Honda S600: Complete (#5 for 2018)

I'm quite happy with this one, which was built for The New Modelers Club ragtop build-off. As always the finishing could have been cleaner, but as always I am more interested in engineering mules than in show pieces.



I really like the S2000 drivetrain and how it fits. And the fat little pipe should be nice and raucous!



Comparison with the S800 is interesting. A couple of minor differences are now obvious (grille, tail lamps), but the customised bodywork with the extra foot of added width really makes a difference.





Under the hood is where the biggest difference lurks. Well, OK, the S2000 unit doesn't exactly lurk. Looming might be a better term.




Eight hundred cc and just under 80 hp (a very respectable 100 hp per litre), versus 2 litres and 240 hp. My Volvo V60 makes 250 hp, but needs 2.5 litres and a turbo to do so, making the S2000 engine a real outlier. 



It's almost like the difference between 289 and 427 Cobras...



So this has taken a lot of time and effort. Lots of scratch-building and fiddling (and the hood still doesn't quite fit); maybe I need a box-stock build as a break. Stay tuned!

Honda S600: bodywork, continued

After sorting out the fenders, next was a bulge in the hood to cover the engine, which really is a lot bigger than the stock 600 cc four leaned over at 45 degrees: the entire inlet manifold and most of the cam cover are out in the breeze.



First step was to cut out enough of a hole that the hood would actually close. I decided to retain the opening hood, although in all the horsing around one of the hinges snapped off. We'll see whether I go for hood pins.



With the scale of the hole well understood, next was to fabricate a bulge by cutting up a resin pro-stock hood I got from one of the vendors at NNL. (Sorry, I don't remember which vendor).



Apologies to the pro street builders out there for carving up a perfectly good cowl induction hood, but as the old saying goes, you will need to break some eggs if you want to make an omelette. A lot of trial and error led to a big bulge which is ready for putty, filing and sanding.



I wanted the air filter sticking out into the airstream. The little recess with the cylindrical streamlined section behind it consists, partly, of one of the headlamp buckets and front fender tops cut off the sacrificial body back when I was widening the bodywork. I am quite pleased with this little bit of reuse and recycle.



The S600 truly is tiny, with the petite S2000 looming over it. I love the baby Cobra look. Wikipedia says the original S600 made 57 horsepower and weighed just 715 kg, for a respectable specific power output of almost 80 hp/t. With 240 horsepower, the S2000 power plant will make a huge difference, even if we assume the modified car weighs another 100 kg. At 815 kg and 295 hp/t, this S600 Super would boast the same specific output as a 1963 289 Cobra (271 horsepower, 916 kg).



Next will be paint and, hopefully, final assembly. Stay tuned!

Honda S600: bodywork

There is lots to tell here. The S600 features very clean lines, and the primary objective was to keep it all clean and subtle; on the other hand the tires extend pretty much entirely outside the original body. So some sort of bodywork was going to be needed.





I took the (expensive) option of buying a second kit. I cut the sides off this second body and attached them to the first body with strips of styrene strip and angle. I added just under 5 mm (4.75" at 1:1) per side. Here are photos of the left side in progress.



The rear section has been widened by about 9" at 1:1, so there is now room for two round tail lamps instead of one. I think this keeps the subtle look better than keeping the narrow rear valance with wider fenders either side.



Love that S2000 driveline! A short piece of driveshaft will be needed.



The rear section went OK because the rear panel is essentially flat; in the front, dealing with two headlights took some planning. The goal is one of those lovely falling curves between hood line and fender line that you see in all the best '50's sports cars. I kept the headlight bucket from the grafted-on panel, and filed away the original, inner bucket. Filling the inner side of the fender, next to the hood line, required some 0.060" sheet for strength, followed by 0.010" sheet and putty for the final shape.



Compared to the unmodified S800, the change is subtle, which is what I wanted. Body width went from 59 mm at the midsection (about 56" at full scale) to 68.4 mm (64.5").



The body seam from the grafted-on panels will be foiled as in the original car; the seam from the inner body, which runs along the door tops, was shaved off. Essentially the outer panel consists of off-the-shelf S600 stampings, with the fenders hogged out to allow the car to sit low over the fat little Yokohama tires.



The body is still a bit narrow and is a long way from covering the tires; the rear tires extend 75.5 mm (71" at 1:1) from side to side, while the fronts are 73 mm (69"). So ideally 1:1 flares of about about 2.5" are needed at the front, 3.25" at the rear. I looked at a couple of options. First was an aftermarket transkit to convert a BMW 2002 or 320i to Group 2 sedan racing trim. The parts, from Scale Productions in Germany, are very well done.



These look good, and, unlike most flares designed for really big tires, fit the 16" rims well. However they are big and wide; a lot of filing would be needed. Also the look no longer features the clean and simple lines of the S600. And given the kit came with an air dam that doesn't fit, I decided to move on to other options and preserve the Group 2 kit for other projects. Second option was to use the extra S600 body panels to build out 'Euro-trash' fenders à la Porsche 935.





