Looking for pale yellow paint proved to be a challenge as I don't have an airbrush, and can't mix my own.
The interior was a challenge with the large decal being a difficult fit over a series of raised sections.
The comparison with the Skyline is interesting, with the sedan body of the Skyline looming over the smaller Toyota.
Twin-cam sixes with lots of carbs.
What's next? Hard to say! Stay tuned.
The white metal engine and resin underhood bits took some fiddling to get it all to fit, and were definitely not representative of the quality of fit of a typical Hasegawa kit. I also have their Nissan R89C with metal engine, and this is an important point to watch on that kit as well.
A very nice engine, designed by Yamaha, and competitive with the Nissan Skyline engine.
Next is the resin engine bay, which required some adjustments to fit the engine, chassis and body.
It turns out that the two exhaust manifolds are slightly different to clear frame rails that narrow towards the transmission tunnel. A bit of filing avoided having to remove and swap them, but future builders should watch this.
This lovely and rare Hasegawa kit of the lovely and rare 2000 GT looks to be a gem. The kit is part of the "Collector's Hi-Grade Series", and includes white metal motor components, resin inner fenders, and an assortment of photo-etched and rubber bits which are not included in the standard kit. I must have picked it up late one night on eBay.
Most cars were white; the plastic mould sadly is not quite good enough to simply polish but will require paint. Red was another option (recall only 351 cars were made); but I've got a lot of red models. However I found online photos of a lovely pale yellow car. Now I just need to find the right colour; Tamiya doesn't have anything except their standard yellow. A trip to the auto parts store may be in order.
Paint has started on the chassis, engine and interior. Stay tuned!
Another one for 2020. Started in 2016 and shelved in 2018, this is a challenging resin kit requiring lots of testing, filing, fabrication, and interpretation. But it was worth it given the historical importance of the car.
A brutal shape meant to cover the 6 litre supercharged V16. Being parked up front like this must have been a very different driving experience.
Exhaust manifolds need to be reviewed as I cut one side down a little too much. A lot of this was trial and error.
Last described here in May 2018, I figured it was time to revisit this challenging kit by the Portuguese builder Fernando Pinto. The Auto Union Type C was designed by Ferdinand Porsche, and a number of design features, such as swing axles and transverse torsion bars, subsequently turned up in the Volkswagen Beetle and early Porsches.
The 6-litre V16, with a centrifugal blower, made over 500 horsepower in 1939. At the time the kit got shelved, the engine had paint, fuel lines and plug wires; today I struggled with the exhaust manifolds that need to line up with the opening in the engine cover, with only moderate success.
Elsewhere there are a number of rather sketchy chassis bits, along with beautiful wire wheels and a resin grille with embedded wires.
An obscure kit of an iconic car. Stay tuned!
"Have a seat and enjoy the ride, folks!" Not sure I'd be sitting loose in the back of a Brat with the 400 hp STi engine. I suspect Fred and Doris will be regretting this once Giles gets behind the wheel.
A last minute screwup damaged the paint, but a bit of sanding with 2000 grit plus a coat of clear seems to have fixed it, at least to a cursory review level. Colours are Tamiya Camel Yellow (TS-34) and Brilliant Blue (TS-44).
The lack of room under the hood relegated the radiator to the pickup bed, similar to some of the Group B rally cars such as the Audi S1.
The wing is stolen from a Nissan Skyline kit. I like the blue on the sail leading into the wing. I also like the exhaust pipe peeking through the rocker panel on the right side.
Moving the grille and valance forward by 3 mm turned out to be easier than I might have expected. But the order of assembly meant the valance had to go on last, after the interior and chassis were attached to the body; so there was no opportunity to putty and file the seam.
What's next? No idea. Stay tuned!
The rear suspension having been modified to lower it properly, time to fit the chassis, engine, interior and body. (As a mechanic, vice-grips always were my best friends.)
Ride height is limited by inner fenders now that the outer fender lips have been Dremeled off. It's a nice clean shape and I may not bother with the brash graphics as provided on the decal sheet.
Progress is being made. Stay tuned!
Getting the engine to fit required cutting out the forward half of the underhood detail in the Brat. Lining the final drive output with the wheel wells positions the engine well forward, and the next step will be figuring out how to get the grille and lower valance (or some replacement part) to fit. One approach would be to slice off the pulleys for the auxiliary drives, but that would be cheating...
The suspension also had to be lowered substantially from the jacked up 4X4 stance. 4 mm (about 4" at scale) were taken out of the front springs, and the lower A-arms were cut off and moved up a similar amount. In the rear it will be simply a matter of rotating trailing arms about their mounting points as if the suspension were in full rebound. I think it looks good with the Minilites; the fenders may need to be radiused and possibly flared to get them to fit properly, though.
This would be the basis for a nice mid-engine car as well; food for thought. Maybe I need another kit... Stay tuned!
Too bad these Hobby Design resin engines are so rare; the detail is lovely.
Stay tuned! Ha ha that's a joke, see, it's a tuner? OK never mind.
