Subaru Brat STi: planning

Today's Japanese hot rod planning: Will the Hobby Design resin kit of the Impreza STi engine fit in the engine bay of the Subaru Brat? It's gonna be tight... even more difficult than in real life, as the engine is 1/24, and the Brat about 4% smaller at 1/25.

I'm looking at grafting on an extended nose and airdam from the parts bin to clear all the radiators and intercoolers. I'm also going to try to avoid stealing anything from the Tamiya WRC kit in order to retain the capability to build it up OOB, which I will get around to eventually in spite of the lack of any decent engine detail. 

Stay tuned! Could be fun.

Citroen 2CV Roadster: Complete (#24 for 2020)

 A push got this done but with a bit of sloppiness.

 I love the long deck, even on a small car.

I hate the new Blogger interface, impossible to get the pictures all left justified or centered without winding up with text wrapping issues. I want to publish, not waste time figuring out some stupid interface designed by an engineer! Gah. Anyway stay tuned.

 

Citroen 2CV Roadster: body and chassis

The suspension, consisting of leading and trailing arms hinged under the floor, can easily be lowered with a bit of cutting. 

The engine now has a small white metal turbocharger, probably from Scale Productions, with manifolding made from brass tube and bits of styrene. In retrospect it could have been set up to allow a shorter exhaust pipe, but it will do. 

Paint consists of Tamiya Light Sand (TS-46) with Linoleum Deck Brown (TS-69) for the fenders. Both paints are flat, so a couple of coats of clear or semi-gloss clear will improve things somewhat. 

Paint now needs to set before the second coat is applied. Stay tuned!

Citroen 2CV Roadster: Overview

I've seen a couple of 2CV customs that look interesting but too many retain the large greenhouse. So off with its head! This was helped by gluing in a beam across the inside of the body, roughly where the back seat would go, to keep it all from wobbling as I went through it with the saw and the back of the #11 Exacto blade. 

BTW I really don't like the new blogger interface, and find it difficult managing photos, for instance alternating text and images, or importing photos without the old drag and drop approach. So the pictures are all in a clump after the text, and will continue that way until I learn how to do it better. I'd hate to switch hosts because both of my faithful readers know where to find me. Ha ha just kidding, I know there are at least 5 of you. So anyway here are pictures documenting the hacking and slashing stage, and early layout of the flatback. (Boat-tail approaches would work really well too as the chassis does not need to extend very far back of the hinge for the trailing arms).

Dutch Mountain Service Rescue Landie: Complete (#23 for 2020)

The Dutch Mountain Rescue Service Vehicle is now complete and ready should any mountain emergencies occur. (Not having any photos of Dutch mountains handy, I have posed it in front of a picture of the Icefields Parkway, looking south from Jasper, Alberta.) It is shown with the Icelandic Icefields Tour Bus previously built. A fun build, and the kit definitely earns its Skill Level 5 rating. 

Dutch Mountain Rescue Service Landie: Chassis

The chassis now sits on a 3" lift, making room for 18" X 34" wheels and mud tires from Scenes Unlimited. And it won't even need fender flares. 

I've used these rims and tires before, on the Icelandic Chevy Suburban.