This is also a brute force approach, where I wanted the brute force look to be limited to the engine compartment -- subtle these are not. So finally, encouraged by folks on Facebook's The New Modeler's Group, I went for the old classic of a thin lip made of 0.010" styrene sheet, backed with some putty.



The tires still stick out about an inch at scale, especially at the rear; this is fine as it preserves the simple S600 lines and makes it look like the muscle underneath is bulging out of its T-shirt. It's looking very much like a miniature Cobra; this makes sense as I've bumped up the power by a factor of over 4.



So with the majority of the bodywork out of the way, things should move along relatively quickly. Just the hood to decide on... most of the engine will stick out unless I come up with some sort of monster bulge or scoop. Here you can see the air cleaner is well clear of the hood and may even be clear of the fender line.



A paper template gives an initial idea of the amount of hood that may need to be cut away. I may skip the hinges and simply go for four hood pins.



So there it is: an S600 widened by almost a foot. I've never seen one in the metal, but what a tiny little thing the original car was! This is coming along very nicely in my humble opinion. There is lots of sanding and primer in my immediate future...

2018 NNL East

I went to my first NNL, in Wayne, New Jersey, this last weekend. It was about what I expected: lots of really well-built stuff in the display room, and a vendor's room full of people making deals. I got there shortly after opening time at 9:00 and the lineup was moving nicely. I made a beeline for the vendor's tables, and quickly spent what I cash had brought with me. As few of the vendors take plastic, limiting the cash on hand is one way to ensure you don't spend too much.



Then to the exhibit hall. One of the tables is shown here.



One of the themes was cars built in 1959; another was resin bodies made by Modelhaus, a casting company that is going out of business as the owners are retiring. Modelhaus made a lot of kits of '50s cars, so there was a fair bit of overlap. No news on whether someone is buying up the masters.



The drive-in was a big hit. Lots of work there! And lots of pastel on the 1959 display table.



There were probably a thousand entries; I took 250 pictures and the best are summarised next. The Maserati 450 S, from Profil 24, is in my stash and the quality of the workmanship in this example is superb. A tough act to follow.



The Testa Rossa, from Hasegawa, is not in my stash, but again this one shows absolutely superb craftsmanship. Unfortunately the 22" rims on the GTO next to it were not period correct and really didn't look good. Pirellis on Borranis, please!





The Accurate Miniatures M8B and a trio of Cobras are also in my stash. I like the comment that the M8B kit is a better kit than they give it credit for.





Moving on to the 1959 theme, this Buick Starmaster is an imaginary V16 Coupe based on the Buick Electra. I'll post a few pictures as the work is superb and the idea is well out of the ordinary.



Wonderful scratch-building here, which looks like it involved moving the cockpit backwards to make room for the pair of Chevy small blocks glued together, incidentally making it into a 2-seater.



Lots of details here, including the rear window which slides up into the roof -- sort of a reverse sunroof.



The Electra is one of those more understated big boats in spite of the eyebrows over the lights.



The '53 Vette is a replica of a full-size cutaway that GM used in auto shows at the time of its introduction. Again superb scratchbuilding of the wireframe door and fender outline, as well as wiring up of the dash and the engine.



Moving on to the trucks, there were a large number of very well-built resin cabs with scratch-built accessories and whatnot.



The Mack B62 resin body made by American Industrial Truck Models is a perennial favourite and this one was particularly nice.



This COE and streamliner are both resin bodies and the finish is lovely. I love the period rear fenders on the truck.



This |Autocar was consistent with the heavy haulage theme pursued by many builders. Lots of very well done detail, although I discovered you can buy all kinds of resin cast stuff, for example winches for $2.



Vegetables anyone?





Rat rod mania now includes more and more trucks, and this, er, thing powered by a Detroit Diesel V16 was well put together with pinned and jointed steering. I was inspired to buy a similar resin motor as well as some #00-90 screws and nuts, for future use.



The Falcon is more 'conventional', if I may use that word when talking about builds that are meant to be outlaws. There is also a whole sub-cult that works at weathering models to look old and rusty.



My Starliner cab-forward concept has finally been replicated!



This one is mine from a number of years ago:



This one's in the WTF category. The display included a poster depicting a '50's vision of driving on the moon. Guess which company produced the poster ... there was also a Jetson's runabout.



Finally in the category of massively excessive levels of detail, there was a NASCAR ride which, rightly, won best in show, and a Dodge A100 pickup which didn't, probably due to the judges being blinded by the conflicting colours. Gotta admire the skill in plumbing it all up, though.





PS added April 23: I had the pleasure of meeting Jean-Jacques Lillette, who brought six lovely '50s models all the way from France. The detail on the Cadillac phantom wagon is excellent and is representative of his work; look for him on You Tube.



The recommended hotel was full by the time I booked, and so while I can heartily recommend NNL East, I can't say as much for the Comfort Inn on US Route 46 in Fairfield, New Jersey. All in all a good time and I include a shot of my haul. See you there April 27, 2019! Bring cash!