Busy Time Ahead!

Hi everyone

I think I am going to be a little busy for the next few weeks. Whilst at the Hendon Show last Sunday, I was handed this box below.

It is the 1/24th Mercedes Benz G4 German Personnel car that I have been asked to do a review build for SMMI magazine. So whilst I am working on this, other work will be put on hold, i.e. the 53 Chevy BelAir. As this is a magazine review, I will not be posting the progress of the build on here, but I will post a couple of photos of the finished model. After it is publish in the magazine, a more in-depth guide to the construction will go up on here.

Pacific Diorama - SAMI June 2013 Issue

Hi All

Here is a little slideshow of a diorama built by our club president David Scott, which is going to featured in Junes addition of Scale Aviation Modeller International. Have a quick look then read the article when the magazine is out.

53 Chevrolet BelAir Custom WIP #1 : The Story So Far

This project started about three years ago now, could even be a little earlier, you know how time flies! The original plan was to build this car and replace the straight six engine with a V8 using the Revell Parts Pak Chevy 283cu replacement engine. As I started, it occurred that the Revell engine would look too small in the engine bay, so a resin 502 TPI resin engine from Gibson Engines was purchased. This was definitely larger and it was also a modern engine to, fitting in with my idea of doing a modern, but retro looking custom car.

Work started and it was clear from the offset, that some changes were going to be done to the model. First job was to remove the battery in the engine bay, this would be relocated in the boot area out of sight. This hole would be filled with some plasticard.

Next, fill in the holes for the badge and emblem on the bonnet to start to get the cleaner look. 

The quarterlights on the door were the next items to be removed, a more open window line was required for this project.

To start to get the cleaner look to the cars lines, I began removing the moulded chrome trim along the side the body. The rear areas of trim were left originally, but this was to change a little further down the development process.

Next the boot lid had the any trim location holes filled in and sanded. The rear light are mounted on large chrome bodies,so in the de-trimming process, I opted to have the rear light clusters "frenched".

More sanding to remove any trim mark on the bodyshell.

As the rear lights were "frenched", the same needed to be done with the headlights. First the headlight openings were cleaned up and enlarged slightly. Then the headlight unit had the chrome surround removed and the units diameter was reduced so it would fit inside the opening in the wings.

The main engine block and transmission were assembled, then as they get positioned in the engine bay, a little clearance issue raised its ugly head!

Problem sorted! Remove original inner wings and build some new ones. Result, more space.

The next little job to be done, remove the lower window trim to have a cleaner line to the side windows.

The chassis and underfloor were to receive my attention. First the exhaust system was cut out and then the hole filled with some plasticard and filler. Then more filler was added to the sink marks in the chassis rails.

The following photos were taken after lowering the suspension height and using the original set of wheels I planned to use for the car. These wheel got changed later as they were not large enough for the look I wanted. Still trying to decide between two different wheels.

 

These photos were taken at the beginning of the project. There has been more progress done to the model since these were taken. New photos will be taken and posted with the latest work details of this project in the next couple of days.

2007 Nissan R35 GT-R Finished (well, kind of!)

I managed to do it, get it done before the weekend was over.

This has been one of my quickest builds for a while, and a pleasure to do. The GT-R is in a word finished, it is just the wheel colour I have not made up my mind on yet. For now, the rims have been left in the silver colour that they came out of the box. I cannot decide on whether to leave them in this silver or paint them in one of the Alclad shades like Magnesium or Steel. In photos of the real car in similar shades of blue like this model, they tend to have darker wheel rims on them and not a bright silver like this. So I am toing and throwing between keeping the rims silver or spraying them a darker shade. Until the decision has been made, I will leave them without the decals added to the wheel centres and do it once I have made my choice.

A little leap back to the last posting on this project and the problem of the front bumper. I managed to sort this out by just using a few strips of plasticard. A thick piece was glued to the bumper just below the position of the tab on the bodyshell where the bumper is meant to be glued to. Once this was dry, I then used a strip of thinner plasticard and first glued it to bodyshell, then to the piece on the bumper. Afterwards, I glued another strip of thin plasticard over the other piece to strengthen it. This seems to have worked okay so far and is holding its position.

Now this is finished, it is time to start thinking about the next new car project. I have dug out the 53 BelAir custom I started a couple of years ago. I will post about this project next.  But the choice on what new one to start, this is the problem. Whilst getting towards the end of this project, I felt tempted to start on my Lancer Evo X that I got 18 months ago, but there is also the 1/16th scale Ferrari F40 Blackstar that keeps drawing my attention. Another one that keeps popping into my head is the 1/16th scale Chevy Nomad (old AMT/Matchbox kit), then there is another one of my kits I start to think about. That is the trouble when you have a big stock of un-made kits, which one to do next. A long hard think is needed!

Well, back to the GT-R. Below are a few photos that were taken on my phone for quickness. They are not the best quality, but I need to set aside a day to take a load of photos of the finished models that are not on my website yet. Oh yes, it is worth the extra cost of the kit to have the engine in it!

Jaguar XJR8-LM Finished

I did it, got it finished for the Automodellismo show last Sunday.

After having this model sitting in a box for nearly two years part built and only needing the body to be painted and finished, I should have done this earlier then now. It has surprised me how the finished model has turned out, especially with using some salvaged decals from the kit and others from the folder containing left over decals from other models. I am very happy with the finished model.

Last Sunday was its first outing and it was on the club stand, with comments coming across from a few visitors to the stand like "I remember seeing that scheme!" and "These colours always looked great on the Jags!". You can imagine their faces when I tell them this scheme never existed on the Jaguar XJR8's, as they say, priceless! It is a shame that this kit does not come with an engine supplied with it, think this might call for getting the Tamiya XJR9 kit!

Well, here are a few quick photos of the finished model, I need to set aside a day for taking some photos of the finished models I have done over the last year that still need to be done for my website. Once the R35 GT-R is finished, this photo session will have to be sorted out!

2007 Nissan R35 GT-R WIP #3

Just a little update on my R35 GT-R project.

The body was cleared thus showing a small mark in the paint on one side of the body. I decided not to do anything about this as it was not a major issue and the model was only to be a quick OOB build.

Whilst I was at the Automodellismo show last Sunday, detail painting progressed on the bodyshell, bumpers, front panel and glazing. This continued with the painting when I had a bit of spare time during this week, but due to the chaos at work, not much of my modelling jobs got done this week. The front bumper is a little problem when fitting it to the bodyshell. It tends to stick out where the bumper meets the wheel arch. So I have been trying to work out the best way to rectify this little annoyance as straight forward gluing does not work. More on this and if my idea is successful later.

If I really made an effort this weekend, there is a chance I cold get most of this project finished before Sunday evening. But as all you model builders know, there is always something that interferes with your plans, normally the wife's plans!