Skylines: 1989 R34 rolling chassis

A few hours concentrated effort got the second Skyline to the point of a rolling chassis. Most of the interior is painted and just needs assembly. I had previously finished painting the body at the same time as the 1972 which is one of my cleaner efforts.

So nothing to report beyond the fact that it is the usual Tamiya kit: goes together well, looks good. The 1972, however, looks better partly because there are lots more interesting engine bits like carbs, distributor, etc. As well the 1972 seemed to have lots more detail; for example the intake manifold and turbochargers on the 1989 do not connect to the intercooler which is a bit disappointing. Also most of the underhood bits are black so not a lot of contrast.

In any case, as a gentle start to the modeling season, it is far better than the disastrous attempt at painting the BRE Datsuns!

There probably won't be much time for any further news until I get back from the holidays, say mid-January. Happy holidays to you all out there on the InterWeb.

BRE Datsuns: One step forward, two back (and I haven't even started yet!)

OK, so first time back at the bench since late spring, and looking around for a suitable project to get going again, I settled on the BRE Datsun 510 and 240 Z from Revell. These were successfully campaigned by Pete Brock, with John Morton at the wheel, in the Trans Am sub-2.5 litre class way back when. The colour schemes being identical, I thought I'd get the bodies prepped and painted before tackling the bits I like best, namely the engine and chassis. That way the paint can harden before I need to handle it for final assembly.



The 240 Z kit involved some poor fits, such as the rear panel and nose to the body; there will be some putty here. The 510 fits are better but both kits involve a fair amount of scarf, flash and mold lines to be dealt with, possibly reflecting the age of the molds. Additionally the 510 body mold is very thin and flexible, and I can imagine it being easy to fracture it. All went well, however, including the Tamiya primer, until I got to the basecoat of Tamiya white which immediately pooled and ran in little puddles everywhere. I suspect the contents of the can, which is old, had separated and I didn't shake it enough, so the spray was mainly solvent.

So for the record: there is lots out there on stripping Tamiya paints, most of it contradictory. Tamiya thinner lists n-propanol and butyl alcohol as the contents; alternatively you can get rubbing alcohol, a.k.a. iso-propanol (not quite the same as n-propanol, granted) at 99% concentration at your local pharmacy. Soak the parts in a tray. Cover the tray to minimize evaporative losses; I used a large freezer bag for this. If the paint is fresh as it was in my case, an hour should do; you'll need to put on rubber gloves and scrub with a toothbrush to get it all off. Wash it all in soap and warm water, and either save the remaining iso-propanol for future use, or pour it down the drain with lots of warm water and soap.

As the next couple of days involve the usual family dinners, and as I will be away for another 10 days, that puts an end to any modeling until well into January. Oh well.

Moral of the story: always buy new paint cans! Or use an airbrush, which is an added level of complexity I am not prepared to get into at this stage.

All the best of the season to any readers out there.

Hobby shops

In earlier blog posts I've mentioned Wheel & Wings in Toronto, and Magic Box Hobbies in Vancouver. Today I stopped by Udisco, the biggest hobby shop in Montreal and a wholesaler for the region. Located here in a rabbit's warren of warehouse-like little passageways off the Decarie expressway, it covers RC airplanes and model trains as well as plastic kits. The old fellow who is usually at the counter wasn't there; he hadn't been looking well the last few times I had been in. I asked the young fellow at the counter and found out that he was the son, that the old fellow had passed away after a couple of years of serious illness, and that the funeral was yesterday. So very raw obviously, and I offered the family my condolences as I left.

The father had been in the location for 50 years and loved the business. Hopefully the family will figure out what to do with the business; it's all pretty antiquated in terms of customer service or ordering things, and a few of the "employees" are real characters and probably generally unemployable elsewhere. I wonder whether it has been turning a profit or just paying the rent and keeping Dad out of trouble ... If you're in the area, drop by, offer your condolences and buy something just to encourage them. The company is a wholesaler but is open to the public.

