overload the car because it was already quite colorful, so I basically limited myself to:
- Numbers like those on the GTD cars in the IMSA championship.
- A few sponsor logos left over from previous projects.
- The kanji for "Ichigo-Ichie", in white for the front and sides of the car, and black for the rear wing (because it would be painted pink).
The following image shows some of the decals I used to decorate the car. The rest, as I mentioned, were scraps from other projects.
To protect the livery, I applied two coats of automotive clear coat, sanding lightly between coats, always respecting the drying times, usually 72 hours per coat. The lacquer is touch-dry in about four hours and theoretically fully hardens in 24 hours, but after those 24 hours, the lacquer has a "rubbery" feel, as if it hasn't completely hardened yet. Since I like the coating to be completely dry before handling the car, I prefer to wait the full 72 hours. I like to take my time, and the time it takes with the materials, for my projects.
And to finish the bodywork, I painted the sides and rear of the cab with marine gray enamel (Humbrol reference 27). The work was practically just masking, to paint only the parts of the body I wanted, because the actual painting was limited to a mere 5 minutes with the airbrush. In any case, the work was worthwhile. I really like the contrast between glossy and matte colors, and whenever I can, I take advantage of the opportunity to do something like this.
I painted the interior metallic gray (Humbrol enamel). I like to paint interiors in light colors to make them brighter and stand out a bit, although with the car's limited glass area, you can't really see much. The dashboard and driver are painted with different shades of Vallejo acrylic paint.
I was planning to paint the side mirrors pink, and in fact, I initially did, but IMSA GTD cars are identified by the green color on their numbers, side mirrors, and the sides of the rear wing, and since I wanted to simulate that the car was from that category, I painted them green. The only difficulty I encountered was mixing a shade of green similar to the car's racing number, but by mixing some Vallejo Model-Color paints, I achieved the right tone. I painted both the rearview mirrors and the sides of the wing by brush, they are small pieces and can be painted perfectly that way, yielding a good result.
The mechanics are the original kit parts without any modifications. In this case, the car had the EVO 3 chassis with a long-can anglewinder motor. Although it's not the most advanced mechanics for this model, dynamically it's a very good car, like practically all NSR models. You just need to add a few drops of oil to the friction points and you're good to go. I only painted the BBS inserts on the wheels black (Humbrol reference 33) to create a bit of contrast with the body's gloss. As I mentioned before, I really like to create contrasts with glossy and matte colors.
The simplicity of the bodies is a hallmark of NSR, and this one is no exception. The headlights are limited to two clear lenses and a piece that simulates the lights, and the taillights are simply a piece of clear plastic that also includes the exhaust pipes that emerge from the center of the rear. To make them a bit more interesting, I painted the insides with Tamiya translucent paints: the headlights with translucent yellow (reference X-24), since it's an IMSA GTD car, and the taillights with translucent red (reference X-27), applied with an airbrush. Painting them from the inside protects the paint and gives a very realistic effect.
And with that, all that remained was to put all the parts in place to finish the car.
The Mosler MT900R will continue to be a car I don't particularly like. In fact, I didn't mention it in the presentation of this project because, frankly, I could have done it with any other GT car. I used this one because it was the one I had on hand, and now that I've finished it, I admit I like it much more. The white Japanese Kanji against such a colorful background look fantastic, in my opinion. In fact, I think I should have added a few more, but it turned out this way. And the IMSA GTD-style racing numbers make the livery look like it could easily be on a real car.
I'd had this livery in mind for a while, and the "Ichigo Ichie" concept was a perfect fit because, just as every moment is unique and unrepeatable, so is the car's livery. Even if I did it again, I'd never be able to create the exact same car. Besides, I really enjoyed the process and the unique and unrepeatable moments I experienced.
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