So what did I buy? I was looking for two items in particular. I grabbed the last copy of Revell's BRE Datsun 240Z, to go with the BRE Datsun 510 I bought last year and haven't started yet. The two are a pair. The 'B' in BRE stands for Pete Brock who campaigned these successfully in a range of SCCA club races way back when. Brock is also venerated, make that worshipped, as the guy who penned the Cobra Daytona Coupe for Shelby ... still one of the half dozen or so sexiest cars on the planet. How he wound up running a boxy 510 in the SCCA system, after coming up with that curvaceous beast, is a mystery.



I picked up a copy of Revell's car carrier trailer which fits US cars and will make room in the shelving along with the Mitsubishi car carrier I described previously. I've got a Freightliner truck, started but incomplete, to haul it.



I also bought AMT's '51 Chevy, which has a stovebolt 6 with a 12 port head, instead of the usual V8. I've built enough small blocks, it's time to build other stuff. This will serve as a donor for a chopped and channeled resin body from Jimmy Flintstone that has been sitting on the shelf for some time now.



Finally I took a chance on a set of 4 wheels and tires meant for RC planes. The objective is to replicate big flotation tires as used in Iceland, to fit under the Jimmy Flintstone resin kit of the '55 Chevy Suburban. At 1.75" diameter, they work out to 42" at scale, which is about right; however the width, at just under 3/4", is only 18" at scale, a bit narrow. We'll see how it works out. I've already got the '57 Cameo donor kit and can probably scrounge a 4X4 system from the parts bin; now I just need to get going.



And there is the problem: getting going. The weather in Eastern Canada has been very warm this fall; we've beaten record after record and there is no snow on the ground. So the hibernation instinct that drives us all indoors to the workbench has not kicked in yet.

Fujimi Porsche 917K

Whenever I am in Vancouver, I try to drop in on Magic Box Hobbies (Arbutus and 37th, here). While most of the stuff is RC or military, there is always an oddball selection of Japanese 1/24 kits, sometimes neat out of production items.

Most recently they had a copy of the Fujimi kit of the 917K, in the 1971 Martini Rossi livery as run at Sebring (Car #3, driven by Elford and Larousse to the win). On opening the kit, which was taped shut but not shrink-wrapped, it turned out to have the optional extra photoetched detail sheet including disc brakes, windshield wipers, lots of little bolts, window surrounds, etc. So clearly it came from a close-out somewhere. I bought it because for some time I have had the more detailed version of the engine for this car, made in resin by Historic Racing Miniatures, and I was just waiting for the kit to surface.


So I now have two 917Ks, the other being one of the super-detailed multi-media from Model Factory Hiro. Now I just need to find time to actually build something ... the career, which admittedly permits me to fly to Vancouver to buy obscure kits, is becoming tedious, and close friends are showing a disturbing propensity for getting sick. So maybe it's time to stop accumulating money and start enjoying life. To be continued ... meanwhile the rough
count is 9.4% WIP (12 kits), 41.1% complete (53) and 48.8% not started (63). For the keeners out there who have added this up and come to 99.3%, there is one unopened kit not included in the total: the Mecom Lola T70 in the original shrink wrap with original price tag of $1.83, marked down from $2.00. It's a definite have your cake and eat it moment: do I open it and build it (or at least gawp at it), or save the wrapping ... decisions, decisions.



So: as the Game of Thrones fanboys would say, Winter Is Coming, so maybe I'll get some building in soon. Stay tuned.

Monster tires

Summer in Canada ... long twilit evenings sitting on the deck, swatting mosquitos in hot humid weather while trying not to spill your beer into the pool. What could be nicer.

Well, I spent two weeks in Iceland where the sun, technically, 'sets' at about 00:15 and rises again at 01:15, but where it doesn't actually get dark in June or July, mainly because Reykjavik, the capital, is at 64 degrees north. Sort of like Anchorage, Alaska. Very freaky ... but mainly there are no mosquitos.

What they do have is monster trucks.

The country is crawling, literally, with trucks running big suspension and high flotation tires for off-road expeditions to glaciers, fording streams or crossing lava plains full of sharp rocks in the interior, etc. I have never seen so many off-road capable vehicles in any one spot other than a meet.

I really like the shot of the Ford Expedition next to the mini-bus. A lot of perspective there: 21 people in the minibus but limited to pavement, or 7 people in the Expedition but let's go anywhere.

And the tour bus on Mercedes Class 8 chassis, with 5 axles and lots of tire, is pretty impressive too. Probably seats 40 ...

There were lots of Land Rovers but plenty of Japanese or US stuff as well, even a number of jacked-up  Mercedes mini-buses.

At least one Ford E-350 van sported a tag proclaiming Quigley 4X4 conversions with a 1-800 number that would probably not work outside North America. http://www.quigley4x4.com/ turns up in a Google search but the link doesn’t work ... Note in particular the stretched 6-door Ford Expedition with F350 running gear. It must have cost a fortune to build that one. (The Model A in front of the Hotel Geysir was pretty neat too).

I watched the driver of a Nissan 4WD crawl by me up a snowy slope in first gear, low range, the driver keeping the diesel just above idle with his left foot off the clutch, moving slower than I could walk up a 15% to 20% grade in deep slush, each wheel in turn trying to slip and being caught by one of what I have to assume was a full complement of limited slip or locked diffs. The most challenging parts required getting out to let more air out of the tires; he had a big battery operated compressor in the passenger footwell for reinflating these monster tires as needed which appear to carry two tubes (at least there were two tire valves, side by side, in each rim). Very impressive, not just because he was delivering our food supplies to our mountain huts.

 

 

 

So I've got Jimmy Flintstone's 1955 Suburban resin body, and AMT's 1957 Cameo is on order; now I just need the tires. Big donuts with minimal tread, not the tractor tires as in arena truck meets; to be continued.

 

Meanwhile I avoided the hot and sticky weather back home by staying in the cooler garage and building a paint booth with extraction fan. Cost so far, for the fan, 1/4" plywood sheet and wiring, is about $20; now I just need some dryer hose and a cardboard box. Pictures to come. Bring on winter, baby! Time to start building again.

 

 

Summer doldrums, 300 SL

It being summer in the northern hemisphere, all us daylight-deprived Canadians are hanging out on the deck with a couple of cold ones well into the night, taking advantage of those long summer twilights that you don't get further south. (I suspect Minnesotans and others from the northern Mid-West states probably feel the same way).  During the day we are madly running around hiking, canoeing, biking, running and participating in all kinds of other sports where we can actually go outside without having to put on a parka and three pairs of socks. So indoor activities, such as modeling, tend to grind to a halt until the flying, freezing slop returns in October or November.

That doesn't mean that the credit card needs to grind to a halt. The latest addition is Tamiya's excellent Mercedes-Benz 300 SL. The complex tubular chassis is very well done, in what seems to be a more flexible and less brittle styrene formulation than I am used to; it's a shame that it isn't really visible once the car is complete, in spite of the clear undercarriage. I am tempted to build and exhibit the chassis separately from the body, which will require covering up the gearbox and differential which are hollow and not meant to be viewed from above. 

For the mid-50's, the 300 SL is an interesting mix of old and new. The straight six, with overhead cam and fuel injection, is state of the art for its time, except for the siamesed exhaust ports for cylinders 1, 2, 5 and 6. The suspension, while independent all around, is by swing axles at the rear, and not even MB's novel low-pivot swing-axle. This was used on the later 280 SL and the big sedans up to and including the classic 300 SEL 6.3. The picture below is a good shot of the low-pivot system, which actually works surprisingly well, and which thus represents the triumph of detailed, focused German engineering over a single bad design decision made at the outset. Sort of like the 911 with its engine hung out the back.

 

Mercedes didn't switch to a proper independent rear until 1968 with the smaller 280, and 1972 with the 450 S-class.

With 70 kits either incomplete (about 10) or unstarted (about 60), many of them very challenging builds requiring much custom work, I figure I've got enough work for about a year and a half if I work at it 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, with two weeks off at Christmas. The career, however, is already taking up 2000+ hours a year, so clearly this will only get going for real once I retire.

Not that I am complaining; the career brings in cash that allows me to buy obscure stuff, not to mention new IKEA shelves to put it all on. If my boss is reading: Hooray for the career!

Abarth OT 1300 and other recent acquisitions

As noted in previous posts, I should probably stop buying new kits while I catch up on the backlog of incomplete or unbuilt kits.

Yeah, right.

Two packages turned up in the mail yesterday. The most interesting one was Model Factory Hiro's Abarth OT 1300, in the version commonly known as the 'Periscopio', due to the funny little scoop mounted on the roof to feed cool air to the cabin (or the carbs, as some web sites claim, but the photographic evidence supporting this assertion is a little thin).

Now faithful readers will recall my struggles with MFH's Porsche 908/03. This has proved to be a major challenge, with a huge number of white metal bits, such as chassis tubes, that are easily bent out of shape, and that have miniscule little dowels that are way too easy to shear off when you try to fit them into equally small sockets, and which are thus very difficult to get right. In fact the last post on this kit was November 2, 2014 (here) when I mistakenly concluded that Mr Carpet had eaten one of the warning lights on the dashboard; as a result I set the 908/03 aside in order to actually finish something. I also have MFH's 917, which I have not started but which looks to be equally challenging. So buying the Abarth was a bit risky.

No worries, however; at first glance the body and chassis consist of two very nice molds, complemented by front and rear opening body pieces that fit very well indeed at this early stage. There are a lot of white metal bits but most are engine or suspension related; it looks to be a much easier build (although still not for the faint of heart).

Why the Abarth, you ask? Like the Alpines, it is an obscure, very attractive little car, and obviously channels the singular passion and vision of the founder (Carlos Abarth in this case). It is iconoclastic, uncompromising and unique. As with a lot of Abarth creations, it is loosely based on cheap Fiat or Simca sedans of the late '50s and early '60s. In particular it has a water-cooled 4-cylinder motor hanging out the back, a short-stroke, twin-cam, twin-plug 1290 cc little bomb making an estimated 145 horsepower, all of it probably available in a sudden onslaught between 4500 and 6000 rpm.

Note 145 hp from 1290 cc is 112 hp/litre, or a whopping 1.84 hp/cu.in. Without a turbo. Like I said, a little bomb. A 327 cu.in. Chevy small block would need make 600 hp to match this specific output.

Supercars.net has a few photos but clearly they are of at least 5 different cars. I assume there is an official Abarth history out there somewhere, complete with serial numbers, but I am fully expecting the production numbers for this car were low (50 units to meet homologation requirements, according to Supercar.net) and that no two cars were alike. Going on the instruction sheet (which includes colour photos of one particular 1:1 car taken in a yard somewhere in 1993), I would assume the kit attempts to replicate this car.

At the same time, I ordered a kit of the gorgeous Aston Martin DB4 Zagato, but this unfortunately is out of stock. I've enquired as to the availability of the Cobra Daytona Coupe, but no reply yet. These two cars, along with the Jaguar D-Type and Ferrari 250 GTO, are rightfully the sexiest cars on the planet.

The other package included an out-of-production Monogram model of a 1985 Mustang IMSA GTP car with a turbocharged 4 cylinder motor, a resin 1955 Chevy Suburban body from Jimmy Flintstone that needs a '55 through '57 Chevy pickup kit to complete, and finally the well-known and very detailed Accurate Miniatures McLaren M8B in Lothar Motschenbacher trim. The 36-page instruction book (this is definitely not a 'booklet' or a 'sheet') includes such items as 'Now let it dry and just stare at it'... Model Car Garage offers a photo-etched sheet with added detail bits which I will try to track down.

Excluding the assortment of Jimmy Flintstone bodies, most of which are lacking a conventional kit to supply chassis bits, the completed models are now out-numbered by the incomplete ones by 69 to 53.